i really, really can't believe this worked, but, still, i had to write an entire socket proxy for it and run an http/https proxy because otherwise it just wouldn't connect to the servers
and yes, this is running in lx zones.
We just released FreeLinX-base 1.3.1.
FreeLinX-base is a small, console-first Linux system. You boot into a shell and install whatever you need through our package manager, xpkg.
The ISO is around 290 MB and boots on both BIOS and UEFI. It runs Linux 6.18 with a NetBSD-based userland and musl, built with LLVM. We've also been pretty strict about keeping GNU code out of the base system. Our check-nognu test currently reports 0 failing checks.
The base comes with the things you'd expect from a usable Unix system: runit, mdevd, networking tools, doas, OpenSSH, curl, git, tmux, htop, nnn, vim/vi, bc and a few other essentials. The login shell is mksh, while /bin/sh comes from the NetBSD userland. tcc is included as the default cc, together with the musl and kernel headers.
The idea is to keep the base actually small. The live system uses a squashfs + tmpfs overlay and can boot with roughly 100 MB of RAM, with changes kept in memory until installation. There is no X11, GTK, Mesa or even fonts in the base image. If you need them, install them later.
Packages are signed with Ed25519 and verified with SHA-256. The installed system keeps FLX_ROOT read-only. Installation is handled by xsetup, which walks through the setup step by step and can resume an interrupted installation. flxupgrade handles upgrades from newer ISOs.
There's currently a signed repository with around 428 packages, while the image itself only contains the base and console-oriented stuff.
We've also put quite a bit of effort into making the build and installer testable. The build doesn't require root and can be done on any x86_64 Linux system. The repository includes QEMU BIOS/UEFI installation and upgrade tests, destructive disk tests and UI tests.
It's still a young project and there's plenty left to improve, but we're putting it out there now because we'd like people who care about Linux, BSD userlands, musl and alternative Unix systems to poke at it.
Source / ISO:
https://github.com/FreeLinX/FreeLinX
Documentation:
https://freelinx.github.io/FreeLinX/
If something is unnecessarily complicated, broken, missing or just a bad idea, tell us.
Working on an Estes model rocket trajectory simulator using GNU Octave 1.1.1 and Gnuplot 3.5 on a NeXTSTEP 3.3 virtual machine.
FreeLinX base 1.3.1 Release
FreeLinX base 1.3.1 is now available. FreeLinX is an independent Linux distribution—not based on Debian, Alpine, or any other distro—built with zero GNU software.
The system stack includes the Linux 6.18 LTS kernel, musl 1.2.5 libc, LLVM toolchain (clang, LLD, compiler-rt, libc++), NetBSD userland, runit init, mdevd, mksh, netbsd-curses, doas, and Limine boot loader (BIOS and UEFI). Compliance with the "No GNU" policy is verified automatically via check-nognu.
The base edition provides a minimal console environment consuming about 60 MB of RAM post-boot (~60.87 MiB as captured in the fastfetch output). The ~300 MB hybrid ISO runs as a live environment via squashfs with a RAM overlay, and xsetup installs the system to GPT disks with no initramfs.
Package management is handled by xpkg, featuring 428 signed packages (Ed25519 signatures, sha256 checks, atomic upgrades with rollback) including Xorg, Openbox, dwm, Firefox, mpv, and ffmpeg. Base system upgrades use flxupgrade, which preserves user settings and /home.
The distribution builds from source on any x86_64 Linux host without root via sh build-base.sh. Licensed under BSD-2-Clause.
Support & Infrastructure: Donations via Buy Me a Coffee or crypto help cover domain and package manager infrastructure costs.
Testing has been conducted in QEMU/KVM. Real hardware testers are wanted; please note that Secure Boot must be disabled. Please submit feedback and hardware test reports.