Download Phillux

One bootable medium that installs Debian 13 and Phillux on a server unattended. No registration, no address, no account — and it runs with the full feature set for a month.

Download the ISO

The download can be interrupted and resumed — the server supports it, which matters for a file of this size on a thin line.

File: phillux-installer-v1.4.1.iso
Size: 979 MiB (1,026,555,904 bytes)
Version: Phillux 1.4.1
Published: 22 August 2026
Built on: Debian 13.6 “Trixie”, amd64, with firmware
Starts on: UEFI and legacy BIOS
SHA-256: bfe2e9938def40d86c0f15e91a8e99b27e3b2eb222300fe032ea44878380841b

The medium can erase a disk

Two of the three entries in the boot menu partition the first disk in the machine from scratch, and both say so in their own name. That is what makes the installation unattended — but it means the medium belongs on a machine whose disk may go. If you want to decide for yourself where things land, take the third entry: it installs Debian by hand and touches nothing you have not confirmed.

From the file to a running host

Four steps. The longest of them is the download.

1Check what you downloaded

Compare the checksum with the one above. A file of a gigabyte can arrive damaged, and an installer that erases a disk is the wrong place to find that out.

# Linux
sha256sum phillux-installer-v1.4.1.iso

# macOS
shasum -a 256 phillux-installer-v1.4.1.iso

# Windows, in PowerShell
Get-FileHash .\phillux-installer-v1.4.1.iso -Algorithm SHA256

2Write it to a USB stick

The image is written to the stick as it is — no unpacking, no tool that has to understand it. Check the device name twice; dd overwrites whatever you point it at.

# Which one is the stick?
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL

# /dev/sdX is the whole stick, not a partition
sudo dd if=phillux-installer-v1.4.1.iso of=/dev/sdX \
        bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

On Windows, Rufus or balenaEtcher do the same thing. Rufus asks whether to write in ISO or DD mode — either works, the image carries both.

3Boot it and choose

The menu offers three ways in. The first is the one to take if you are unsure: it does everything by itself but asks you to set the root password, so the machine does not end up on the network with a password that is written down in public.

Install Phillux, ask for the root password   ← recommended
Install Phillux unattended, default password
Install Debian manually (nothing is wiped)

The first two erase the first disk. The second one additionally sets a password that is the same on every installation — only use it on a machine that is not reachable from anywhere, and change the password before it is.

4Let it finish, then open it

After the reboot the machine sets Phillux up on its own: it checks that the processor really offers virtualization, installs what it needs, lays out a network bridge and starts the service. A few minutes, written along to a log you can follow.

# watch it happen
journalctl -u phillux-firstboot -f

# then, from any machine on the network
https://<address>:8000/ui/

Sign in with an account of the host and its system password — root, for instance, the same credentials as over SSH. The certificate is self-signed at first, so the browser warns once.

Already running Debian? Then you do not need the medium at all. It carries the installation script, and the script sets Phillux up next to whatever is already on the machine. Running it a second time does no harm — it repairs rather than duplicates.

The questions in full

sudo mount -o loop phillux-installer-v1.4.1.iso /mnt
sudo bash /mnt/phillux/install.sh /opt/phillux

What the machine has to bring

An ordinary server. The installer checks the first two itself and stops rather than half-finishing.

Processorx86-64 with virtualizationThe extensions must be switched on in the BIOS. Without them no guest can start, and the installation stops with that in plain words instead of leaving you a broken host.

NetworkNeeded during the installationThe medium is a netinst: it fetches the Debian packages while it runs. DHCP is enough. Afterwards Phillux works without a connection — only the licence check goes out.

DiskOne that may be erasedThe unattended entries lay the first disk out from scratch. Guests, images and backups can later live on separate storages — SSD, hard disk and network storage mixed.

MemorySum of the guests plus headroomPhillux itself needs little; your guests set the demand. Plan 8 GB for each Windows 11 guest.

USB stick2 GB or moreOr a virtual drive, if the server has a remote console. The image starts under UEFI and under an older BIOS from the same stick.

Bare metalOr a first-level VMPhillux runs inside a VM too, but a guest inside a guest is slow — Windows especially. For a fair look, use hardware or a VM that sits directly on it.

Your data stays on your server Phillux runs on your hardware, in your network. There is no cloud holding your machines, backups or credentials, and no telemetry about how you run it. The only thing that leaves is the periodic licence check — and if that ever fails to reach us, Phillux keeps working.

Questions about the download

|

Do I have to register to download it?

No. The link goes straight to the file — no form, no address, no account. The trial period runs for a month with the full feature set; you only need to talk to us when you want a licence afterwards.

Does the installer erase my disk?

Two of the three entries in the boot menu do, and both say so in their own name. They partition the first disk in the machine from scratch. The third entry installs Debian by hand and touches nothing you have not confirmed. Put the medium on a machine whose disk may go, or pick the third entry.

Does the machine need internet during the installation?

Yes. The medium is a netinst: it carries the installer and Phillux itself, but fetches the Debian packages from deb.debian.org while it runs. A network card with DHCP is enough. After the installation Phillux no longer needs a connection to work — only the periodic licence check goes out.

Does it boot on UEFI as well as on older BIOS machines?

Both. The image carries an EFI partition and a classic boot sector side by side, so the same USB stick starts on a current UEFI server and on an older machine in legacy mode. You do not have to choose when writing it.

What happens after the first reboot?

The machine sets Phillux up on its own: it checks that the processor really offers virtualization, installs what it needs, lays out a network bridge and starts Phillux as a service. That takes a few minutes and writes along to /var/log/phillux/firstboot.log. Then the web interface answers at https://<address>:8000/ui/.

How do I sign in the first time?

With an account of the host itself and its system password — root, for instance, the same credentials as over SSH. The certificate is self-signed at the start, so the browser warns once; a Let's Encrypt certificate can be set up later under Certificates as soon as a domain points at the host.

Can I install it on a Debian that already runs?

Yes. The medium carries the installation script under /phillux/install.sh. Mount the ISO, run the script as root, and it sets Phillux up next to what is already there. It can be run again without harm — a second run repairs rather than duplicates.