Booting on Real Hardware

Guide to running NØNOS on physical hardware (not just QEMU).

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Requirements

Hardware

Component	Requirement
CPU	x86_64 processor
RAM	512 MB minimum
Storage	USB drive (2GB+) or SSD
Firmware	UEFI (not legacy BIOS)

Recommended

• CPU with RDRAND support

• UEFI 2.5+ with Secure Boot

• TPM 2.0

• NVMe or SATA SSD

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Creating Bootable USB

Step 1: Build NØNOS

cd nonos-os
make nonos

Step 2: Create ISO

make iso

This creates target/nonos.iso (~65 MB).

Step 3: Write to USB

Linux:

# Find your USB device
lsblk

# Write ISO (replace /dev/sdX with your device)
sudo dd if=target/nonos.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
sync

macOS:

# Find your USB device
diskutil list

# Unmount
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN

# Write ISO
sudo dd if=target/nonos.iso of=/dev/rdiskN bs=4m

Windows (PowerShell as Admin):

# Use Rufus or:
# Find disk number
Get-Disk

# Write (replace X with disk number)
# Use Rufus recommended for Windows

Alternative: Manual ESP Creation

# Format USB as FAT32
sudo mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdX1

# Mount
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

# Copy files
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/EFI/Boot
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/EFI/nonos
sudo cp target/esp/EFI/Boot/BOOTX64.EFI /mnt/EFI/Boot/
sudo cp target/esp/EFI/nonos/kernel.bin /mnt/EFI/nonos/

# Unmount
sudo umount /mnt

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UEFI Configuration

Accessing UEFI Setup

Common keys during boot:

• Dell: F2

• HP: F10 or Esc

• Lenovo: F1 or F2

• ASUS: F2 or Del

• Acer: F2 or Del

Required Settings

1. Boot Mode: UEFI (not Legacy/CSM)

2. Secure Boot: Disabled (or enroll NØNOS keys)

3. Boot Order: USB first

Disabling Secure Boot

1. Enter UEFI Setup

2. Find Security → Secure Boot

3. Set to Disabled

4. Save and Exit

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Booting

1. Insert USB drive

2. Power on / restart

3. Press boot menu key (F12, F10, F8, F9 or Esc typically)

4. Select USB device (UEFI mode)

5. NØNOS bootloader runs

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Expected Boot Sequence

NØNOS Bootloader v1.0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[OK] Ed25519 keys loaded
[OK] BLAKE3 self-test passed
[OK] Ed25519 self-test passed
[OK] Secure Boot: Disabled

Loading kernel...
[OK] Kernel loaded (221 KB)
[OK] BLAKE3 hash computed
[OK] Signature verified (Key 0)

Exiting boot services...
Jumping to kernel at 0x100000

NØNOS Kernel v1.0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[OK] GDT initialized
[OK] IDT initialized
[OK] Memory: 512 MB detected
[OK] PCI bus enumerated
[OK] GPU initialized (1920x1080)

Starting desktop...

Full Demos on Youtube:

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Troubleshooting

"No bootable device"

• Ensure USB is formatted as FAT32

• Check UEFI mode (not Legacy)

• Verify EFI/Boot/BOOTX64.EFI exists

"Security violation" / "Secure Boot failed"

Disable Secure Boot in UEFI settings.

Black screen after bootloader

• GPU may not be supported

• Try different display output (HDMI vs DisplayPort)

• Check serial output if available

Keyboard not working

• Some USB keyboards need XHCI support

• Try PS/2 keyboard if available

• Check USB controller initialization

System reboots immediately

• Kernel panic during early boot

• Connect serial cable to capture output

• Try QEMU first to verify image

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Serial Console

For debugging, connect a serial cable:

Parameter	Value
Port	COM1
Baud	115200
Data	8N1

Use PuTTY, minicom, or screen:

screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

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Secure Boot Integration

To run with Secure Boot enabled:

Export Public Key

# Convert NØNOS signing key to DER format
openssl req -new -x509 -key signing_key.pem \
    -out nonos_cert.der -outform DER \
    -days 3650 -subj "/CN=NØNOS Signing Key/"

Enroll in UEFI

1. Copy nonos_cert.der to USB

2. Enter UEFI Setup

3. Security → Secure Boot → Key Management

4. Enroll key from USB

5. Add to DB (Signature Database)

6. Enable Secure Boot

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Hardware Compatibility

Tested Hardware

Vendor	Model	Status
QEMU	Virtual	Full support
Intel NUC	Various	Full support
Dell	OptiPlex	Full support
Lenovo | HP	ThinkCentre	Full support

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Known Issues

Hardware	Issue	Workaround
Some AMD GPUs	No display	Use serial console
USB 3.0 only ports	Keyboard delay	Wait for XHCI init

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Performance on Real Hardware

Typical metrics on modern hardware:

Metric	QEMU	Real Hardware
Boot time	~3s	~2s
Memory init	~500ms	~200ms
Context switch	~500ns	~300ns