How to Install elementary OS

elementary OS is a polished, privacy-respecting Linux distribution built around the Pantheon desktop — a clean, macOS-inspired environment that is genuinely pleasant to use out of the box. It ships its own curated App Center with pay-what-you-want indie apps, making it one of the friendliest starting points for anyone moving away from Windows or macOS. This guide walks you through downloading, verifying, writing, and booting the installer, then covers the first steps inside a fresh Pantheon session.

What You Need Before Starting

elementary OS 8 (Horus) is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. It runs well on most hardware from the last decade. Minimum requirements are a 64-bit CPU, 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended), and 32 GB of storage. You also need a USB drive of at least 8 GB — its contents will be erased.

Download and Verify the ISO

Go to elementary.io. The download page shows a pay-what-you-want prompt — you can enter $0 and click Custom then Download to get the ISO for free. Paying supports the project directly; even a small amount helps. The current release as of mid-2025 is elementary OS 8.

After the download finishes, verify the checksum before writing anything to USB. The site lists SHA256 hashes alongside each release.

sha256sum elementaryos-8.0-stable.20240410.iso

Compare the output to the hash on the elementary website. If they match, the file is intact and unmodified.

Write the USB Drive

You can create a bootable USB from Linux, macOS, or Windows.

From Linux

Find your USB device node first — do not guess; picking the wrong device wipes data.

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN | grep -i usb

Then write the ISO directly with dd. Replace /dev/sdX with your actual device (e.g., /dev/sdb), never a partition like /dev/sdb1.

sudo dd if=elementaryos-8.0-stable.20240410.iso \
     of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

From Windows or macOS

Use balenaEtcher: select the ISO, select your USB drive, click Flash. It verifies the write automatically.

Boot the Installer

Plug the USB into the target machine and power it on. Access the boot menu — commonly F12, F10, or Esc at POST, depending on the firmware vendor. Select the USB drive. If the machine boots into an existing OS instead, you may need to disable Secure Boot in UEFI settings or move the USB higher in the boot order.

elementary OS uses the Calamares installer. You will see a live desktop first; double-click Install elementary to launch it.

Walk Through the Calamares Installer

Language, Keyboard, and Time Zone

Select your language, then your keyboard layout. The layout preview lets you type test characters. Choose your time zone on the map or by searching a city.

Partitioning

For most new installs on a dedicated machine, choose Erase disk and install elementary OS. This creates an EFI system partition and a root ext4 partition automatically.

If you want to dual-boot alongside Windows, choose Install alongside and drag the slider to set partition sizes. Make sure Windows is shut down fully (not fast-startup hibernated) before you proceed — from Windows run:

shutdown /s /t 0

Advanced users who want LVM, encryption, or custom layouts should choose Manual partitioning. At minimum you need an EFI partition (512 MB, FAT32, mounted at /boot/efi) and a root partition (ext4 or btrfs, mounted at /).

User Account

Enter your full name, a username (lowercase, no spaces), hostname, and password. Check Log in automatically only on a single-user home machine; leave it unchecked on shared or work hardware.

Install

Review the summary screen, click Install, and confirm. Installation typically takes 5–15 minutes depending on drive speed. When it finishes, click Restart Now and remove the USB when prompted.

First Boot and Pantheon Orientation

After rebooting you land in Pantheon. Key elements to know:

• Plank — the dock at the bottom. Right-click any icon to keep it there permanently.
• Applications Menu — the grid icon at the far left of the dock, or press the Super key.
• Panel — the top bar contains the clock, system indicators, and notification bell.
• Files — the elementary file manager; supports tabs and network mounts.
• System Settings — everything from display scaling to privacy controls in one place.

Run First Updates

Open Terminal from the Applications menu and update the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Reboot if a kernel update was installed:

sudo reboot

Install Drivers

elementary inherits Ubuntu's driver infrastructure. If you have NVIDIA graphics or proprietary Wi-Fi firmware, open a terminal:

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

Then reboot. For Wi-Fi cards that need firmware blobs not installed automatically, check:

sudo dmesg | grep -i firmware

The output will name the missing firmware file; install the relevant firmware-* package from the Ubuntu repositories.

Get Apps from App Center

Open App Center from the dock. It surfaces curated, Flatpak-based applications built specifically for elementary OS by indie developers. Many are pay-what-you-want — you choose your price at checkout, including $0.

For software not in App Center, Flatpak is pre-installed. Add Flathub for the wider Linux app ecosystem:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub \
  https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then install any Flathub app, for example Firefox:

flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox

Traditional apt packages work too, though Flatpak is the recommended path for desktop apps on elementary OS 8.

Verify the Install Is Healthy

Check that you booted via UEFI, the file system mounted correctly, and systemd is happy:

systemctl --failed
lsblk -f
ls /sys/firmware/efi

systemctl --failed should return nothing. ls /sys/firmware/efi producing output confirms UEFI boot. lsblk -f shows your partition layout with filesystem types and UUIDs.

Troubleshooting

• Black screen after boot: Common with NVIDIA GPUs. At the GRUB menu press e, find the line starting with linux, and add nomodeset before quiet splash. Boot, then install the proprietary NVIDIA driver via sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall and remove nomodeset.
• Wi-Fi not detected: Run sudo dmesg | grep -i firmware to identify missing firmware. Broadcom cards often need sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source (requires a temporary wired connection).
• Installer freezes on partitioning: The target drive may have residual partition table issues. Boot into the live session and run sudo gparted to wipe and create a fresh GPT partition table, then re-run the installer.
• HiDPI display looks tiny: Go to System Settings → Displays and adjust the Scale slider. elementary has strong HiDPI support; fractional scaling is available.
• Dual-boot GRUB does not show Windows: Run sudo update-grub from a terminal. If Windows still doesn't appear, ensure it is on the same firmware mode (UEFI) as elementary.