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PC (x86) Installation

Install Anthias on PC / x86 hardware running Debian 13 (Trixie) or Debian 12 (Bookworm).

Anthias runs on any 64-bit PC (something like an Intel NUC works well) once you’ve prepared a fresh Debian install. Pre-built BalenaOS images aren’t available for PC hardware yet, so you’ll install Debian manually and then run the standard Anthias installer on top of it.

Note

Anthias supports 64-bit Debian 13 (Trixie) and 64-bit Debian 12 (Bookworm) on PCs.

No desktop environment required (or wanted)

The host runs headless — no GNOME, no KDE, no Xorg, no display manager. The Anthias viewer container ships its own minimal Wayland compositor (cage, a wlroots-based kiosk compositor) which acquires DRM master directly from the kernel and renders straight to the HDMI output. A pre-installed desktop would compete with it for the display and break the boot-to-content experience.

If you already installed Debian with a desktop, remove it (sudo apt purge --auto-remove gnome\* xserver-xorg\* lightdm gdm3 sddm and reboot) before continuing.

What you’ll need

  • A 64-bit PC (most NUCs, mini-PCs, and old laptops work).
  • A USB drive (4 GB or larger) to write the Debian installer to.
  • A keyboard, monitor, and network cable for the PC during install.

Step 1 — Download Debian

Download the netinst image for AMD64 from the official Debian website. The filename will look like:

debian-13.x.x-amd64-netinst.iso

Step 2 — Write the installer to a USB drive

Flash the ISO to a USB drive using one of:

  • balenaEtcher — recommended, cross-platform.
  • Raspberry Pi Imager — pick Use custom and select the ISO.

Step 3 — Install Debian

  1. Plug the USB drive into the PC.
  2. Set the boot order in BIOS/UEFI to boot from USB first.
  3. Power on the PC and follow the Debian installer prompts. When you reach these screens, choose:
    • Root password: leave it blank. Skipping the root password makes your regular user a sudo user automatically.
    • Partitioning: use the entire disk.
    • Software selection: check only SSH server and standard system utilities. Uncheck every desktop environment (GNOME, Xfce, KDE Plasma, …) — Anthias renders from inside a container and does not use any host-side graphical session.
  4. When the installer finishes, remove the USB drive before the system reboots into the freshly installed Debian.

Step 4 — Prepare the system for Anthias

Once you can SSH (or log in locally) to the new install:

  1. Install curl if it isn’t already there:

    $ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y curl

  2. Allow your user to run sudo without entering a password — the Anthias installer expects this. Open the sudoers file:

    $ sudo visudo

    Add this line at the end (replace <username> with your actual username):

    <username> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

    Save and exit the editor.

Step 5 — Run the Anthias installer

You’re now ready to run the standard installer. Follow the scripted install steps — they’re the same on PC as on a Raspberry Pi.

References