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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 will be erased

Installation wipes the entire disk of the selected computer. 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 BIOS​

  • 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.
  • Boot mode: UEFI, if you have the choice. Legacy BIOS is supported too.

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 (not verified by us)​

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 menu entry​

The installer menu appears. It never starts on its own — waiting is pointless. That is deliberate: a timer-based autostart would eventually wipe someone's disk unasked. Select an entry with the arrow keys and press Enter.

Menu entryWhat it does
Install Seva Client OS — automatic install, ERASES THE WHOLE DISKThe normal choice: wipes the whole disk and installs the system with no questions.
Install Seva Client OS — manual partitioningFor advanced users: the installer stops at disk partitioning. Everything else is still automatic.

When in doubt, take the first one.

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, the system, Steam and its runtime are installed. And most importantly: the longest phase runs with no progress on screen at all. The log goes to a file rather than the display, so the installer looks frozen while it is working.

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.

warning

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

Step 6. First boot​

When the installation finishes, the computer shuts itself down. That is the success signal — there is no "done" message.

  1. Wait for it to power off completely.
  2. Remove the USB drive.
  3. Power the computer on again.

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

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.

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 alongside — see Dual boot with Windows (a complex and fragile setup; the panel is designed for a dedicated machine). 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.