Quick Start

What is LankeOS?

LankeOS is a Linux distribution built from scratch based on Linux From Scratch (LFS). It is not a derivative of any existing distribution — all packages are manually configured, compiled, and packaged.

Its core strength is automating how the distribution is built and maintained:

• ABI-driven build farm lankefarm — incremental rebuilds keyed on link-level SONAME changes, rebuilding only what must be rebuilt
• Custom package manager lpkg (C++20) — atomic transactions and rollback, SONAME provider validation before install, dependencies derived from the artifacts' ELF rather than written by hand
• Declarative upstream tracking — one readable YAML per package declaring its source and filtering rules, following upstream automatically
• Native Wayland desktop — the KDE Plasma and GNOME core stacks, with open-source drivers across all three GPU vendors
• Low barrier to entry — download the ISO, boot it, run the installer; no need to compile the whole system yourself
• Chinese-friendly support (Fcitx5 + Noto CJK out of the box)
• Built from source complete toolchain

Quick Experience

1. Download the ISO

Get the latest Live ISO image from the Download page.

2. Write to USB Drive

sudo dd if=lankeos-live.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress

3. Boot

Insert the USB drive, restart, and boot from it (select the USB drive in the BIOS/UEFI boot menu).

On first boot you'll see:

[    0.0] LankeOS x.x.x-lanke kernel booting
[    1.2] initramfs: found LankeOS boot media
[    1.5] initramfs: mounting rootfs.sfs
[    1.8] initramfs: setting up OverlayFS
[    2.1] switching to systemd
[    2.8] desktop ready

4. Login

The default user is LankeOS with password LankeOS. Live mode additionally does two things: it clears root's password field and auto-logs in LankeOS (on tty1 and serial). Persistence mode and the installed system do neither, so you log in manually:

Account	Live Mode	Persistence Mode / Installed System
LankeOS	Auto-login; password LankeOS (for sudo and graphical login)	Password LankeOS
root	Password field cleared → su accepts no password at all (a PAM safety mechanism), so root cannot log in directly	Password was set during development and is not published; for a root shell, reset it with sudo passwd root

Get root privileges through sudo (as LankeOS). If you do want a working root password, run sudo passwd root first.

5. Explore the System

# View system information
fastfetch

# Check the package manager
sudo lpkg --help

# Query installed packages
lpkg query

# Check network status
nmcli device status

Install to Hard Disk

To install LankeOS to a hard disk:

1. Boot into the live environment
2. Run the installer:

sudo lanke_install

3. Follow the prompts to complete partitioning, installation, and GRUB configuration
4. Reboot and remove the USB drive, then boot from the hard disk

Package Management Basics

LankeOS uses the custom lpkg package manager. Common commands:

# Search and install a package
sudo lpkg install <package-name>

# Upgrade all installed packages
sudo lpkg upgrade

# Remove a package
sudo lpkg remove <package-name>

# Query file ownership
lpkg query /usr/bin/bash

# Scan for files not managed by any package
sudo lpkg scan

Next Steps

• Read the Installation Guide — detailed step-by-step installation tutorial
• Explore the lpkg Package Manager — LankeOS's core component
• Read Build from Source — if you want to build LankeOS yourself
• Check the Release History — learn about the project's development journey