– Install on an industrial PC

Docs: Create the imager stick on Ubuntu

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ubuntu writes the image with its Disks tool, through Disk Image Writer.

In your file manager, right-click the imager stick image (…mcx-clonezilla….img.xz) and choose Open With › Disk Image Writer.
In the Restore Disk Image window, set Destination to your USB drive. Check the size and name: the wrong choice erases another disk.
Press Start Restoring... and confirm.
When writing is done, Ubuntu mounts the ImageData partition of the stick.

Watch it as a video

Docs: Install the image with mci restore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Warning

Installing the image erases everything on the disk you choose. Back up the controller first if you want to keep its current software or settings.

Start the install:
```
mci restore
```
Choose the image to install: the Intel image you copied into ImageData.
Choose the disk to install it on: the controller’s internal disk, usually /dev/sda. The disk must be at least as large as the image.
Wait until the imager is done, which takes a while. It ends with Done: and the partitions of the disk.
Check the output for errors.
Pull out the imager stick and restart the controller:
```
sudo reboot
```

The controller now starts MCX-RTOS from its disk.

Docs: Open the imager terminal with a keyboard and display

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Connect a keyboard and a display to the controller. After the stick has booted, the display shows the imager terminal, ready for a command. If it asks you to log in, use the user admin and the password vectioneer.

Docs: Back up the controller with mci backup

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A backup saves the controller’s disk as an image on the stick, so you can install it again later with mci restore. Make sure the stick has enough free space.

Start the backup:
```
mci backup
```
Choose the source disk: the controller’s internal disk, usually /dev/sda.
Choose the target directory on the stick. The imager offers a new directory named after the date and time, for example /mnt/usb/2026-01-06_15-44-42_mci-fsa-image.
```
Choose Source Device:
1) sda /dev/sda
...
Choose Target Image Directory:
1) /mnt/usb/2026-01-06_15-44-42_mci-fsa-image   (new directory)
...
Done
```
Wait until the imager shows Done.
Pull out the imager stick and restart the controller:
```
sudo reboot
```

The backup is a directory of filesystem archives, not a raw disk image. mci restore can install it, but a virtual machine such as QEMU cannot start from it.

Make a raw disk image for QEMU

A raw disk image is one file with the whole disk in it, which QEMU can start. You make it by restoring the backup into an empty image file on the stick. The stick needs room for the backup and for the full image file, 6 GB in this example.

Go to the stick and check it is mounted:
```
cd /mnt/usb
ls -lart
```
Create an empty 6 GB image file:
```
truncate -s 6G temp.img
```

Attach it as a loop device and see which one it got:

sudo losetup -fP temp.img
losetup -a

/dev/loop1: []: (/mnt/usb/temp.img)

Back up the controller as above with mci backup, if you have not done so yet.
Restore the backup into the loop device. Use the loop device from step 3:
```
mci restore -d /dev/loop1
```

Check that the loop device now has partitions:

lsblk

NAME     MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop1      7:1    0     6G  0 loop
├─loop1p1 259:2    0    34M  0 part
└─loop1p2 259:3    0     6G  0 part

Detach the loop device:
```
sudo losetup -d /dev/loop1
```

Check the partition table of the image file:

fdisk -l temp.img

Disklabel type: gpt

Device     Start      End  Sectors Size Type
temp.img1   2048    71615    69568  34M EFI System
temp.img2  71616 12582847 12511232   6G Linux filesystem

temp.img is now a raw disk image. You can start it in QEMU: see Run a virtual machine.

Docs: Create the imager stick on Windows

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Windows has no built-in tool to write a disk image, so you use a separate one such as Rufus.

Install and start the disk image writer.
Select your USB drive and the imager stick image (…mcx-clonezilla….img.xz). Check that you picked the USB drive: the wrong choice erases another disk.
Start writing and wait until it is done.
The stick now shows up as a drive called ImageData.

Docs: Open the imager terminal over SSH

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

With SSHSSH (Secure Shell) opens a terminal on another computer over the network. Ubuntu, macOS and Windows 10 and later have the ssh command built in. you open the imager terminal from your PC, without a keyboard or display on the controller.

Connect your PC to the controller’s network port with a network cable.
Give your PC’s network adapter an address in the 192.168.2.x range, for example 192.168.2.10: see Configure your network.
Open a terminal on your PC and connect to the controller at controller_ip_addressThe IP address of your controller. In most cases 192.168.2.100.:
```
ssh admin@controller_ip_address
```
Log in with the password vectioneer. The terminal shows the imager’s welcome text.

Run mci-help for more information on the imager commands.