Installation instructions

Getting LudOS

LudOS can be downloaded from the public website or directly from Github.

Releases are in the form of a .img.gz, which is a compressed disk image.

Be careful when choosing the image version for Raspberry Pi!

• The RPi2 image is compatible with Raspberry Pi 2 and 3

• The RPi4 image is compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 only

Flashing LudOS

Flashing is the process of burning the LudOS image to a micro SD card or a USD pen drive.

• For Raspberry Pi, you will need a micro SD card

• For PC, you will need an USB stick.

LudOS requires at least 1GB of space to operate. But 4GB is recommended, as you will need space to store games.

When you flash an SD card or a USB drive, all previous data will be lost. Use a dedicated medium.

The preferred way to flash LudOS is to use Balena Etcher. Etcher is a small software that helps you flash an image on a drive.

Once installed, you will be able to select the LudOS .img.gz image you downloaded, and Etcher will flash it on your medium:

On Raspberry Pi

Insert the flashed micro SD card in the Raspberry Pi.

Plug it to a TV or monitor, and power it up.

You will see LudOS booting and resizing the file system to take all the available space on the disk.

After what LudOS will quickly reboot and you will be greeted with the user interface of Ludo:

LudOS on first boot

Congratulations, you are done!

If you are installing on a PC, please follow the PC installation instructions instead:

On PC

To install LudOS permanently on a PC, you will need to go through the installer.

Installing LudOS on a PC will erase all data on it. Use a dedicated PC.

Insert the flashed USB stick in one of the port of the PC and power it up.

On most PCs, you will need to press a combo of keys to be able to boot from a USB stick. It really depends on your PC model. It can be Del, F2, F8... On some models you have to access the BIOS or the EFI to allow the USB boot.

Early during the boot process, in the bootloader interface, you can hit TAB to choose the installer:

LudOS bootloader on PC

Installing LudOS is quite easy, you just have to click next and next:

Once the installation procedure is finished, you can reboot, and don't forget to remove the USB installation medium, as you don't need it anymore.

If you don't choose the installer during the bootloader, LudOS will boot in Live Mode. Live mode is quite convenient, as you will still be able to play, and everything will be saved to your USB instead. Allowing you to easily use many computers with the same USB pen drive.