In this screen cast, we go over the steps needed to install Amahi via the Express Disc release. This install method is a “headless” install, which means a monitor is not required once the system is up and running.

Most Amahi users install on a hardware system. We will be installing to a virtual machine.

To get Amahi running, you will need to: download Amahi and burn it to a disc, install and customize the operating system, and initialize Amahi and complete the install.

To start the installation, boot your system from the Amahi disc you downloaded.

Once the system is up you will first be prompted to set up the language.

After that you should configure the date and time settings.

At this stage, please do take some time to review the storage settings to match the destination where you want the operating system to be installed.

It’s very important to understand that in the Express Disc installation, the first available drive will be completely erased unless you change the default storage settings!

Once all your settings are set up as you want, click on begin installation.

While it installs, please create a user with a Full Name, a username and password (the last two are case sensitive, so please make a note of them). Make the user an administrator by checking the corresponding box. Setting a root password is optional.

The Operating System installation may be quick or take some time, depending on the speed of your hardware.

Near the end of the install, you will be prompted to enter the install code for this system. You should have an install code for this system from your registration in the Amahi web site.

Make sure the networking settings you previously set for this system in the Amahi Control Panel match what you have in your network. This is a common source of installation problems. You can delete a profile in the web site and start a new profile with new settings any time.

After the install is done, click on “Reboot”. The Operating System should then boot from the hard drive, to a text console.

At this point, the system will fully configure Amahi in the background. Let it sit there for a few minutes. It will reboot by itself one last time, and it will then reboot with the static IP address you set it up in the Amahi web site. Again – it will reboot by itself one last time.

Once the system has booted up, Amahi should be ready to serve your network!

At this point we strongly recommend for best operation that you turn off the other DHCP server in your network (typically in the router). Then reboot all the systems in your network, so that they get their network settings from your newly installed Amahi server.

Once you have a client with an Amahi-provided network settings, open an Internet browser from a client machine and type http://hda in the URL box. This should bring you to an initialization web page for your system.

If this does not work, you could try the IP address of your system to get to the initialization page, but this may mean your client device does not have the network settings from Amahi yet.

This page will ask you to enter a username password and confirmation. Make sure you use the same capitalization here that you used earlier in the setup.

Then you will be directed to your very own Amahi Dashboard, where you can set up the users of your network, configure your shares and add apps. We will look into that in another screencast.