CinderOS

An Arch Linux install image built for a trusted desktop workstation.

CinderOS is an opinionated ArchISO profile designed around COSMIC, Btrfs, PipeWire, zram, AppArmor, full-stack development tools, gaming support, and a suite of maintenance commands. The goal is simple: an Arch install you can actually trust, with sensible defaults, recovery tools close at hand, and heavier services left off until they're needed.

⚠️ Pre-Production: Ready for build and VM testing. Not yet ready for production use on real hardware.

• Version: 1.0.0 "Ember"
• Target Hardware: AMD and Intel systems (safest for daily driver); NVIDIA packages included but experimental

What's Inside

• Desktop: COSMIC Wayland as the primary desktop environment, with an XFCE Lite option available.
• Core Technologies: Btrfs filesystem with Snapper for automated snapshots and rollback, Linux Zen kernel, zram, and AppArmor.
• Batteries Included: 330+ pacman packages including a full development stack (Node, Python, Rust, Go) and gaming support (Steam, Proton, Wine, MangoHud).
• Opt-In Philosophy: Background services like Docker, databases, Bluetooth, and SSH are installed but disabled by default to keep idle RAM usage low.
• CinderOS Toolkit: 37 custom command-line tools (e.g., cinder-doctor, cinder-update, cinder-snapshot, cinder-control) for easy system management and diagnostics.

Quick Start (Build & Test)

Build on an Arch-based host with archiso and git:

# Install dependencies
sudo pacman -Syu archiso git base-devel devtools qemu-full edk2-ovmf

# Validate profile
bash scripts/release-check.sh

# Build ISO (Output: $HOME/cinderos-out/cinderos-1.0.0-x86_64.iso)
bash scripts/build-iso.sh

# Smoke test (UEFI)
bash scripts/qemu-smoke.sh --firmware uefi

Documentation Hub

For detailed information, please refer to our dedicated documentation files:

Document	Purpose
DAILY_DRIVER.md	Pre-production deployment checklist
HARDWARE_MATRIX.md	AMD/Intel/NVIDIA test tracking
KNOWN_ISSUES.md	Open blockers and experimental features
CHANGELOG.md	Version history
QA_CHECKLIST.md	Quality assurance procedures
RELEASE.md	Release process documentation
NOTES.md	Developer notes and context

Repository Quick Reference

• airootfs/ — Live ISO filesystem overlay (system configs, custom commands in usr/local/bin/)
• scripts/ — Build and validation helper scripts
• profiledef.sh & pacman.conf — ArchISO profile metadata and package configurations
• packages.x86_64 & packages.aur — Package manifests