Installation

Before you start

Hardware: a current Hydra appliance — H2, H4, H8, H12, or H16. Older or end-of-life Hydra hardware is supported separately and is not covered by this image.
USB drive: at least 8 GB, dedicated to the installer. Writing the Installer USB image erases the drive.
No network required. The Installer USB is self-contained and installs offline. Note the exception under Repair Installation and First boot below.
Secure Boot: leave it enabled on the appliance. Secure Boot is mandatory for a formally supported installation; the image can still install and boot with it disabled, but that configuration falls outside MultiTaction's qualification and support.

Download the current Installer USB image, its SHA-256 checksum, and its writing instructions from the Base Image download page. Use the writing instructions published alongside the image you download — they name that specific build's file.

Write the Installer USB

Verify the downloaded image against its published SHA-256 checksum before writing it.
Write the image to the USB drive using the Rufus (Windows) or dd (Linux) instructions published with that build.
Confirm you wrote the correct drive. Writing the image erases everything already on it.

Boot the installer

Boot the target Hydra appliance from the USB in UEFI mode, with Secure Boot enabled.
The installer verifies the embedded Base Image's cryptographic signature and content integrity before it exposes any destructive action. If verification fails, it refuses to continue — this is deliberate and protects against corrupted or tampered media.
Choose an installation mode.

Factory Reset

Factory Reset is the default installation mode and the only one available on a blank or unrecognised disk.

Select Factory Reset from the boot menu, or wait — it starts automatically after 30 seconds if nothing is selected.
Select the target internal disk. The installer lists eligible disks with their model, capacity, and serial number so you can confirm you have the right one.
Confirm the target disk explicitly. Factory Reset erases everything on the selected disk, including any prior operating system and Application Data.
Set the customer-owned local administrator password when prompted, or let the prompt time out and set it later through Teleport. This credential belongs to the customer — MultiTaction does not hold or escrow it.
Wait for the installer to report completion without interruption. Do not power off the appliance or remove the USB while it is writing or verifying the target — doing so can leave the disk in an unbootable state.
Power off, remove the Installer USB, and boot from the internal disk.

Repair Installation

Repair Installation replaces the operating system on a recognised MultiTaction disk while preserving Application Data — customer and application state that lives on its own persistent filesystem, separate from the replaceable system filesystem.

Repair is offered only when the installer recognises a versioned MultiTaction disk layout with a valid Application Data filesystem. An unknown, foreign, or ambiguous layout is never guessed at — the installer falls back to requiring an explicit Factory Reset instead.
Repair replaces the system filesystem and does not reinstall MT Applications automatically. Existing application-data directories are used afterward to show which applications were previously present, so a technician knows what to reinstall.
Repair Installation is part of the target design for the qualified Installer USB. Check the download page to confirm whether the build you are using offers it — early preview builds offer Factory Reset only.

First boot

After the installer completes and the appliance boots from its internal disk for the first time, it derives a Device Identity and Teleport host UUID, generates local machine identity and SSH host keys, and expands the Application Data filesystem. None of this identity exists on the Installer USB or in the sealed image; it is created fresh on the specific machine.

On hardware with a usable TPM 2.0 device, this identity is derived deterministically from the TPM's Endorsement Key, so a complete disk wipe and reinstall reproduces the same identity and reconnects to the same Teleport node. TPM 2.0 is not required to install or run the appliance: on hardware without one, first boot falls back to a randomly generated software identity instead. The appliance still enrolls in remote support on that path, but a subsequent Factory Reset produces a new identity rather than reproducing the old one, and the appliance shows a local warning that its remote-support identity is not hardware-anchored.

The freshly installed appliance logs in automatically to its configuration and diagnostics environment — there is no product interface yet, because no MT Application is installed.

After installation

Installation only produces a working platform. It does not configure the site. Complete these steps before handing the appliance to an operator:

Connect the required network interfaces (see Operations → Networking).
Install the MT Applications the deployment needs, as Approved Packages, through MultiTaction → Install Apps.
Set Deployment Configuration — display geometry, touch mapping, audio output, and final network roles — using the technician tools under the MultiTaction menu (see Operations).

Launcher becomes the normal, full-screen entry point for the appliance once its package is installed. Until then, the appliance remains in its configuration and diagnostics environment.

If installation fails

The installer retains logs on both the Installer USB and, once written, the installed system, so a failed run can be diagnosed rather than repeated blind. If verification or writing fails:

Re-download and re-verify the image against its published checksum — a partially downloaded or corrupted image is the most common cause.
Re-write the USB drive. A marginal or aging USB drive can produce write errors that a checksum on the source file will not catch.
If failures continue on known-good media, contact MultiTaction support with the installation log from the USB.