Download bromigOS.

There are two downloads. Almost everyone wants the first.

Use the computer you have now; it doesn’t have to be the PC you’ll run bromigOS on. You need a USB stick of 8 GB or more, and everything on it is erased, so copy off anything you want to keep.

Already have a Ventoy stick? Copy the .iso onto it like any file; that works too.

Choose Install bromigOS in the boot menu, or press Install bromigOS on the live desktop’s welcome card. The installer fills the screen and asks one thing at a time. You can go back and change anything until you press Install.

Back up your files first. Installing alongside Windows keeps them, but a copy elsewhere is always worth having.

1. Welcome. Choose the language and time zone. You don’t need the internet: everything is on the stick.

   

2. Before you start. Only when there’s something to know: running on battery, little memory, a disk that says it’s failing, or Secure Boot. Each one says what to do, and none of them stops you.

   Secure Boot on? Install as usual. Then turn Secure Boot off (how) before you start bromigOS from the disk. The installed system can’t start with it on yet.

   

3. What kind of computer is this? bromigOS (desktop) for a computer you sit at. bromigOS Server has no desktop, for servers and lab machines.

   

4. Your keyboard. Pick the layout that matches your keys, and try it in the box.

   

5. Where to install. Every disk, with its size, model and what’s on it. Pick one, then:

   • Install alongside Windows. Windows and its files stay. If there isn’t free space, Windows’ part of the disk is made smaller: the slider sets how much each gets. Every time the PC starts, you choose which one to use.
   • Erase the whole disk. Everything on it is deleted, and the screen says what that is.

   If alongside can’t be offered, the screen says why and what to do. For example, Windows’ Fast Startup or hibernation must be off, because a sleeping Windows can’t be resized safely. A disk locked with BitLocker is never resized.

   

6. About you. Your name, a user name for signing in, a password, and a name for the computer.

   

7. Lock the disk. Encryption is on by default: without the passphrase, nobody can read the disk, even if the PC is lost or stolen. Your password unlocks it, or give it a passphrase of its own.

   Remember it. Nobody can recover it, and without it the disk can’t be read.

   

8. Ready to install. Check your choices. Nothing on the disk changes until you press Install.

   

9. Installing. A progress bar says what it’s doing. It takes about ten minutes, and you can leave it.

   

10. Done. Press Restart now, and take out the stick when the screen goes dark.

    

[install]
edition = "desktop"
locale = "en_US"
timezone = "America/Chicago"
keyboard = "us"
disk = "/dev/nvme0n1"
mode = "erase"
user = "alex"
hostname = "alex-pc"
password = "correct horse battery staple"
encrypt = true

If you chose encryption, type the disk’s passphrase when the PC starts, then sign in with your user name and password. The welcome tour opens: every step has Skip, and nothing changes until you choose something.

Secure Boot on? Turn it off before the first start from the disk (how): the installed system can’t start with it on yet.

1. Wi-Fi. Only when you’re offline: pick a network, or skip.

   

2. Your screens. Which one is the main screen, where the panels go.

   

3. Choose a world. The whole desktop’s look, each with a preview. Change it any time.

   

4. VECTOR. Where your desk’s AI thinks: your lab, this computer (with how much it downloads), a service you name, or not now. And whether he speaks.

   

5. Your lab. Optional. If you run servers at home, it finds them and connects with one button. Nothing changes until you press Connect.

   

6. Pair your phone. Get BRODEC on your phone, then scan the code: talk to VECTOR from anywhere, and restart or update this computer. The step ticks when your phone confirms. (iPhone: coming.)

   

7. The keys worth knowing. Press each one and its card lights up. Super is the Windows key.

   

8. You’re all set. What you chose, and where to change it again.

   

Open the tour again any time from Settings › About › Welcome tour. bromigOS Server has the same tour in text, on its console, with a QR code you can scan from the screen.

CI builds every release’s ISO from its tag: archiso’s releng profile, bromigOS’s overlay, and an offline repository of every package an install needs. Then it checks the image (a privacy guard, no keys, no proprietary packages), tests it in QEMU/KVM (a UEFI encrypted install with its first update and rollback, an offline BIOS install, and Secure Boot with the MokManager enrollment), signs it and publishes it.