zedBSD and Keiland Desktop

zedBSD is an operating system for modern computers, including those with touch displays. It consists of POSIX-compatible kernel and base system written from scratch, and ships with Keiland Desktop, a Wayland compositor and apps that unify the classic desktop UI/UX and a futuristic touch UI/UX.

zedBSD aim to become a commercial UNIX in the line of macOS and Solaris: an operating system made for newly-designed cutting-edge computers, that changes "the way computing is". They are written to conform to POSIX.1-2024 and to the Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 (SUSv4). It is not yet a certified UNIX system. Conformance will keep being raised, and UNIX certification from The Open Group is a goal. (UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.)

Getting there means not being bound to an existing kernel or userland when the whole machine has to move together. Most of the system is reimplemented. Keiland Desktop is a Wayland compositor, and it adds extensions that existing compositors do not have, so the display, input, and applications can behave as one machine rather than as a set of loosely coupled clients. The same reason applies to the GPU stack on zedBSD: a native, direct Vulkan path, not Linux DRM/KMS or Mesa. The desktop is not locked to that kernel. Keiland Desktop is also ported to Linux and FreeBSD.

The kernel, drivers, libc, and desktop are developed so that hardware and software can ship as one product: tablets, phones, and PCs designed by the same person who directs the OS. Everything that runs on open hardware stays free to use. Features that need the project's own hardware are still published as source, and only run on that hardware.

Both zedBSD and Keiland Desktop are designed and directed by one developer and implemented with AI coding agents. Current targets are 64-bit x86 PCs and the Raspberry Pi series.

You do not need to compile from scratch to boot zedBSD. Pre-built images are published for real PC and QEMU.

Write a disk image to a USB stick, then boot from it.

Supported hardware:

• CPU: Intel 11th-gen+, Tiger Lake or later
• GPU: Intel Iris Xe iGPU (Xe-LP)
• WiFi: Intel AX211 or Realtek RTL8822BU USB

The release archive bundles a custom-patched QEMU build with Windows Vulkan passthrough.

With QEMU, KVM, and VirGL/Venus available, run:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -machine q35,accel=kvm \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 8G \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=data/edk2-x86_64-code.fd \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=data/ovmf-vars.fd \
  -device qemu-xhci,id=xhci \
  -drive if=none,id=boot,file=data/hdd-image.img,format=raw \
  -device nvme,serial=kei-boot,drive=boot,bootindex=1 \
  -device virtio-vga-gl,blob=on,hostmem=256M,venus=on \
  -display sdl,gl=on \
  -device usb-multitouch,bus=xhci.0,port=1 \
  -device usb-net,bus=xhci.0,port=2,netdev=net0,msos-desc=on \
  -device usb-kbd,bus=xhci.0,port=3 \
  -device usb-tablet,bus=xhci.0,port=4 \
  -netdev "user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp:127.0.0.1:2222-:22" \
  -serial stdio

git clone https://github.com/awemorris/zedBSD.git
cd zedBSD
make keiland-linux
make keiland-linux-install

Then restart your display manager such as GDM.

To run Keiland manually, type:

/opt/keiland/bin/keiland-desktop

git clone https://github.com/awemorris/zedBSD.git
cd zedBSD
make keiland-freebsd
make keiland-freebsd-install

To run Keiland manually, type:

/opt/keiland/bin/keiland-desktop

Code that runs on generally-sold hardware (PCs, Raspberry Pi series, and other SBCs) is free for anyone to build and use. That includes commercial use, modification, and redistribution under the zlib License. Buying project hardware is not required to use that part of the system, and that split is meant to stay.

Some features can only be realized on hardware designed by this project. Those features are still published as source, under the same license. They are not a closed edition. They depend on that hardware, so they do not run on a generic PC or Raspberry Pi. The sold product is the computer, not a paid OS license.

zedBSD stay under zlib as the long-term license. Improvements to the open-hardware system stay freely usable.

Two objections come up: why not use the existing open-source operating-system ecosystem, and whether a Wayland compositor written here is freeloading on that work.

The first reason is the license of the operating system itself. A distribution assembled from the usual kernel, libc, desktop, and applications carries a large set of licenses. Tracking that set is a core job of a project such as Debian. zedBSD, the base userland, the libraries, Keiland, and the applications written for this system are all under the zlib License, so the operating system has one license. Optional third-party packages under /usr can still carry their own licenses; they are not part of that single-license base.

The second reason is who can change the stack. On Linux, the kernel, libc, desktop, and applications are developed by separate organizations. A change that needs all of those layers is slow, and sometimes impossible, to land as one piece of work. Here those layers are under one direction. A workload can be tuned by changing the kernel, the library, the compositor, and the application together.

Keiland implements the Wayland specification and adds extensions that existing compositors do not have. The specification is the interface. The compositor, its extensions, and the clients are written for this system so the display stack can move with the rest of the OS. That is a reimplementation, not a repackage of an existing compositor.

The new kernel is not a wall. Keiland has been ported so the desktop also runs on Linux and FreeBSD. The work is published under zlib for that use: take it, ship it, and build on it. The point of the open-hardware system is open innovation, not a requirement that every user boot zedBSD.

• zedBSD — kernel, HAL, drivers, libc, and base userland.

• Kei — the zedBSD-based operating system image.

• Keiland Wayland compositor and client applications for touch. Extensions beyond existing compositors are added so input, display, and applications work as one system. The desktop also runs on Linux and FreeBSD.

• Native Vulkan — a GPU stack that does not sit on Linux DRM/KMS or Mesa, and does not use user-space drivers. Intel iGPU (Xe-LP) is supported today. NVIDIA and AMD are planned.

• Two machine classes — modern 64-bit x86 and Raspberry Pi, plus partial retro targets used to show compatibility.

zedBSD runs on modern computers. Supported development targets:

The zedBSD kernel supports some retro computers.

zedBSD adopts a layered architecture. Within this design, a component accesses only components in the layer directly below it and provides functionality exclusively to the layer directly above it. Furthermore, dependencies between adjacent layers are kept strictly one-to-one, preventing tangled cross-layer interactions.

In the case of Linux desktops, the user environment is typically formed by numerous components with small, focused responsibilities communicating with one another. This represents a distributed object design, where the benefit lies in each component having limited scope, making individual parts relatively easy to develop. On the other hand, this inevitably creates complex many-to-many relationships among components. In my personal view, while systems with many-to-many relationships are straightforward to implement in isolation, they often struggle with overall system integration—as is often seen in microkernel-based operating systems.

zedBSD adopts a layered architecture to resolve these trade-offs and deliver a tightly integrated, cohesive desktop experience directly at the OS level.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Desktop Apps                                                                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Desktop Server (Wayland-based and X11-compatible, with device control extensions) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Desktop HAL Backend (Uses device drivers and base services)                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Base programs (/bin)                                                              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Base services (networkd, audiod, mountd, ...)                                     |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Modern init (/sbin/init)                                                          |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Drivers (PCI, USB, GPU, disk, ethernet, IP, wifi, filesystem, ...)                |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kernel [platform-neutral]                                                         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kernel HAL (CPU + BSP)                                                            |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

GPU support is a native, direct Vulkan stack. It does not require Linux DRM/KMS or Mesa, and it does not use user-space drivers.

Intel Xe-LP is the current driver. NVIDIA and AMD support are planned.

Host prerequisites, configuration, image layout, and the QEMU procedure are in the build-from-source guide.

On amd64 the default disk image is the native layout: a GPT disk whose ESP holds the UEFI loader and the kernel, a read-write UFS root partition, and a swap partition. make run starts QEMU with OVMF and an NVMe disk. Hybrid (UEFI and BIOS), UEFI-only, and BIOS-only layouts can be selected in make menuconfig.

make                   # same as disk-image
make menuconfig        # write config.mk
make disk-image        # build a disk image
make world             # build vmunix and rootfs
make rootfs            # build rootfs
make vmunix            # build the vmunix kernel
make run               # build a disk image and start QEMU
make toolchain-cache   # install the pinned rev-0 LLVM cache (x86_64 Linux)
make toolchain         # build a toolchain
make help              # short command summary

zedBSD and Keiland Desktop are distributed under the zlib License. See LICENSE. The license is not a placeholder for a later proprietary release. The system is meant to stay published under zlib, including features that only run on project hardware. What runs on open hardware PCs, Raspberry Pi, and the other public targets stays free for anyone to use while conformance work, including a future UNIX certification, continues.