First boot

Boot the ISO on generic x86 or a T2 MacBook Pro, complete first-run, and get onto Wi-Fi.

Booting

Plug the USB in, hold your boot-menu key (F12 on most Dells, F9 on HP, Option on Intel Macs), pick the vinOS entry.

Screenshot pending: Plymouth splash mid-boot with brand caret

Plymouth boot splash — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-01.

A few seconds later the console-mode greeter appears while greetd resolves the autologin. You’ll blink past it — it’s here for completeness so you know what’s normal.

Screenshot pending: greetd / tuigreet on the TTY before autologin

Console greeter, pre-autologin — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-05.

On a T2 MacBook Pro (2018/2019/2020 Intel), the internal keyboard and trackpad work out of the box thanks to the shipped linux-t2 kernel. Wi-Fi comes up after a firmware warm-up — expect 15–40 seconds on first boot. See T2 wifi troubleshooting if it doesn’t.

On generic x86_64, everything except NVIDIA optimus laptops “just works”. NVIDIA users may need to add nomodeset to the boot line the first time; once installed, vinos-install-common handles the driver setup.

Once autologin fires you land on the default cosmos desktop — waybar across the top, walker dormant, cosmos wallpaper filling the screen.

Screenshot pending: clean cosmos desktop after autologin

First desktop — cosmos, no overlays. See SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-06.

First-run flow

The first login autostarts vinos-welcome in a floating foot window. It’s a walker-dmenu picker with these tasks:

vinos-welcome walker-dmenu picker — vinos-welcome on first login — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-03.

Screenshot pending: vinos-welcome checklist view (walker overlay)

Welcome checklist — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-07.

Connect Wi-Fi — opens the impala TUI (Super+Ctrl+W later).
Pick a theme — cycles the 10 shipped themes; default is cosmos.
Install AI bundle — pulls Ollama, aichat, claude-code (~2 GB).
Install dev bundle — postgres, docker, mise, common language runtimes.
Set your keys — walks you through Anthropic + optional local model choice.
Enable routines — pick which of the 5 starter routines to activate.

Skip any of them. Rerun the whole flow any time:

$ vinos-welcome

Wi-Fi if welcome bugs out

If the picker died before you got online, hop into impala directly:

$ vinos-launch-wifi

Or the keybinding Super+Ctrl+W. The TUI is arrow-driven — highlight an SSID, hit Return, type the password. iwd stores the credential; next boot reconnects automatically.

Verifying the install

Once online, run the built-in health check:

$ vinos-doctor

Expect a mix of PASS / FAIL / SKIP lines grouped by section. FAILs are the actionable ones — each names the exact thing missing:

os-release identity
  PASS NAME=vinOS
  PASS ID=vinos
  PASS ID_LIKE=arch

base packages
  PASS base-devel
  PASS git
  PASS curl
  PASS wget
  PASS rsync
  PASS openssh
  ...

summary: PASS=27 FAIL=0 SKIP=2

A green run means you’re on the happy path. If FAIL rows appear, jump to troubleshooting and use the FAIL row as your search term.

Next: set your API keys.