Frequently asked questions

LordOS is a free Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution with its own desktop environment. Its display server, Wayland compositor, interface engine and more than 35 native apps are built from their fundamental components on top of Debian, with a light, private and fast desktop as the goal.

Both. You can install LordOS as a complete distribution from the ISO or the Raspberry Pi image, or add the LordOS desktop to an existing Debian 13 system with a single command. In both cases the base system comes from Debian.

Yes, on Debian 13. The kernel, drivers, Mesa, PipeWire, CUPS, BlueZ and every package in the Store come from Debian's own mirrors and keep Debian's security updates. LordOS replaces only the graphical layer: there is no X11, GNOME or KDE underneath.

We want a complete desktop that runs well on modest hardware: an idle LordOS session uses about 120 MB of memory and no CPU. Building our own environment also lets us design privacy in from the start, with per-app isolation, permissions and a visible firewall. GTK (GNOME) and Qt (KDE) apps still run on LordOS.

LordOS is made by the iPERFEX group, by Pablo Miranda and Federico Pereira, in Argentina.

Yes. LordOS is free to download and use, with no accounts, ads or paid editions. If it helps you, you can support the project with a voluntary donation.

LordOS's own code is under the MIT license, so you can use, study, change and share it. Bundled components and Debian packages keep their own licenses; see Licenses. The name, the crown logo and Lumo follow the Trademark policy.

Not yet: LordOS 0.8.0 beta is the first public release. Most of it works, but some parts haven't been tested on real hardware yet (for example the Raspberry Pi 5 desktop, real printers and NVIDIA cards), and features such as accessibility tools are still to come. Try it live or on a spare computer, and keep backups.

A 64-bit PC (x86-64) or a Raspberry Pi 5, a USB stick of at least 1 GB for the ISO, and a disk of at least 8 GB to install it. A 3D graphics card is optional: without one, LordOS draws with the CPU.

On PCs, 64-bit x86 processors (amd64) from Intel and AMD. On ARM, only the Raspberry Pi 5 is supported. There are no 32-bit images.

An idle LordOS session uses about 120 MB, and the whole live system used about 465 MB on a 4 GB test machine. We haven't published an official minimum yet; the apps you open (a web browser, above all) decide how much more you need. On the Raspberry Pi 5, 4 GB works and 8 or 16 GB is recommended.

Both: the ISO is hybrid and works with UEFI and with BIOS/Legacy, and the installer sets up the disk for both. Secure Boot has to be turned off for now. Write the ISO with dd, balenaEtcher, Ventoy or Rufus in DD mode.

Yes. Boot the ISO from a USB stick and LordOS starts in live mode, without touching your disk; changes are kept in memory and disappear when you turn it off. The boot menu also offers Spanish and Portuguese, a safe mode without the GPU and a copy-to-RAM option.

Not with the ISO's installer yet: it uses the whole disk and erases it, after asking you to confirm. To keep another system, install Debian 13 next to it with Debian's installer and then add LordOS with the one-line installer, or use a separate disk.

Run curl -fsSL https://lordos.org/install.sh | sh on Debian 13 (amd64 or arm64). The script asks before changing anything, downloads the LordOS package from GitHub Releases, checks its SHA-256 and signature, and installs it with apt, so the dependencies come from your Debian mirrors. Other Debian versions are refused.

It installs the lordos package and a few audio and font packages, creates the login screen's system user, adds your user to groups such as audio and video, and enables the LordOS services. If you agree, it disables your current display manager (GDM, SDDM, LightDM…) for the next boot without removing it. It doesn't touch your network configuration or your home folder, and remote desktop stays off.

On Debian, run curl -fsSL https://lordos.org/install.sh | sh -s -- --uninstall (add --purge to remove its configuration too). It undoes exactly what the installer recorded and turns your previous display manager back on; your home folder is kept. If you installed from the ISO, LordOS is the whole system, so you'd reinstall another one.

Each release has a SHA256SUMS file signed with the LordOS release key (Ed25519, fingerprint c7155b8e6bbbb180f907381994d06af76d333016cd6f3facf67cadd053ea108e). Check the signature with OpenSSL and the file with sha256sum -c; the exact commands are in the Code signing page. The Debian installer does this by itself and refuses an invalid signature.

Only the Raspberry Pi 5 is supported (4, 8 or 16 GB); it is the only board we test. The Pi 5 image is still in beta: parts such as HDMI and the desktop session haven't been verified on the board yet.

Both: the same image (lordos-<version>-rpi5-arm64.img.xz) is written to an SD card or to an NVMe drive. NVMe on the M.2 HAT+ is recommended for speed; to boot from it first, set the Pi's EEPROM boot order to NVMe.

Yes. LordOS drives the Pi 5 fan header by temperature, with profiles in Settings → Cooling; an Active Cooler or a fan heatsink is recommended, since without one the Pi slows down when hot. The Argon ONE V5 case's fan uses the same header: choose it in Settings → Cooling → Case and restart, which also enables its front USB ports and audio.

Files you put on the image's bootfs partition before booting: lordos-user.txt (copied from lordos-user.txt.example) creates your user and can join a Wi-Fi network, an empty ssh file turns on the SSH server, and remote-desktop turns on LordOS remote desktop. Raspberry Pi Imager's userconf.txt also works. Without a user file, LordOS starts in setup mode so you can create the account in Settings → Users.

More than 35 native apps, among them Files, Settings, Terminal, Text Editor, Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Reminders, Photos, Player, Camera, Voice Recorder, PDF Viewer, Passwords, Monitor, Store, Disks, Backups, Clock and Calculator. On PCs, Firefox ESR and Chromium come preinstalled. See the apps page.

Yes, apps that speak Wayland: GTK 3 and 4 (GNOME), Qt (KDE), Firefox, Chromium and Electron apps open as normal LordOS windows, with the LordOS frame and theme. Apps that only support X11 don't run yet, because Xwayland isn't available yet.

Not yet: LordOS doesn't integrate Flatpak. The Store installs Debian packages and LordOS .lpk apps, and isolated apps use LordOS's own sandbox.

Wayland games can run with GPU acceleration: LordOS supports fullscreen, relative pointer and pointer locking, which games need, and Neverball has been tested. Games that only use X11 need Xwayland, which isn't available yet, so many games and launchers won't start for now.

LordOS has its own WebAssembly 2.0 interpreter (without SIMD) that .lpk apps can use to run code compiled from C, Rust or other languages. A WebAssembly module has no access to files, the network or the system unless its app passes them explicitly.

The Store installs Debian packages from your apt sources with LordOS's own package engine, which checks Debian's signatures and shows you the plan (what is installed, upgraded or removed, and how much is downloaded) before changing anything. It also installs .lpk apps and local .deb files. Its package lists are refreshed only when you press Check for updates.

A .lpk is the package format for LordOS native apps: a compressed archive with a manifest, the app's code, its icon and translations. It installs into your home folder without root, runs in its own isolated process and can be signed so you know who made it.

No. There are no usage statistics, crash reports, device IDs or accounts, and nothing is sent to us. By default LordOS only uses DHCP and DNS on your network, network time and local-network discovery; everything else happens when you ask for it. The full list is in the Privacy policy.

Every third-party .lpk app runs in its own process, isolated with LordOS's own sandbox (Landlock, seccomp, cgroups and no privileges), and reaches the system only through a broker that checks its permissions. Passwords and the helpers that decode mail, documents and media are isolated too. Regular Linux apps (GTK, Qt, browsers) aren't sandboxed, but the per-app firewall applies to them.

The first time an isolated app wants your files, camera, microphone, screen, network, Bluetooth or USB, the system asks you with a prompt the app can't fake. You can review and change every answer in Settings → Privacy, and revoking a permission takes effect at once. A green dot shows the camera is on and an orange dot the microphone.

Yes. lord-netperm enforces per-app network rules in the kernel for LordOS apps, .lpk apps and Linux apps alike: allow or block, local network or internet, domains, ports and time limits. Monitor shows each app's connections on a world map and lets you block an app with one switch. An "ask me" mode is still to come.

No. It's off by default and port 5673 stays closed until you turn it on in Settings → Sharing. Then you open https://<the computer's address>:5673 in a browser on your local network and log in with your account; the connection is encrypted with TLS. To reach it from the internet, use a VPN rather than opening the port.

In an encrypted vault (XChaCha20-Poly1305 with an Argon2id key) handled by lord-vault, a process with no network access. The Passwords app keeps logins, 2FA codes, cards and notes, can unlock with a FIDO2 security key and imports KeePass files; Wi-Fi and VPN passwords and browsers' saved secrets use the same vault. The breached-password check works offline.

Yes. Debian packages are checked against Debian's signed package lists and their SHA-256. .lpk apps can be signed with Ed25519, and the Store shows whether one comes from LordOS, a verified author, a named signer or nobody, and warns if it was modified. LordOS's own releases are signed with the release key.

Report it privately through our contact form with "Security" in the subject, and don't publish details until there is a fix. The Security policy explains the scope, the safe harbour and our response times.

LordOS uses Debian's Mesa drivers for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA (radeonsi, iris, nouveau and their Vulkan drivers), and falls back to drawing with the CPU when there is no usable GPU. If graphics fail, choose the safe mode in the boot menu. Testing on real AMD and NVIDIA cards is still in progress.

NVIDIA cards use Mesa's open drivers (nouveau, and NVK for Vulkan), which are included. It hasn't been tested on real NVIDIA hardware yet, and NVIDIA's proprietary driver isn't supported yet. If the desktop doesn't start, the safe mode uses the CPU.

Yes. In Settings → Displays you can extend or mirror screens, arrange and rotate them, and set each one's scale (100, 125, 150, 175 or 200 %), even mixing different scales. GTK 4, Qt 6 and Chromium apps draw sharply at fractional scales.

Yes. LordOS has its own touchpad driver with tap to click, two-finger click, natural and inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom and three-finger swipes, set up in Settings → Trackpad. Touchscreens work too.

Yes, driverless ones: printers that support IPP Everywhere (through CUPS) and scanners that support eSCL, found automatically on your network in Settings → Printers & Scanners. Printers that need a special driver aren't supported yet, and testing with real printers is still pending.

Yes. Settings → Bluetooth finds, pairs and connects devices through BlueZ, and Bluetooth headphones and speakers play through PipeWire.

Only on desktop motherboards with a known fan controller chip, and only if you choose a profile other than System in Settings → Cooling; by default the firmware stays in control. Laptop and graphics card fans are never touched. PC fan control hasn't been tried on a real motherboard yet.

English (the default), Spanish and Portuguese are built in, and you can pick one on the boot menu or in Settings → Language & Region. Other languages are added as language packs: anyone can make one from a set of translation files.

Yes. Text layout supports bidirectional text with a mirrored right-to-left interface, Arabic and Indic shaping, Thai, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Built-in input methods cover Korean, Japanese (kana and SKK) and Chinese (pinyin), along with every standard keyboard layout.

Partly, for now. There is a Reduce motion setting, per-display scaling and keyboard shortcuts, but a screen reader, screen zoom and a high-contrast theme are not available yet; they are on the roadmap. The website's accessibility is described in the Accessibility statement.

Open the Store's Updates tab and press Check for updates: it refreshes Debian's package lists, shows what will change and upgrades everything together, including Debian's security updates. Nothing is checked or downloaded automatically. You can still use apt in the Terminal if you prefer.

New versions are published on GitHub Releases as a .deb package, an ISO and a Raspberry Pi image. On Debian, running the one-line installer again upgrades LordOS; you can also install a downloaded .deb from the Store. A built-in updater for LordOS itself is not available yet. Each release's notes list everything that changed, and CHANGELOG.md keeps the whole history.

Until 1.0, only the latest beta gets fixes, including security fixes, so keep LordOS up to date. The Debian base keeps receiving Debian's security updates through the Store and apt. The details, and the plan for after 1.0, are in the Support lifecycle.

While the repository is private, send bug reports through our contact form; once it is public, open an issue on GitHub. Include your LordOS version (from the About LordOS app), your hardware, the steps to reproduce it and logs from the Logs app, but never passwords or personal data. See Bug reports and feature requests; security problems go to the Security policy instead.

Yes. Until the repository is public, watch it on GitHub or write to us through our contact form; after that, fork it and open a pull request. Contributions are accepted under the MIT license with a Signed-off-by line (Developer Certificate of Origin). The rules are in Contributing and the Code of conduct; translations can already be made as language packs.

From the Support section, with PayPal or Mercado Pago (Binance is coming). Donations help us keep working on LordOS: development time, testing on real hardware and hosting. They are voluntary gifts, not purchases; see the Donation terms.

Write to us through our contact form, on the iPERFEX website. We answer in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Yes, to refer to the project, link to it or write about it, using the unmodified files from the brand kit. Don't modify the logo or Lumo or suggest we endorse you, and a modified distribution or fork needs its own name and logo. The details are in the Trademark policy.