Installing in a VMware virtual machine

IncusOS can be easily installed in a VMware virtual machine when running with vSphere.

Note

IncusOS requires the use of a virtual TPM device, this appears to require the use of vSphere and won’t work on standalone ESXi.

Get and import install media

Follow the instructions to get an IncusOS image. This document will assume an ISO image is used.

Once downloaded, upload the ISO image to a VMware datastore.

ISO upload in VMware datastore

Create a new virtual machine

Pick a name and location.

Set VM name and location

Pick a server to run the virtual machine on.

Set server

Select a datastore for the root disk.

Select datastore

Select the compatibility level (default is fine).

Pick compatibility level

Select Linux and Other 6.x or later Linux (64-bit) as the operating system.

Select operating system

Customize the virtual machine hardware, recommended changes are:

  • Set at least 4 CPUs and 4GiB of RAM

  • Add a NVMe controller

  • Set the root disk size to 50GiB and attach it to the NVMe controller

  • Detach the SCSI controller (now unused)

  • Attach a TPM module

  • Attach the previously uploaded ISO image to the CDROM device and make sure to have it connect on start-up

Customize the virtual machine

In the options tab, under Boot Options, make sure that Secure Boot is enabled.

Enable Secure Boot

In the additional options tab, add the following entries:

  • uefi.secureBoot.kekDefault.file0 set to secureboot-KEK-R1.der

  • uefi.secureBoot.dbDefault.file0 set to secureboot-2025-R1.der

  • uefi.secureBoot.dbDefault.file1 set to secureboot-2026-R1.der

Then complete the virtual machine creation.

Note

Do not start the virtual machine at this point or it will create a bad Secure Boot state.

Upload the Secure Boot keys

Open the datastore view and go to the virtual machine’s folder.

Then go to https://images.linuxcontainers.org/os/ and download:

  • secureboot-KEK-R1.der

  • secureboot-2025-R1.der

  • secureboot-2026-R1.der

Once downloaded, upload those three files to the virtual machine’s folder.

Upload Secure Boot keys

IncusOS installation

Start the virtual machine, and IncusOS will begin its installation.

Note

VMware takes a very long time to hash the kernel image during boot. This leads to a black screen lasting around 3 minutes following the boot loader message.

Installation

Once installed, stop the virtual machine and edit its settings to disconnect the CDROM device.

Detach the ISO

IncusOS is ready for use

Start the virtual machine, and IncusOS will perform its first boot configuration. Once complete, follow the instructions for accessing the system.

Installed system