Prepare DGX Station to Install NemoClaw
Complete this preparation before following the Quickstart on a qualifying DGX Station GB300.
Qualify Your DGX Station
DGX Station GB300 express install accepts either the generic Ubuntu 24.04 ARM64 image or stock DGX OS 7.2.0, 7.4.0, or 7.5.0.
A stock DGX OS image qualifies only when a safe, root-owned /etc/dgx-release marker identifies DGX Server for GALAXY-GB300.
NemoClaw also recognizes these exact no-OTA factory profiles for bounded qualification.
Each profile requires DGX_PLATFORM=DGX Server for GALAXY-GB300, requires both DGX_OTA_VERSION and DGX_OTA_DATE to be absent, and requires every profile-specific field below:
- April 2026 NVIDIA Colossus BaseOS with
DGX_PRETTY_NAME=NVIDIA DGX Server,DGX_SWBUILD_VERSION=7.5.0-GB300ws-GB200ws, andDGX_SWBUILD_DATE=2026-04-02-08-20-16. - June 2026 NVIDIA AI Developer Tools with
DGX_PRETTY_NAME=NVIDIA DGX GB300WS,DGX_SWBUILD_VERSION=7.5.0, andDGX_SWBUILD_DATE=2026-06-16-11-48-10.
By default, an unknown version, malformed or unsafe marker, unmatched no-OTA factory image, or other Station generation stops before host preparation.
On an unqualified system, set NEMOCLAW_PROVIDER or NEMOCLAW_NO_EXPRESS=1 explicitly to continue without Station host automation.
Station preparation preserves existing stopped Docker container records, captures their IDs before its probes, and stops if that inventory changes during preparation.
Running containers still block initial preparation and every Docker configuration change.
Before a Docker restart or host reboot, stopped containers with a restart policy other than no also block preparation because they could start automatically.
Temporary Metadata Override
Use --force-station-install only on a genuine DGX Station GB300 when automatic Station detection rejects its DGX release metadata.
The flag handles metadata variants not yet recognized by NemoClaw; it is not a general compatibility bypass.
The flag bypasses only the /etc/dgx-release allowlist.
It still requires ARM64 Ubuntu 24.04, DGX Station GB300 hardware identity, exactly one healthy GB300 for inference, zero volatile GB300 ECC errors, adequate storage, healthy required system services, no active agent, inference, or Docker workloads, and working Docker, Buildx, NVIDIA Container Toolkit, CDI, and container GPU-visibility probes.
The override preserves the existing factory driver, packages, and container-runtime configuration; it does not install or repair missing factory components.
It cannot enable Station Express on another Station generation or hardware platform.
This override exists for current genuine Station factory images whose /etc/dgx-release metadata omits or varies fields used by the exact automatic allowlist.
Remove the override after those images publish recognized metadata or NemoClaw replaces the exact allowlist with a separately qualified platform-family and runtime-capability check.
Run the override from an interactive terminal:
Add --station-deepseek to the same command to select DeepSeek V4 Flash.
The installer records the override in the printed relogin command when Docker-group access requires a new session.
Prepare Generic Ubuntu
On the generic Ubuntu path, accepting express install prepares the host with NVIDIA open driver 610.43.02, Docker CE 29.6.1 with Buildx, and NVIDIA Container Toolkit 1.19.1.
Preparation probes package and runtime state first, reuses exact matches, and installs only missing pinned packages, including the NVIDIA Container Toolkit libraries and nvidia-ctk CLI.
NemoClaw accepts an idle PackageKit daemon and quiesces it during repository and package changes.
NemoClaw still stops before mutation when it finds any of these conditions:
- An active or malformed PackageKit transaction.
- An active APT or dpkg process or lock.
- Unhealthy package state.
- A failure in a required package or package-manager state query.
It permits only the reviewed factory transition from dkms 3.0.11-1ubuntu13 to 1:3.4.0-1ubuntu1.
It also accepts an installed dkms 1:3.4.1-1ubuntu1 as a retained-compatible forward revision, warns that it differs from the validated 1:3.4.0-1ubuntu1 pin, excludes it from APT transactions, and continues runtime validation.
Retention requires dpkg to report a fully installed package for arm64 or architecture all; an unhealthy or malformed record, an unexpected architecture, or a package-query failure stops preparation before APT changes.
The installer accepts the retained revision only when every package pin in the active generic-Ubuntu tuple matches its corresponding value in the qualified tuple.
NemoClaw DGX Station maintainers own this retained-version allowlist.
Any package pin change invalidates retention until maintainers requalify the tuple.
Maintainers remove a retained revision when runtime validation no longer passes.
After reboot, preparation enables NVIDIA’s packaged CDI refresh path and service, requires the nvidia.com/gpu=all device, and verifies it with a real container launch.
If the packaged refresh fails or does not produce that device, preparation prints service diagnostics and stops for administrator repair.
It does not bypass the packaged lifecycle with direct CDI generation.
If the docker --gpus all acceptance probe fails, preparation registers the NVIDIA Docker runtime only when docker info diagnoses that runtime as absent; any other launch failure stops without changing daemon configuration.
If registration or a post-change acceptance probe fails, preparation restores the prior Docker daemon configuration; if restoration fails, it reports the backup path and stops.
After successful registration, the runtime remains configured until the same acceptance probe succeeds through a replacement Docker and NVIDIA runtime integration.
Preparation requires Secure Boot to be disabled, matching headers for the running kernel, at least 20 GiB free on the root filesystem, and no active agent, inference, or Docker workloads.
It also stops when systemd reports a failed unit unless the unit matches an exact, condition-qualified state from the generic Station image: the pinned OEM cloud-init telemetry failure, a network-wait failure while current network health is established, masked fwupd, or an SSSD socket on a host without SSSD configuration.
Any other failed unit blocks preparation for administrator review.
If openibd.service is the failed unit, follow Resolve a Failed OpenIB Service before you rerun the installer.
On the --force-station-install path, preparation also tolerates the InfiniBand communication manager (ibacm) and the realtime audio scheduler (rtkit-daemon) as failed units, because neither affects GPU or container capability; the required GPU, container, and preparation-critical service checks still apply.
It does not install a host CUDA toolkit or Docker Compose.
If any other existing prerequisite version differs, preparation stops instead of changing it automatically.
Before host preparation begins, the installer stores the accepted Station Express recipe in owner-only local state.
If preparation requires a reboot or a new login, run the printed command to restore the exact NemoClaw revision, agent, model, sandbox, policy tier, and gateway, dashboard, and vLLM ports without repeating the Express prompt.
Recovery receipts created by earlier releases remain compatible.
After changing pinned packages, the installer exits with status 10; reboot, sign in, and run that printed command to resume Express setup.
Resolve a Failed OpenIB Service
Station preparation stops when openibd.service is an unqualified failed unit because NemoClaw cannot determine whether your host depends on RDMA networking or storage.
NemoClaw does not require RDMA and does not change systemd or networking state during this check.
Check which interface owns the default route:
Check for NFS mounts and their options:
These checks are not exhaustive. Confirm that the host has no RDMA-backed networking, storage, or workloads before you disable OpenIB. If the host does not use RDMA, disable the unused service and reboot:
After the host restarts, rerun the NemoClaw installer.
If the host uses RDMA, repair OpenIB/OFED instead, then rerun the installer after openibd.service is healthy.
Validate DGX OS and Factory Images
On a qualifying stock DGX OS or exact no-OTA factory image, express install validates the factory stack in place against the local default Docker daemon.
It requires a loaded GB300 driver with zero volatile corrected and uncorrected ECC errors, active Docker and containerd services, working Docker Buildx, nvidia-ctk, the nvidia.com/gpu=all CDI device, and successful nvidia-smi device-visibility probes through both CDI and --gpus all.
The stock DGX OS path does not install or replace host packages, enable or restart services, generate CDI configuration, or rewrite the Docker runtime.
The AI Developer Tools path preserves those boundaries when nvidia.com/gpu=all is already present.
When that CDI device is missing, the AI Developer Tools path first confirms that no workloads are active, then enables the packaged nvidia-cdi-refresh.path and nvidia-cdi-refresh.service units, starts the path unit, restarts the refresh service, and checks the device again.
It stops with service diagnostics if packaged refresh fails or omits the device.
It never generates CDI directly, rewrites the Docker runtime, or restarts Docker or containerd.
This compatibility repair is owned by the June 2026 AI Developer Tools factory-image boundary, which can leave its packaged CDI units disabled; it can be removed after repeat clean-host qualification shows that the qualified image consistently advertises nvidia.com/gpu=all at boot.
The Colossus BaseOS path requires the exact reviewed package and failed-service fingerprints, preserves the factory kernel, driver, DKMS, Docker, and NVIDIA Container Toolkit packages, and prepares only Docker access and packaged CDI.
Only the Colossus BaseOS path registers the NVIDIA Docker runtime when the launch probe proves that the runtime is missing, and it restores the prior daemon configuration if registration fails.
The preparation helper writes a private audit log under ~/station-bootstrap-logs.
Aside from the installer’s separately disclosed docker-group membership grant when the current trusted account needs Docker access, the stock DGX OS path leaves only the digest-pinned visibility-test image in the Docker cache.
The AI Developer Tools path can also leave the packaged CDI refresh units enabled when it repairs a missing device.
Physical validation on one DGX Station GB300 covers generic Ubuntu 24.04 ARM64, stock DGX OS 7.5.0, the April 2026 NVIDIA Colossus BaseOS profile, and the June 2026 NVIDIA AI Developer Tools profile.
Clean-host end-to-end validation passed on generic Ubuntu and Colossus BaseOS; stock DGX OS and AI Developer Tools completed Station Express validation.
The DGX OS 7.5.0 run used released OpenShell 0.0.85, local Nemotron Ultra serving, sandbox cuInit(0), and a Hermes write/read file-tool task.
A dual-Station configuration has not been validated, and dedicated CI coverage is not available.
For the complete support status and direct GPU policy boundaries, see Platform Support.
DGX Station Support Status
DGX Station is Tested with limitations across the qualified profiles above on one physical DGX Station GB300. Dual-Station configurations are not yet validated, and dedicated CI coverage is not available.
Next Step
After your host passes preparation or validation, continue with the Quickstart.