TL;DR: Talos Linux usually needs a pre-baked image, but this post shows how to sidestep that: drop into any rescue Linux, grab Talos’ vmlinuz + initramfs, and kexec straight into a live Talos node- no ISO, no PXE, no cloud-image hoops. Handy hack for “image-locked” hosts and a nice intro to Talos’ API-driven vibe.