Before You Install

Before You Install

Edera is not a typical application install. Before proceeding, understand what it does to your system and plan accordingly.

What Edera changes on your system

The Edera installer performs the following operations:

  1. Installs the Xen hypervisor (xen.gz) and an Edera-built Linux kernel to /boot
  2. Modifies GRUB to boot into Xen as the default boot entry
  3. Generates a new initramfs with drivers for your system’s filesystems
  4. Installs system services (protect-daemon, oxenstored, protect-network, etc.)
  5. Reboots the machine into the new Xen + Edera kernel

After installation, your machine’s boot chain changes from:

GRUB → Linux kernel → your workloads

to:

GRUB → Xen hypervisor → Edera kernel (dom0) → isolated zones

Use disposable infrastructure

Install EderaON only on disposable infrastructure: cloud instances, test servers, or VMs you can terminate and recreate. Do not install on machines you rely on for daily work.

If a Xen or kernel issue surfaces during evaluation, the impact is not a crashed process — it’s a machine that may not boot. Cloud-native workflows where machines are ephemeral are the ideal fit for evaluation.

Recommended: AWS EC2 instances (see the AWS EC2 Guide).

There is no uninstall

There is currently no automated uninstall process for Edera. If you want to revert to your original system, the path is to reimage or terminate the machine.

This is consistent with how Edera is designed for cloud-native environments where infrastructure is ephemeral, but it’s important to know before you install.

Run edera-check first

Before installing, run edera-check to verify your system meets the requirements:

sudo docker run --pull always --pid host --privileged \
  ghcr.io/edera-dev/edera-check:stable preinstall

edera-check validates:

  • Sufficient memory and disk space
  • Required kernel modules
  • IOMMU and PVH capability (optional, for advanced features)
  • System information for troubleshooting

If any required checks fail, resolve them before installing. Optional checks indicate features that won’t be available but won’t block installation.

Report issues with edera-check at github.com/edera-dev/edera-check.

Boot mode requirements

EderaON requires UEFI boot mode. BIOS/legacy boot is not supported for the free tier.

On AWS EC2, most modern instance types (m5, m6i, c5, etc.) support UEFI, but the AMI must be configured for UEFI boot. Ubuntu 24.04 and Amazon Linux 2023 AMIs default to UEFI on supported instance types.

Next steps

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