Skip to content

MultiTaction Base Linux Image

See the installation and operations manual, the security information report, and the FAQ for more detail.

MultiTaction Base Linux Image is the universal operating platform for current MultiTaction Hydra Appliances. It is distributed on a self-contained Installer USB that can install without network access.

MultiTaction Base Linux Image - Ubuntu 24.04 Noble (UEFI boot)

Engineering preview — not a qualified release. These builds are signed with MultiTaction's own key, which is not enrolled in appliance firmware — the appliance trusts only Canonical, so that signature does not establish trust with the kernel. They have not completed hardware qualification. Do not use them for production or customer deployments.

There is one Base Image for current H2, H4, H8, H12, and H16 Hydra Appliances. It includes Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, NVIDIA support, a minimal Xfce/X11 configuration and diagnostics environment, and Teleport remote-support capability. MT Applications and optional hardware drivers are installed later as Approved Packages; there are no Full and Slim variants.

The platform is not designed to require Secure Boot to install or run. Leaving it enabled is the supported, qualified configuration; disabling it can still install and boot but falls outside MultiTaction's qualification and support boundary.

Download

Each build has its own writing instructions, because the dd command in them names that build's ISO. Use the instructions published alongside the image you download.

Current — build 2026-09-10 (golden image goldenV260910)

Use build 2026-09-10 for any new installation. Earlier preview builds have been withdrawn: they are superseded by this one and several carried defects that are only visible after installation.

New in build 2026-09-10

  • Warm reboots survive. On earlier images a restart could leave the appliance dark and unresponsive, having written nothing to its logs explaining why. The cause was the graphics driver being handed the text console as well as the display: a restart deadlocked against it, and everything that touched the console afterwards — including the service that records what happened — stopped with it. Because switching the appliance off at the wall and on again always cleared it, while a restart from the desktop always brought it back, the fault read as random. It is not: this build declines the console handover and the deadlock cannot occur.
  • Application data is on the Application Data filesystem from the first boot. Earlier images created the operator's home directory, the applications directory and the servers' storage on the 63 GB system partition, and moving them afterwards was a field engineer's job. This build establishes the layout before any application exists, so applications installed later land on the large filesystem by construction. A single large Showcase import previously filled an appliance completely and stopped its server; there is now no path by which application data lands on the system partition.
  • Showcase's server storage is included in that layout, which it was not before. An appliance that had been put right by hand still placed a future Showcase installation's data on the system partition.

New in build 2026-08-18

  • The appliance asks which keyboard layout the site needs, once, on the first desktop session after an installation. Every image before this one typed in the layout of the machine it was captured from — UK, wherever in the world the appliance was deployed — and there was no supported way to change it. The stock Xfce Keyboard dialog looked like the place and was not: its Layout tab changes only the session it is opened in, so the login screen and the text console kept the old layout and the choice was lost at the next restart. The layout can be changed at any time from Settings > Keyboard, which now opens the MultiTaction tool, and it applies to the desktop, the login screen and the text console together. Not answering is a valid answer: the prompt closes itself, the appliance keeps the layout the image ships, and it does not ask again.
  • The image ships US as its own default rather than whatever the capture machine happened to be installed with.
  • Audio output is pinned once per session instead of being re-applied on every change. The previous arrangement re-applied the selection in response to events its own re-applying created, and the churn renamed the very output it had selected — leaving affected appliances silent, with a desktop correction that would not hold. The selection is now recorded against the sound hardware itself, so a renamed output is still recognized while one that is genuinely absent still routes to silence.

Also included, from build 2026-08-11

Build 2026-08-11 was published on the customer download page but not here, so appliances installed from 2026-07-31 also gain the following.

  • The captured audio output is gone. Build 2026-07-31 carried the capture machine's chosen sound device, recorded as a PCI address that no other appliance has, which left affected appliances permanently silent.
  • The operator's home directory and /opt are present again. The capture had stopped at the Application Data mount boundary, so an image built that way installed and came up with no panel, no desktop entries and no applications.
  • Secrets belonging to the capture machine are gone: SSH and Teleport private keys, the Secure Boot module-signing key, password hashes left in the shadow backups, and a per-host firmware-update keypair. Every appliance built from an earlier image shared them.
  • MT Applications are no longer present. They are installed after deployment as Approved Packages.
  • Applications are approved by product name rather than by release, so an appliance can be offered a newer release as it is published.
  • Magewell capture card driver source is carried on the medium, but it cannot load with Secure Boot enabled: the appliance trusts only Canonical, MultiTaction's signing key is not enrolled in firmware, and an unsigned or MT-signed module is built and reported as loaded by DKMS while silently failing to actually load. Magewell capture is not usable on the documented, supported (Secure Boot enabled) configuration.
  • The Display and Audio entries in Settings open the MultiTaction tools. The stock dialogs each overrode the tool meant for the same job.

Preview installation modes

This preview offers Factory Reset and a live diagnostics environment. Factory Reset erases the operating system and all Application Data, then creates a clean MT disk layout. The installer verifies the signed golden image byte for byte before writing the target.

Repair Installation is planned for the qualified Installer USB but is not available in this preview.

Install the Base Image

  1. Write the Installer USB image to an empty USB drive of at least 8 GB using the linked Rufus or Linux instructions. Writing the image erases the USB drive.
  2. Leave Secure Boot enabled and boot the Hydra Appliance from the USB in UEFI mode.
  3. Select 1. INSTALL MultiTaction OS on this appliance from the boot menu — the default choice, which starts automatically after 30 seconds if nothing is selected.
  4. Select the target internal disk after checking its model, capacity, and serial number. Factory Reset erases all data on that disk.
  5. Set the customer-owned administrator password when prompted, or allow the 60-second timeout and set it later through Teleport.
  6. Wait for the installer to report completion. Do not power off or remove the USB while it is writing or verifying the target.
  7. Power off the appliance, remove the Installer USB, and boot from the internal disk.

The installed system auto-logs in as multi and opens the configuration and diagnostics environment. Connect the required network interfaces, complete Deployment Configuration, and install the required MT Applications as Approved Packages. Launcher becomes the normal appliance interface when its package is installed.

Everything a technician needs is under MultiTaction in the desktop menu:

  • Install Apps installs Showcase, Canvus and Launcher, in that order.
  • Update Software checks for and applies updates to the MT software already on the appliance.
  • Technician > Display Layout writes xorg.conf, screen.xml and config.txt together for a standard wall — single screen, 3x1 or 5x1 portrait, 3x2 or 3x3 landscape — assigning NetBridge addresses from 10.77.84.101 left to right then top to bottom. It restores the previous configuration automatically if the wall does not come back or the change is not confirmed.
  • Technician > Tools opens each product's configuration file and log directory.
  • Diagnostics exports a support bundle and shows service state and system logs.

The medium carries no network credentials. Join the appliance to its network at installation.

MultiTaction Base Linux Image - Ubuntu 18.04 (UEFI boot)

Old version, using legacy boot: