Get Orynr
Write Orynr to a USB stick and boot from it. Nothing is written to your disk, and you can stop at any point by removing the stick. About ten minutes, most of it waiting.
456 MB
The whole system compressed into one image and unpacked in memory as it runs. Write it with Rufus in its normal mode, or just drop it on a Ventoy stick. This is what almost everyone wants.
2.5 GB
The full disk image, laid out as Orynr will finally live on a drive. Needed if you are
putting Orynr on a disk permanently. In Rufus it must be written in DD Image
mode, and Rufus hides .raw files until you change the file-type
dropdown to "All files".
orynr.vmdk for VMware, and orynr-secureboot.cer, the certificate you
enrol if you want to run with Secure Boot switched on. See
Secure Boot.
Step one
You need a stick of 4 GB or more, and Rufus, a free tool from rufus.ie that runs straight from the download without installing.
orynr-live.iso..raw files, so switch
the dropdown beside the filename box to All files or it will not appear at
all. And when Rufus asks, choose DD Image mode. That one matters:
orynr.raw is a complete disk image with its own partition table, and ISO mode
would unpack its contents onto a fresh filesystem and lose the boot arrangement entirely.
Copy orynr-live.iso onto the Ventoy stick alongside your other images and pick
Orynr from the menu at boot. Nothing is erased, so this is the least destructive option.
Step two
Most computers boot from their internal drive and ignore a USB stick unless you say otherwise. Restart and press the setup key as it powers on.
| Maker | Setup | One-time boot menu |
|---|---|---|
| Dell | F2 | F12 |
| HP | Esc, then F10 | Esc, then F9 |
| Lenovo | F1 or F2 | F12 |
| ASUS, Acer | F2 or Del | F8 or Esc |
| Most others | F2, F10, Del or Esc | F12 |
The one-time boot menu is usually the better choice: pick the USB stick once and nothing about the machine's normal behaviour changes.
| Boot mode → UEFI | Not Legacy or CSM. Orynr boots as a modern UEFI system, and in Legacy mode the stick will not even be listed. |
|---|---|
| Secure Boot → off | Unless you have enrolled our certificate. Firmware will not run a bootloader signed by a key it does not know, and refuses with a "security violation". See Secure Boot to keep it on instead. |
| Fast Boot → off | Fast Boot skips USB detection during startup, so the stick is never seen at all. |
| Boot order | USB before the internal drive, if you are not using the one-time menu. |
Or skip the stick
Often easier, and it cannot touch your real disks.
| Firmware | UEFI, not BIOS. In VMware this is Options → Advanced → Firmware type. |
|---|---|
| Disk | Attach orynr.vmdk as an existing hard disk rather than creating a new one. Or point the VM at orynr-live.iso as an installer disc and skip the disk entirely. |
| Resources | 4 CPU cores and 8 GB of memory if you can spare them. |
| Graphics | Turn on Accelerate 3D graphics. It makes a large difference to how the desktop feels, because without it everything is drawn on the CPU. |
Almost always Secure Boot still switched on, or firmware still in Legacy/CSM mode. Check both. Fast Boot can also hide it.
The boot order did not change, or Fast Boot skipped the stick. Use the one-time boot menu key from the table above instead.
Secure Boot rejecting a bootloader signed with a key your firmware does not know. Either switch Secure Boot off, or enrol our certificate and keep it on.
Usually graphics. Reboot and choose the safe graphics entry in the Orynr boot menu, which avoids mode-setting. If that works, the machine needs a driver we do not enable by default, and it is worth telling us which machine.
Give it longer than feels reasonable on a USB stick. If it truly stops, reboot and choose the entry that shows boot messages, which prints what it is doing instead of hiding it behind the splash. The last line before it stops is the useful part.