Install Nano Cloud

One command, on a Linux host with KVM or an Apple silicon Mac. It takes about a minute.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nanocloud-io/nanocloud/main/install.sh | sudo sh

The installer:

Fetches the latest release's sha256sums.txt and checks its GPG signature against a key built into the script, stopping if it's wrong.
Fetches the binary for your platform and checks it against that file.
On Linux, installs libvirt, QEMU and xorriso with apt or dnf.
Runs nanocloud install, which writes /etc/nano-cloud/config.yaml, starts the service and prints the address, the certificate's fingerprint and a generated password.

Open the address it prints. Your browser will warn once about the certificate, since it was made on your machine; check its fingerprint against the installer's, then sign in.

Requirements

Platform	Needs
Linux, x86-64	KVM (`/dev/kvm`), systemd, and apt or dnf: Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and their relatives
macOS	Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later, and `gpg` for the signature check (`brew install gnupg`). See the Mac page.

A Linux ARM64 build is published too, but it can't create VMs yet: its image catalogue and firmware aren't ready.

Choose a release

To install a specific release, set NANOCLOUD_VERSION:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nanocloud-io/nanocloud/main/install.sh | sudo NANOCLOUD_VERSION=v0.2.0 sh

Install by hand

Each release carries the binaries, sha256sums.txt and its signature, sha256sums.txt.sig. These links always point at the latest one:

curl -fLO https://github.com/nanocloud-io/nanocloud/releases/latest/download/nanocloud-linux-amd64
curl -fLO https://github.com/nanocloud-io/nanocloud/releases/latest/download/sha256sums.txt
curl -fLO https://github.com/nanocloud-io/nanocloud/releases/latest/download/sha256sums.txt.sig
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nanocloud-io/nanocloud/main/internal/update/release.asc | gpg --import
gpg --verify sha256sums.txt.sig sha256sums.txt
sha256sum --ignore-missing -c sha256sums.txt
chmod +x nanocloud-linux-amd64
sudo ./nanocloud-linux-amd64 install

gpg --verify must report a good signature from nano-cloud releases, by the key whose fingerprint is on the security page. The checksum alone only proves the download matches a file from the same place.

Install libvirt, QEMU and xorriso yourself first; nanocloud doctor lists what's missing.

Where things go

What	Linux	macOS
Binary	`/usr/local/bin/nanocloud`
Configuration	`/etc/nano-cloud/config.yaml`
VMs, images, state	`/var/lib/nano-cloud`	`/Library/Application Support/nano-cloud`
Service	systemd `nanocloud`	launchd `io.nanocloud.nanocloud`

The service runs /usr/local/bin/nanocloud as root, so install and update stop if anyone but root could change it or a directory above it, and print the path and the command that fixes it. On Linux a directory the staff group can write is accepted, as in Debian's layout for /usr/local: Debian already treats staff as equivalent to root.

Lost the password

sudo nanocloud passwd

This sets and prints a new one, and signs out every browser.