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Gladys Assistant OS: install Gladys with just a USB drive 🚀

Gladys Assistant

Hi everyone!

Today, I’m releasing Gladys Assistant OS, the new official way to install Gladys on a mini-PC 🎉

You write the image to a USB drive, boot your mini-PC from it, answer a few questions, and Gladys installs itself. No more command line, no more Docker command to copy and paste.

Gladys Assistant OS: install Gladys on a mini-PC from a USB drive, with no command line

💿 Why an installer?

Until now, installing Gladys on a mini-PC meant installing Ubuntu Server yourself, connecting over SSH, installing Docker, copying a long docker run command, then setting up Watchtower for updates. Nothing impossible, but a lot of steps, and many of you got stuck on one of them.

A mini-PC is the setup I recommend for a smart home that lasts: it deserved an install as simple as on a Raspberry Pi.

⚙️ What Gladys Assistant OS does

  • the installer only asks for your language, your keyboard and your account: with a single disk, there isn’t even a disk to choose;
  • on first boot, it installs Docker, downloads the latest version of Gladys and starts it: you follow the progress on the mini-PC’s screen, or from your phone;
  • Gladys updates itself, and Ubuntu installs its security updates automatically;
  • if the Internet or the power goes out during first boot, it simply picks up where it left off.

The first-boot progress page: system, Internet, packages and Docker are ready, Gladys Assistant is downloading

Once it’s done, Gladys is available at http://gladysassistant.local from any device on your network.

Under the hood, it’s a perfectly standard Ubuntu Server 26.04 LTS: no black box, you stay in control of your machine, and there’s no default account or password.

👉 Follow the installation guide

📋 What you need

  • an Intel or AMD mini-PC that boots in UEFI mode, which is nearly every mini-PC;
  • an Ethernet cable: the installer doesn’t set up Wi-Fi yet;
  • a screen and a keyboard, only during the installation.

Gladys Assistant OS also runs in a virtual machine on Proxmox: I rewrote the Proxmox guide around it. And all the details are in the blog post.

🙋 Already running Gladys?

Nothing changes for you, no need to reinstall! Gladys Assistant OS is Ubuntu Server, Docker, Gladys and Watchtower: if you followed the Docker guide, you already have the same thing. It’s mostly handy for new users… so feel free to spread the word 😉

🙏 Thank you

Gladys Assistant OS is a community project from start to finish. A huge thank you to Howmation, who started the project and did most of the work, and to cicoub13, who took it over, polished it and shipped the first release. Thanks also to everyone who tested it and shared feedback on the forum.

This is a first release: if you install it, tell us how it went on the forum!

See you soon,

Pierre-Gilles

Gladys Assistant SAS · 66 avenue des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris