FreeLinX Desktop

FreeLinX is an independent Linux distribution with a NetBSD userland, the musl C library and an LLVM toolchain. Nothing in it is built by GCC or linked against glibc — every image and every package is checked for that before it is published.

It boots to a light Openbox desktop with a Firefox-based browser, installs to disk from a graphical installer, and keeps itself up to date with its own package manager.

Documentation: https://freelinx.github.io/FreeLinX/ (what FreeLinX is, how it works, installing, building from source, command reference). FreeLinX base, the console edition: https://github.com/FreeLinX/FreeLinX-base.

Download

FreeLinX 1.0.7 (x86_64 ISO) — about 500 MB, BIOS and UEFI, boots from USB or DVD. Check it against SHA256SUMS on the release page.

Write it to a USB stick (this erases the stick):

dd if=freelinx-1.0.7-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M conv=fsync status=progress

or try it in a virtual machine:

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 4096 -cdrom freelinx-1.0.7-x86_64.iso

The live system runs from RAM: 2 GB is the minimum, 4 GB is comfortable.

What you get

• Openbox desktop: panel with launchers, window list and clock; right-click menu; works on any GPU, with OpenGL acceleration on Intel, AMD (radeonsi) and NVIDIA (nouveau), and hardware video decoding (VA-API).
• FreeLinX Web (Firefox ESR 153): the full modern web, H.264/AAC video. Dillo, Links and w3m as light browsers.
• Graphical installer: language, keyboard, time zone, users, WiFi, disk — a BIOS + UEFI bootable system in a few minutes.
• Packages and xpkg: about 400 packages from a signed repository — including the desktop itself, so xpkg upgrade updates Xorg, Mesa, GTK and the browser too.
• Hardware: Intel, Qualcomm, Realtek, MediaTek and Broadcom WiFi; Bluetooth; Intel SOF / SoundWire laptop audio, HDA and USB audio; NVMe; webcams; SD cards; touchpads; USB4/Thunderbolt; game pads.
• Terminal, file manager, PDF viewer, media player, vim, git, and the NetBSD command line.

Under the hood

Layer	Component
Kernel	Linux 6.18 LTS (6.18.54), built with clang/LLD
C library	musl 1.2.5
Compiler / C++ runtime	LLVM 21 (clang, LLD, libc++, libunwind)
Userland	NetBSD 10.1 tools, NetBSD curses, toybox for the Linux-specific ones
Init	runit + mdevd
Desktop	Xorg 21.1, Mesa 24.0 + LLVM 18, GTK 3.24, Openbox, tint2
Login	greetd + tuigreet, Linux-PAM
Packages	xpkg 1.0.1: Ed25519-signed indexes, atomic installs, SQLite database

Package manager

xpkg search editor        # find software
doas xpkg install vim     # install it (and what it needs)
doas xpkg upgrade         # update everything
xpkg list -e              # what you installed

Details: docs/PACKAGES.md. The repository is mirrored at huggingface.co/datasets/FreeLinX/packages.

Installing

See docs/INSTALL.md.

Source

FreeLinX is built from these repositories:

Repository	Contents
FreeLinX-desk	the desktop image: stack build, rootfs, installer, ISO
xpkg	the package manager and repository tools
ports	NetBSD userland and other ports, built with the FreeLinX toolchain
toolchain	clang/LLD and the musl sysroot
kernel	kernel configuration
src	base system integration

How they fit together: docs/BUILDING.md.

Status

1.0 is the first release. It has been tested in QEMU/KVM end to end (live boot, install, login, browser, WiFi via a simulated radio, Bluetooth, packages). Reports from real hardware are very welcome: open an issue.

Known limitations are listed in the release notes.

"Developed by Denis Gulmammadov and Kanan Majidzada"

License

FreeLinX's own code is under the BSD 2-Clause license (LICENSE). Every package keeps its upstream license.