First Boot

The first time the GEM server starts it bootstraps itself. Understanding what happens makes the first login — and any troubleshooting — straightforward.

What happens on first start

1. Encryption key — if .encryption_key doesn't exist, GEM generates one. See Configuration for why you must back this up.
2. Database schema — GEM ensures its tables exist in the gem schema.
3. Attribute registry — GEM seeds its catalog of attribute definitions (the metadata describing every attribute's type, defaults, and options).
4. Default users and roles — if no administrator exists yet, GEM creates the initial accounts described below.

Default accounts

On first boot GEM creates two roles and two users:

Account	Role	Purpose
admin	admin (full access)	The administrator account you use to configure the system.
ui	ui (everything except /admin*)	A shared account for wall-mounted touchpanel UIs.

Administrator credentials

• If the installer provided admin credentials, those are used.
• Otherwise GEM falls back to username admin / password Gem123!, and flags the account so you must change the password at first login.

:::warning Change the default password immediately The fallback password is well known and is forced to rotate on first use. Don't leave a production system on it. After logging in, set a strong administrator password. :::

The ui touchpanel account is seeded with PIN 1234 — change this as well before the system goes live.

First login

1. Browse to http://<server-ip>:3000 (see Installation → Verify).
2. Log in as admin with the configured (or fallback) password.
3. If prompted, set a new administrator password.

You're now ready to commission hardware — continue to the Quick Start.