ICPC World Finals Contest Image Installation Instructions

1. Overview

The ICPC World Finals Contest OS image (the "WF OS") is based on the official generic ICPC2026 contest image. The WF OS consists of the Ubuntu 24.04.3 Linux operating system and its tools and utilities, together with contest-specific software such as various IDEs and language compilers to be used for the contest. (Click here to see a detailed description of the software contained in the WF OS image.)

This page describes how to set up an AMD64 architecture machine (64-bit PC) to run the current WF OS.

For instructions on setting up the WF OS using VirtualBox running under Windows 11, please refer to this document.

For instructions on setting up the WF OS image on a MacBook Pro M-series PC, please refer to this document. The WF OS image may work on the older "Intel" Macs, but we can not offer any assistance or support on doing that.

There are essentially two approaches which can be used to set up a machine to run the WF OS.

1. Create a bootable flash drive containing the WF OS. Booting a machine from this flash drive will cause the machine to start running the WF OS.

2. Create a bootable flash drive, and then copy the WF OS from the flash drive onto an internal drive of the machine[1]. After doing this, booting the machine from the selected internal drive will cause the machine to start running the WF OS. Note that this approach (installing the WF OS onto an internal drive) starts with first creating a bootable flash drive (see 1. above). In addition, installing the WF OS on an internal drive will erase everything that is currently on the drive.

The following sections describe both the above approaches: first, creating a bootable flash drive containing the WF OS, and then (if desired) copying the WF OS onto an internal drive.

Note: if you are a contest administrator or staff member involved in managing multiple WF OS machines (for example, setting up a laboratory to host multiple teams, or managing and updating the WF OS configuration), you may be interested in additional information provided at Additional Information for Contest Administrators. Also, if you have trouble with the following instructions you may find the information on this Troubleshooting page to be helpful.

2. Creating a WF OS Bootable flash drive

1. Download wf2026-2026-07-13_image-amd64.img.gz . This is the compressed boot image file (7.7 GBytes).
   • Checksums for the compressed image can be found here:   MD5   SHA1   SHA256   SHA512
   • A list of packages included in the image can be found here.
   • A list of Python3 modules included in the image can be found here.

2. Burn the IMG file onto a USB flash drive as a bootable image The USB flash drive onto which you burn the IMG file is referred to as the "bootable flash drive".

   There are many tools which can be used to create a bootable flash drive from the downloaded compressed IMG file. One such tool for creating an image from a Windows system, which we have used successfully many times is Rufus (more info can be found here).

   Another tool is balenaEtcher, which we have tested under both MS Windows and MacOS. Note: The IMG will NOT boot or run on Apple MacBooks, but you can use your Mac to create a bootable image for your AMD64 based PC.

   Both tools above will uncompress the IMG automatically. However, you can use any tool you like as long as it can create an EFI bootable image from the compressed (or manually uncompresed) IMG file.

   Be sure to see Additional Notes, below, for further information regarding constraints on USB flash drives.

3. Installing the WF OS Onto An Internal Drive[1]

This section only applies if you want to install the WF OS onto your AMD64 based PC's hard drive (e.g. disk or SSD). If you want to run the WF OS directly from the WF OS USB flash drive, skip this section and proceed to the next one.

1. FIRST, follow the steps above to create a "bootable flash drive" (a "WF OS flash drive").
2. Obtain a second USB flash drive, which (like the WF OS flash drive) must be at least 32GB.
3. Create a bootable "Clonezilla Live" on the second 32GB USB flash drive. The steps to do this are described at this page; essentially they instruct you to do the following:
   • Download the ISO file for the stable version of Clonezilla from Clonezilla.org.
   • Use a tool such as Rufus or Etcher (see above) to burn that ISO file onto the second USB flash drive.
   We refer to this second USB flash drive as the "Clonezilla flash drive".
4. Take the two flash drives (the WF OS flash drive and the Clonezilla flash drive) to a machine onto which you wish to install the WF OS on the hard drive. With the machine powered off, insert both flash drives into the machine.
5. Boot the machine from the Clonezilla USB flash drive (you may have to use the BIOS boot option screen). This will put you at a menu. Using that menu, perform the following steps:
   • Choose Clonezilla Live
   • Select the language
   • Select Start Clonezilla
   • Select "device-to-device" copying
   • Select "Beginner mode" (unless you are brave)
   • Select "disk to disk" (to specify copying the entire flash drive)
   • Pick the WF OS flash drive as the "source disk"
   • Pick the internal disk as the "destination disk" (using the internal drive on your PC will erase everything on it)
   • Accept the default choice to skip file system checking
   • Select option "-k1" to indicate creation of proportional partition tables
   • Select which option you want to happen after Clonezilla is done.
   • Answer the prompt questions appropriately (e.g. "continue?")

   When this finishes, you have installed the WF OS on the selected internal ("destination") disk.

4. Running the Contest Image

To run the contest image, boot a computer from either the WF OS bootable flash drive created above, or from the internal drive onto which you have installed the WF OS. This will start the contest image; you can login to the OS using the credentials supplied to your coach by the WFSystems team. If you don't yet have your credentials, there's a generic team account for testing with the username team and password contest. Logging in will put you at the Linux desktop configured as it will be for team machines at the ICPC World Finals. This account is only for testing, and should NOT be used during the Online Practice Contest since it will not allow you to fulfill the practice requirements.

5. Additional Notes

1. On many machines, pressing the the F12 key during the power-on sequence will allow you to select the boot device; on other machines it may be the F10 key or some other key.
2. You may have to make sure that booting from a USB flash drive is allowed in the BIOS configuration setup screen.
3. You may have to disable "Secure Booting" in the BIOS.
4. The USB flash drive (thumb drive) onto which you burn the bootable image must be at least 32GB.
5. In our experience, the USB bootable flash drive should be at LEAST USB 3.2 Gen 1 or higher; anything less will likely be too slow to use effectively during a contest. You will get the best performance out of a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (or higher) device. (Those who are curious about the differences between various "USB 3" devices might be interested in this page.)
6. The bootable flash drive must be inserted into a USB port that supports at least USB 3.2 Gen 1 or higher on the installation machine.

We've tried to make installing the ICPC World Finals Contest image ("WF OS") as easy and as universally-compatible as possible. However, creating a single image which can be easily installed on the literally thousands of machine hardware configurations which exist is a nearly impossible task; it's understandable that it might not go perfectly for you. If you are having problems with installing the WF OS, this page contains a few notes which may be helpful.

[1] The use of the term "internal drive" on this page refers to an internally-installed storage device; it could be a rotating hard disk or it could be a Solid-State Drive (SSD). The instructions are the same in either case. If you choose to put the image on your internal drive, please note that it will erase whatever is currently on the drive, so be sure this is what you want to do.

Revised: Thu Jul 16 13:55:54 UTC 2026