OMNIWhat do I need to run Omni?
Omni runs the solver on your own machine, and the browser here is only the solver panel you drive it from. The solver needs Linux. On a Windows PC that means WSL2, a free Linux system built into Windows itself, so you do not need a second computer. You set the machine up once, run a single install command on it, and it connects back to your account.
1. How much RAM do you need?
RAM is the one hard requirement. A solve that does not fit in memory cannot run. Start here, because this number decides everything else: which machine you need, and whether your own PC is enough.
| Game | Heads-up | 6-max minimum | 6-max recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short Deck | 0.2 GB | 0.7 GB | 0.7 GB |
| Hold'em (NLH) | 1 GB | 4 GB | 4.5 GB |
| PLO (4 cards) | 2 GB | 10 GB | 25 GB |
| PLO (5 cards) | 2 GB | 30 GB | 110 GB |
| PLO (6 cards) | 9 GB | 105 GB | 430 GB |
The figures are for 100bb deep, full range solves with the built-in Balanced abstraction. Heads-up needs far less than 6-max. Shorter stacks or tighter ranges need less again. Hi-Lo games need about the same as the same game without Hi-Lo, so 5 card Hi-Lo is close to 5 card PLO.
Recommended is with the default settings. Minimum is with accumulation turned off on every street, on the Tree and Abstraction step. You can still solve, but the table then shows the frequencies of the last iteration, and there is no EV, equity or Leak. Heads-up needs about the same either way.
Add about 4 GB on top for the operating system. So a 25 GB solve wants a machine with about 30 GB.
2. Get a Linux machine
There are two ways to get one.
Your own Windows PC, free. Windows has a built-in Linux system called WSL2. Good for trying Omni out and for the smaller games. See Running on a Windows PC just below.
A rented server. Needed once your game wants more RAM than your PC has. Providers bill by the hour or by the month, so you can keep one running or rent one just for a single solve.
| Provider | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Your Windows PC | Free, no rental. Good for trying Omni out and for the smaller games. | Limited by your PC's RAM. A 16 GB PC covers Short Deck, Hold'em and heads-up PLO, but not 6-max PLO. Your PC must stay on while solving. |
| Cherry Servers | A dedicated physical machine, called bare metal. Cheapest way to solve most of the time, and it handles the largest PLO. | Fewer machine sizes and locations than the big clouds. You pick from a fixed catalog. |
| DigitalOcean | Simplest to set up. A good choice for most games. | RAM caps at 256 GB, so 6-max 6-card PLO runs there only with accumulation turned off (105 GB). The recommended 430 GB does not fit. |
| AWS / Google Cloud | Occasional heavy solves (rent by the hour, solve, shut down) and the very largest spots, with the highest RAM ceilings. | Two to three times the monthly cost of bare metal if left running 24 hours a day. |
A simple guide. Solving most of the time: a dedicated machine (Cherry) is cheapest. Solving now and then: rent a cloud machine (DigitalOcean, AWS, Google) by the hour. 6-max 6-card PLO: Cherry or AWS/Google, not DigitalOcean.
Careful with hourly rentals. Shutting a machine down keeps your saved solutions, but most providers keep charging while it is off. Deleting the machine stops the charge and deletes the solutions with it, and Omni cannot yet copy them to your PC. So rent by the hour for a solve you read and act on, and keep a machine running if you want to build up a library of solutions.
- OS image: Ubuntu 22.04 or newer, x86_64 (64-bit Intel/AMD). Not ARM.
- Disk: 40 GB is plenty. The solver keeps its abstractions and saved solutions on disk, but they are small compared with the RAM sizes above.
- Processor: any modern one works. The solver uses every processor core it is given, so more cores means faster solving. There is no minimum. More cores just means faster.
To type commands on a rented server, use the console button on the provider's website. DigitalOcean, Cherry Servers, AWS and Google Cloud all have one, and it opens a command window in your browser with nothing to install. If you already use an SSH client, that works too.
Running on a Windows PC
This is part of step 2. If you rented a server, skip it.
WSL2 is a free Linux system built into Windows. It is not turned on by default, so there are a few steps before the install command works. You do all of this once.
Check three things first
Press Win + R, type the command below and press Enter:
A small window opens and tells you which version of Windows you have. Windows 11 is fine, any version of it. On Windows 10 you need version 2004 or newer. The newer names look like 20H2, 21H1, 21H2 and 22H2, and all of those are fine. If yours is older, update Windows first.
Then press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, go to Performance, then CPU. Two things to look at there:
- Virtualization must say Enabled. Most PCs made after about 2015 already have it on. If yours says Disabled, it has to be turned on in your PC's startup screen, called the BIOS. The steps differ for every PC brand, so search the web for enable virtualization and your PC brand.
- The processor name must not say ARM or Snapdragon. The solver needs an Intel or AMD processor. On an ARM laptop it cannot run at all, so rent a server instead.
While you are on this screen, note how much RAM your PC has. You may need it further down.
Turn on WSL2 and install Ubuntu
Right click the Start button and pick Terminal (Admin), or Windows PowerShell (Admin). Run:
Restart the PC when it finishes. After the restart an Ubuntu window opens and asks you to choose a username and password. That is a Linux account, separate from your Windows one. Remember the password, step 3 asks for it.
When you type a password in Linux, nothing at all appears on the screen. No dots, no stars. That is normal. Type it and press Enter.
If no window opens after the restart, open it yourself: press the Start button, type Ubuntu and press Enter. That is also how you open it any time later.
Stop the PC going to sleep
A sleeping PC disconnects your core in the middle of a solve, and Windows sleeps by default. Open Settings, then System, then Power, and set the PC never to sleep while it is plugged in.
Linux runs only while the Ubuntu window is open
Linux on Windows runs only while its window is open. Close the Ubuntu window or restart the PC, and Linux stops, and the core stops with it. Nothing is broken, that is how WSL2 works.
Before every session with the solver, open Ubuntu: Start button, type Ubuntu, Enter. Keep the window open while you work, you can minimise it. The core comes back to the panel by itself within about a minute, you type nothing.
If you use a VPN (optional)
Skip this if you do not use a VPN. If you do, read it before step 3, because most VPN apps cut Linux off from the internet.
How it looks:
- The install command in step 3 stops at once with Could not resolve host: get.omnigto.com, or it hangs and nothing happens.
- Nothing in the Ubuntu window can reach the internet. Any command that needs it says Temporary failure in name resolution.
- The install worked with the VPN off, but the moment you turn the VPN back on, the solver panel says Core offline and the buttons do nothing.
The cause. Many VPN apps send all traffic through the tunnel and block anything that goes around it. Linux in WSL2 lives on its own small network inside your PC, and the VPN treats that network as going around the tunnel. So Windows is online and Linux is not. Amnezia, WireGuard and most apps with a kill switch work this way.
A quick check. Turn the VPN off and run the command again. If it works now, the VPN was the reason. There are two ways to fix it.
Windows 11: a WSL setting. Windows 11 has a setting that makes Linux use the same network as Windows, so the VPN sees it as normal traffic. Open PowerShell and run this. Notepad asks whether to create the file. Click Yes.
Paste the three lines below into Notepad, then save and close it. This is the content of the file, not a command to run. If the file already exists, add only the two network lines under the [wsl2] line.
Then restart Linux so the new setting is used:
Open Ubuntu again, with the VPN on, and go to step 3. If Ubuntu prints that mirrored networking is not supported, this option is not available on your PC. Use the next one.
Windows 10, or the setting did not help: turn the VPN off. Windows 10 does not have this setting and ignores it. Turn the VPN off for the whole time you use Omni. Turning it off only for the install is not enough: the core keeps a connection to our server the whole time it runs. When the VPN cuts that connection, your core disappears from the panel, the panel says Core offline, and the buttons do nothing until the core is back.
Some VPN apps have a mode where only chosen sites go through the VPN and everything else goes the normal way. If yours has it, that mode also works, and then you can leave the VPN on.
If a solve will not start (optional)
You can skip this now and come back later. WSL2 gives the solver half of your PC's RAM by default, which is enough for the smaller games and for trying Omni out. Come back here if a solve that should fit refuses to start.
Open PowerShell and run this. Notepad asks whether to create the file. Click Yes.
Paste the two lines below into Notepad, then save and close it. This is the content of the file, not a command to run. If the file already exists, add only the memory line under the [wsl2] line.
Set the number to your total RAM minus about 4 GB, so Windows keeps enough to run itself. On a 16 GB PC put 12GB. On a 32 GB PC put 28GB. On an 8 GB PC put 4GB.
Then restart Linux so the new limit is used:
Open Ubuntu again afterwards.
That is the whole Windows part. Your PC now has a Linux machine on it, so go to step 3 below and run the install command in the Ubuntu window.
3. Install the core
First open a command window on your machine.
On a Windows PC that is the Ubuntu window. Press the Start button, type Ubuntu and press Enter. Do not use PowerShell or Command Prompt. Those are Windows windows and cannot run this command.
On a rented server, use the console on the provider's website, or connect to the server with an SSH client.
Then paste the command below and press Enter. To paste into a Linux window, click the right mouse button.
If the right button did not paste: click the left button once inside the window and press the right button again. Copy one command at a time, not a block of several lines. If it still does not work, type the command by hand, letter by letter. The spaces matter: there is one after curl and one before sudo.
Here is what happens next:
- It asks for your password. On a Windows PC that is the Ubuntu password you chose earlier, not your Windows one. Nothing appears on the screen while you type it. That is normal.
- It offers to install the tools the solver needs. Press Enter to accept.
- It works for a few minutes and goes quiet at times. Leave it running.
- It asks for your account token. Copy it from your account page and paste it in.
How to tell it worked. Your core appears in the solver panel within about a minute. That is the whole install, and you do not run it again.
On a Windows PC, open the Ubuntu window before every session with the solver and keep it open. The reason is in Linux runs only while the Ubuntu window is open above.
If the window says Could not resolve host or Temporary failure in name resolution and you use a VPN, see If you use a VPN above.
If it does not appear, or anything stops along the way, copy what the window shows and send it to us. We answer fast and we have seen most of it before.
One core per machine. Each machine runs exactly one core. If your account allows more than one, use a separate machine for each and run this command on each of them. They appear separately in the solver panel.
If the panel says Core offline
This message means one thing: the core is not connected to our server right now. The panel still opens, but the Apply and Estimate buttons do nothing. The causes, most common first:
- Windows PC: the Ubuntu window is closed, or the PC was restarted. Open Ubuntu and wait a minute.
- A VPN is on. Turn it off, see If you use a VPN.
- The PC was asleep. Wake it, the core comes back by itself within about a minute.
- The rented server is off or deleted. Check the provider's control panel.
A check for Windows that does not need Ubuntu. Press the Start button, type PowerShell, Enter, and run:
Next to Ubuntu it says Stopped or Running. Stopped means Linux is off, open Ubuntu. Running means Linux is on but the core cannot reach the internet, and that is almost always a VPN.
If the core is still not back after five minutes, send us a screenshot of the panel and of this window.
Need help?
If something does not work, or you want to ask before you rent a server, talk to us. Our Discord is the fastest way to get an answer, and other users read it too.