dasandClaude Opus 5.5
d1d76c2bef
das-tools (Go, GTK 3 via gotk3): - das-update: update window, tray icon when updates are available, --cli mode; xbps-install -Su between a snapper pre/post snapshot pair, privileged part through pkexec, rollback and reboot hints - das-welcome: first-login window with install (live), language, home folder renaming, updates, settings and help das-settings 0.3.0: create home folders with translated names. xdg-user-dirs 0.20 only looks for translations in the first XDG_DATA_DIRS entry with a locale directory (/usr/local/share/locale). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
165 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
165 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
## Das OS
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### _A light, friendly Void Linux–based desktop with Xfce and a Ukrainian touch_
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[](https://voidlinux.org) [](https://xfce.org) [](https://docs.voidlinux.org/config/services/) [](https://go.dev) [](#)
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🇺🇦 [Українська версія](README_ua.md)
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### 💡 Purpose
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Void Linux is fast, simple and independent: runit instead of systemd, and its own xbps package manager. Out of the box, though, it is a bare system, and getting it ready for daily use takes hours of setup. Das OS builds a live ISO that boots straight into a configured Xfce desktop and installs it with a graphical installer. It has its own look, a Ukrainian interface and keyboard layout, the usual desktop apps and Btrfs snapshots that let a broken update be undone. Everything Das OS adds comes from its own xbps packages, so the setup can be reproduced and updated like any other package.
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### 📃 Features
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- [Live ISO](#LiveISO) that boots on UEFI and BIOS straight into the desktop
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- [Graphical installer](#Installer) (Calamares) set up for Void and runit
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- [Snapshots and rollback](#Snapshots): hourly Btrfs snapshots, bootable from the GRUB menu
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- [System update](#Update) with a snapshot taken before it: a window, a tray icon and a terminal mode
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- [Welcome window](#Welcome) at the first login: language, home folders, updates and help
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- [Das OS look](#Look): light and dark themes, generated window frames, wallpapers and logo
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- [Desktop defaults](#Defaults) for Xfce that don't overwrite stock files
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- [Own package repository](#Repository) built by xbps-src from in-tree templates
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- [Containerised build](#Build) that runs on any Linux host with Docker, and QEMU scripts for testing
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### ⭐ Advantages
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- **Void underneath** – a fast runit boot, the xbps package manager and fresh software, with none of the manual setup.
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- **Safe updates** – `das-update` takes a snapshot before every update, the system can return to any snapshot, and personal files in `/home` are never part of a rollback.
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- **Light** – no systemd, plus Xfce, LightDM and PipeWire, so it runs well on older laptops too.
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- **Nothing hidden** – all customisations ship as ordinary xbps packages, so `xbps-query -f das-settings` shows exactly what changed.
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- **Users keep control** – defaults live in `/etc/xdg/das`, so a user's own settings always take precedence and upgrades never reset them.
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- **Builds anywhere** – the build runs in a Void container, so the host can be Mint, Ubuntu or Fedora.
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### 📱 Screenshots
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/desktop.png" width="300" alt="Live desktop" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/desktop-terminal.png" width="300" alt="Terminal and window frames" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/boot-menu.png" width="300" alt="Boot menu (UEFI)" /></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><i>Live desktop</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>Terminal and window frames</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>Boot menu (UEFI)</i></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/wallpaper-light.png" width="300" alt="Light wallpaper" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/wallpaper-dark.png" width="300" alt="Dark wallpaper" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/window-frames.png" width="300" alt="Window frames" /></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><i>Light wallpaper</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>Dark wallpaper</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>Window frames: light and dark, active and inactive</i></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/installer-welcome.png" width="300" alt="Installer" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/installer-partitions.png" width="300" alt="Disk setup with Btrfs" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/grub-snapshots.png" width="300" alt="Snapshots in the boot menu" /></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><i>Installer</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>Disk setup with Btrfs</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>Snapshots in the boot menu</i></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/welcome.png" width="300" alt="Welcome window" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img src="images/update.png" width="300" alt="System update" /></td>
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<td></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td align="center"><i>Welcome window</i></td>
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<td align="center"><i>System update</i></td>
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<td></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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### 📌 Using
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#### Live ISO<a id='LiveISO' />
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**_The live system logs in to the desktop on its own, with no installation needed._**
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- Boots on UEFI (GRUB) and on legacy BIOS (isolinux), both with a Das OS splash screen.
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- The *graphics disabled* entry boots with `nomodeset` for machines whose screen stays black, and the *RAM* entry copies the whole system to memory.
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- User `live`, password `live`, with `sudo` that needs no password. The user is created at boot and exists only in the live session.
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- Ukrainian interface (`uk_UA.UTF-8`) and the Kyiv time zone by default. Keyboard layouts are `us,ua`, switched with Alt+Shift.
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- Includes NetworkManager, Bluetooth, PipeWire sound and Firefox with the Ukrainian language pack. Services run under runit: `dbus`, `elogind`, `polkitd`, `NetworkManager`, `bluetoothd`, `lightdm`.
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- Includes guest tools for QEMU/SPICE and VirtualBox.
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- The *Install Das OS* icon on the desktop and in the menu starts the installer.
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#### Graphical installer<a id='Installer' />
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**_Calamares installs Das OS in a few steps: language and time zone, keyboard, disk, user._**
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- The interface is in Ukrainian by default, with the Kyiv time zone and Das OS branding and slides.
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- The disk can be erased automatically or partitioned by hand. Btrfs is the default, ext4 and XFS are also available. On UEFI machines it creates a 512 MiB EFI partition.
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- It copies the clean live image (`/dev/mapper/live-base`), without the live user and its boot-time settings.
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- After copying, it builds locales for the chosen language, removes the virtual machine guest tools on real hardware, sets up snapshots, builds the initramfs and installs GRUB.
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- When it finishes, it removes itself and the packages that only it needed.
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- Disk encryption is not offered yet.
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#### Snapshots and rollback<a id='Snapshots' />
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**_Btrfs snapshots keep the system recoverable after a bad update._**
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- The installer creates the subvolumes `@` (root), `@home`, `@snapshots`, `@var_log` and `@var_cache_xbps`. Root snapshots don't include personal files, logs or the package cache.
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- snapper makes a *Fresh install* snapshot right after installation and an hourly snapshot (cron). It keeps the last 5 hourly, 7 daily and 2 weekly ones.
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- grub-btrfs adds every snapshot to the *Das OS snapshots* submenu in GRUB and updates it as snapshots appear.
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- A snapshot is read-only. When it boots, the `das-snapshot-overlay` dracut module puts a writable overlay in RAM on top, so the full desktop works. Changes made there are lost at shutdown.
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- `sudo snapper-rollback <number>` makes the snapshot the new root (the old one is kept as `@<date>`). The change takes effect after a reboot. It works both from the running system and from a booted snapshot.
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- Members of `wheel` can list snapshots without sudo: `snapper list`.
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#### System update<a id='Update' />
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**_`das-update` installs updates between a pair of snapshots, so a bad update can be undone from the boot menu._**
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- Before updating, it creates a snapper *pre* snapshot, then runs `xbps-install -Su` (updating xbps itself first when needed), then creates the paired *post* snapshot, also when the update failed.
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- If the *pre* snapshot cannot be created, nothing is installed. Without Btrfs (ext4, XFS) it updates without a snapshot and says so.
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- When it finishes, it shows the snapshot number and how to roll back to it, and asks for a reboot when the kernel, glibc, runit or other core packages were updated.
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- The *System update* window lists the packages with the installed and new versions and shows the xbps output. The privileged part runs through pkexec (polkit action `ua.org.das.update`).
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- In the background it checks for updates 2 minutes after login and then every 6 hours, without root. The tray icon and a notification appear only when updates are available. A click opens the window, and a right click opens a menu with *Check now*. The check is off in the live session.
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- `das-update --cli` does the same in a terminal (servers, ssh). It asks before installing (`-y` skips the question) and runs itself again through sudo.
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#### Welcome window<a id='Welcome' />
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**_`das-welcome` opens at the first login and gathers the first steps in one place._**
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- In the live session it offers to install Das OS.
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- The interface language can be chosen when the system has more than one locale built. It is stored in AccountsService and `~/.dmrc` and takes effect at the next login.
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- If the home folders still have English names (`Documents`, `Downloads`…), it offers to rename them to the system language, together with `user-dirs.dirs` and the file manager bookmarks. Folders the user moved, and those whose new name is already taken, are left alone.
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- It links to the system update, Xfce settings and help.
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- It opens by itself only once. The *Show at login* check box keeps it opening at every login.
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#### Das OS look<a id='Look' />
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**_A modern minimal style with a blue and yellow eight-petal star from Ukrainian embroidery._**
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- The GTK themes `DasOS` and `DasOS-Dark` build on adw-gtk3 and add the Das OS accent colours. They also style the Xfce panel, which adw-gtk3 leaves black.
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- The xfwm4 window frames (rounded corners, round buttons, a red close button on hover) are generated as PNG files by `xfwm4gen` (Go) from a single palette.
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- Light and dark wallpapers show the star over a rushnyk-style embroidered ribbon. The same star is the Das OS logo and the menu button.
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- Fonts are Inter for the interface and JetBrains Mono in the terminal. Icons are Papirus and the cursor theme is Adwaita.
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#### Desktop defaults<a id='Defaults' />
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**_The das-settings package configures Xfce without touching files owned by other packages._**
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- `/etc/profile.d/das-xdg.sh` puts `/etc/xdg/das` before `/etc/xdg`, and xfconf reads the Das OS defaults from there.
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- One bottom panel holds the Whisker menu, window buttons, tray, keyboard layout, volume, notifications, clock and a show-desktop button.
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- At the first login, `das-session-init` sets the wallpaper on every connected monitor, because Xfce stores wallpapers per monitor name.
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- LightDM uses the GTK greeter with the Das OS theme and wallpaper.
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- Home folders get names in the session language. xdg-user-dirs 0.20 looks for its translations only in the first `XDG_DATA_DIRS` entry that has a `locale` directory, the empty `/usr/local/share/locale`, so it created English folders. `/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/50-das-user-dirs` creates them before the Xfce session with a lookup path that finds the translations.
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#### Own package repository<a id='Repository' />
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**_Every Das OS file is installed and updated by xbps._**
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- `srcpkgs/das-theme` contains the themes, xfwm4 frames, wallpapers and logo.
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- `srcpkgs/das-settings` contains the Xfce, LightDM and session defaults.
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- `srcpkgs/das-tools` contains `das-update` and `das-welcome` (Go, GTK 3 through gotk3) with their menu entries, autostart entries and polkit action.
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- `srcpkgs/das-snapshots` contains the snapper configuration, `das-snapper-setup` and the dracut module for booting snapshots.
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- `srcpkgs/das-installer` contains the Calamares settings, branding and installation scripts. It exists only on the live ISO.
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- `srcpkgs/calamares`, `srcpkgs/adw-gtk3` and `srcpkgs/font-jetbrains-mono` package upstream releases that Void does not have.
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- `make packages` lays the templates over a shallow clone of void-packages and builds them with `xbps-src` into `out/hostdir/binpkgs`. The ISO build installs them from there.
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#### Containerised build<a id='Build' />
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**_The whole build runs in a Docker container, so only Docker and QEMU are needed on the host._**
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1. `make packages` builds the local xbps repository.
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2. `make iso` builds the packages and then the ISO with `void-mklive`, using the profile in `live/` (package list, services, root file system overlay).
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3. `make qemu` boots the newest ISO with UEFI. `make qemu-bios` uses legacy BIOS, and `make qemu-disk` also attaches a 20 GB virtual disk to install on.
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### 🚀 Building the application
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Requirements: Linux with Docker (the user must be in the `docker` group), QEMU and OVMF for testing, and Go 1.24+ with the GTK 3 development files for `make test`. About 10 GB of free disk space.
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```shell
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make iso # build packages and the live ISO (the first run downloads ~2 GB)
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make qemu # boot it in QEMU with UEFI
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make test # run Go tests
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make clean # remove build output, keep the download cache
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```
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The ISO appears in `out/iso/dasos-<version>-x86_64.iso`. Write it to a USB stick with `dd` or Ventoy.
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**Note:** Das OS is an early version (0.3.0). A server image, the developer profile and signed repository hosting are planned for upcoming stages. Until the repository is hosted, an installed system gets updates from Void only. Das OS is based on Void Linux but is not affiliated with it.
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###### _Made by -=:dAs:=-_
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