Keru 0.1 ships as an ISO. There is no source build to DIY, no binary download, no flashing a rootfs tarball. Boot the ISO, answer the installer, and Keru builds exactly what you chose while you watch.
Before you begin
- A working network. The build is fully online — every source tarball is downloaded fresh at install time.
- A spare target disk.
mkfs-root.sh formats whatever root device the installer points at. It will be written over.
- Patience for the first build. Fetch + compile of the full toolchain and system takes a while on modest hardware.
- Decisions. Prep your picks ahead — or just press enter; sane defaults are documented on every prompt.
The flow
1. Write the ISO to USB sudo dd if=keru-0.1.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
2. Boot the stick BIOS/UEFI → the live image starts by itself
3. live/init mounts & runs the installer launches automatically on boot
4. Connect to the network the installer runs nmtui for you when offline
5. Make your picks init · libc · fs · kernel · sudo · net
6. Keru builds the system fetch → stage 0 toolchain → base → swappables
7. First boot your crafted system, exactly as chosen
Your picks
| Choice | Default | Why you might change it |
|---|
| Init system | runit | systemd for optional use — but Keru never forces it. |
| C library | glibc | musl for a smaller static-leaning system. |
| Filesystem | ext4 | btrfs snapshots, zfs features, xfs scaling. |
| Kernel | linux | linux-lts for longevity, hardened for attacks. |
| Privilege elevation | doas | sudo if you live in its muscle memory. |
| Network tools | nmtui | networkmanager, connman, or systemd-networkd. |
Every option here has a dedicated page. See
the swappables guide and its sub-pages before you install, so boot rehearsal is boring by design.
Day one
Keru installs a bare, honest base — the packages you chose plus the few kama needs to run. From there you shape the rest:
# your system, your way
kama make vim # build anything else from source
kama info busybox # peek at a recipe's metadata
doas kama install tmux
Everything you don't install, you don't get. No services pretending to be useful, no telemetry phone-home.
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