melon 0.5.2 “Esfahan”

melon 0.5.2 “Esfahan”

melon releases are named after melon varieties, in alphabetical order. 0.5.2 fixes the graphical installer.

Get it

Download melon-desktop-YYYYMMDD-x86_64.iso, write it to a USB stick with Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd, and boot from it. Try melon in the live session, then install it from there.

_{melon-YYYYMMDD-x86_64.iso is the console edition: no desktop, just a terminal, for people who barely want a computer. Check either download against SHA256SUMS.}

Already on melon? Run doas apk upgrade and restart.

What's new

• The installer on the desktop works again. Installing from the 0.5 and 0.5.1 desktop ISOs stopped with "Command unsquashfs finished with exit code 2". It now installs.
• Stronger passwords. The installer saved passwords in a way that only counted their first 8 characters, and the text console refused them. Passwords are now stored properly. If you installed with 0.5 or 0.5.1, change your password once with passwd to get the same.
• No more "Could not unmount revokefs-fuse filesystem" when you install Flatpak apps.
• Everything from 0.5.1 is still here: working password prompts, Flathub ready from the start, time zones and 12- or 24-hour time.

Coming next

• More polish for the desktop, and fixes from your reports.
• More apps in the online package repository.

Problems?

If something on your hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport and attach the file it writes to an issue on GitHub.

melon 0.5.1 “Esfahan” (superseded)

Superseded by melon 0.5.2, which fixes the graphical installer.

melon 0.5.1 “Esfahan”

melon releases are named after melon varieties, in alphabetical order. 0.5.1 fixes what broke in 0.5.

Get it

Download melon-desktop-20261017-x86_64.iso, write it to a USB stick with Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd, and boot from it. Try melon in the live session, then install it from there.

_{melon-20261017-x86_64.iso is the console edition: no desktop, just a terminal, for people who barely want a computer. Check either download against SHA256SUMS.}

Already on melon? Run doas apk upgrade and restart.

What's new

• Password prompts work again. In 0.5, every window that asked for your password failed: adding Flathub, installing from Discover, the "Update melon" button and unlocking the screen.
• Flathub is ready from the start. It comes set up, so Discover and the first-login app offer never ask for a password just to add it.
• Your time zone and clock format. Date & Time in System Settings now lists every time zone and saves your choice, "Set date and time automatically" works, and 12- or 24-hour time follows Region & Language. Websites that check your browser stop tripping over a clock stuck on UTC.
• No more Flatpak warning about a missing flatpak user when you install apps.
• Steadier Wi-Fi on desktops installed with the console installer: NetworkManager is the only thing managing the card now.
• Everything new in 0.5 is still here: smaller downloads, the welcome window, updates without the terminal, your usual folders, Linux 7.0 and NVIDIA support.

Coming next

• More polish for the desktop, and fixes from your reports.
• More apps in the online package repository.

Problems?

If something on your hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport and attach the file it writes to an issue on GitHub.

melon 0.5 “Esfahan”

melon 0.5 “Esfahan”

melon releases are named after melon varieties, in alphabetical order.

Get it

Download melon-desktop-20261017-x86_64.iso, write it to a USB stick with Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd, and boot from it. Try melon in the live session, then install it from there.

_{melon-20261017-x86_64.iso is the console edition: no desktop, just a terminal, for people who barely want a computer. Check either download against SHA256SUMS.}

Already on melon? Run doas apk upgrade and restart.

What's new

• Smaller downloads. The desktop ISO is down to about 626 MB from 794 MB, and the console ISO to about 247 MB from 380 MB. Nothing you need was removed: every translation is still there, and rarely needed firmware is one apk add away.
• A welcome window greets you on first boot, with your folders, updates, games and links in one place.
• Updates without the terminal. An "Update melon" button, and a notice in the tray when updates are waiting.
• Your usual folders are there. Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos are created for every new user.
• Newer kernel and NVIDIA support. Linux 7.0 with melon's tuned kernel, plus NVIDIA's open driver for recent NVIDIA cards.
• A calmer boot menu, and melon now says "melon 0.5" everywhere, with a sharper logo.
• Fixes: the power-mode switch works from the terminal (powerprofilesctl), and apps can add their own device rules again.
• melon now builds itself. This release was built and tested entirely on a PC running melon.

Coming next

• More polish for the desktop, and fixes from your reports.
• More apps in the online package repository.

Problems?

If something on your hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport and attach the file it writes to an issue on GitHub.

melon 0.4 “Dudaim”

Superseded by melon 0.5 “Esfahan”.

melon 0.4 “Dudaim”: the console installer's new name, look and sound, and 0.3's faster startup for existing installs (9 October 2026). melon releases are named after melon varieties, in alphabetical order.

Which file? Most people want melon-desktop-20261009-x86_64.iso (KDE Plasma on Wayland, live session and installer). Write it to a USB stick (Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd) and boot it. melon-20261009-x86_64.iso is the console-only edition. Check your download against SHA256SUMS.

What's new since 0.3

• The quick console installer has a new name, a new theme song and a new intro. It is still hidden: if you know its name, type it in the live session's shell. The old name no longer works. Its intro draws a melon rolling off a cliff at dusk, in true colour on terminals that support it and in the 16 console colours on a plain Linux console. The new song also plays under the graphical installer.
• For existing installs: the online package repository now has melon-base 0.1-r36 (the new installer, and 0.3's startup that no longer waits for every device to be probed, plus melon-boottime), melon-sounds 1.0-r1 (the new song) and eudev 3.2.14-r2, which that startup needs. Run doas apk upgrade, then restart. The new kernel, GRUB, runit and breeze packages are not online yet, so the faster reading of the live image, the hidden one-second boot menu, runit's faster service checks and the smaller GRUB and wallpaper still only come with these ISOs.
• Updated packages: melon-base 0.1-r36, melon-sounds 1.0-r1 and eudev 3.2.14-r2 (online and on the ISOs); linux-melon 7.0.0-r5, runit 2.3.0-r1, grub 2.14-r3 and breeze 6.6.4-r1 (on the ISOs only, from 0.3).
• A little smaller: the desktop ISO is 794 MB (803 MB in 0.3) and the console ISO 380 MB (385 MB). The new song file is a third of the old one's size.

How it was tested

Built and tested on the same Windows 10 laptop as 0.3 (WSL2, Ubuntu 24.04), where QEMU has no hardware virtualization, so every VM ran in software emulation. All packages, the repository index and the ISOs' package repositories are signed with the melon key.

Passed, on the console ISO:

• qemu-test.py live: boot the ISO and run the unattended console install (BIOS); the sound card's output during the install is the new song;
• qemu-test.py disk and disk --uefi: boot the installed system with BIOS and with UEFI;
• the installer started on the VM's screen (the real Linux console, 16 colours), answered through the virtual keyboard: the new intro draws correctly and the install finishes.

On the desktop ISO:

• it boots and logs in on the serial console, and the console installer installs from it (qemu-test.py live).
• Not run: the Plasma tests (desktop, desktop-install). Plasma doesn't finish starting under software emulation; they need a machine with hardware virtualization. Plasma itself is unchanged since 0.3, which the owner booted on a real PC.

Not run without KVM: the --luks, dualboot, --offline and --vmware variants.

Problems?

If hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport and attach the file it writes to an issue.

melon 0.3 “Cantaloupe” (superseded)

Superseded by melon 0.4 “Dudaim”.

melon 0.3 “Cantaloupe”: a faster-booting, smaller build of the 0.2 system (9 October 2026). melon releases are named after melon varieties, in alphabetical order. It was built and checked on a machine without hardware virtualization, so not every test could run: please read “How it was tested” below, in particular that the desktop ISO has not been checked as far as a working desktop.

Which file? Most people want melon-desktop-20261008-x86_64.iso (KDE Plasma on Wayland, live session and installer). Write it to a USB stick (Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd) and boot it. melon-20261008-x86_64.iso is the console-only edition. Check your download against SHA256SUMS.

What's new since 0.2

• Faster boot.
  • An installed melon with no other operating system next to it skips its boot menu after 1 second (hold Shift or press Esc to open it; next to Windows the menu still shows for 5 seconds). GRUB_TIMEOUT and GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE in /etc/default/grub change this.
  • Startup no longer waits for every device to be probed: on the desktop, stage 1 mounts as soon as the disks are there, and the graphics driver, Wi-Fi and sound finish while the services start. The kernel option melon.udev=sync brings the old, slower order back if a machine misbehaves.
  • Services that wait for each other check every 20 ms instead of every 0.42 s.
  • New command melon-boottime shows where a boot's time went.
• Faster live session and installs. The kernel reads the ISO's compressed image on all cores at once (SQUASHFS_COMPILE_DECOMP_MULTI_PERCPU, SQUASHFS_FILE_DIRECT).
• Smaller. GRUB's build leftovers (36 MB on disk) and two unused sizes of the default wallpaper (24 MB) are gone. The desktop ISO is 803 MB (837 MB in 0.2); the console ISO is 385 MB (396 MB).
• Updated packages: linux-melon 7.0.0-r5, runit 2.3.0-r1, eudev 3.2.14-r2, grub 2.14-r3, melon-base 0.1-r34, breeze 6.6.4-r1.

Existing installs don't get these packages yet

The new packages above are not in the online package repository yet, so updating an existing melon install does not bring them in: for now they only come with these ISOs.

How it was tested

Built and tested on a Windows 10 laptop (WSL2, Ubuntu 24.04), where hardware virtualization is not available to QEMU (Windows 10 can't pass it through on this AMD CPU), so every VM ran in software emulation. All packages and the repository index on the ISOs are signed with the melon key.

Ran and passed, on the console ISO:

• qemu-test.py live: boot the ISO and run the unattended install (BIOS);
• qemu-test.py disk: boot the installed system (BIOS) and check it;
• qemu-test.py disk --uefi: boot the same disk with UEFI;
• melon-boottime on the installed system, and a boot with melon.udev=sync on the kernel line.

Ran on the desktop ISO, but failed at the end under software emulation, so the desktop ISO is unverified:

• qemu-test.py desktop-install (install the desktop ISO, boot the installed system, log in through SDDM, Plasma). The install finished (427 s) and the installed system booted; its checks of services, the MIME cache, Flatpak's X11 authorization, file ownership, printing and the gauntlet rewards passed. It then failed: Plasma was not running 20 seconds after login, the greeter was reported as restarted or without a session, and after an SDDM restart the gold greeter was not running; the screenshots it took are black. Software emulation is very slow, so this may be the emulation and not the ISO, but that has not been shown. The desktop ISO has not been checked as far as a working desktop: that needs a run with hardware virtualization or on real hardware (see “On real hardware” below for a first boot).

Not run, without KVM:

• qemu-test.py desktop (the live Plasma session: services, USB stick, printing, Wi-Fi).
• The --luks (encrypted root), dualboot (next to Windows), --offline and --vmware variants.
• The udev start-up change only exists on the desktop profile (the console profile uses mdev), so its effect has not been measured here.

On real hardware:

• The owner booted the desktop ISO on a real PC, and it booted fine.

Problems?

If hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport in Konsole and attach the file it writes to an issue.

melon 32-bit (i686) test build, 7 October 2026

melon 32-bit (i686) test build, 7 October 2026

A test build of melon for 32-bit PCs. This is a pre-release; the main download stays on melon 0.2.

Which file to pick

• melon-desktop-20261007-i686.iso (633 MB): the LXQt desktop. Pick this one for netbooks like the MSI Wind U100.
• melon-20261007-i686.iso (379 MB): console only, no desktop.

Tested so far

Tested in QEMU on an emulated Atom N270 with 2 GB of RAM. It has not been tried on real hardware yet. If you try it, please send the output of sudo melon-hwreport.

Not included

NetHack and the QEMU guest agent are not in this build.

Check your download

Compare the SHA-256 of your download with SHA256SUMS:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

On Windows PowerShell: Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 <file>

melon 0.2 “Bailan” (superseded)

Superseded by melon 0.3 “Cantaloupe”.

melon 0.2 “Bailan”: the second named release (29 September 2026). melon releases are named after melon varieties, in alphabetical order.

This release has the desktop (KDE Plasma on Wayland) live ISO and installer, and the small console ISO.

Which file? Most people want melon-desktop-20260929-x86_64.iso. Write it to a USB stick (Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd) and boot it: the live session starts Plasma on its own, and "Install melon" on the desktop installs it. It can install next to Windows (shrink Windows first, leave at least 20 GB free). melon-20260929-x86_64.iso is the console-only edition. Check your download against SHA256SUMS.

New since the morning build

• A much smaller download. The desktop ISO is about 835 MB instead of 1.3 GB, and every install uses about 450 MB less disk. It used to carry a second copy of the whole desktop for offline use; apps now come from melon's online repository, and installing still works with no network.
• Rust on melon:
  • doas apk add rust cargo gives you the Rust compiler and cargo, built for melon;
  • ripgrep (rg) is the first melon package written in Rust.
• A new install option: "Remove everything built with Rust". It's in the graphical installer's gauntlet page and in the console installer. It removes every Rust-built package and whatever depends on it, with no safeguards, and it earns its own wallpaper.
• More in the package repository:
  • Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, the survival roguelike (terminal version: doas apk add cataclysm-dda);
  • GNU gettext (msgfmt, xgettext, envsubst, …).
• From the morning build, in case you missed it:
  • Steam and VLC open again;
  • melon pinball;
  • NetHack;
  • gcc/g++, make and friends;
  • the new look;
  • the reworked gauntlet.

Already installed melon?

Run doas apk upgrade to get the updates. The smaller-ISO change only affects new installs.

Problems?

If hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport in Konsole and attach the file it writes to an issue.

melon 0.1 “Antalya” (superseded)

Superseded by melon 0.2 “Bailan” (a smaller 835 MB desktop ISO, Rust): download that one instead.

Test build of melon, 29 September 2026: the desktop (KDE Plasma on Wayland) live ISO and installer, and the small console ISO.

Which file? Most people want melon-desktop-20260929-x86_64.iso. Write it to a USB stick (Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd) and boot it: the live session starts Plasma on its own, and "Install melon" on the desktop installs it. It can install next to Windows (shrink Windows first, leave at least 20 GB free). melon-20260929-x86_64.iso is the console-only edition. Check your download against SHA256SUMS.

New since the last build

• Steam and VLC open again. Flatpak apps that use X11 (Steam, VLC's interface) couldn't open a window, because Flatpak didn't give them Xwayland's authorization cookie. Fixed.
• melon pinball: melon's own pinball game, set on the melon planet, with real ball physics, missions and Harvest runs. It's in the launcher.
• NetHack 5.0.0 on both editions.
• Developer tools: gcc and g++ 15.2, binutils, make, pkgconf and patch that run on melon (doas apk add gcc g++ make). The welcome window on first login offers them (default no).
• A new look:
  • melon's own login screen, boot menu theme, Plasma style, Konsole colours and lock screen;
  • a new loading screen and wallpaper.
• The gauntlet, reworked:
  • the installer's 200 questions are shuffled on every run;
  • after them, an optional final trial of 50 real questions against the clock (the last 20 must be flawless);
  • surviving it earns melon in gold: a gold login screen, boot menu, colours and Plasma style, three wallpapers, a certificate and a badge.
• Security: some system files (service scripts, /etc/profile.d, installer helpers) were owned by the nobody account on installed systems, so a process running as nobody could have changed files that root runs. They belong to root now.
• melon-hwreport now also covers graphics, sound, Bluetooth, power, the session and services (sudo melon-hwreport writes one file to attach to a problem report).

Already installed melon?

Run doas apk upgrade. It brings all of the above (except the ISO-only look of the live session). It also moves your system to the new package address: melon now lives at github.com/melon-77/melon-os.

Problems?

If hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport in Konsole and attach the file it writes to an issue.

melon desktop test build (2026-09-28, superseded)

Superseded by the 29 September build: download that one instead.

Test build of the melon desktop (KDE Plasma on Wayland) live ISO, 28 September 2026.

Write it to a USB stick (Rufus, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or dd) and boot it; the live session starts Plasma on its own,
and "Install melon" on the desktop installs it.

New in this build: laptop touchpads (I2C HID on AMD and Intel), Wi-Fi cards whose interface appears after the firmware
loads (MediaTek MT7921 and others), USB drives, printing, screen recording codecs, a new wallpaper and loading screen.

If hardware doesn't work, run sudo melon-hwreport in Konsole and attach the file it writes.

Check the download against SHA256SUMS.