Overview

Prebuilt rootfs and ISO production (create live ISO from images and usage of live ISO).

Prerequisites

Install host build dependencies (supports Ubuntu/Debian, Fedora/RHEL, Arch Linux):

make deps

How to Create Live ISO

make iso

This generates iso/kan-linux-<version>-<arch>.iso (e.g. iso/kan-linux-0.2.6-x86_64.iso).

To clean build artifacts:

make clean

Pls download the prebuilt ISO from https://github.com/kan-linux/iso/releases/download/v0.2.6/kan-linux-0.2.6-x86_64.iso if your generated ISO can't work as expected.

How to Use Live ISO

Launch Live ISO

make qemu

This launches QEMU with the live ISO in GTK display mode with SSH forwarding enabled (host port 2222 -> guest port 22).

QEMU Options

The start-qemu.sh script supports the following options:

Option	Description	Default
--ram SIZE	RAM size	16G
--cpus NUM	Number of CPUs	8
--help	Show help message

Example:

./scripts/start-qemu.sh --ram 8G --cpus 4

Keyboard Shortcuts in Desktop Mode

• Super + Return: Launch terminal
• Super + Shift + Return: Launch Firefox (online movie playback supported)

Switch to TTY Terminal in Desktop Mode

In the QEMU window, press Ctrl+Alt+G to release the mouse, then click View > compatmonitor0 to open the QEMU monitor. Run:

sendkey ctrl-alt-f2

This switches to a TTY terminal. Log in with root/root or test/test.

Remote Login to Live ISO

You may access the Live ISO via SSH from the host machine for convenient troubleshooting:

ssh -p 2222 root@localhost

Project Structure

.
├── Makefile                  # Top-level build targets
├── scripts/
│   ├── build.conf            # Shared configuration (versions, QEMU defaults, helpers)
│   ├── create-iso.sh         # ISO creation script
│   ├── start-qemu.sh         # QEMU launch script
│   └── install-deps.sh       # Host dependency installer
├── iso/
│   ├── EFI/BOOT/             # GRUB EFI boot image
│   └── isolinux/             # BIOS boot files
└── rootfs/                   # Root filesystem

Known Limitations

• Only the terminal and Firefox are available as GUI applications in desktop environment, this is a stage-1 proof-of-concept designed for QEMU only.
• No greeter. A functional greeter will be added in stage-2
• No full desktop environment. A full desktop environment will be added in stage-2.
• Currently tested only under QEMU. Native boot on physical x86-64 PCs/laptops will be implemented in stage-2.
• No AI-Agent. AI-Agent will be added in stage-2.

Screenshots

License

This repository is released under the MIT License.