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The Image Factory UI generates Talos Linux boot assets in a web browser. It walks through a series of screens that select the hardware, the Talos Linux version, system extensions, and customizations, then returns a schematic ID with the boot assets and installer images built from it. The UI creates the same schematics as the Image Factory API. For how schematics and schematic IDs work, see Image Factory. To create schematics from a file or a script instead, see Boot Assets.

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Screens in the UI

The screens in the UI depend on the hardware type selected on the first screen: Each screen has Back and Next buttons. The UI stores the selections in the page URL, so a bookmarked or shared URL returns to the same selections.

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Hardware type

The Hardware Type screen selects the kind of machine the image is for:
  • Bare-metal Machine: x86-64 and arm64 bare-metal machines and generic virtual machines. The UI recommends this option when unsure.
  • Cloud Server: cloud and virtualization platforms, such as AWS, GCP, Azure, VMware, and Proxmox.
  • Single Board Computer: boards such as Raspberry Pi, Pine64, and Jetson Nano.

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Talos Linux version

The Choose Talos Linux Version screen lists the Talos Linux releases that Image Factory can build, including pre-releases. The UI recommends the latest stable version, as pre-release versions are intended for testing only. Single board computers require Talos Linux 1.7 or later.

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Cloud platform

The Cloud screen appears only for Cloud Server. It lists the supported platforms, such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, VMware, OpenStack, and Hetzner. Nocloud covers hypervisors that provide nocloud metadata, such as Proxmox. Each platform links to its installation guide.

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Board

The Single Board Computer screen appears only for Single Board Computer. It lists the supported boards, and the selected board adds its overlay to the schematic. Boards that have an installation guide link to it.

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Machine architecture

The Machine Architecture screen selects amd64 or arm64. It does not appear for single board computers, which are always arm64. For Bare-metal Machine, the screen also offers SecureBoot, which creates an image signed with the official Sidero Labs signing key. SecureBoot images require UEFI boot and hardware prepared for SecureBoot. See SecureBoot.

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System extensions

The System Extensions screen lists the official system extensions available for the selected Talos Linux version, with each extension’s version and support tier. Use Search to filter the list. Image Factory selects the extension versions that match the Talos Linux version, so the schematic only records extension names. Selecting extensions is optional. For what extensions do and what each support tier means, see System Extensions.

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Customization

The Customization screen sets optional changes to the image:
  • Extra kernel command line arguments: arguments to add to the kernel command line, in kernel command line syntax, such as console=ttyS0,115200. Prefix an argument with - to remove it from the default command line, such as -console. See Kernel for the arguments Talos Linux supports.
  • Embedded machine configuration: machine configuration documents to embed into the image. Talos Linux applies them on boot. See Acquire.
  • Extra overlay options (advanced): options for the board overlay, in YAML. Shown only for single board computers. The available options depend on the overlay.
  • Bootloader: auto, UEFI only (systemd-boot), BIOS only (GRUB), or Dual Boot. auto selects the bootloader based on the image type and architecture, and is the recommended option. See Bootloader.

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Results

The Schematic Ready screen shows the schematic ID, the schematic itself, and the assets built from it. The sections on the screen depend on the hardware type:
  • Schematic ID: identifies the selections. The same ID builds images for other Talos Linux versions, and the schematic shown below it can be uploaded with the Image Factory API.
  • First Boot: the image to boot the machine from for the first time. Bare-metal machines get an ISO, raw and qcow2 disk images, and a PXE boot script. Cloud servers get a disk image for the platform. Single board computers get a disk image to write to boot media.
  • Initial Installation: shown for bare-metal machines. The installer image to set in the machine configuration, which Talos Linux uses to install to disk after booting from the ISO or PXE.
  • Upgrading Talos Linux: the installer image to upgrade the machine with.
  • Local Test Cluster: a talosctl cluster create qemu command that creates a local test cluster from the schematic.
  • PXE Boot with booter: a command that runs booter to PXE boot bare-metal machines on the same subnet.
  • Extra Assets: shown for bare-metal machines. The kernel, kernel command line, initramfs, and UKI images, and talosctl binaries.
Each download has links to its checksums and signature. Vulnerability scan reports, the SBOM, and the VEX document are only available from Enterprise Image Factory.

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Use the results

The outputs on the Schematic Ready screen are used in the following order:
  1. Boot the machine from the First Boot asset. See ISO, PXE, or the installation guide for the platform.
  2. On bare-metal machines, set the Initial Installation installer image in the machine configuration. See Unattended Install.
  3. Upgrade with the Upgrading Talos Linux installer image. See Upgrading Talos Linux. To change the extensions or customizations on a machine, generate a new schematic and upgrade the machine to its installer image.
To find the schematic ID of a running machine, see Find schematic ID from Talos installation. To create schematics with the API, or to build images with custom system extensions, see Boot Assets.