Help2025-12-08T19:01:50+00:00

Help

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Installation Process

Download Nirvati to your system
Download BalenaEtcher

Flash Nirvati onto an SD-Card or USB-Stick with BalenaEtcher

Plug in the SD-Card or USB-Stick to your device and restart it

Welcome to Nirvati! You can now start exploring the App-Store for your needs

System Requirements

Level up your systems with Nirvati

Is my system compatible with Nirvati and what is the most suitable version ?

Here you will find the minimum hardware specifications needed. If your system doesn’t meet these criteria, running Nirvati as an additional OS on it might not be possible.

Nirvati OS | Citadel OS | Luxdis OS

Version for mini PCs

Supported models:

CPU: 1 GHz Dual Core – Intel/AMD 64-bit processor

RAM: 2 GB

Nirvati OS = 10 GB

Luxdis OS = 10 GB

Citadel OS = 10 GB + 600 GB for the local Bitcoin blockchain

 

Version for Rasberry Pi

Supported models: Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, 400

CPU:

RAM:

Nirvati OS = 10 GB

Luxdis OS = 10 GB

Citadel OS = 10 GB + 600 GB for the local Bitcoin blockchain

New to installing an OS?

We got you ! Let us guide you through the installation of your chose OS of the Nirvati Family on your system.

Hardware Requirements

  • Computer capable of running Nirvati on top of your Operating System or as a standalone version on a dedicated hardware.
  • USB drive or SD-Card
  • External drive (SSD or NVMe, depending on your system type).

Installing a new OS

Operating system (OS) images are so called .iso files. You can flash them onto an SD-Card or USB-Stick, insert to your system and reboot to process to the rest of the installation. Easy !

Get the right version for your system and start today

Download Nirvati OS

Having issues with this step?
I don´t know what to download ›

Backup your data

We strongly recommend to check if you need to backup your files before they are overwriten.

.iso files need to be alone on a drive – so when flashing a new OS onto an SD-Card or USB-Stick BalenaEtcher will erase all other files before saving the image. Make sure to have made a backup of those files to your internal or external storage.

Step-by-Step guide 🕊️

1/3 | Create a bootable flash drive

As a first step we will backup the data from the SD-Card or USB-Stick and then write the .iso file of your choice to it using e.g. balenaEtcher. The computer that you use to do this should already have an operating system like Windows, MacOS or Linux.

Download balenaEtcher
  • Plug the USB flash drive or SD-Card into your computer
  • Double-click balenaEtcher to run it
    • Linux-Users: If balenaEtcher doesn’t open on a double-click, you might need to mark it as an executable. To do so, right-click on the file to open its properties. Navigate to the permissions section and enable “Allow executing file as a program”.
  • Press “Flash from file” and select the downloaded .iso image e.g. from your download folder
  • Press “Select target” and choose the correct flash drive from the list.
  • Press the “Flash!”-Button to begin writing the new Operating System to the flash drive.
  • After a few minutes, the flash drive will be ready to be inserted into the system where you want to run the OS from the Nirvati Family on – a Raspberry Pi, a CMrat, a NUC or whatever you have.

2/3 | Starting the installation process

Remove the SD-Card or USB drive from your Computer and plug it into the device where you want to run the chosen OS on and press restart.

  • On a miniPC: Immediately at start-up, repeatedly press the designated key to open the BIOS. The BIOS is where the bootmanager of your system lives. We will now instruct it to start from the Flash-Drive which will trigger the installation process on the system. The right key to open the BIOS is dependant on your hardware manufacturer – usually either F10, F2, ESC or DEL.
  • Use the arrow keys to navigate within the BIOS and to find the Boot Section.
  • Move up the SD/USB-Drive to the top and press Save and Exit; this will reboot the device. You will now see the start of the installation process staring to run.
  • Select the “Try or install Nirvati” option from the menu and hit Enter.

 

  • On a Mac: Press and hold the ⌥ Option key at start-up. If you’re using a wireless keyboard, you may need to plug it in with a cable.
  • Use the arrow keys to navigateto the SD/USB-drive, usually named “EFI Boot”, press Enter (on some old systems it might be incorrectly identified as “Windows”)
  • Select the “Try or install Nirvati” option in the Nirvati OS-based boot selection menu using the Enter key.

3/3 | Finish the installation of your chosen OS

  • Once the installation process is finished and the Dashboard started, you can turn off the device and place it in its final location.
  • Connect it via Ethernet/LAN-cable to your router and plug in the power plug. If you use a CMrat3 or CMrat5 you can power it via a PoE switch with the same Ethernet/LAN-cable instead.
  • Neither a display nor a mouse or keyboard are needed to be directly attached to it anymore, you are able to reach from every browser on each other device.
  • From any device connected to your home network, open a browser and type
    • for Nirvati OS : nirvati.local then press Enter
    • for Luxdis OS : luxdis.local then press Enter
    • for Citadel OS : citadel.local then press Enter

✅ Welcome to your new home server.

You can now explore the App-Store and install what best suitable your needs. For security reasons never install more than you actually use.

FAQs

Terminology
GUI = Graphical user interface – in this case a web browser
CLI = Command line interface – in this case a terminal

How to access your node (GUI)?2023-11-18T23:15:22+00:00

  • Open any browser
  • Type in the address bar citadel.local or your node’s IP address – for help see Need your node’s IP address?
  • type your password
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I have installed Citadel OS, what now?2023-11-18T23:17:07+00:00

  • Open the browser from any of your devices
  • Type in the address bar citadel.local or your node IP address – for help see Need your node’s IP address?
  • type in your password
  • enjoy Citadel OS
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Need your node’s IP address?2023-11-18T23:16:31+00:00

  • Install Angry IP Scanner here
  • Open Angry IP Scanner and press “Start”
  • Identify the IP address of your node looking at “Hostname” and “Ping” (keep in mind that Ethernet has lower ping than Wifi)
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Want to SSH into your node? (CLI)2023-11-18T23:15:55+00:00

  • Open the Terminal on any device you want to use for SSH into your node
  • write ssh [account_name]@citadel
  • Replacing [account_name] with citadel for Citadel OS v0.2.x, and nirvati for Citadel OS v0.3.x (Nirvati technical preview).
  • If this fails, try ssh [account_name]@citadel.local or ssh [account_name]@[ip_address], replacing [ip_address] with the IP address of your node – for help see Need your node’s IP address?
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Want to shutdown your node? (GUI)2023-11-18T23:14:19+00:00

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Want to restart your node? (GUI)2023-11-18T23:13:42+00:00

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Want to update Citadel (GUI)?2023-11-18T23:13:10+00:00

  • Access your node – for help see How to access your node (GUI)?
  • go to “Settings”
  • press “Check for updates”, then “Install Now” if there are any updates
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Need logs for troubleshooting (GUI)?2023-11-18T23:12:40+00:00

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Need logs for troubleshooting (CLI)?2023-11-18T23:12:11+00:00

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Want to start Citadel (CLI)?2023-11-18T23:11:41+00:00

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Want to stop Citadel (CLI)?2023-11-18T23:10:51+00:00

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Want to install an app (CLI)?2023-11-18T23:10:57+00:00

  • SSH into your node – for help see Want to SSH into your node?
  • write sudo ~/citadel/scripts/app install [app_name] replacing [app_name] with the name of the app you wish to install e.g. fulcrum
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Want to do a full reset (BACKUP EVERYTHING FIRST) (CLI)?2023-11-18T23:11:04+00:00

  • Backup every data that is important on a secure device different from your node.
  • SSH into your node – for help see Want to SSH into your node?
  • write sudo ~/citadel/scripts/stop
    && sudo rm -rf ~/citadel/app-data/* && sudo rm -f
    ~/citadel/statuses/configured ~/citadel/db/user.json
    ~/citadel/db/citadel-seed/seed && sudo ~/citadel/scripts/start
    && sudo ~/citadel/scripts/start
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Need additional help (GUI)?2023-11-18T23:06:55+00:00

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Need additional help (CLI)?2023-11-18T23:05:05+00:00

  • Generate logs for Troubleshooting CLI – for help see Need logs for troubleshooting (CLI)?
  • Copy the sharable link you get
  • Join the Citadel’s Telegram Group, describe in detail what happened and attach the logs file.
  • have patience 🙂 We are a small team, but we are trying our best to get back to you asap!
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