1. Install Talos Linux

Install Talos Linux on any machine using cozystack/boot-to-talos.

Before you begin

Make sure that you have nodes (bare-metal servers or VMs) that fit the hardware requirements.

Objectives

On this step of the tutorial you will install Talos Linux on bare-metal servers or VMs running some other Linux distribution.

The tutorial is using boot-to-talos, a simple-to-use CLI app made by Cozystack team for users and teams adopting Cozystack. There are multiple ways to install Talos Linux for Cozystack, not used here and covered in separate guides.

Installation

1. Install `boot-to-talos`

Install boot-to-talos using the installer script:

curl -sSL https://github.com/cozystack/boot-to-talos/raw/refs/heads/main/hack/install.sh | sh -s

2. Run to install Talos

Run boot-to-talos and provide the configuration values. Make sure to use Cozystack’s own Talos build, found at ghcr.io/cozystack/cozystack/talos.

$ boot-to-talos
Target disk [/dev/sda]:
Talos installer image [ghcr.io/cozystack/cozystack/talos:v1.10.5]:
Add networking configuration? [yes]:
Interface [eth0]:
IP address [10.0.2.15]:
Netmask [255.255.255.0]:
Gateway (or 'none') [10.0.2.2]:
Configure serial console? (or 'no') [ttyS0]:

Summary:
  Image: ghcr.io/cozystack/cozystack/talos:v1.10.5
  Disk:  /dev/sda
  Extra kernel args: ip=10.0.2.15::10.0.2.2:255.255.255.0::eth0::::: console=ttyS0

WARNING: ALL DATA ON /dev/sda WILL BE ERASED!

Continue? [yes]:

2025/08/03 00:11:03 created temporary directory /tmp/installer-3221603450
2025/08/03 00:11:03 pulling image ghcr.io/cozystack/cozystack/talos:v1.10.5
2025/08/03 00:11:03 extracting image layers
2025/08/03 00:11:07 creating raw disk /tmp/installer-3221603450/image.raw (2 GiB)
2025/08/03 00:11:07 attached /tmp/installer-3221603450/image.raw to /dev/loop0
2025/08/03 00:11:07 starting Talos installer
2025/08/03 00:11:07 running Talos installer v1.10.5
2025/08/03 00:11:07 WARNING: config validation:
2025/08/03 00:11:07   use "worker" instead of "" for machine type
2025/08/03 00:11:07 created EFI (C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B) size 104857600 bytes
2025/08/03 00:11:07 created BIOS (21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649) size 1048576 bytes
2025/08/03 00:11:07 created BOOT (0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4) size 1048576000 bytes
2025/08/03 00:11:07 created META (0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4) size 1048576 bytes
2025/08/03 00:11:07 formatting the partition "/dev/loop0p1" as "vfat" with label "EFI"
2025/08/03 00:11:07 formatting the partition "/dev/loop0p2" as "zeroes" with label "BIOS"
2025/08/03 00:11:07 formatting the partition "/dev/loop0p3" as "xfs" with label "BOOT"
2025/08/03 00:11:07 formatting the partition "/dev/loop0p4" as "zeroes" with label "META"
2025/08/03 00:11:07 copying from io reader to /boot/A/vmlinuz
2025/08/03 00:11:07 copying from io reader to /boot/A/initramfs.xz
2025/08/03 00:11:08 writing /boot/grub/grub.cfg to disk
2025/08/03 00:11:08 executing: grub-install --boot-directory=/boot --removable --efi-directory=/boot/EFI /dev/loop0
2025/08/03 00:11:08 installation of v1.10.5 complete
2025/08/03 00:11:08 Talos installer finished successfully
2025/08/03 00:11:08 remounting all filesystems read-only
2025/08/03 00:11:08 copy /tmp/installer-3221603450/image.raw → /dev/sda
2025/08/03 00:11:19 installation image copied to /dev/sda
2025/08/03 00:11:19 rebooting system

Next Step

Continue the Cozystack tutorial by installing and bootstrapping a Kubernetes cluster using Talm.

Extra tasks:

Read the Talos Linux overview to learn why Talos Linux is the optimal OS choice for Cozystack and what it brings to the platform.
Learn more about boot-to-talos.
Check out github.com/cozystack/boot-to-talos and give it a star!

Last modified 2025-08-20: [docs] Add boot-to-talos, improve consistency (22ce6a8)