ABSD Developer Preview 2

Other developer previews: ABSD Developer Preview 1.

A binary developer preview for QEMU on a Linux x86-64 host: kernel 919f0676eacb, platform 0b002f732b1d. Unsigned. Standing: published. Not yet reached: outsider-passed. Stages, in order: built, offline-boot-tested, qualified, release-authorized, published, outsider-passed.

What works

• Boots under QEMU 8.2 TCG on a Linux x86-64 host with the release helper; no compiler or source checkout is needed.
• Enrolls your own ed25519 key during machine creation and serves the single operator over stock OpenSSH.
• Includes a native shell, scripting and history, manual pages, the line editor ed, Rust and C programs, and system diagnostics.
• Files and the SSH host key persist across clean shutdown and reboot; files can be copied over SFTP.
• The guide was rehearsed with staged copies of these exact media under QEMU TCG in a fresh container account. It covered login, native commands, file persistence, clean shutdown, and incomplete-shutdown recovery. Public downloads and an outside reader were not tested.

What is not in this preview

• Physical hardware of any kind.
• IPv6, UDP, DNS, DHCP and outbound connections. There are no kernel sockets.
• Upgrading in place or rolling back is unsupported in this preview; a newer preview means a new machine.
• fork, signals, threads and job control; users, groups and permission bits; dynamic linking and Linux binaries.
• A full-screen editor, pager, scp, package manager, cron or GUI.
• KVM, several CPUs and hosts other than Linux x86-64 with QEMU 8.2 TCG are untested for these release media.

How to try it

Follow QUICKSTART.md from the release (the same bytes, as sealed: copy on this site). In a new empty directory: download the files below and SHA256SUMS, keeping absd-try.py and its helper modules (absd_fs.py, absd_image.py, served_ram.py) together in that directory, run sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS and python3 absd-try.py verify ., create a machine with your own new key, boot it, and log in over SSH. Stop if either verification fails.

Both verification commands need all 14 files, including boot-corresponding-source.tar (46,561,280 bytes), even if you only want to boot the image. The complete download is 105,795,455 bytes.

Host tools

Use a Linux x86-64 host with QEMU 8.2, Python 3.11+, OpenSSH, curl, xz and sha256sum. QEMU runs the guest; Python runs absd-try.py; OpenSSH supplies ssh-keygen and ssh; curl downloads the files, and sha256sum checks them. The helper decompresses the xz disk with Python's standard library. Ubuntu 24.04 is an example host; its packages are: sudo apt-get install qemu-system-x86 python3 openssh-client curl xz-utils coreutils.

The sealed guide uses --accel tcg, QEMU's software emulation. KVM is optional and remains a separate qualification case; follow the TCG commands here. The preview was tested with QEMU 8.2. Newer QEMU versions are untested; the helper does not check the QEMU version, so it does not refuse them.

Headless boot and SSH

The guest runs without a graphical display. Keep absd-try.py boot running in one host terminal. After it prints READY, use the guide's SSH command in a second terminal in the same directory on the same host, with your new private key and machine/known_hosts. The helper records the guest console in machine/console.log; interact with ABSD over SSH. On a remote host, use two existing SSH sessions to that host for these terminals; the guide's 127.0.0.1 address refers to that host.

The sealed QUICKSTART.md reports its artifact standing as built: it was written and sealed before the release was published on 2026-11-07, and it cannot change. This page reports the later publication; the guide's instructions are unchanged.

Matching first-party ABSD source for ABSD Developer Preview 2 is published with this release. Read the reconstruction instructions and limits for the exact component revisions and curated edits. The binary manifest has no source_commit; this separate source association does not establish byte-for-byte independent reproduction.

Source commit 2f3b537c50f39ec5d56d626f913424c8566141d8; source-manifest SHA-256 c4f190de78050df15e27a7cc8d53b64234799a6e1233ce5fa2b80f1d97e05672. Boot-component corresponding source and binary licence notices are listed with the files below.

Files

Every address is the tagged release asset; nothing here follows a moving pointer.

SHA256SUMS (sha256 503d365bb9886a92b71f6856dc2b99c0d08248b65d2daf50a63e12879f177b2d) · manifest · checksums (copies on this site)

Limits

These limitations are quoted from the release's MANIFEST.toml, written before publication; the release was published on 2026-11-07.

• Physical hardware qualification is not yet established.
• Experimental absd-preview-2; outsider acceptance and endurance qualification are not established.
• Matching curated first-party source records this kernel/platform pair separately; this binary manifest does not record a source_commit field.
• Notice texts accompany this preview; actual build/media correspondence and the remaining recorded release obligations require their stated checks.
• The documented preview boot path uses local QEMU TCG, SeaBIOS and an IDE disk.
• An unclean shutdown fences writable restart; recovery requires an explicit supported operator procedure.
• This product includes software developed at Cygnus Support, Inc.
• This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
• This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors
• Naming an organisation acknowledges its work; it does not imply that it endorses ABSD.

Evidence

• published: ABSD Developer Preview 2 release