How Devario is built
Devario Community brings the desktop, installer, package recipes, and image build together in devario-os. Its default build is a complete, independently usable operating system.
Desktop and session
Section titled “Desktop and session”Aqueous is the Wayland compositor: it controls windows, layouts, input, and displays. Pearl is its desktop shell: it provides panels, the launcher, notifications, and graphical settings. Pearl Greeter uses greetd to authenticate local users and launch the packaged UWSM session, which manages the desktop through systemd user services.
Devario selects Pearl in /etc/xdg/aqueous/session.toml. System defaults live
under /etc/xdg/aqueous/, with personal settings under ~/.config/aqueous/.
The default layout is stacking, Aqueous’s floating-window layout.
Read desktop sessions, Aqueous configuration, and the Pearl overview for the component guides.
Shelly and software sources
Section titled “Shelly and software sources”Devario ships Shelly with its native RLPM backend, without the pacman
or pacman-key executables. Shelly handles repository synchronization,
dependency resolution, signatures, installation, removal, and upgrades.
Devario’s configured repositories supply its packages; the default setup does
not include Arch repositories or mirrorlists.
| Configuration or data | Devario location |
|---|---|
| Repository configuration | /etc/shelly.conf |
| Local and synchronized package databases | /var/lib/shelly/ |
| Downloaded package cache | /var/cache/shelly/pkg/ |
| Mutable signing keyring | /etc/shelly.d/gnupg/ |
| Packaged public keyring sources | /usr/share/shelly/keyrings/ |
| Package hooks | /usr/share/rlpm/hooks/ and /etc/shelly.d/hooks/ |
The core repository is configured first, followed by Devario’s browser, development, entertainment, gaming, utilities, productivity, and library repositories. The runtime repository template defines the image configuration. First-boot initialization prepares the signing keyring before normal package operations.
See RLPM and the Devario path profile for implementation details. Shelly’s general documentation also covers Arch installations and optional backends: its Pacman paths and libalpm defaults do not describe Devario. The default Devario image supports binary repositories and local package archives; the build toolchain for optional AUR use is not included.
Kernel, installation, and boot
Section titled “Kernel, installation, and boot”Devario uses Seafoam Labs’ linux-devario kernel for x86-64-v3 systems,
with matching headers. Kernel development lives in the
Linux project; the OS image consumes
the built kernel packages.
Calamares unpacks the prepared SquashFS filesystem and configures the target
disk and user account. It does not download and assemble the base system
during installation. systemd-boot starts the installed system from a FAT
EFI System Partition mounted at /boot.
devario-dracut generates the early boot filesystem. devario-boot owns the normal and fallback images, boot entries, and update hooks, so kernel, driver, and boot-related package changes refresh the boot artifacts together. Plymouth supplies the themed boot splash.
Find the implementation
Section titled “Find the implementation”| Source in devario-os | What it defines |
|---|---|
| Community edition | Default image composition |
| ISO profile and package list | Image contents, boot media, and live filesystem |
| Late image defaults | Live login, desktop appearance, firewall, and terminal defaults |
| Calamares configuration | Installation sequence, partition choices, and hardware checks |
| Desktop integration | Desktop dependencies, greeter, session, and GPU setup |
| Base package | Base dependencies, Shelly storage, and diagnostics |
| Boot integration | Initramfs generation and installed boot updates |
| Build scripts and tests | Image construction, package checks, and boot acceptance |
Release builds enforce signed package inputs and repository validation. Development images have different trust settings; see the OS build and validation notes. Original Devario code and configuration default to GPL-3.0-or-later, while original documentation and artwork default to CC-BY-SA-4.0; individual components retain their own licenses.
Fleet management and domain enrollment belong to separately maintained editions and services. They are not prerequisites for Community setup.
