What · Quick Start · Docs · Roadmap · Changelog · Security · Contributing

---

🖥️ Preview

_{E-OS 0.1.0 “Genesis” — the COSMIC desktop, booted under QEMU/KVM.}

_{The red/black E-OS login greeter — wallpaper and launcher icon built from source.}

_{The red-on-black E-OS bootloader — themed and built from source.}

---

⚡ What is E-OS

E-OS is a modern, memory-safe operating system written in Rust. It is a downstream distribution of Redox OS — building on Redox's proven microkernel foundation while pursuing its own identity, roadmap, and hardening goals.

E-OS is not a from-scratch OS, and never claims to be. It stands on the shoulders of Redox OS (MIT) and the Rust ecosystem. Our work is the distribution: curation, hardening, branding, tooling, documentation, and the features on the roadmap. Credit to upstream is permanent — see Built on Redox OS.

Why E-OS?

🦀 Rust everywhere	Kernel, drivers, libc (relibc) and userland in a language that eliminates whole classes of memory-safety bugs.
🧩 True microkernel	Drivers, filesystems and the network stack run in user space as isolated processes. A driver crash isn't a kernel panic.
🔐 Capability-secure	Everything is a scheme (URL-like resource). Least-privilege by construction — the AGPL-3.0 license keeps derivatives open.
🖥️ COSMIC desktop	Ships the System76 COSMIC desktop environment, also written in Rust.
📦 Reproducible builds	Containerized (Podman) build system, pinned toolchain; patched recipes pinned to E-OS source forks, so a fresh clone reproduces every branding change.

---

✨ Highlights

• Microkernel architecture — minimal trusted computing base; servers in userspace.
• relibc — a clean-room C library in Rust (Linux + Redox targets).
• RedoxFS — a modern, copy-on-write, optionally-encrypted filesystem.
• Everything-is-a-scheme — uniform, capability-style resource model.
• COSMIC — a fast, modern Rust desktop.
• Source-compatible — runs many Rust, Linux and BSD programs via the cookbook.
• Dual-arch — builds for x86_64 and aarch64. x86_64 boots end-to-end under QEMU/KVM to the COSMIC desktop; the aarch64 E-OS bootloader boots under QEMU virt. (proof)

---

🧱 Architecture

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#E50914','primaryTextColor':'#ffffff','primaryBorderColor':'#E50914','lineColor':'#E50914','secondaryColor':'#1f1f1f','tertiaryColor':'#0b0b0b','fontFamily':'Fira Code'}}}%%
flowchart TD
    subgraph US["User space"]
        APPS["Applications · COSMIC desktop · CLI"]
        LIBS["relibc · libstd · ion shell"]
        SRV["User-space servers<br/>drivers · redoxfs · netstack · orbital"]
    end
    subgraph KS["Kernel space"]
        K["E-OS microkernel<br/>scheduling · memory · IPC · schemes"]
    end
    HW["Hardware — x86_64 &amp; aarch64 UEFI · NVMe · e1000 · xHCI · HDA"]

    APPS --> LIBS --> SRV
    SRV <-->|"syscalls · scheme IPC"| K
    K --> HW

    classDef red fill:#E50914,stroke:#E50914,color:#fff;
    classDef dark fill:#1a1a1a,stroke:#E50914,color:#fff;
    class K red;
    class APPS,LIBS,SRV,HW dark;

Loading

Everything a program touches — files, devices, pipes, the display — is a scheme, accessed through a URL-like path (file:, disk:, display: …). Drivers and services are ordinary user-space processes that provide schemes, so the kernel stays small and faults stay contained.

---

🧰 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	Rust (nightly, pinned) + a little assembly
Kernel	Custom microkernel (x86_64, UEFI boot)
libc	relibc (Rust)
Filesystem	RedoxFS (CoW, encryptable)
Desktop	COSMIC (System76)
Drivers	user-space: nvmed, e1000d, xhcid, ihdad, ahcid, …
Build	Podman containers · cookbook · pkgar packages
Emulation	QEMU 10 + KVM, OVMF (UEFI)
CI / Quality	GitHub Actions · CodeQL · gitleaks · Dependabot

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'pie1':'#E50914','pie2':'#b00610','pie3':'#7a0a14','pie4':'#3d3d3d','pie5':'#1a1a1a','pieStrokeColor':'#0b0b0b','pieOuterStrokeColor':'#0b0b0b','pieTitleTextColor':'#E50914','pieSectionTextColor':'#ffffff','fontFamily':'Fira Code'}}}%%
pie showData title E-OS source composition (approx.)
    "Rust" : 88
    "Assembly" : 4
    "Shell / build" : 5
    "Config / docs" : 3

Loading

---

🚀 Quick Start

Host: Linux or Windows 11 + WSL2 (Ubuntu). Builds run inside rootless Podman containers — you do not pollute your host toolchain.

# 1) Get the build system
git clone https://github.com/Gh0s777tt/E-OS.git eos && cd eos

# 2) Bootstrap deps (Podman build, QEMU full, runtime crun)
curl -sf https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/redox/-/raw/master/podman_bootstrap.sh -o podman_bootstrap.sh
bash -e podman_bootstrap.sh
source ~/.cargo/env

# 3) Build the full desktop image  ── CI=1 is REQUIRED for headless/CI builds *
make CI=1 all

# 4) Boot it (COSMIC desktop)
make qemu                 # GUI
make qemu gpu=no          # headless serial console

* CI=1 is mandatory when building non-interactively. The cookbook repo tool renders a TUI that panics (slice index … repo.rs:1693) when stdout is not a real terminal. CI=1 disables the TUI and prints plain logs. See EOS_BUILD_STATE.md and docs/building.md.

Output image: build/x86_64/desktop/harddrive.img. Default logins: user (no password) · root / password.

➡️ Full guide: docs/getting-started.md · Troubleshooting: docs/building.md

---

🗺️ Roadmap

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#E50914','primaryTextColor':'#fff','primaryBorderColor':'#E50914','lineColor':'#E50914','fontFamily':'Fira Code'},'gantt':{'barHeight':22}}}%%
gantt
    dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
    axisFormat  %b '%y
    section Foundation
    Verified modern base (v0.1.0 Genesis) :done,    m1, 2026-06-06, 1d
    Repo, brand, docs, security           :active,  m2, 2026-06-07, 14d
    section Identity
    Boot splash & branding (v0.2.0)       :         m3, after m2, 21d
    Custom config/x86_64/eos.toml         :         m4, after m2, 14d
    section Hardening
    Signed images & SBOM (v0.3.0)         :         m5, after m3, 30d
    section Frontier
    aarch64 bring-up (v0.4.0)             :         m6, after m5, 45d

Loading

See the full, numbered plan in ROADMAP.md.

---

🧩 Core Components

Component	Role	Upstream
kernel	The microkernel	redox-os/kernel
relibc	C library in Rust	redox-os/relibc
redoxfs	Filesystem	redox-os/redoxfs
bootloader	UEFI/BIOS boot	redox-os/bootloader
drivers	User-space device drivers	redox-os/drivers
cookbook	Package/recipe build system	redox-os/cookbook
cosmic-*	Desktop environment	pop-os/cosmic-*

---

🔐 Security

E-OS is AGPL-3.0 — strong copyleft. Anyone who runs a modified E-OS, including over a network, must make their source available. This is a deliberate anti-appropriation choice.

Repository hardening:

• 🔑 Secret scanning + push protection (GitHub) and gitleaks CI.
• 🤖 Dependabot + CodeQL code scanning.
• 👮 Branch protection on the default branch + CODEOWNERS reviews.
• ✍️ Signed commits encouraged (see docs/security.md).

Found a vulnerability? Do not open a public issue — read SECURITY.md for private disclosure.

---

🤝 Contributing

PRs and issues welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Good first steps live in docs/getting-started.md.

By contributing you agree your work is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later.

---

📦 Releases & Changelog

Current: v0.1.0 "Genesis" — first verified-bootable E-OS base. Every change is recorded, numbered and described in CHANGELOG.md (Keep a Changelog · SemVer).

---

🙏 Built on Redox OS

E-OS exists because of Redox OS and its community, led by Jeremy Soller. The kernel, relibc, RedoxFS, drivers and build system are Redox's work, under the MIT License (licenses/Redox-OS-MIT.txt).

If you like E-OS, please support upstream: Redox Donate · The Redox Book · Matrix chat.

"Redox" is a trademark of its owners; E-OS is independent and unaffiliated. See TRADEMARK.md.

---

⚖️ License

• E-OS as a whole: GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later.
• Inherited Redox components: MIT (notices retained).
• Details: NOTICE.

_{Made with 🦀 and ❤️ · © 2026 E-OS contributors · AGPL-3.0 · back to top ↑}