v0.4.0

Added

• Community Software: Terminal applications contributed by the community:
  • treemd (md): Terminal markdown viewer with tree navigation by @nicholasjpaterno
  • gravityfile (files): Terminal file manager by @nicholasjpaterno
  • dinky (edit): Small terminal text editor by @sedwards2009
• Multiple Terminal Emulators: New session options with different terminal experiences:
  • Alacritty (default): GPU-accelerated terminal with term39 color scheme
  • Cool Retro Term: CRT aesthetic with scanlines and glow effects
  • foot: Lightweight Wayland-native terminal
• term39 Color Scheme: Custom color palette with dark blue background (#151728) and green foreground (#62AE68)
• Iosevka Nerd Font: System-wide nerd font with programming ligatures and icon support
• Audio Stack: Full PipeWire audio with ALSA and PulseAudio compatibility
  • pulsemixer for volume control
  • SOF firmware for modern laptops
• Bluetooth Support: bluez with firmware for common adapters
• ACPI Power Management: Brightness keys and lid close handling via acpid
• Session Variants: Multiple boot options in tuigreet:
  • Wayland Alacritty (default)
  • Wayland Retro (CRT style)
  • Wayland VM (optimized for virtual machines)
  • Wayland Simple (minimal)
  • Framebuffer mode
  • TTY mode
• New Utilities: btop, htop, mc, vim, bat, eza, lsd, viu, mpv, fastfetch, elinks, uv

Changed

• term39 update: Updated to v1.1.0 (major update from v0.20.0)
• Default session: Changed to Alacritty-based Wayland session for better font rendering

Fixed

• GRUB boot issues: Fixed bootloader configuration

v0.3.0

Changed

• Kernel upgrade: Switched from linux-stable (6.17.11) to linux-lts (6.18.0) for better hardware support
• term39 update: Updated to v0.20.0

v0.2.0

[0.2.0] - 2025-12-09

Added

• Low RAM Boot Mode: New default boot mode using overlaytmpfs=yes that keeps squashfs mounted from boot media instead of copying to RAM
  • Reduces live CD RAM usage from ~3GB to ~1-1.5GB
  • Enables installation on 4GB RAM machines (previously would fill tmpfs)
  • Trade-off: USB/CD must remain inserted during live session
• High RAM Boot Option: GRUB menu now includes "High RAM mode" for users with 8GB+ RAM who prefer faster I/O (loads everything to RAM like before)
• TermOS Control Center (termos-cc v0.1.0): New system management utility

Changed

• Default GRUB boot entry now uses overlay tmpfs mode for better low-memory compatibility
• tmpfs overlay limited to 1GB (overlaytmpfsflags=size=1G) for controlled memory usage

Fixed

• Live CD now works on machines with 4GB RAM without running out of memory during installation

v0.1.0

Added

Core System

• Alpine Linux-based minimal distribution
• term39 (v0.18.0) as primary desktop environment
• Full-screen terminal multiplexer experience
• OpenRC init system
• greetd + tuigreet TUI login manager
• cage Wayland compositor for single-app display
• framebuffer mode support (80x50 inital, can be changed)

Architecture Support

• x86_64 architecture (PC, laptops)
  • EFI boot support with GRUB
  • BIOS boot support with extlinux/syslinux
• aarch64 architecture (ARM64)
  • Raspberry Pi 4/5 support / Laptops
  • ARM servers support
  • EFI boot with GRUB

Installation System

• Dialog-based TUI installer (termos-setup v2.0)
• Interactive disk selection menu
• Automated disk partitioning
  • EFI: GPT with 512MB EFI + root partition
  • BIOS: MBR with single bootable root partition
• Filesystem selection
  • ext4 (traditional, stable, recommended)
  • btrfs (modern, with @ and @home subvolumes, compression)
• Full disk encryption (LUKS2) for EFI systems
  • AES-XTS-PLAIN64 cipher
  • 512-bit key size
  • SHA-512 hash
  • Boot-time passphrase prompt with ASCII banner
• User account creation with sudo privileges
• Password-protected root account
• Automatic initramfs generation
• Hardware detection and module loading

Bootloader

• GRUB bootloader for EFI systems
  • Encryption support (copies kernel/initramfs to EFI partition)
  • btrfs subvolume support
  • Recovery mode option
  • 3-second timeout
• extlinux/syslinux for BIOS systems
  • Simple boot configuration
  • Recovery mode option
  • 30-second timeout
• Kernel update hooks for encrypted and btrfs systems

System Configuration

• NetworkManager for network management
• seatd session manager
• Hardware initialization scripts
  • Automatic module loading
  • Wireless device unblocking
  • XDG runtime directory setup
• System services auto-configuration
  • udev/eudev for hardware detection
  • localmount for filesystem mounting
  • greetd on tty2 (agetty on tty2 disabled)

Live Media

• Bootable ISO/USB installation media
• Console access for installation
• Boot media auto-detection (/media/cdrom compatibility)
• Local package repository on installation media
• Post-install automatic termos-base installation

Package System

• termos-aports repository structure
• term39 package (binary distribution from GitHub releases)
• termos-base meta-package with all dependencies
  • zsh shell
  • greetd + tuigreet
  • cage compositor
  • NetworkManager
  • mesa-dri-gallium (GPU drivers)
  • font-terminus
  • dosfstools, e2fsprogs, btrfs-progs
  • cryptsetup for encryption

Documentation

• Installation wizard with step-by-step dialogs
• ASCII art branding
• Welcome message (welcome.md)
• GPL compliance (LICENSE and SOURCES.txt included)
• CLAUDE.md project guidance for Claude Code

Security

• LUKS2 full disk encryption with strong defaults
• User created with wheel group (sudo access)
• Root password protection
• Encrypted partition UUID-based mounting
• Boot-time encryption passphrase with visual banner

Known Limitations

• Disk encryption only available on EFI systems (BIOS requires GRUB crypto which is not yet implemented)
• First-boot network configuration requires nmtui or NetworkManager
• Needs manual Time Zone setup

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Release Information

Version: 0.1.0
Release Date: December 8, 2025
Status: Initial Beta Release
Architectures: x86_64, aarch64
Base: Alpine Linux Edge
Desktop: term39 v0.18.0