Installation

Syn_OS uses the Calamares graphical installer with a custom Syn_OS branding module and the v43.2 first-boot wizard rewrite. The installation flow is identical across the three ISOs; the difference is which profile flag the ISO carries internally.

Burn the USB

Pick one. All ISOs are bootable on UEFI and Legacy BIOS.

dd (Linux / macOS)

sudo dd if=synos-grimoire-public-v60.0.0.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync
sync

Replace /dev/sdX with your USB device. Double-check with lsblk first — dd overwrites the target without prompting.

Rufus (Windows)

Download the ISO and verify SHA-256 against the published checksum
Open Rufus, select the ISO, set Partition scheme to GPT, Target system to UEFI
Leave file system as FAT32 (Rufus will create a hybrid layout)
Click Start → Write in DD Image mode when prompted

Ventoy multi-boot

Syn_OS ISOs are Ventoy-compatible. Drop the ISO onto a Ventoy USB drive (/ventoy/iso/) alongside other distributions and select Syn_OS from the Ventoy boot menu. Ventoy plugin support includes locked menu (admin PIN) and ISO signature verification — the v42 USB power toolkit ships a ventoy.json template.

Boot the live ISO

Plug in the USB and reboot into the firmware boot menu (commonly F12 / F11 / Esc / F2)
Select the USB drive
The Syn_OS GRUB menu appears with Phoenix branding (Crimson Spire / Sun & Salt theme)
Default option boots the live system; advanced options expose memtest, forensic mode, and EFI shell

The first-boot animation is Plymouth with the Phoenix decay sequence — decay_000 → decay_002 cross-fading into the neural-node sigil.

Install with Calamares

From the live desktop, double-click Install Syn_OS on the desktop or in the application menu. The installer walks through:

Welcome — language, region, keyboard layout
Partitioning — guided (replace, alongside, encrypted) or manual
- LUKS2 encrypted root is supported with optional FIDO2 / TPM 2.0 unlock (v42 USB power toolkit)
Users — username, hostname, root account policy
Profile selection — confirms which ISO profile is active (you cannot cross-install)
Summary — review before commit
Install — Calamares deploys the squashfs, runs customize_airootfs (stage 18), regenerates initramfs, installs GRUB
Finish — reboot into the installed system

What the installer does that vanilla Calamares doesn’t

Re-runs synos-cradle-verify after first boot to validate the kernel module signing chain (synos-cradle-verify.service)
Bootstraps the v43.2 first-boot wizard (display-manager singleton enforcement, failed-services rewrite)
Pulls the brand metadata from /etc/synos/brand-meta.toml for hostname / motd / issue
Schedules the daily ConMon collector if compliance posture is enabled (FedRAMP / CMMC / SOC2)

Optional: persistence on USB (no install)

GRIMOIRE Public USB drives can run with LUKS2-encrypted persistence so XP and unlocked labs survive across boots without installing to disk. From the live system:

sudo synos-usb-persistence init --device /dev/sdX --size 16G

This creates a LUKS2 container, mounts it at first boot, and overlays /home, /var/lib/grimoire, and ~/.config/alfred.

Verify the install

After first boot:

synos-doctor                 # 41-stage post-install validation wizard
synos-ops                    # ALFRED TUI (7 tabs: system, benchmark, hive, services, ALFRED, node grid, AI models)
grimoire status              # GRIMOIRE state + unlocked tools

If synos-doctor reports anything red, head to the Reference / Troubleshooting section.