My OS

My OS is an open-source, Fedora-based operating system project with its own identity, a Qt 6 / QML desktop, and a planned customization system.

Status: Phase 1, code written and renamed to My OS, NOT yet built or boot-tested. Latest session (rename and hardening): the project was renamed to My OS from its earlier working name, and a few session/KIWI robustness fixes were made by inspection only. The sandbox used had no network, no Qt, no Podman, no KIWI and no KVM, so no desktop compile, no ISO build and no VM boot happened. No ISO exists. The desktop source, the live-session configuration and the ISO build scripts exist. The author has not compiled the desktop, built the ISO, or booted it in a VM (the authoring environment had no Podman, Qt, KVM, or access to Fedora mirrors). Treat the first build on your machine as the real test, and expect to fix a few things. See Known limitations.

Build the ISO on GitHub (no Fedora machine needed)

1. Create a GitHub repository and push this project to the main branch.
2. Open the Actions tab, choose Build My OS ISO, press Run workflow (it also runs on every push to main).
3. Wait roughly 30-60 minutes. On success, download the MyOS-Live-iso artifact from the run page (the .iso and its .sha256).
4. If it fails, download the build-logs artifact (or copy the failing step's log) and use it to fix the configuration.

The workflow runs the repository's own tests, compiles the desktop, runs KIWI in a privileged Fedora 44 container and checks that the ISO has El Torito boot records. It cannot boot the ISO: test it in a UEFI VM (QEMU with OVMF, VirtualBox with EFI enabled) before trusting it. This workflow has never been run.

Phase 1A: the My OS desktop design

The desktop now follows the My OS blueprint: dark-by-default navy theme with accents, left launcher with search, top widget area (clock, local calendar, weather empty state, CPU/memory monitor), right workspace drawer, slim bottom panel with pinned apps, and a Settings app with theme, accent, wallpaper and widget controls. Details, per-feature status (implemented / simulated / needs integration) and risks: docs/desktop.md.

Verified so far: static tests (layout, branding, QML cross-references, brackets, security rules) and the /proc parser unit tests (compiled and run with g++). Not verified: compiling the Qt code, running the desktop, any screenshot or layout check, the ISO build, any VM boot.

Run the desktop tests: for t in tests/unit/test_*.sh; do bash "$t"; done

What Phase 1 contains

Piece	State
Desktop shell (Qt 6 / QML): wallpaper with the OS name, bottom panel, menu button, clock	Written, not compiled
Application launcher (searchable list, Settings and Terminal buttons)	Written, not compiled
Settings window with a light/dark theme switch (live-updates the shell)	Written, not compiled
Session: automatic login on tty1 into the labwc compositor, which starts the shell	Written, not run
Live ISO description (KIWI, Fedora 44, UEFI) and build scripts	Written, never executed
output/iso/*.iso	Does not exist yet
VM boot test	Not done
Fedora bootc image (image/Containerfile, from Phase 0)	Unchanged, does not contain the desktop yet

Checks that have been run: repository layout test and Phase 1 static test (file presence, shell syntax, XML validity, bracket balance, security rules). They do not compile Qt code or build an image.

How it is put together

• Base: Fedora 44 packages. Compositor: labwc (existing Wayland compositor, nothing custom). Terminal: foot.
• Desktop: myos-shell draws the wallpaper, panel and menu as layer-shell surfaces (via layer-shell-qt), so normal windows never cover the panel. myos-settings is an ordinary window.
• Image method: a KIWI live ISO, the tool Fedora itself now uses for its live images. The trade-off versus the bootc path is explained in docs/architecture.md.

Prerequisites

• Windows 11 with WSL2 + Ubuntu 24.04 (for the desktop build), as in docs/development.md.
• A Fedora environment with root to build the ISO: KIWI needs loop devices and mounts. The most reliable choice is a Fedora 44 VM; a privileged Fedora container in WSL2 is possible but unverified.
• VirtualBox on Windows (or any VM tool with UEFI) to test the ISO. Nothing is ever installed onto your physical computer.

Build and test (reproducible steps)

1. Check the repository (any Linux, no extra tools):

   tests/unit/test_repo_layout.sh
   tests/unit/test_phase1_static.sh
   tests/unit/test_branding.sh

2. Build the desktop (Ubuntu/WSL2 with Podman; compiles inside a Fedora 44 container):

   scripts/build-desktop.sh          # optional: MYOS_DISPLAY_NAME="My OS" scripts/build-desktop.sh

3. Build the ISO (on Fedora 44, as root):

   sudo dnf install -y kiwi kiwi-systemdeps distribution-gpg-keys
   sudo scripts/build-iso.sh

   Result: output/iso/<name>.iso and a .sha256 file next to it.
4. Boot it in a VM and check the desktop appears: docs/development.md.

If a step fails, see "If the ISO build fails" in docs/development.md.

Known limitations

• Never built or booted by the author. The KIWI description (image/kiwi/config.xml) was written from documentation; package names or KIWI attributes may need small fixes.
• UEFI only. Enable EFI in the VM settings.
• Live only: no installer, nothing is saved between boots.
• SELinux is off in the live image (selinux=0), no firewall, no networking tools. Not suitable for real use. See docs/security.md.
• Software rendering (QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software) for VM robustness; no GPU acceleration.
• No power-off or logout button yet: close the VM window or use the VM's power menu.
• The wallpaper and menu button show My OS. Build with MYOS_DISPLAY_NAME="Other Name" to show another name.
• The desktop is compiled against Fedora 44 Qt at build time; if Fedora updates Qt before you build the ISO, rebuild the desktop first.
• The bootc image does not include the desktop yet; the two image paths share source but not packages.

Repository layout

Path	Purpose
desktop/shell, desktop/launcher, desktop/settings	Phase 1 desktop (QML + small C++ host)
desktop/monitor, desktop/software-center	Later phases (empty)
shared/system-api, shared/theme	System bridge (C++) and colour palette (QML)
image/kiwi	Live ISO description
image/config/rootfs	Files copied into the image (session, autologin, labwc)
image/Containerfile	Phase 0 bootc image
scripts/, tests/, docs/	Build scripts, tests, documentation

License

MIT. See LICENSE. (A placeholder choice; confirm it before the first public release.)

Naming

The OS is called My OS (two words) in everything a person reads: wallpaper, panel button, window titles, .desktop entries, image labels and documentation. Technical identifiers use myos / MyOS / MYOS_ (binaries myos-shell, myos-settings, myos-session; config ~/.config/myos/myos.conf; CMake project MyOS; ISO name MyOS-Live). Identifiers never contain a space.

Changes since the earlier-named version

• Full rename to My OS (files, identifiers, docs, tests); tests/unit/test_branding.sh guards it.
• Display name is now passed to C++ through a generated header (myos_config.h) instead of a quoted compile definition, so names with spaces are safe.
• Session: autologin detection uses the tty (/dev/tty1) instead of XDG_VTNR, a fallback XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is created if PAM did not provide one, XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP is MyOS.
• KIWI: added pam, authselect, systemd-pam; config.sh selects the minimal authselect profile and enables dbus-broker. All untested.