Install Talos Linux using boot-to-talos

This guide explains how to install Talos Linux on a host running any other Linux distribution using boot-to-talos.

boot-to-talos was made by Cozystack team to help users and teams adopting Cozystack with installing Talos, which is the most complex step in the process. It works entirely from userspace and has no external dependencies except the Talos installer image.

Note that Cozystack provides its own Talos builds, which are tested and optimized for running a Cozystack cluster.

Modes

boot-to-talos supports two installation modes:

1. boot – Extract the kernel and initrd from the Talos installer and boot them directly using the kexec mechanism.
2. install – Prepare the environment, run the Talos installer, and then overwrite the system disk with the installed image.

Installation

1. Install boot-to-talos

• Use the installer script:

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

• Download the binary from the GitHub releases page:

  wget https://github.com/cozystack/boot-to-talos/releases/latest/download/boot-to-talos-linux-amd64.tar.gz
  

2. Run to install Talos

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

Mode:
  1. boot – extract the kernel and initrd from the Talos installer and boot them directly using the kexec mechanism.
  2. install – prepare the environment, run the Talos installer, and then overwrite the system disk with the installed image.
Mode [1]: 2
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

About the Application

boot-to-talos is opensource and hosted on github.com/cozystack/boot-to-talos. It includes a CLI written in Go and an installer script in Bash. There are builds for several architectures:

• linux-amd64
• linux-arm64
• linux-i386

How it Works

Understanding these steps is not required to install Talos Linux.

The workflow depends on the selected mode:

Boot Mode

When using the boot mode, boot-to-talos performs the following steps:

1. Unpacks Talos installer in RAM
   Extracts layers from the Talos‑installer container into a throw‑away tmpfs. Note that Docker is not needed during this step.
2. Extracts kernel and initrd
   Extracts the kernel (vmlinuz) and initial ramdisk (initramfs.xz) from the Talos installer image.
3. Loads kernel via kexec
   Uses the kexec system call to load the Talos kernel and initrd into memory with the provided kernel command line parameters.
4. Reboots into Talos
   Executes kexec --exec to switch to the Talos kernel without a physical reboot. After booting, you can apply Talos configuration to complete the installation.

Install Mode

When using the install mode, boot-to-talos performs the following steps:

1. Unpacks Talos installer in RAM
   Extracts layers from the Talos‑installer container into a throw‑away tmpfs. Note that Docker is not needed during this step.
2. Builds system image
   Creates a sparse image.raw, exposed via a loop device, and executes the Talos installer inside a chroot. The installer then partitions, formats, and lays down GRUB and system files.
3. Streams to disk
   Copies image.raw to the chosen block device in chunks of 4 MiB and runs fsync after every write, so that data is fully committed before reboot.
4. Reboots
   Command echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger performs an immediate reboot into the freshly installed Talos Linux.

Next Steps

Once you have installed Talos, proceed by installing and bootstrapping a Kubernetes cluster.