Not stable yet. WolOS is in active development and the current ISO is a test build: try it in a virtual machine or on a spare disk, not on a computer you depend on.

WolOS

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Manual

Release 0.11.3

Download WolOS

One ISO for every 64-bit PC with UEFI. Start it from a USB stick or a virtual machine, try the desktop, and install when you are ready.

Download ISOwolos-2026.11.01-x86_64.iso · 1.96 GiB · Arch snapshot 2026-10-31 · WolKernel 1.0+7.3-4

Check the download

The checksum proves the file arrived exactly as it was built. Compare it before you write the stick.

SHA-256

e6a4ae73ad5b1e6d3c6afe8dcb3c30e93de719e90f9f9d70a6d75b56b3f5e9b9

Linux

echo "e6a4ae73ad5b1e6d3c6afe8dcb3c30e93de719e90f9f9d70a6d75b56b3f5e9b9 wolos-2026.11.01-x86_64.iso" | sha256sum -c

macOS

shasum -a 256 wolos-2026.11.01-x86_64.iso

Windows (PowerShell)

Get-FileHash .\wolos-2026.11.01-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA256

The release also carries a signed manifest, release.json, that installed systems check before an update.

Start it

Try WolOS runs from memory and changes nothing on the disk. Install asks before it writes anything.

  1. 1

    Write a USB stick

    Use a stick of 4 GB or more; its contents are replaced. balenaEtcher, Fedora Media Writer or Rufus (DD mode) all work. On Linux: sudo dd if=wolos-2026.11.01-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync, with your stick as sdX.

  2. 2

    Start from the stick

    Restart and open the boot menu, usually with F12, F11, F8 or Esc right after power-on. Pick the stick's UEFI entry. If Secure Boot is on, turn it off for this step (below).

  3. 3

    Try or install

    The menu offers Install WolOS and Try WolOS. The installer can erase a disk, install next to Windows or Linux, or follow your own partitions, and shows a summary before it writes. Installing WolOS has every step.

Secure Boot: one key screen, once

WolOS makes this computer's own boot keys at install. Most PCs then ask you once to trust that key.

What
A blue screen from your computer's firmware at the first start after installing. It waits for you.
Why
No WolOS key is shared between computers, so the firmware has never seen this one. You confirm it once.
Before
This live image is not signed yet: start the stick with Secure Boot off (or in Setup Mode), then install.

After the install, at the first start

  1. Press a key.
  2. Choose Enroll MOK, then Continue, then Yes.
  3. When it asks for a password, type boot. Nothing shows while you type.
  4. Choose Reboot. You will not see this screen again.

Missed it? Run wol boot enroll in a terminal and restart. Computers in Setup Mode skip the screen: their keys are enrolled directly. Afterwards you can turn Secure Boot back on.

Secure Boot in the manual

VirtualBox

WolOS runs in a VirtualBox machine with EFI. These settings match the one we test with.

TypeLinux, Arch Linux (64-bit)
SystemEnable EFI. Turn Enable Secure Boot off to start the live image; after the install you can turn it on and follow the key screen.
TPMTPM 2.0, if you want to try disk unlock with the TPM chip
Memory and processors6 GB and 4 CPUs on the test machine
DisplayVMSVGA, 128 MB or more of video memory
Disk32 GB, dynamically allocated
StorageAttach the ISO to the optical drive

Known in 0.11.3: after installing under VMSVGA the desktop can stay black. The cause (GTK rendering through the vmwgfx driver) is fixed in the next release; see the 0.11.5 entry of the changelog.

Other releases

Every image, its checksum and the signed manifest are on the releases page. The image is built from published sources only: wolos-iso holds the recipe.