APEX-OS v2.1.0Before the rename
A visible unlock prompt, and an installer that survives its screen
Fixes the two known issues v2.0.0 shipped with. The ISO was installed and booted end to end in a VM, including killing the installer's display partway through an install, before it was published. Machines already running APEX-OS get the boot-screen fix through sudo apex update.
Highlights
The disk passphrase prompt is visible again
On an encrypted install, the boot screen dimmed its star and drew nothing else: no prompt, no dots as you type, no keyboard hint. It now shows the prompt, the dots, the keyboard layout in use, and a reminder that the recovery key works there too.
The boot splash was missing the component that draws text, so every word on it was blank.
Switching to a text console can no longer wreck an install
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 while the installer was open could crash its display; the installer restarted from the first page while the install carried on unseen. Now the installer's screen comes back by itself and reconnects to the install in progress, then shows the normal final page, recovery key included.
A second install on the same machine is refused before it touches anything. An install whose screen crashed now finishes as a success; before, it could report 'failed' on its very last step, on a disk that was completely installed.
Fixed
SystemPublished ISOs keep working
Each release's image now gets a permanent tag, so registry cleanup can never remove the build an ISO downloads.
Known issues
Some networks and adapters don't work in the installer
Captive-portal Wi-Fi doesn't work in the installer, and neither do USB Wi-Fi adapters that need out-of-tree drivers.
Tablets without a keyboard cannot finish the account page
Tablets without a keyboard can't complete the account page.
Requirements
- A 64-bit PC with UEFI. Legacy BIOS can also boot the stick.
- At least 16 GB of disk. If the target disk is the machine's only drive, it needs about 53 GB, because the download is staged on it. Otherwise a second drive or USB stick with 32 GB free is used as scratch space, and it is not erased.
- A network connection during the install.
Provenance
- Release
- apex-v2.1.0
- OS revision
- 6ffb56db6deb6a709e2f252d5c337925558a334f
- Shell revision
- 99c5ab7a309b49e07d1c54928a4b8ba1970435f4
- Image digest
- sha256:148f57de20e1db04ee672037791d10d6d6d02a188784b6f213255c7d50153a92
- Installer
- apex-os-netinstall-x86_64.iso · 1,902,344,192 bytes
- ISO SHA-256
- 7208b6fd5c2641e3e1bb035eac0d1c642f4f7eda85b1ba3295993b8ec0227248
- Channel
- installer
- Released
- 2026-09-26T02:47:43.000Z
Published as an installer ISO on GitHub. This page explains the release; it is never consulted by an update. What a machine installs is decided by the registry and the image signature (see Security). Machine-readable: apex-v2.1.0.json.
If something is wrong
This release is an installer. If an install goes wrong, see Install and Recovery.