Installation requirements

Hard requirements

Requirement	Why
Working network	The ISO carries only the installer. Everything else — toolchain, kernel, init, libc, tools — is fetched and compiled during install. No network, no install.
A machine that runs Linux	Keru is a Linux distribution. The installer boots on x86 (and other archs as they're proven).
A target disk/filesystem	The system is written to the filesystem you choose during install.
Some patience	Everything is built from source on your machine. A from-scratch toolchain + system takes time. The compiler, not the package manager, is the bottleneck.
A willingness to choose	Keru's only ask is that you form an opinion about init, libc, filesystem, kernel, and tooling. Defaults exist; the decisions are still yours.

Not requirements

No pre-existing Linux. You don't need an OS to install from — the ISO + installer handles everything.
No manual source builds. The installer drives the whole from-scratch build for you.
No binary packages. Nothing precompiled to download. You build what you run.
No telemetry or accounts. Nothing phone-home, nothing to sign up for to install.

The network, concretely

At the first installable release (0.1), the network path is straightforward: wired Ethernet via DHCP, or wireless via nmtui, both handled from inside the installer. See the network setup flow.

What "from the network" means

The installer fetches source tarballs (straight from upstream, or via a mirror when SOURCE_MIRROR is set) and pulls package recipes from the GitHub-hosted recipe repository. The heavy lifting is the compiler on your CPU — which is exactly the point of a source-only, from-scratch distribution.

If you want fast and prebaked, a binary distro is right there. If you want your machine — built from source to your exact selection — Keru is the one.

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