Install RC-Scanner on Hardware

^{Last updated: 2026-08-11}

Purpose

This article describes how to install the RC-Scanner operating system directly on physical hardware using a bootable installation medium.

Introduction

Hardware installation means installing an operating system directly onto physical hardware — no hypervisor or virtual machine layer in between. The OS has direct access to CPU, memory, storage, and peripherals, giving you full performance and hardware control.

This is the standard approach for production servers, workstations, and any machine where you need maximum performance or direct hardware access.

The process involves writing your ISO image to a USB drive, booting the target machine from it, and running the installer.

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Please make sure that your Hardware meet the system requirements. For more information, refer to Deploy/Install RC-Scanner Appliance

Downloading the RC-Scanner ISO

Refer to Installation Overview for how to download the RC-Scanner ISO image.

Prepare Installation Media

You must have a bootable media created from the ISO image. There is a lot of tutorials for it but we recommend using https://rufus.ie/en/ for Windows, and dd for Linux

Boot from Installation Media

BIOS (Legacy Boot)

1. Insert the USB drive and reboot the machine

2. Enter the boot menu (usually F12, F2, Esc, or Del — varies by manufacturer)

3. Select your USB drive from the list

4. The RC-Scanner installer should start

UEFI Boot

1. Insert the USB drive and reboot the machine

2. Enter UEFI firmware settings (usually F2, F12, or Del)

3. Ensure USB boot is enabled in boot options

4. Select the USB drive from the boot menu (may appear as "UEFI: [USB name]")

5. The RC-Scanner installer should start

To check the current boot mode on a running Linux system:

[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "UEFI" || echo "BIOS"

Disabling Secure Boot

Secure Boot should work without issues. But if for some reason it doesn’t work, you can try to disable it from the settings

1. Enter UEFI firmware settings

2. Navigate to the Secure Boot option (usually under Security or Boot tabs)

3. Set Secure Boot to Disabled

4. Save and exit

5. Proceed with installation

Troubleshooting

USB not showing in boot menu

• Try a different USB port (USB 2.0 ports sometimes work better)

• Recreate the bootable USB

• Verify USB boot is enabled in BIOS/UEFI settings

Installer boots but hangs

• Try adding boot parameters at the GRUB menu: press e to edit, add nomodeset or acpi=off to the linux line, then press F10 to boot

UEFI doesn't detect the USB

• Ensure the ISO was built with UEFI support

• Verify the ISO structure: fdisk -l /path/to/rc-scanner.iso — should show an EFI partition