Firmware settings
Open the firmware setup at power-on, usually with Del, F2 or F10.
| Setting | Set it to |
|---|---|
| Boot mode | UEFI. Turn CSM or Legacy boot off: a machine booted in legacy mode is refused. |
| Secure Boot | On or off. With it on, the firmware must trust the Microsoft UEFI third-party CA (sometimes “Allow Microsoft 3rd Party UEFI CA”). |
| Virtualization | Intel VT-x or AMD-V / SVM on. Without it instances cannot run, and stage 2 fails. |
| IOMMU | Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi on. Needed only for device passthrough; harmless otherwise. |
| SATA / NVMe mode | AHCI. Intel RST or RAID mode hides disks from Linux. |
Then boot the stick once from the firmware’s boot menu (usually F12, F11,
F8 or Esc) and pick the entry that starts with UEFI.
The boot menu
Section titled “The boot menu”The installer’s menu boots the first entry after 5 seconds. Each entry carries
the release version, for example Install Stratum 0.7.0.
| Entry | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Install Stratum | Always, unless the screen goes black or garbled. |
| Install Stratum (safe graphics) | The screen goes black or garbled after the menu. The installed node keeps this setting. |
| Install Stratum (verbose boot) | Kernel messages are needed to diagnose a boot problem. |
| Install Stratum (serial console) | Kernel messages must reach a serial port the firmware describes, from the first moment. |
| Check the medium, then install Stratum | The medium may be damaged: it verifies its checksum before the installer starts. Present when the ISO carries its checksum. |
From a slow USB stick, loading can take a minute.
Headless. The installer prints on the screen and on the first serial port
(ttyS0, 115200 baud) from the moment the kernel starts, and the first entry
boots by itself, so a machine with a BMC and serial-over-LAN needs no key press.
The menu itself is drawn on the screen only. A machine whose serial port is not
ttyS0 needs console=ttyS1,115200 in kernel_args of an
unattended install.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| The stick is not in the boot menu | Boot mode is legacy, or the ISO was copied as a file. Set UEFI, then write the stick again. |
Security Violation or Verification failed |
Secure Boot does not trust the third-party CA. Allow it, or turn Secure Boot off. |
| Black or garbled screen after the menu | Choose (safe graphics). |
| A disk is missing from the installer | Set the SATA mode to AHCI. |
| A NIC is missing from the installer | Its driver is not in the kernel. In the installer’s shell, lspci -nn names the device. |