Install Talos Linux Extensions

Add and manage Talos Linux system extensions in Omni.

Talos Linux system extensions let you add extra functionality, such as drivers and services, to your machines. In Omni, you can manage these extensions either declaratively using cluster templates (CLI) or interactively through the UI.

Choose your preferred method below:

CLI

You can add Talos Linux system extensions to your machines by defining them in the machine configuration within your cluster template.

Use the systemExtensions field in your cluster template to specify which extensions to install. For more details, see the Cluster Templates reference documentation.

The code block below defines the configuration for a cluster named example, including system extensions for both control plane and worker machines.

The worker machine is configured with NVIDIA-related extensions, includingnvidia-container-toolkit, nvidia-fabricmanager, nvidia-open-gpu-kernel-modules, and nonfree-kmod-nvidia.

kind: Cluster
name: example
kubernetes:
  version: v1.29.1
talos:
  version: v1.6.7
systemExtensions:
  - siderolabs/hello-world-service
---
kind: ControlPlane
machines:
  - <control plane machine UUID>
---
kind: Workers
machines:
  - <worker machine UUID>
---
kind: Machine
name: <control plane machine UUID>
---
kind: Machine
name: <worker machine UUID>
install:
  disk: /dev/<disk>
systemExtensions:
  - siderolabs/nvidia-container-toolkit
  - siderolabs/nvidia-fabricmanager
  - siderolabs/nvidia-open-gpu-kernel-modules
  - siderolabs/nonfree-kmod-nvidia

After defining your cluster template, validate it using:

omnictl cluster template validate -f cluster.yaml

If the validation succeeds, sync the template to apply the configuration to your Omni instance:

omnictl cluster template sync -f cluster.yaml --verbose

After syncing, the control plane will have the hello-world-service extension installed, while the worker machine will include the NVIDIA-related extensions.

UI

To include system extensions into your Talos Omni image at build time through the Omni UI:

1. Log in to your Omni dashboard.

2. Click the Download Installation Media button to open the Create New Media wizard.

3. On each page of the Create New Media wizard, select the appropriate options for your setup, then click Next to continue.

   The Create New Media wizard is identical to the Image Factory and it is split across multiple pages. Each page presents a different set of configuration options, such as architecture, hardware type, and Talos Linux version, that you can use to customize your Talos Omni image.

4. On the System Extensions page, select the extensions you want to include in your image. Then click Next to continue with the setup.

5. Select the appropriate boot option for your machine on the Schematic Ready page to download the Talos Omni image.

6. Boot your machines using the downloaded image. The selected system extensions will already be installed.

Modify system extensions

You can also add or remove system extensions on an existing machine in a cluster:

1. Select the cluster containing the target machine.

2. Select the machine you want to modify.

3. Open the Extensions tab.

   

4. Click Update Extensions, then add or remove extensions as needed.

   

5. Click Update to apply the changes.