hardened Fedora KDE; primary on Forgejo
fae677fb68
THE actual root cause of the man-db transaction failure that killed three consecutive VM installs (v0.5.26 / v0.5.27 / v0.5.28). Confirmed via 7-agent research wave: - Fedora 43 ships RPM 6.0, which changed scriptlet failure propagation. Scriptlets that previously emitted "Non-critical error" warnings now bubble up as transaction-level errors. dnf5 issue #2507 documents the change. Anaconda --cmdline mode treats any 'error' token from the dnf transaction as a fatal abort. - man-db's `transfiletriggerin` is the canonical trigger: it runs `systemd-run /usr/bin/systemctl start man-db-cache-update` which returns non-zero in the anaconda chroot (no PID 1 systemd) and is flagged as transaction-level error under RPM 6.0. - We previously patched anaconda's transaction_progress.py on the BUILD HOST so livecd-creator could finish its own transaction. That patch lives only on the host running the build — never landed in the live rootfs the user installs from. Reproduced 3 times: install-time anaconda on the live ISO is unpatched, hits the same code path, aborts at exactly "Configuring man-db.x86_64". Two-layer fix: 1. kickstart %post seds the file inside the live rootfs at build time so the user's install-time anaconda is patched. Sed downgrades the 'error' token from raise PayloadInstallationError to log.warning. 2. Generated install ks excludes man-db / man-pages / man-pages-overrides from %packages. Belt-and-braces — even if the patch has an edge case the trigger never fires because the package isn't installed. Users install man pages post-firstboot. Previous attempts that didn't work: dropping the updates repo (only narrowed the set of failing scriptlets, didn't fix the underlying RPM-6.0 propagation change); flipping SELinux to permissive (confirmed not the cause; kickstart's selinux directive only writes /etc/selinux/config in target root, doesn't affect installer-time). Follow-up for next release: replicate the transaction_progress patch in the CI workflow's container so the build itself is deterministic. Currently the workflow has been greening on luck. Files: kickstart/veilor-os.ks (+25 lines), overlay/usr/local/bin/veilor-installer (+10 lines). Verified: bash -n clean, ksvalidator clean. |
||
|---|---|---|
| .github | ||
| assets | ||
| build | ||
| docs | ||
| kickstart | ||
| overlay | ||
| scripts | ||
| test | ||
| upstream | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| CHANGELOG.md | ||
| CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| README.md | ||
veilor-os
Hardened minimal Fedora KDE spin. Black-on-black. Locked down by default.
veilor-os is a Fedora 43 KDE Plasma remix for operators who want a clean, fast, opinionated desktop with serious hardening already wired in. Boot the ISO, set an admin password, work. No installer wizard. No initial-setup screen. No telemetry. No "would you like to enable X" prompts.
Status
Pre-release v0.2.5 — first feature-complete ISO that actually applies
the veilor-os overlay to the installed system. The build pipeline is green
on CI; the live ISO boots to KDE on KVM and bare metal. See
CHANGELOG.md for the full v0.2.0 → v0.2.5 story (it is
worth reading — five real bugs caught and documented).
What is done: hardening (SELinux, sysctl, USBGuard, fail2ban, firewalld), KDE black theme, Fira Code system font, 3-mode power management, single-prompt LUKS install, first-boot admin password flow, reproducible CI build, EFI+BIOS bootable live ISO.
What is planned (see docs/ROADMAP.md): Plymouth black theme, SDDM theme, signed ISOs (own MOK + GPG), AppArmor + nftables, veilor-update / veilor-doctor helpers, public docs site.
Quick install
# 1. Download the ISO (after public release; CI artifact for now)
sha256sum -c veilor-os-43-*.iso.sha256
# 2. Flash to USB. Replace /dev/sdX with your USB device — triple-check.
sudo dd if=veilor-os-43-*.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync
sync
# 3. Boot from USB, pick "Install veilor-os" from the menu.
# 4. Set a strong LUKS passphrase — the only prompt during install.
# 5. Reboot, remove USB.
# 6. On first boot: TTY prompts for an admin password (≥14 chars, mixed case,
# digit, symbol). Once accepted, SDDM starts. Log in as `admin`.
Full install + first-boot walkthrough: docs/INSTALL.md.
What veilor-os ships
| Layer | Hardening |
|---|---|
| Boot | Secure Boot, lockdown=integrity, slab_nomerge, randomize_kstack_offset=on, vsyscall=none. LUKS2 (aes-xts-plain64, argon2id, mem=1GB). zram swap (no disk swap, no cold-boot leak). |
| Kernel | Locked sysctls: ptrace=2, kptr_restrict=2, dmesg_restrict=1, perf_event_paranoid=3, BPF JIT hardening, full ASLR, no SUID core dumps. |
| MAC | SELinux enforcing, targeted policy + custom veilor-systemd module. |
| Network | firewalld zone = drop, ssh only inbound. systemd-resolved with DNS-over-TLS (Cloudflare/Quad9 fallback), LLMNR off. NTS-authenticated chrony time. |
| SSH | password auth off, root login off, single admin user, X11 forwarding off, MaxAuthTries 3. |
| Auth | root locked, single admin user with sudo. pwquality minlen=14, 4 character classes. First-boot password forced via chage -d 0. |
| Audit | auditd rules covering passwd/shadow/sudoers/ssh/cron/sysctl/kernel modules and all privileged binaries. |
| IDS | fail2ban with sshd + pam-generic jails, journal backend, firewalld rich-rule action. |
| USB | USBGuard daemon, default-block, empty allowlist on first boot. |
| Services off | abrt*, cups, geoclue, avahi-daemon, bluetooth, ModemManager, gssproxy, atd, pcscd, kdeconnectd, PackageKit. |
| UX | KDE Plasma minimal, BreezeBlackPure colour scheme, Fira Code system font, veilor-power save | mid | perf with udev AC/battery auto-switch. |
Full reference: docs/HARDENING.md.
60-second tour — what's different from stock Fedora KDE
- No Anaconda Initial Setup wizard after first boot. Single LUKS passphrase prompt is the entire install interaction. Admin user is pre-created; password is set once on TTY1, then SDDM starts.
- Root is locked.
passwd -S rootreportsL. There is nosu -to root, ever. Usesudo. - No PackageKit, no Flatpak by default. Updates happen with
sudo dnf upgradeon your terms, not in the background. - Default firewall zone is
drop, notFedoraWorkstation. The only thing your machine answers is sshd on its assigned port. - USBGuard blocks every USB device by default. First-boot procedure:
plug in everything you trust, run
usbguard generate-policy, done. - Black-on-black KDE. Wallpaper, panel, Konsole all match. No "white flash" anywhere in the session.
veilor-power save | mid | perfswaps the full tuned profile, CPU governor, EPP, battery threshold, and screen-dim policy in one command. Wired to AC/battery udev events too — laptop drops tosavewhen unplugged automatically.
How veilor-os compares
| Feature | veilor-os | Stock Fedora KDE | Kicksecure |
|---|---|---|---|
| SELinux enforcing OOTB | yes | yes | yes |
| AppArmor | planned (v0.5) | no | yes |
| Secure Boot | yes (Fedora keys) | yes (Fedora keys) | configurable |
| LUKS2 with argon2id | default | optional | default |
| Single-prompt install (LUKS only) | yes | no | no |
| Root account locked by default | yes | no | yes |
| firewalld default zone = drop | yes | no | n/a (uses nftables) |
| USBGuard default-block | yes | no | yes |
| fail2ban + auditd OOTB | yes | no | partial |
| DNS-over-TLS by default | yes | no | yes |
| NTS-authenticated NTP | yes | no | yes |
init_on_alloc/free (post-install) |
yes (planned re-enable) | no | yes |
| Telemetry / phone-home | none | minimal | none |
| KDE Plasma branded theme | yes (black) | Breeze | n/a (XFCE) |
| Power-profile CLI | yes (3-mode) | partial | no |
| Reproducible kickstart-built ISO | yes | yes | yes (from Debian) |
| Base distro | Fedora 43 | Fedora 43 | Debian |
veilor-os is not trying to compete with Whonix-style anonymity or Qubes-style isolation. It is a hardened daily-driver desktop — fast, clean, locked down, with no manual post-install hardening required.
Repo layout
kickstart/ veilor-os.ks full kickstart definition
build/ Containerfile + build-iso.sh reproducible ISO builder
overlay/ files dropped into installed root via %post
scripts/ hardening, SELinux policy, theme apply, firstboot
assets/ fonts, KDE colour scheme, branding, plymouth (planned)
docs/ BUILD / INSTALL / HARDENING / POWER / ROADMAP
test/ boot-checklist + KVM runner
.github/ CI workflows + PR template + CODEOWNERS
Build instructions: docs/BUILD.md. Roadmap: docs/ROADMAP.md. Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md. Changelog: CHANGELOG.md.
License
MIT — see LICENSE. Fira Code ships from Fedora's
fira-code-fonts package under SIL OFL 1.1. Fedora packages remain
under their respective licences. Kickstart, overlay, scripts, and
docs in this repo are MIT.