Tuxenix

An LFS/BLFS Linux distribution built from source, packaged with txpk, and booted by dinit.

Website · Download ISO · Package catalog · Installation guide

I am building Tuxenix from the ground up: package recipes, a custom package flow, a bootable installer, a public package repository, a lightweight desktop, and a native dinit service graph. This repository tracks the public story and major engineering milestones.

Latest Milestone: Public Dinit Desktop Release

Tuxenix is now a publicly downloadable, real-hardware-tested Linux desktop:

• 473 compiled package archives are available from the public HTTPS repository.
• A 2.6 GiB hybrid BIOS/UEFI ISO boots a live IceWM desktop and launches the Calamares installer.
• Installed systems use dinit as PID 1, with systemd-compatible runtime libraries only where the hardware and desktop stack require them.
• The installer contains a seeded and integrity-checked txpk database.
• txpk uses the public https://tuxenix.org repository with a working CA certificate path.
• NetworkManager, Wi-Fi, DNS, SSH, ALSA audio, Xorg, IceWM, and Brave are integrated into the desktop profile.
• Wi-Fi profiles created in the live environment are securely preserved for the installed system.
• The graphical desktop remains opt-in: log in and type startx to launch IceWM.

Download and Verify

curl -O https://tuxenix.org/iso/tuxenix-dinit-desktop-latest.iso
curl -O https://tuxenix.org/iso/tuxenix-dinit-desktop-latest.iso.sha256
sha256sum -c tuxenix-dinit-desktop-latest.iso.sha256

Current ISO SHA-256:

f5e3a7953fcb2bbb267af66b5ad65f763938767559239fa15fae6ff23ff1b58c

The full package catalog and direct archive downloads are available at tuxenix.org/packages.html.

Proven End to End

The current release has been exercised across the full distribution path:

• built packages from LFS/BLFS-oriented source recipes;
• generated a complete installed root filesystem and live installer;
• created El Torito BIOS and UEFI boot structures;
• booted the ISO through GRUB and reached the live installer in QEMU;
• installed and tested Tuxenix on a Lenovo ThinkPad;
• connected to Wi-Fi and verified reconnection persistence;
• launched IceWM with startx;
• ran Brave with working YouTube video;
• enabled ALSA audio, persistent volume state, and multimedia volume control;
• started OpenSSH automatically as a dinit-managed service;
• served the ISO and all packages from the public HTTPS repository;
• verified all 476 entries in the release checksum manifest; and
• streamed the public 2.6 GiB ISO back over HTTP and matched it byte for byte.

Architecture

Layer	Tuxenix implementation
Userspace	Linux From Scratch and Beyond Linux From Scratch foundations
Package format	.txpk.tar.bz2 archives with package.yml metadata
Package manager	txpk
Init system	dinit
Networking	NetworkManager, wpa_supplicant, persistent connection profiles
Desktop	Xorg, IceWM, xterm, libinput, Liberation fonts
Browser	Brave
Audio	ALSA utilities, dinit state restoration, persistent volume
Installer	Live IceWM session with Calamares
Boot media	Hybrid BIOS/UEFI ISO
Repository	Static HTTPS package indexes at tuxenix.org

Native Dinit Boot Graph

The installed image enables native dinit services for:

• filesystems;
• kernel modules;
• NetworkManager;
• OpenSSH;
• ALSA state restoration; and
• the Tuxenix firewall.

The SSH service prepares its service account, runtime directories, and host keys before executing sshd -D, allowing it to start automatically on a clean installation.

Notable Engineering Fixes

• Seeded the package database during image creation and validated it before completing the ISO.
• Shipped a correct /etc/txpk/pkg.yml for the public repository.
• Added explicit CA-bundle handling to the bundled txpk runtime.
• Preserved NetworkManager Wi-Fi profiles with root ownership and 0600 permissions.
• Made plain startx launch icewm-session for normal desktop users.
• Added a login message explaining that IceWM is available through startx.
• Fixed UTF-8 locale generation so IceWM menus and terminal applications do not crash.
• Preserved Brave's required sandbox ownership and setuid mode.
• Added audio, video, render, and input group access for desktop users.
• Added ALSA utilities, volume defaults, state restoration, and dB-mapped volume behavior.
• Built the required laptop audio codecs into the Tuxenix kernel.
• Added resumable, atomic release uploads and a forced-refresh mode for same-sized checksum or HTML files.

Source and Tooling

• Public project overview: this repository
• Toolkit and ISO builder: elgun-dev/tuxenix-toolkit
• Installer source (GitLab; sign-in may be required): Tuxenix installer dinit branch
• Package recipes and dinit services (GitLab; sign-in may be required): Tuxenix package sources dinit branch
• Public package repository: tuxenix.org/1-lts

The toolkit provides package linting, dependency graphs, build dashboards, root-filesystem generation, ISO creation, public catalog generation, release uploading, and QEMU boot helpers.

Installation Notes

Write the ISO to a USB drive and boot it through the machine's BIOS/UEFI boot menu. In Calamares manual partitioning:

• choose the desired Linux partition, format it, and mount it at /;
• choose the EFI System Partition and mount it at /boot/efi; and
• only format the EFI partition when it is dedicated to Tuxenix and its existing contents are no longer needed.

After installation, connect to Wi-Fi if necessary, log in as the normal user, and run:

startx

Status

Active development. Tuxenix now boots, installs graphically, runs on real laptop hardware, reconnects to Wi-Fi, serves packages publicly over HTTPS, runs a dinit-managed desktop/server service graph, launches Brave, and plays video with working audio.

Next targets include broader hardware validation, smaller live-media memory requirements, package signing, stronger package-transaction recovery, and continued LFS/BLFS package expansion.