ABSD Developer Preview 2

ABSD Developer Preview 2

ABSD is an experimental operating system. This preview lets you download verified images, create a machine with your own SSH key, and boot it under QEMU. Log in over SSH, use the shell and native tools, read and change files, shut down cleanly, and reboot the same machine to keep your files. No compiler or source checkout is needed for this path.

Since Developer Preview 1 (absd-preview-rc1):

• Downloaded disks contain no login keys, host keys or local-console credentials. You supply your own SSH key when creating a machine.
• Ctrl-C in absd-try requests a clean shutdown. If shutdown cannot be confirmed, it leaves the machine running and prints recovery instructions. A second Ctrl-C forces a stop.
• afterboot(8) now starts with instructions for downloaded previews.
• The shell has more scripting support, terminal editing and history. SFTP and tools for inspecting processes, network interfaces, kernel messages and retained service logs are included.
• The default disk is 128 MiB, up from 64 MiB.

Start with QUICKSTART.md. The files are unsigned: verify SHA256SUMS and run the helper's verification before creating a machine.

Corresponding source:

The documented public recipe completed a fresh local construction, including operator media validation, blank-disk checks and enrollment tests. All 45 embedded program ELFs match the sealed kernels. The measured operator and enrollment code/data differences have bounded explanations in two declared label curations and relocated references. Enrollment reconstruction needs CARGO_INCREMENTAL=0, which the recipe now sets. This does not establish whole-image or runtime equivalence; image metadata and all non-symbol read-only data have not been exhaustively normalized.

A separate cleanroom on a fresh cloud VM also completed the public fetch and build, operator media validation, blank-disk checks, and 16 enrollment cases (61 checks). Its operator ISO matches the local construction. All 45 embedded program ELFs in both its operator and enrollment kernels match the sealed release. All three raw media differ from the sealed release; the enrollment ISO also differs from the local construction, with packaging outside its extracted kernel and GRUB unexamined. The cloud kernel check failed at the disclosed Clippy lint; the all/platform checks were not runnable because the host lacked KVM.

Source preparation found and fixed six public-recipe defects: SSH staging inside verified source, missing provenance-checker wheels, Git discovery under an enclosing repository, duplicated fetch logic, Python bytecode escaping into source, and enrollment's incremental-build setting. These fixes repair construction and host tooling; they do not change the preview's kernel or native program source.

Known issues:

• tools/check.sh kernel fails its Clippy lint step on collapsible_if in user/src/bin/init.rs. This lint has no runtime effect. The full public kernel check remains failed.
• fuzz-test fails because its compiled self-test tries to multi-start a legacy-entry program, which the kernel refuses as its documented entry convention requires. The valid 64-copy capacity case is therefore unexercised in this preview.
• The other 16 later kernel targets completed successfully in separate diagnostics. Their built-in skips remain: ACPI's UEFI case and TSC's KVM-only control. The last eight targets' phase footer is missing; their original exit 0 and complete target log are retained. These results do not make the full public check pass.

Both known check failures are fixed on the development branch for the next preview. The sealed Preview 2 binaries and corresponding compiled source retain the original failures.

Limits:

• QEMU only. The guide uses TCG; KVM is selectable on suitable hosts. Physical hardware is unsupported by this preview.
• SSH access only through absd-try; it provides no interactive local console. This profile uses one CPU.
• This is not for production. There are no stability or security guarantees.
• An unclean stop can require recovery before writable operation resumes.
• The scripted QEMU TCG rehearsal passed from private staging, including file persistence across three boots and graceful Ctrl-C recovery. Outsider testing and a public-download rehearsal have not run.

Built from kernel 919f0676eacbdd06bfa17e1da9d951fb374e3a1b and platform 0b002f732b1d11ec503868d99896c6bd5db80757. NOTICES.md contains the licence notices. The exact GRUB and GNU Unifont corresponding source remains included in boot-corresponding-source.tar. Matching curated first-party source records this kernel/platform pair separately; this binary manifest does not record a source_commit field. The source tree records its export adaptations; byte-for-byte reproduction is not claimed.

Please open an issue with feedback, the release name and the steps needed to reproduce a problem.