# Linux Server Install without Desktop

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [August 12, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379 "2019-08-12T20:35:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JoeJansen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/joejansen/32/5277_2.png) [@JoeJansen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JoeJansen)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/1 "2019-08-12T20:35:31Z")

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Several of our customers have a server on premises from us. These are all running Debian with no X server installed. It has never been needed and because of the memory and processor consumption, we’d prefer to keep it that way.

Is there a way to install Ignition 8 without having to use the graphical installer? Once installed, I would be happy to use the browser based configuration. I just don’t want to install an entire desktop system just to run an installer once.

Thanks,

Joe Jansen

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JoeJansen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/joejansen/32/5277_2.png) [@JoeJansen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JoeJansen)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/2 "2019-08-12T20:36:39Z")

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Note that these are not currently Ignition servers. We have other software that we sell / support on them currently. We want to expand our offering using the existing hardware.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/3 "2019-08-12T20:44:39Z")

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Can you use the zip distributions instead?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@chi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/chi)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/4 "2019-08-12T20:52:20Z")

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> [@JoeJansen](#):
>
> Is there a way to install Ignition 8 without having to use the graphical installer

I launched the Ignition 8 installer on a shell without problems. It falls back to text mode when there is no desktop.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bambos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@Bambos](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Bambos)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/5 "2025-12-11T17:01:03Z")

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Hello, i’m trying to install on Debian 13.1 and search for this , so i found this thread.  
Due to how the website is handling visitors, (xml keys and device id) , i can’t see any way to download the package directly on the machine without desktop. wget and curl are not working.

What would be the suggested method for this ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/6 "2025-12-11T17:09:56Z")

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The download server verifies the referrer header. Add that to `wget`.

I tend to just SFTP files from my linux desktop to any headless server--my 10G infra in the office is faster than a fresh download.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cesarcoatl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/cesarcoatl/32/84168_2.png) [@cesarcoatl](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/cesarcoatl)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/linux-server-install-without-desktop/27379/7 "2025-12-11T17:14:24Z")

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As @pturmel said, you should use referer for `wget` or `curl`.

E.g.

```sh
wget --referer=https://inductiveautomation.com/ https://files.inductiveautomation.com/release/ia/8.3.2/20251202-1115/Ignition-linux-x86-64-8.3.2.zip

```