System requirements
xcon OS is deliberately small. It runs comfortably on modest hardware and cloud instances.
Minimum
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | x86-64 (amd64), 1 core | 2+ cores |
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB+ |
| Disk | 8 GB | 20 GB+ (for your data) |
| Firmware | BIOS or UEFI | either |
| Network | DHCP (or a static address) | DHCP |
The installer refuses a target disk smaller than 8 GB — the fixed layout needs an ESP, two 2 GB system slots, and a data partition, and the data partition grows to fill whatever is left.
Architecture
Only x86-64 (amd64) is supported today. There is no 32-bit or ARM image yet.
Cloud (takeover) install
To convert a cloud VM (see Install on Hetzner), the instance additionally needs:
- a fresh Debian 13 image, with root access,
kexecsupport (installable askexec-tools; available on mainstream cloud VMs),- a provider that boots the disk's own bootloader (the common case). A few clouds pin an external kernel; those need a per-provider shim and are not yet supported.
RAM during takeover: the installer image (~290 MB) is loaded into RAM
by kexec, so at least 1 GB free is comfortable.
Verified platforms
xcon OS is provider-independent by design, but only the platforms below are verified end to end today:
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| Hetzner Cloud | verified (BIOS + DHCP) |
| VMware (UEFI) | verified |
| Other clouds | expected to work; being validated one at a time |