Try ABSD absd-preview-rc1
A binary developer preview for QEMU on a Linux x86-64 host: kernel d208b61bcd48,
platform 0fada7ed031b. 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 with TCG on a Linux x86-64 host, using the release's own helper, absd-try.py. No Rust, Clang, GRUB or source checkout is needed.
- Your own ed25519 key is enrolled when the machine is created. You log in with stock OpenSSH as the one operator. The guest has one static IPv4 address on QEMU user networking (network.conf(5)) and accepts SSH connections forwarded from 127.0.0.1 on your host; it makes no outbound connections.
- A small native shell and commands, unmodified uutils programs and ripgrep, a few C programs (sbase and Toybox adaptations, including the line editor ed), and the manual pages, read with man inside ABSD.
- Files under /home/operator persist across shutdown and reboot. Files are copied byte-exactly over SSH exec; there is no scp or sftp.
- The QUICKSTART steps were rehearsed end to end, from staged copies of these exact files, in a fresh unprivileged account on one Linux host with TCG: verification, machine creation and key enrollment, SSH login, man, uptime, a file written and read back after a reboot, and clean shutdowns. The staged-file rehearsal did not test public downloads or an outside reader.
What is not in this preview
- Physical hardware of any kind.
- IPv6, UDP, DNS, DHCP and outbound connections. There are no kernel sockets. Network capabilities beyond SSH over static IPv4 are under development and are not part of this preview.
- Upgrading in place or rolling back: the 64 MiB disk cannot hold a second staged release. A newer preview means a new machine; the QUICKSTART says how.
- fork, signals, threads and job control; users, groups and permission bits; dynamic linking and Linux binaries.
- A screen editor, a pager, scp or sftp, packages, cron, a GUI.
- KVM, several CPUs and hosts other than Linux x86-64 with QEMU 8.2 TCG are untested for this preview; the guide uses TCG.
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, 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.
No first-party ABSD source release accompanies absd-preview-rc1: its kernel d208b61bcd4826181bf9f401551ab620d4eabba0 and platform 0fada7ed031bd84e3a469e717c1d0be5dbefedd6 are not published as source. RC1's first-party source is not yet published, so independent parties cannot currently reproduce its builds from the published materials. Its download set does include absd-rc1-boot-corresponding-source.tar and absd-rc1-third-party-notices.tar.gz: the exact GRUB and GNU Unifont corresponding-source packages for the boot components, and the third-party notices. The release's NOTICES.md says how to extract and check them. The earlier public source release absd-preview-20261010 remains available (source release).
Files
Every address is the tagged release asset; nothing here follows a moving pointer.
| File | SHA-256 | Bytes |
|---|---|---|
MANIFEST.toml | 71066f42b41886834af4f56b8a98973635a4b2e617d355f4c806432a35246567 | 2733 |
NOTICES.md | 3961f786ad7630d5969f9622c9b8f1d8c36ebb42c1673ff50396a25637579684 | 1807 |
QUICKSTART.md | 96c18db6bc8463b686012a6d49bc74eca0b0265a11640f8e1e8fb9049cead824 | 7863 |
absd-rc1-boot-corresponding-source.tar | 5ea66ab67e865f5fe78199ccb6844c45666e44926b97b4fa65cf06898dcac1dd | 46561280 |
absd-rc1-c12c-20261018t161241z.fvcgzh-disk.img.xz | c3875d06edd7bb965c498a09f4f2ceeb37b0e0c67625ee39fefb4be2a1f9643f | 1822468 |
absd-rc1-c12c-20261018t161241z.fvcgzh-enroll.iso | 7251c6262cf3ad311c12bff09a0cfe94f59d8986c38041d50e59b43a63340b7f | 21043200 |
absd-rc1-c12c-20261018t161241z.fvcgzh-operator.iso | d1181d465f9dcbc1322087e5c3e2235ac48007c081d7f150494436ae7d30ecef | 21977088 |
absd-rc1-third-party-notices.tar.gz | 9d2760276584cebce0dac55cdcc9a5cb75618497e8720c26bd5e45c4960eae4b | 274247 |
absd-try.py | 9a8ce4870b45784ac5861f0e5e3660d6be5467b0af1ae6e12eda69415baae667 | 31805 |
absd_fs.py | 809bc314cdd797ecfc70001d4867b58397f74b4c615bb723bccb83dcd23629b0 | 13142 |
absd_image.py | 01e1da8d6687642c880f4dff32a6ea91e2f755ee9f7c00c0d9135f7075a72730 | 15636 |
served_ram.py | 232c63d71884be4216860614108c4527b30a1f48debb6a6226abd94b49cf7bba | 3656 |
SHA256SUMS
(sha256 22850b3193fbe99f0623970096f14e5ff4b941e9713e676f7fe103ed59913d71) · 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 2026-10-18.
- Physical hardware qualification is not yet established.
- RC1 candidate 12c preview built locally; no public release, outsider acceptance or endurance claim.
- No source release is bound to these assets (no release source_commit).
- Exact GRUB and GNU Unifont corresponding source and the third-party binary notices are attached (absd-rc1-boot-corresponding-source.tar, absd-rc1-third-party-notices.tar.gz, NOTICES.md); they are not the first-party ABSD source release.
- A 64 MiB disk cannot take a second staged release under the current layout; staged upgrade and rollback are not supported in this preview.
Added on this site:
- The files are unsigned. SHA256SUMS detects corruption; it does not establish who produced the files.
Evidence
- published: GitHub release absd-preview-rc1