Kernora OS 1 "Ember" (development build 6)

Dev build 6 of Kernora OS 1 "Ember". Fresh ISO with everything since build 5, now on Debian 13.7.

Already on build 5 or older? You don't need to reinstall, just go to Settings → Updates and reboot, you get all of this. The ISO is for new installs and USB sticks.

Bugs, questions or just wanna chat? Join the Discord, updates go there first.

Rebuilt on 24 October 2026

Same build 6 again, fresh ISO with everything that went out as updates since the 17th. Already installed? Settings → Updates gets you all of it, no need to reinstall.

• Quick Share with Android phones. send photos and files both ways over wifi, nothing to install on the phone. right-click a file in Files → Send with Quick Share, or open the new Quick Share app (Receive / Send tabs, like the one on Android). theres a tile in quick settings for who can see you, and you can accept from the notification or right in the app
• see-through panel: your wallpaper shows through, blurred and tinted in your colour. thanks lexaaakorolevv-cyber for the PR. if you like it solid, Settings → Wallpaper & style → Panel
• swipe up to unlock on the lock and login screens, or just start typing
• after you log in it goes straight to the desktop, no loading screen anymore
• quick settings work with the panel on the top, left or right now. with a top panel they used to open above the screen and only the little handle showed
• floating toolbars in Photos and for selected files in Files
• more Material 3 Expressive stuff: shapes that change on springs, bolder current page, rounder menus
• less KDE leftovers in More settings and the widgets menu

Rebuilt on 17 October 2026

Same build 6, fresh ISO with everything that went out as updates since. If your system is already installed you have all of this through Settings → Updates.

• live USB opens the installer by itself when the session starts. After installing, Welcome greets you once on the first login and then leaves the app menu
• the whole boot follows your colours now: boot menu, boot and shutdown splash, disk password screen, login screen, the splash after login and the lock screen all go light or dark with your theme and use your colour. the Kernora profile picture changes colour too
• password dots are little Material shapes now (cookie, sun, clover...) on the login and lock screens
• first bits of Material 3 Expressive: wavy progress bars when downloading in the Store or updating, wavy spinners, a shape morphing loading indicator, springy buttons and button groups
• quick settings got redone like on Android: an Internet tile that actually knows about cables (it used to say Wi-Fi unavailable while the cable was working), Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth devices open right in the panel, small round tiles for the minor stuff and a pencil to move, resize, hide and add tiles
• springier app menu, lock / log out / restart / shut down sit together in one group
• the old KDE theme pickers are gone from More settings so the system can't slip back into the KDE look by accident. every real option is still in Settings
• fastfetch shows the Kernora logo, ascii art by milanrudis from the community 🙌
• the name is just Kernora OS 1 now, Ember stays as the codename

New since build 5

Fixes from the tester bug list (thanks again!!)

• the login screen at boot shows your wallpaper now. Before, it only worked if you picked the wallpaper in Settings, so a wallpaper chosen in Welcome or from the desktop menu never got there. Now it follows the desktop for admin accounts, live wallpapers and your own pictures both. If you update instead of reinstalling, it catches up the first time you log in after the update, so the next boot is the right one
• no more green bars in VLC on NVIDIA. VLC's hardware decoding draws green garbage at the bottom of videos with the NVIDIA driver, so on PCs with an NVIDIA card it's off by default now (Debian and Flathub VLC both). If you want it back: VLC → Tools → Preferences → Input / Codecs → Hardware-accelerated decoding
• Reduce motion doesn't break the desktop anymore (it used to leave an invisible panel that ate every click)
• widget toolbars close when you move away or leave edit mode
• weather widget doesn't get squished on cloudy days
• live wallpapers only pause for maximized/fullscreen windows on their monitor
• album art (Spotify etc.) retries if it fails to load
• system monitor widgets follow theme colours
• Restart button in the app menu and the shut down dialog
• git, curl, wget, htop, fastfetch, rsync, zip/unzip, 7zip, tree and friends are preinstalled

Store got redone, kinda like Google Play: tabs on top (Apps, Games, Categories), search and My apps next to them, no big carousel or "popular" banner, rows per category, app pages with ratings split by stars, a big Install button, version and source. Apps on both Flathub and Debian show up once and you pick the source on the app page.

Debian 13.7 base (snapshot 2026-10-15), Linux 6.12.111.

Tower wallpaper is gone. If you had it, you get Kernora Shapes instead.

Still open

• the RTL8852CE Wi-Fi drops (the automatic tweak was rolled back, see docs/WIFI_REALTEK.md)
• CS2 cursor escaping to a second monitor, not reproduced yet (docs/STEAM_MOUSE.md has a gamescope workaround to try)
• picking another browser during install instead of LibreWolf, and lower RAM use at idle, are on the list

What I tested

Package checks, make verify, signed archive, live rootfs checks, BIOS + UEFI boot in QEMU. A full install from the build 5 ISO in a VM, then: picked Starfall in Welcome and rebooted (bug showed up: login screen had Shapes), installed the fix, logged in once and rebooted (Starfall on the login screen), changed the wallpaper from the desktop mid-session and to my own picture, both showed up on the next boot. For VLC: installed real VLC in the VM, ran the new script with a faked NVIDIA module and VLC's settings showed hardware decoding disabled. I don't have an NVIDIA card here, so the green bars themselves aren't checked on real hardware. Clicked through the new Store in English and Russian and installed + opened an app from Debian with it.

Update test from build 5: installed the old build 5 ISO (Debian 13.6, kernora-desktop 1.4.30) offline in a VM, put Tower on the desktop, lock screen and login screen, then updated the normal way through Settings → Updates (99 updates). After the reboot: Debian 13.7, kernel 6.12.111, Tower replaced by Shapes everywhere (login screen too), What's new showed up. Then in the Store on that system: installed mpv from Flathub (1 GB download incl. runtime, progress worked), the Store launched it and uninstalled it, and installed, opened and removed galculator from Debian. (mpv itself crashed in my VM cause the VM has no 3D, that's mpv + VM graphics, not the Store.) Also fixed two small things I found there: What's new showed the Store item with a plain circle instead of an icon, and My apps → Updates said "up to date" twice. Those are in kernora-apps 1.1.40 and the ISO here is rebuilt with it.

For the 17 October rebuild: live rootfs checks and BIOS + UEFI boot in QEMU, then booted the ISO in a VM: the installer opened by itself right after the live session started, did a full install on an empty disk, logged into the new system and Welcome showed up, pressed Skip and it was gone from the app menu (and no installer on the installed system). The updates in the list above were each tried on an installed VM before they went out.

For the 24 October rebuild: live rootfs checks and BIOS + UEFI boot in QEMU, then booted the ISO in a VM, the installer opened by itself, did a full install on an empty disk (it pulled the latest Debian updates during the install, the kernel came out as 6.12.113). In the installed system Welcome showed up once, Quick Share was running and its app opened, packages were kernora-desktop 1.4.49, kernora-apps 1.1.58, kernora-quickshare 1.0.1. Quick Share itself was tested between two VMs before the updates went out (send, receive, decline, a 600 MB file) and from a real Android phone to a laptop. The quick settings fix was checked with the panel on all four sides.

Check the download

Put kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso and kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso.sha256 in the same folder and run:

sha256sum -c kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso.sha256

SHA-256: 5fc9e214b4db6b34fc0a1f18fc8f36fd4505b49fb071344960f25806b7cf0742

Running it

Flash it to a USB stick (GNOME Disks or balenaEtcher) and boot. BIOS and UEFI both work, Secure Boot isn't supported yet so turn it off in the firmware settings. The live session logs in by itself (password live if something asks). The installer opens by itself when the live session starts (or pick Install Kernora in the launcher).

Packages in this build: kernora-desktop / kernora-calamares 1.4.49, kernora-apps 1.1.58, kernora-quickshare 1.0.1, kernora-base 1.6.2, base-files 13.8+deb13u7+kernora2.

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RU: Сборка 6: свежий ISO на Debian 13.7 со всем, что вышло после сборки 5. Экран входа при включении теперь показывает ваши обои (и живые, и свою картинку), даже если вы выбрали их в «Добро пожаловать» или из меню рабочего стола. После обновления он подхватит их при первом входе. В VLC на видеокартах NVIDIA больше нет зелёных полос: аппаратное декодирование там выключено по умолчанию (включить обратно можно в настройках VLC → Ввод/кодеки). Плюс новый магазин в стиле Google Play, кнопка «Перезагрузить», инструменты терминала и фиксы виджетов. Обои «Башня» убраны. Если система уже стоит, переустанавливать не нужно: «Настройки → Обновления» и перезагрузка.

RU (пересборка 17 октября): тот же билд 6, но свежий ISO со всем, что вышло обновлениями. Установщик на флешке открывается сам, а после установки «Добро пожаловать» встречает один раз и пропадает из меню. Меню загрузки, заставка, экран входа и блокировки теперь в ваших цвет...

Kernora OS 1 "Ember" (development build 5)

Newer build: dev build 6 (login screen wallpaper + VLC on NVIDIA fixes). Installs from this one still get updates in Settings → Updates.

Dev build 5, the one with the Store. I keep updating this release instead of making new tags, so newest stuff is on top.

The ISO here is from Oct 15 (Debian 13.7). Already installed? Just go to Settings → Updates and reboot, you'll get everything below. The .deb files attached are only if you want to install something by hand.

Oct 15 — Debian 13.7 + new Store

Debian 13.7. Kernora is on Debian 13.7 now (kernora-base 1.6 + the rebased base-files), Live/installer kernel is Linux 6.12.111. Debian's own packages already came in through updates anyway, this mostly updates the base itself and the ISO.

The Store got redone, kinda like Google Play this time:

• tabs on top: Apps, Games, Categories, with search and My apps right next to them
• the big featured carousel and the "Popular" thing are gone. Apps tab is just rows per category, click a row title to see everything in it
• app pages have a stats row (rating, source, version), a big Install button, Uninstall + Open once it's installed, screenshots, ratings split by stars, and app info at the bottom
• updates and installed apps are in My apps
• apps that are on both Flathub and Debian don't show up twice anymore (VLC was listed two times lol), you pick the source on the app page

Tower wallpaper is gone. If you had it, you get Kernora Shapes instead on the desktop, lock screen and login screen, nothing to do.

Packages: kernora-desktop / kernora-calamares 1.4.31, kernora-apps 1.1.38, kernora-base 1.6, base-files 13.8+deb13u7+kernora1.

Tested: package checks, make verify, the signed archive, live rootfs checks, BIOS + UEFI boot in QEMU. Clicked through the whole Store in the Live session in English and Russian, installed and opened galculator from Debian with it. Didn't test a full install to disk with this exact ISO, and didn't install anything from Flathub this round.

ISO SHA-256: 5ef11d707bf70f3d99223fcd95dc96d44de02b065c54427be72fca08f01ac8dc

RU: Kernora теперь на Debian 13.7 (ядро 6.12.111). Магазин переделан в стиле Google Play: вкладки «Приложения / Игры / Категории» сверху, без большой карусели и «Популярного», на странице приложения оценки, версия, большая кнопка «Установить» и оценки по звёздам. Одинаковые приложения из Flathub и Debian больше не дублируются. Обои «Башня» убраны, вместо них «Фигуры Kernora». Обновление в «Настройки → Обновления», ISO тоже пересобран.

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Oct 14 — fixes from the tester bug list

Big batch of fixes from the bug list a tester sent me (thank you!!). The ISO was rebuilt with kernora-desktop / kernora-calamares 1.4.30, kernora-apps 1.1.37 and kernora-base 1.5.

• Reduce motion doesn't break the desktop anymore. Before, turning it on left an invisible quick settings panel over everything that ate all your clicks. Yeah, that one was bad
• widget toolbars close when you move the mouse away or leave edit mode, they don't hang around anymore
• the weather widget doesn't get squished on cloudy days. The cloud shape is a bit shorter than the others so the text just didn't fit lol
• live wallpapers only pause when a maximized or fullscreen window is on their monitor, also with mixed scaling
• album art in the media widget and quick settings retries if the download fails, so Spotify covers show up now
• system monitor widgets change colour with the theme. Colours you picked yourself stay
• Restart button in the launcher next to Shut Down, and in the shut down dialog. Finally
• the lock screen shows the wallpaper you set for it, live wallpapers too. The login screen shows the wallpaper an admin last picked in Settings
• terminal tools out of the box: git, curl, wget, htop, fastfetch, rsync, zip/unzip, 7zip, tree, lsof, man pages, ssh client and bash completion. Someone asked for neofetch, it's dead so fastfetch it is
• desktop icons don't end up under widgets anymore and stay put when screens change
• What's New explains all of this in English and Russian

Tested: package checks, make verify, the signed archive, live rootfs checks, BIOS + UEFI boot in QEMU, and I clicked around the live session. The desktop fixes I checked in a VM after updating from 1.4.28. I haven't tested NVIDIA-specific stuff or a real multi monitor setup on hardware, so if something's off there let me know.

ISO SHA-256 back then: e9464094ef593129f7943d0fcd986f7b1f98b5ef19d104a2814e4d12d6d74846 (replaced by the Oct 15 ISO above)

RU: Пачка фиксов из списка багов от тестера: «Уменьшить анимацию» больше не ломает рабочий стол, панельки виджетов сами закрываются, погода не сплющивается, живые обои встают на паузу только на своём мониторе, обложки Spotify подгружаются, системный монитор меняет цвет вместе с темой, появилась кнопка «Перезагрузить», на экранах блокировки и входа теперь ваши обои, и добавил git, htop, fastfetch, curl и другие штуки для терминала. Обновиться можно в «Настройки → Обновления», ISO тоже пересобран.

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Oct 13 — Live and installer language

• the Live boot menu starts in English by default now, Russian is right under it. Safe graphics boots in English. If Kernora is already installed on the disk the boot menu still picks it first
• in Calamares, picking a language translates the pages, buttons and sidebar right away, including the language picker on the location page. The welcome page follows it when you go back. City names get translated too, and date/number formats you picked separately stay as they are

Packages: calamares 3.3.14-1kernora2, kernora-desktop / kernora-calamares 1.4.28, kernora-apps 1.1.35. Installed systems get them through Settings → Updates, but the English default lives on the USB stick itself, so you need to reflash it with the new ISO for that.

Tested switching EN → RU → DE → EN in Calamares (sidebar, location page picker, going back, city names, final locale with separate formats) and BIOS/UEFI boot. Checked the English default and the Russian option in real Live sessions. Didn't redo a full install to disk for this one. More details

RU: Live-образ теперь по умолчанию на английском, русский можно выбрать в GRUB. Calamares сразу переводит страницы, кнопки и боковое меню, когда выбираешь язык. Форматы даты и чисел, выбранные отдельно, не сбрасываются. Чтобы получить новый Live, перезапишите флешку новым ISO.

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Oct 12 — Wi-Fi rollback (CS2 packet loss)

kernora-base 1.4 removes the automatic RTL8852CE power saving tweak I added in 1.3. kernora-apps 1.1.34 has a fixed What's New.

The tester said CS2 has packet loss and lag spikes, not a graphics freeze. I don't know the cause yet, so I rolled the tweak back to rule it out. This isn't a promised fix for the packet loss, and the original Wi-Fi disconnect report is still open.

Update in Settings → Updates, reboot, then try the same game again. Your saved connections and any changes you made yourself stay. NetworkManager isn't restarted during the update. The old tweak is still there as an example you can turn on yourself if you want: details.

Tested the 1.3 → 1.4 upgrade in a VM: the tweak is gone, admin files, saved profiles and the active connection survived. I don't have an RTL8852CE card, so the actual Wi-Fi behaviour isn't tested.

RU: В CS2 терялись пакеты и скакал пинг. Автоматическую настройку энергосбережения для RTL8852CE откатил в kernora-base 1.4. Обновитесь через «Настройки → Обновления», перезагрузитесь и проверьте игру ещё раз. Причину пока не знаю, на реальном адаптере не проверял.

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Oct 12 — Store redesign

kernora-apps 1.1.32 gives the Store a proper Material 3 look:

• tonal navigation and cards, a new app header, and layouts that work in small windows
• cards slide in one after another, hover/press feedback, screenshots fade in
• animations follow the desktop speed setting. The featured carousel pauses when you hover it and stops if animations are off
• category cards and the featured apps work with the keyboard

Get it in Settings → Updates, then log out and back in to see What's New.

RU: Магазин 1.1.32 получил нормальный дизайн Material 3: новая навигация, карточки, страница приложения подстраивается под маленькие окна, больше плавных анимаций. Обновление в «Настройки → Обновления», потом выйдите и зайдите снова.

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The Store

New in build 5 is Kernora Store, cause alot of people don't want to touch the terminal (fair). It finds apps and games from Flathub and Debian. Search, browse categories, look at screenshots and ratings, choose where to install from, then install, open and remove apps, no terminal needed.

• Flatpak app and runtime updates are in the Store, system and Debian updates stay in Settings
• opening a .deb, .flatpakref or an appstream: link works too
• if an update check fails you get a retry button, and installs keep going if you close the window
• 1.1.31 fixed launching: installed Flatpaks start from the exact place they were installed, Debian apps use their own launcher

About the VM freezing during installs that someone reported: that was the host running out of disk space, libvirt paused the VM on I/O errors. With free space on the host the same VM finished Debian and Flatpak installs fine, including the 99% part. Write-up

Tested: package checks, 22 UI scenarios (dark/light, wide/narrow windows), catalogue smoke test (350 video results, 1121 games), install, launch and What's New in QEMU.

Kernora OS 1 "Ember" (development build 4)

Newer build: dev build 6. Installs from this one still get updates in Settings → Updates.

Dev build 4 of Kernora OS 1 "Ember". Fresh image with everything since build 3, plus firmware so it actually runs on real hardware.

Refreshed the image on Oct 11. If you downloaded build 4 before that, grab it again and check the SHA-256 below. What changed:

• in the live session Settings › Updates doesn't download updates into a system that's gonna be thrown away anyway. It tells you the installer updates the new system and offers to start it
• the lock screen stopped asking for a fingerprint or smartcard on PCs that don't even have a reader
• new users see the same profile picture in the app menu, lock screen and Settings, the wallpaper frame in Welcome is properly rounded again, and a notifications error is fixed

Hardware

• firmware for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA graphics, Intel, Realtek, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Broadcom Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, laptop sound (SOF) and CPU microcode. AMD integrated graphics don't stop with "Fatal error during GPU init" anymore, and Wi-Fi works on most laptops
• sharp window previews in the panel, also in VMs without 3D

Installing

• if you're online, the installer installs the latest updates into the new system before it finishes
• after installing, the PC starts the installed Kernora even if the USB is still plugged in, the boot menu picks "Installed system" by default

Desktop

• Material 3 widgets: clock, At a Glance, weather, batteries, calendar, now playing, photo and note, with my own widget picker ("Add or Manage Widgets…" when you right-click the desktop)
• a new edit mode in Kernora style, works in every Material generation and in light and dark
• colour themes in every Material colour, text and icons stay readable in all of them
• live wallpapers Starfall and Pastel (Pastel replaces Marble Run)
• Kernora profile pictures, and your picture shows in the app menu
• after a kernel panic the PC restarts by itself and Kernora tells you what happened

Known issues

• NVIDIA RTX 50 cards aren't supported by the Debian 13 kernel yet, they run without acceleration. If the screen stays black pick "Safe graphics" in the boot menu
• not signed for Secure Boot yet, turn it off in your firmware settings to boot

What I tested: BIOS and UEFI boot, a full UEFI install in QEMU that updated itself online and rebooted into the installed system, and a BIOS boot with the USB still first in boot order (it opened the installed system like it should).

ISO and its SHA256 file are below.
SHA-256: b104873375a7869a6dc9cc885316405ed49f95986620b23afd1b8aaa0469e1a4

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Сборка 4 Kernora OS 1 «Ember» — свежий образ со всем что вышло после сборки 3 и прошивками для нормального железа.

Образ обновил 11 октября. Если уже качали сборку 4 — скачайте заново и сверьте SHA-256 выше. Что поменялось: в Live-сессии «Настройки › Обновления» больше не качают обновления в систему, которая всё равно не сохранится, а предлагают сразу установить; экран блокировки больше не просит палец или смарт-карту, если считывателя нет; фото профиля одинаковое в меню, на экране блокировки и в настройках; рамка обоев в «Добро пожаловать» снова скруглённая; починил ошибку уведомлений.

• Железо: прошивки для видеокарт AMD, Intel и NVIDIA, Wi-Fi Intel, Realtek, Qualcomm, MediaTek и Broadcom, Bluetooth, звука ноутбуков и микрокод процессоров. Встроенная графика AMD больше не падает с «Fatal error during GPU init», Wi-Fi работает на большинстве ноутбуков. Чёткие превью окон в панели, и в виртуалках тоже.
• Установка: если есть интернет, установщик сам ставит свежие обновления. После установки грузится установленная Kernora, даже если флешка не вынута.
• Рабочий стол: виджеты Material 3 и свой выбор виджетов («Добавить или изменить виджеты…» в меню рабочего стола), новый режим редактирования, цветовые темы во всех цветах Material, живые обои «Звездопад» и «Пастель» («Пастель» заменила «Горку»), аватарки Kernora, понятный экран после сбоя ядра.
• Пока не работает: RTX 50 ядро Debian 13 ещё не поддерживает, они без ускорения; если экран чёрный — выберите «Safe graphics» в меню загрузки. Secure Boot пока не поддерживается, выключите его в BIOS/UEFI.

Kernora OS 1 "Ember" (development build 3)

Newer build: dev build 6. Installs from this one still get updates in Settings → Updates.

This one fixes the black screen after installing from the Live image (QEMU with QXL graphics too).

• the ISO had the wrong owner on the root of the filesystem. It's root:root with 0755 now, and the installer and kernora-base fix it on existing installs as well (home folders aren't touched)
• Plymouth lets go of the display before SDDM starts, so going from the splash to the login screen works on QXL
• already installed? You'll get kernora-base 1.2, kernora-desktop/kernora-calamares 1.4.6 and kernora-apps 1.1.10 in Settings > Updates. Restart after

I tested it on a copy of the broken QEMU disk: it gets to the login screen now with a normal cold BIOS/GRUB boot. The new ISO passes the BIOS and UEFI boot tests and the ownership checks.

If an older install can't even get to the login screen, do the recovery steps first and then update.

ISO and its sha256 are below. Still a dev pre-release.

RU: Починил чёрный экран после установки из Live-образа (и в QEMU с QXL тоже). Если система загружается — откройте «Настройки → Обновления», поставьте обновления и перезагрузитесь. Если до экрана входа не доходит, сначала сделайте шаги восстановления по ссылке выше.

Rebuilt on Oct 11

Same image is also up as dev build 4.

The ISO now has everything since build 3:

• hardware: firmware for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA graphics, Intel/Realtek/Qualcomm/MediaTek/Broadcom Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, laptop sound and CPU microcode. AMD integrated graphics don't die with "Fatal error during GPU init" anymore and Wi-Fi works on most laptops. NVIDIA RTX 50 isn't supported by the Debian 13 kernel yet, so those cards run without acceleration ("Safe graphics" in the boot menu is still there)
• up to date right after install: if you're online, the installer pulls the latest updates into the new system before it finishes
• boots the right thing: after installing it starts the installed Kernora even with the USB still plugged in
• plus everything else since build 3: Material 3 desktop widgets and a widget picker, new edit mode, Starfall and Pastel wallpapers (Pastel replaces Marble Run), colour themes, a friendlier kernel panic screen, sharp window previews in VMs and more

SHA-256: b104873375a7869a6dc9cc885316405ed49f95986620b23afd1b8aaa0469e1a4

RU: Пересобрал 11 октября (тот же образ что и в сборке 4). Внутри всё после сборки 3: прошивки для видеокарт AMD/Intel/NVIDIA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth и звука (встроенная графика AMD больше не падает с «Fatal error during GPU init», Wi-Fi работает на большинстве ноутбуков), установщик сам ставит свежие обновления если есть интернет, после установки грузится установленная система даже если флешка не вынута, плюс виджеты Material 3, новый режим редактирования, обои «Звездопад» и «Пастель» и куча всего ещё. RTX 50 ядро Debian 13 пока не поддерживает, они работают без ускорения.

Kernora OS 1 "Ember" (development build 2)

Theres a newer build: dev build 6. If you installed from this one you still get updates in Settings → Updates, no need to reinstall.

Second test build. Live system from USB, install from there. Still a dev build so things will keep changing.

Rebuilt on Oct 8

Rebuilt the ISO with everything since Oct 4:

• after installing, the PC boots the installed Kernora even if the USB stick/ISO is still in. The boot menu finds it and makes it the default
• notifications when updates are ready or when you need to restart, plus a "What's new" window after each update
• Kernora sounds, and a bunch of new Settings pages: shortcuts, accounts, fonts, more accessibility options, sound devices, formats, keyboard and pointer, power, screen arrangement
• Ctrl+Alt+T opens the terminal
• less random KDE windows popping up: Files handles same-name files itself, KDE's crash reporter got replaced with a small notification, and LibreWolf dialogs match the Kernora style

Updates are here

Installed systems actually get updates now:

• Debian security updates (kernel included) and LibreWolf updates install on their own once a day
• Debian point releases and Kernora's own packages show up in Settings > Updates. It asks for your password and installs them
• Kernora packages come from the Kernora package archive, signed with the Kernora OS Archive Signing Key (76EE FBDB 0D37 0DF1 0617 45C3 8AD5 1AE6 FA0E F01C)

Installs from the first build don't get updates, sorry about that. Reinstall from this one or follow the steps at the end of docs/UPDATES.md.

What's inside

• Debian 13.6 (snapshot from 2026-09-01), Linux 6.12, KDE Plasma 6.3.6, Qt 6.8. Updates bring it up to current Debian 13
• the Kernora shell on Plasma: launcher, quick settings, notifications, lock screen, Alt+Tab and the power menu. Material 1, 2 or 3 look, switchable in Settings
• Kernora apps instead of KDE's: Settings, Files, Text Editor, Photos, Media Player, Calculator, Screenshot, Terminal and Welcome
• live wallpapers: Shapes, Tower, Rhythm and Marble Run
• Kernora cursors, LibreWolf as the browser
• reskinned Calamares installer
• English and Russian

Check the download

Put kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso and kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso.sha256 in the same folder and run:

sha256sum -c kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso.sha256

SHA-256: 0bfedcdcd9ce6b23ce1fc7103d4c1467c92e163dfc8347f29e4ed97eb1d5b985

Running it

Flash it to a USB stick (GNOME Disks or balenaEtcher) and boot. BIOS and UEFI both work, Secure Boot doesn't yet. The live session logs in by itself, the password is live if anything asks. To install, open the launcher and pick Install Kernora.

Kernora OS 1 "Ember" (development build)

Old build! Grab dev build 6 instead. Installs from this one dont get updates.

First test build of Kernora OS 🎉 It boots as a live system from a USB stick and you can install it from there.

Heads up, it's a dev build. Stuff will change and the packages are signed with a dev key for now, not a proper release key.

What's inside

• Debian 13.6 (snapshot from 2026-09-01), Linux 6.12, KDE Plasma 6.3.6, Qt 6.8
• my own shell on top of Plasma: launcher, quick settings, notifications, lock screen, Alt+Tab and the power menu. You can switch the whole look between Material 1, 2 and 3 in Settings
• Kernora apps instead of the KDE ones: Settings, Files, Text Editor, Photos, Media Player, Calculator, Screenshot, Terminal and Welcome
• live wallpapers: Shapes, Tower, Rhythm and Marble Run
• Kernora cursors, LibreWolf as the browser
• reskinned Calamares installer
• English and Russian

Check the download

Put kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso and kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso.sha256 in the same folder and run:

sha256sum -c kernora-1-ember-live-amd64.iso.sha256

SHA-256: 2a6c00b823676a57d5f929d901701b00ae8d92f1bbf3e7047700bc190b3fc923

Running it

Flash it to a USB stick (GNOME Disks or balenaEtcher work fine) and boot from it. BIOS and UEFI both work, Secure Boot doesn't yet. The live session logs in by itself. To install, open the launcher and hit Install Kernora.