Skip to main content

🔧 Create Bootable Media

The installation process is intentionally kept simple. Follow these steps to prepare a bootable USB drive:

1. 🖴 Prepare the USB Stick​

Format a USB stick as FAT32 and set the label/name to MOS.

note

Minimum recommended size: 8 GB (16 GB recommended to be on the safe side).

Windows​

  1. Insert the USB stick
  2. Open File Explorer → right-click the USB drive → Format...
  3. Set File system to FAT32
  4. Set Volume label to MOS
  5. Click Start

USB stick not detected as bootable (Windows)​

Symptoms: After formatting with Windows Explorer, the USB stick is not recognized as bootable by the BIOS/UEFI.

Solution

Use diskpart to create a bootable partition. Open CMD as Administrator and run the following commands:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
—□✕
C:\Windows\system32> diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.26100
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ###  Status         Size     Free
Disk 0    Online          500 GB      0 B
Disk 1    Online           14 GB      0 B   ← your USB stick
DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> clean
DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
DISKPART> create partition primary
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
DISKPART> active
DiskPart marked the current partition as active.
DISKPART> format fs=fat32 label="MOS" quick
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.
DISKPART> assign
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART> exit
▌
warning

Make sure to select the correct disk number from list disk. The clean command will erase all data on the selected drive.

macOS​

warning

The macOS Finder format option does not set the bootable flag correctly. Use the Terminal method below.

  1. Insert the USB stick
  2. Open Terminal
  3. Find your USB device identifier:
user@Mac:~
$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal):
#:  TYPE NAME          SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:  GUID_partition...  500.1 GB   disk0
/dev/disk5 (external, physical):
#:  TYPE NAME          SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:  FDisk_partition...  14.9 GB   disk5
1:  DOS_FAT_32 NO NAME  14.9 GB   disk5s1
← your USB stick is /dev/disk5
  1. Format with MBR and FAT32 — replace /dev/diskX with your actual device identifier:
user@Mac:~
$ diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk5 MBR fat32 "MOS" 100%
Started partitioning on disk5
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Formatting disk5s1 as MS-DOS (FAT32) with name MOS
512 bytes per physical sector
/dev/rdisk5s1: 29337600 sectors in 917425 FAT32 clusters
Initialized /dev/rdisk5s1 as a 512 MB volume
Mounting disk
Finished partitioning on disk5
/dev/disk5 (external, physical):
#:  TYPE NAME          SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:  FDisk_partition...  14.9 GB   disk5
1:  DOS_FAT_32 MOS      14.9 GB   disk5s1
▊

Linux​

  1. Insert the USB stick
  2. Find your USB device:
bash — user@linux: ~
user@linux:~$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 500.1G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot
└─sda2   8:2    0 499.6G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   1  14.9G  0 disk
└─sdb1   8:17   1  14.9G  0 part ← your USB stick is /dev/sdb
  1. Format with FAT32:
bash — user@linux: ~
user@linux:~$ sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n "MOS" /dev/sdb1
mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
mkfs.vfat: success
▊
tip

You can also use parted or the gparted GUI to create an MBR partition table and format as FAT32.

2. ⬇️ Download the Installation Files​

Download the latest version of the system (.zip archive) from the Releases page — Assets section.

3. 📦 Extract the Files​

Extract the downloaded archive directly onto the USB stick.

note

No additional imaging tools or software are required.

4. 🔌 Boot from the USB Stick​

Insert the USB stick into the target machine, select it in the boot menu, and the installation process can begin immediately.

5. ✅ Complete the Setup​

A network connection will be needed to access the WebUI to set initial account passwords.

Access the WebUI via:

http://MOS-IP/
note

While a USB stick is recommended, you can also use an external hard drive or card reader as long as it is formatted as FAT32.

Parts of this documentation were created with the assistance of AI tools. All AI-generated content has undergone review, but it may still contain inaccuracies, omissions, or outdated information.