Windows setup from the USB stick

This is the setup path for the instructor’s USB stick: the ~14 GB of container images come from the stick instead of the internet. You still need Wi-Fi for a few small tools (a few hundred MB) — nothing near the 10 GB of the normal path.

The stick cannot replace Steps 1–2 (WSL2 + Ubuntu). They need one restart and the Microsoft Store — ideally do them at home, before class. Already done? Jump straight to Step 3.

Already installed? You don’t need this page again — starting, stopping, updating, your files and fixing things all live in Using the stack on Windows.

Before you start

• Windows 10 or 11, with 8 GB RAM (16 GB recommended). Setup installs the class’s abp set of services (Langflow, n8n, CloudBeaver, Qdrant, database); the everyday guide explains how to switch sets later.
• About 30 GB free disk space during setup: the ~14 GB image file and the ~14 GB of images it loads sit side by side for a few minutes. The file is deleted at the end, leaving ~20 GB in use. Tighter than that? See “Tight on disk space?” in Step 3 — loading straight from the stick needs no copy, so ~20 GB is enough.
• The instructor’s USB stick. It holds two image files; the setup script picks the right one for your laptop — you do not need to know which.
• How long? Steps 1–2 (WSL2 + Ubuntu, at home): 15–20 minutes, most of it the restart and the Store download. Step 3 in class: 15–20 minutes — ~5–10 to copy off the stick, ~3 to load the images, the rest small tools over Wi-Fi.

Step 1 — Turn on WSL2 + Ubuntu

Watch this 4-minute video and do exactly what it shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZf4YH4WiZo

It walks you through the three things Windows needs, in order:

1. In the Start menu, search “Turn Windows features on or off”, tick Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux, click OK.
2. Restart your laptop.
3. Open the Microsoft Store, search Ubuntu, and click Get/Install.

The video ends with the first launch of Ubuntu — that’s Step 2, below.

No Ubuntu after the restart, or it opens and shows an error? On some Windows versions the Store route isn’t enough. Open Command Prompt from the Start menu and run:

wsl --install

This installs WSL2 and Ubuntu in one go — no Store needed. Approve the admin prompt if one appears, restart again if it asks, then continue with Step 2.

Step 2 — First launch of Ubuntu

Open the Ubuntu app from the Start menu. The first time, it asks you to pick a Linux username and password. The password stays invisible while you type — that’s normal, just type it and press Enter. Remember it: some commands ask for it later.

✔ You know this step worked when you see a colored prompt ending in $.

Step 3 — Plug the stick in and run setup

Pasting into Ubuntu works differently than you are used to: Ctrl+V often does nothing there. Right-click into the Ubuntu window to paste (on some machines it’s Ctrl+Shift+V).

The stick holds two image files — kingo-images-amd64.tar (for normal Windows PCs) and kingo-images-arm64.tar (for the rare ARM laptop). You do not have to know which is yours, or which drive letter the stick has: the setup script finds the stick, picks the file for your machine, and copies it.

Plug the stick in — before or after opening Ubuntu, either is fine. (Windows hands a stick to Ubuntu automatically only when it was plugged in first; otherwise the script mounts it, which is why Ubuntu may ask for your password.)

Open the Ubuntu app from the Start menu. Copy this command with its copy button (it is one long line), paste it into Ubuntu, and press Enter:

cd ~ && sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git && { git clone https://github.com/frankhuettner/kingo-pod.git 2>/dev/null || true; } && cd ~/kingo-pod && git pull --ff-only && bash setup/setup-linux.sh

Is the file safe? The setup script checks it before using it: every bundle’s fingerprint (a SHA-256 checksum) is stored in the class repo the line above clones, so it arrives over the internet from GitHub — not on the stick. If the copy is damaged, incomplete, or not the class file, the script stops and says so instead of loading it.

The copy (~5–10 minutes) is the only part that needs the stick. The script prints “you can UNPLUG THE STICK NOW” the moment it is done — from then on the stick is free for the next student, and everything else runs without it. You do not need to “safely remove” it: nothing is ever written to the stick, so just unplug it and pass it on. (If Windows says the drive is “still in use,” that is only WSL reading it — it is safe to pull.) The rest of the script installs the small tools over Wi-Fi, loads the images from the copy (~3 minutes) instead of downloading 10 GB, starts everything, and verifies it.

That one command is the whole installation — there is no second command to run. When it ends with SMOKE OK and your table of addresses and logins, this step is done. Only if it stopped partway after the copy, run the line below to pick it up again — no stick needed:

cd ~/kingo-pod && bash setup/setup-linux.sh

Tight on disk space? If the copy does not fit, the script says so and loads straight from the stick instead — keep it plugged in for the whole setup then. You can also force that from the start (a re-run needs the stick again), replacing e with your drive letter:

cd ~ && sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git && { git clone https://github.com/frankhuettner/kingo-pod.git 2>/dev/null || true; } && cd ~/kingo-pod && git pull --ff-only && bash setup/setup-linux.sh /mnt/e/kingo-images-$(dpkg --print-architecture).tar

If the stick isn’t found

no USB bundle found means the script could not find a stick at all. First just plug the stick in and run the Step 3 command again — that is usually the whole fix, and it needs no drive letter. If it still is not found, mount it by hand; nothing is broken, and you do not need to restart anything.

Not sure which drive letter the stick has? This lists your Windows drives from inside Ubuntu (the stick is the ~64 GB one):

powershell.exe -NoProfile -Command "Get-Volume | Format-Table DriveLetter,FileSystemLabel,Size"

Now mount it by hand (replace e/E: with your drive letter):

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/e && sudo mount -t drvfs E: /mnt/e

then run setup again — it finds the now-mounted stick by itself (the clone already happened, so this is shorter than the Step 3 command):

cd ~/kingo-pod && bash setup/setup-linux.sh

Still nothing? Then copy the file in Windows instead: open the stick in Explorer, copy kingo-images-amd64.tar into your Downloads folder, and run this in Ubuntu (replace YourName with your Windows user name):

cp /mnt/c/Users/YourName/Downloads/kingo-images-amd64.tar ~/kingo-pod/ && cd ~/kingo-pod && bash setup/setup-linux.sh

Next time: plug the stick in before opening Ubuntu.

Step 4 — Did it work?

You’re done when the script prints SMOKE OK followed by your personal table of addresses and logins. Reprint it any time with ./kingo credentials.

The ~14 GB image file is already gone: the script deletes the copy it made once the smoke test passes — the images live in the container engine now. Only if you copied a file into the folder yourself is one still there; this removes it:

rm ~/kingo-pod/kingo-images-*.tar

You’re set up — what now?

Everything from here on lives on one page: your addresses and logins, the commands you need day to day, how to get your own files into Langflow, how to update, and what to do when something breaks — Using the stack on Windows. That is the page to bookmark.

The class database has a short walkthrough of its own: Using CloudBeaver.

If setup fails

Always start with one command (in Ubuntu, inside kingo-pod) — it checks the usual suspects and tells you what to do:

./kingo doctor

Anything else — a port already in use, the container engine not starting, the stack not coming up — is in Using the stack on Windows → If something breaks. Still stuck? Screenshot the error and ask the instructor / TA.