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Installation

The full path from a bare computer to a working panel. Read it in order — the steps appear exactly as you will meet them.

The disk may be erased

The installer uses the entire selected physical disk. Before erasing it, the wizard shows its model and size and asks for confirmation. A disk that already contains partitions, Windows, or files gets an extra destructive-action warning.

The panel is in beta: keeping the files already on that disk safe is entirely your responsibility. Save anything you need to another drive first.

What you need​

  • A computer with an NVIDIA graphics card. Minimum (sized for 4 windows): Ryzen 5 5600 / 16 GB RAM / 256 GB SSD / GTX 1060. Leave room on the disk: 256 GB is the minimum, 512 GB NVMe is comfortable. AMD and Intel graphics are not supported: drivers are installed for NVIDIA only, and we have not tested anything else. Newer RTX 50xx (Blackwell) cards are supported.
  • A USB drive of 8 GB or more (the image itself is 3–4 GB, the rest is headroom). It will be completely overwritten.
  • The image seva-client-<version>.iso — the bot hands it out under the "📥 Download panel" button (available after you buy a license).
  • Your license key — the bot sends it right after the purchase. You will need it not during installation, but at first launch.
  • Internet access on the target computer. Mandatory: the installer downloads the system, the drivers and Steam. An Ethernet cable is the safest option.

Step 1. Prepare the computer​

Two checks before you plug the USB drive in.

  • Turn Secure Boot off. Some drivers (network and NVIDIA) are built on your machine and are unsigned, and Secure Boot only loads signed modules. Leave it on and you end up with a system that has no network or no graphics.
  • Plug in the Ethernet cable and check it. Without internet the installation will not go through: the installer downloads the system, the drivers and Steam. Make sure the cable is in the motherboard port and that the connection actually works. No cable — you can install over Wi-Fi as well: the installer asks for the network name and password. But Wi-Fi in the installer does not always work, so a cable is the safer bet.
  • Boot mode: UEFI only. Legacy/CSM is not supported because the installer configures the graphical rEFInd boot menu.

Step 2. Write the USB drive​

The image must be written with a dedicated tool. Copying the file onto the drive is not enough — a drive prepared that way will not boot.

Windows: Rufus​

  1. Insert the USB drive and open Rufus.
  2. Under Device, select the USB drive. Check the letter and the size: Rufus lists the system disk too, and they are easy to confuse.
  3. Select → the seva-client-<version>.iso file.
  4. Start. If it asks about the write mode, choose DD Image mode.
  5. Wait for READY and eject the drive safely.

Windows and macOS: balenaEtcher (not verified by us)​

  1. Insert the USB drive and open balenaEtcher.
  2. Flash from file → seva-client-<version>.iso.
  3. Select target → the USB drive, not the system disk.
  4. Flash! On macOS, enter the administrator password if asked.

Linux: dd​

This method has been verified with the current Seva Client image.

Make sure /dev/sdX really is the USB drive (lsblk shows size and model). Getting the device name wrong destroys your system disk.

lsblk                     # find the USB drive by size and model
sudo umount /dev/sdX*     # unmount it if the system mounted it
sudo dd if=seva-client-<version>.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

Write to the device (/dev/sdb), not to a partition (/dev/sdb1).

Verify the image​

If the download was truncated, the drive still writes fine but the installation dies halfway. A checksum file ships next to the image — the check takes a minute and saves you an hour:

sha256sum -c seva-client-<version>.iso.SHA256SUMS

On Windows: certutil -hashfile seva-client-<version>.iso SHA256 and compare the line by eye.

Step 3. Boot from the USB drive​

  1. Insert the drive into the computer you are installing on.
  2. Power it on and immediately press the Boot Menu key: F12, F11, F8, Esc or Del — it depends on the motherboard.
  3. Pick the USB drive in UEFI mode — the entry looks like UEFI: <USB drive name>.

Step 4. Choose the installation mode​

  1. Choose Install or update SevaPanel in the boot menu. It does not start anything on a timer.
  2. Choose the installer language: Русский or English. The selected language is used in all following menus, progress messages, and errors.
  3. Choose one of the three modes:
    • AUTOMATIC INSTALL finds one unambiguous target drive for you. There is no drive-selection step: check the model and size, then confirm the erase. If no single safe choice exists, the wizard asks you to use manual mode and changes nothing;
    • MANUAL INSTALL lists every suitable physical SSD, NVMe drive, and HDD. You choose exactly which drive to erase completely;
    • REINSTALL / UPDATE finds the drive that already contains SevaPanel and replaces it with the version on this USB drive. That entire drive is erased too.
  4. In manual mode, choose a drive of at least 256 GB:
    • EMPTY — Recommended means an empty drive and is the safest choice;
    • WINDOWS / DATA — Will be erased means Windows, an NTFS partition, or a Microsoft-labelled partition was found on the drive;
    • DATA — Will be erased means the drive contains other partitions or files;
    • SEVAPANEL — Existing installation marks the current system drive.
  5. Check the model and size one more time. A short Device ID appears only when the computer has identical drives of the same model and size. The safe GO BACK button is selected by default on destructive confirmation screens. A non-empty drive is erased only after ERASE AND INSTALL, and reinstalling starts only after REINSTALL SEVAPANEL.

Controls are the same on every screen: ↑/↓ selects an item, ←/→ switches buttons, Enter or Space confirms, and Esc goes back.

The entire selected drive is erased

None of the three modes shrinks a Windows partition or installs into free space on the same drive. The installer repartitions the selected physical drive completely.

Step 5. Wait for the installation​

From here the computer does everything itself.

The installation takes about 15–20 minutes (not counting the image download and writing the USB drive): drivers are downloaded and built, and the system, Steam, and its runtime are installed. An animated bar, an estimated stage and percentage, and elapsed time remain visible throughout this work. The stage and percentage are estimates: they show that the installer is alive, but do not predict the exact completion time. The bar can therefore advance more slowly near the end.

If there is no internet, the installer shows a Wi-Fi dialog asking for the network name (SSID) and password. Enter them and the installation continues; the connection is carried over into the installed system automatically. Wi-Fi does not always work here — if the dialog did not help, plug in a cable and start over.

warning

Do not power the computer off and do not remove the USB drive while the installation is running.

If an error appears on screen​

  1. Take a photo of the screen. Do not retype it by hand and do not paraphrase — we need the whole shot, including the support code and stage.
  2. Read the error. It uses the language selected before installation and normally says what broke and what to do next.
  3. Try installing again. Some failures are one-offs: a package download aborted, the network blinked.
  4. If the error comes back, send both photos (the first and the second) to support. Two errors in a row say more than one: we can see whether it repeats or differs every time.

Step 6. First boot​

When installation finishes, the bar reaches 100% and the "Installation complete" message appears. The computer then shuts itself down.

  1. After the 100% / "Installation complete" screen, wait for the automatic shutdown to begin. A regular image powers the computer off completely; then remove the USB drive. If a test image restarts instead of powering off, you may remove the drive during that restart. Do not remove it before the automatic shutdown begins.
  2. Power the computer on. The graphical rEFInd menu appears: SevaPanel starts the panel, while the Microsoft EFI boot entry with the Windows icon starts Windows kept on another drive. If there is no Windows installation, select SevaPanel.

The display should no longer stay black during installation: the wizard, progress screen, and completion screen follow one another. A brief black screen during shutdown or the next boot is normal while the video mode changes.

The system boots straight to the desktop, no password needed. The credentials, if you ever need them: user farm, password seva.

On its first launch, Steam may spend several minutes preparing its environment before its window appears. Wait for it to finish: do not start Steam again or reboot the computer only because the window has not appeared yet.

If the installer menu shows up again, the computer booted from the USB drive once more. Power it off, remove the drive, power it on. If needed, pick the internal SSD/NVMe in the Boot Menu instead of USB.

Step 7. Activate the license​

The Seva Installer window opens on the desktop automatically.

  1. Paste the key from the bot into the License key field.
  2. Click Activate.

The key is checked against the server and disappears from the form right away — that is by design.

One key, one computer

The license binds to the machine at first launch. To move the panel to another computer, reset the license in the bot: it issues a new key and disconnects the old machine.

Step 8. Install and launch the panel​

  1. Install — the installer downloads the panel, verifies the signatures and unpacks it.
  2. Launch — Sevapanel opens.

The first Sevapanel launch may take longer while it prepares its cache. It may restart automatically during this initial run — that is normal. Do not close it manually: after the cache has warmed up, later launches are usually faster and more stable.

A desktop shortcut stays behind, so next time you can start it from there.

Steam finishes installing in the background on first boot, so right after the installation it may not be ready yet. If you need it and it is missing, the Install Steam shortcut on the desktop completes the job.

Want to keep Windows on a separate drive — see Dual boot with Windows. Something went wrong — see Troubleshooting. Need to clean everything up — see Reset and reinstall. Want the panel gone and Windows back — see Removal and back to Windows. Stuck — write to support.