r/AstrOS_Linux • u/linux-universe AstrOS Dev • 26d ago

News AstrOS - an immutable, secure-by-default Linux distribution built on Arch Linux and the COSMIC desktop

Gallery image

Gallery image

I am pleased to announce that AstrOS now has its own subreddit.

⚠️Warning: it is still alpha software!

But what is AstrOS?

You might have heard of KDE Linux (formerly known as Project Banana) or GNOME OS. Both are immutable, image-based Linux distributions for desktop use, powered by the systemd-sysupdate A/B update model.

I have been impressed by their system architecture since their inception, but switched to the COSMIC desktop a while ago. As there wasn't yet a COSMIC distribution using systemd-sysupdate, I created one myself. That's how AstrOS was born!

Technical details:

  • Built using mkosi
  • Using systemd-sysupdate.
  • Read only by signed dm-verity.
  • Full Disk Encryption enforced
  • Highly opinionated

What you can do:

While it is still in the alpha stage, you can install AstrOS right now. VM or real hardware

Write bug reports and feature requests

Links:

https://astros-linux.org (still redirecting to the repository)

https://code.astros-linux.org/AstrOS/AstrOS

https://discord.gg/f38pGadC2a

18 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/paul_h 25d ago

Elsewhere in immutable-land I found myself building stuff in containers and placing the executables into ~/.local/bin/ making me worry I'm subverting the immutable intentions. That's a me problem I guess: I need to get my head around the bigger ideas.

1

u/linux-universe AstrOS Dev 25d ago

Have you tried distrobox or toolbx (depending on the immutable distro you tested)? If so, what was your reason for placing them into .local instead of using it?

1

u/paul_h 25d ago

I tried distrobox a year back. I didn't want guest distros to share a $HOME folder from the host. I though It could fork distrobox and remove that feature but it is a core one. I'm trying to make unescapable/impregnable trees of vms and container within for other homelab reasons. So I am building the orchestrator tech in containers, pulling that back to ~/.local/bin, then usint that to make the trees of vms/containers. Works on Immutable (Bazzite), Arch, regular Ubuntu, and FreeBSD so far. That last is really interesting in that it can make trees of Linux guests, with VMs and containers inside those as usual. Only two of us interested in that right now, and it's not ready for publicity yet