Skip to content
BranchesTags

Repository files navigation

Veilbox

Veilbox Linux

A live Linux distribution for DevOps engineers

Niri scrollable-tiling compositor · Noctalia shell · Container-native toolchain · Live ISO

Features DevOps Debian Trixie Download Build

Kernel Compositor Shell Installer Container ISO CI


Veilbox is a live Linux distribution purpose-built for DevOps engineers. Boot it on any x86_64 machine and instantly get a keyboard-driven Wayland desktop with a complete container-native DevOps toolchain — Docker, Kubernetes tools, Terraform, cloud CLIs, and system monitoring — pre-installed and ready to work.

No installation required. No configuration needed. Boot the ISO, and you're in a scrollable-tiling Niri compositor with Noctalia shell, terminal, launcher, and your full toolkit. When you're ready to make it permanent, the Calamares graphical installer handles disk installation.

Built weekly via GitHub Actions on Debian Trixie (13). Vetted with automated builds, size checks, and release publishing.

Why Veilbox for DevOps?

Need How Veilbox Delivers
Zero-setup workstation Live ISO — burn to USB, boot, and you have a full environment in 30 seconds
Ephemeral / disposable Use it for CTF work, audits, CI debugging, or conference machines. Reboot to reset
Container-native toolkit Docker, kubectl, Helm, k9s, kind, kustomize, stern, nerdctl — all pre-installed
Cloud CLIs AWS CLI, GitHub CLI, Terraform, Ansible — ready for any cloud
Keyboard-driven Niri scrollable-tiling compositor + Noctalia shell = no mouse needed
Multi-monitor fluid Niri's scrollable workspace model handles any display arrangement
Serial console friendly Auto-login on ttyS0 (115200 baud) — drop into a VM, get a shell instantly
GitHub Actions CI Every commit builds and releases a fresh ISO. Weekly cron keeps packages current
Auditable & free Open source GPL-2.0 build scripts. Inspect, fork, customize anything

When to Choose Veilbox

  • Your daily driver is a terminal, not a mouse
  • You want Docker + k8s tooling without installing anything
  • You need a disposable Linux environment for CI troubleshooting or security work
  • You want Niri's scrollable-tiling on a modern Debian base, pre-configured

Limitations vs. Cloud Linux

Veilbox is a desktop OS for DevOps engineers — not a server OS. Compared to commercial cloud Linux distributions:

  • No LTS guarantee — Debian Trixie is rolling/testing; stable releases are periodic
  • No live patching — kernel updates require reboot
  • No marketplace presence — not on AWS/Azure/GCP; use it on any VM by attaching the ISO
  • No vendor support — community-driven, no escalation channel

Use it where you need a powerful, ephemeral desktop workstation. For production servers, see veilbox-cloud.

Quick Start

Download

Grab the latest ISO from GitHub Releases:

# Download and write to USB
wget https://github.com/Shreyas0047/veilbox/releases/latest/download/veilbox-2.0-amd64.iso
dd if=veilbox-2.0-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress

Boot in QEMU

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2048 -smp 2 -enable-kvm \
    -cdrom output/veilbox-2.0-amd64.iso \
    -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::2224-:22 \
    -device virtio-net,netdev=net0 \
    -nographic -serial mon:stdio
# Login: veilbox / veilbox (passwordless sudo)

Features

Area Description
Base OS Debian Trixie (13) — rolling snapshot, wide hardware support via live-build
Compositor Niri — scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor, fluid multi-monitor workflow
Desktop Shell Noctalia — keyboard-driven shell, auto-launched by niri
Container Runtime Docker CE + containerd + Docker Compose + nerdctl
Orchestration CLI kubectl, Helm, k9s, stern, kind, kustomize
Infrastructure as Code Terraform, Ansible
Cloud CLIs AWS CLI v2, GitHub CLI
Utilities yq, jq, dive, skopeo, PipeWire audio
Installer Calamares graphical installer for permanent installs
Keyboard-centric Fuzzel launcher (Mod+D), foot terminal (Mod+Return), full Niri keybindings
Display fallback xwayland-satellite, Xterm fallback, serial console auto-login
Session watchdog Niri crash -> text console fallback with diagnostic logging

Specifications

Component Detail
Base OS Debian Trixie (13) — amd64
Kernel linux-image-amd64 (6.12) — full desktop kernel
Compositor Niri 26.04 — community .deb
Shell Noctalia v5 — official APT repo
Launcher Fuzzel — Wayland-native
Terminal Foot + XTerm — Wayland + X11 fallback
Notifications Mako — Wayland notification daemon
Audio PipeWire + WirePlumber + ALSA compatibility
Container Docker CE + containerd + Docker Compose plugin
Installer Calamares 3.3 (graphical, binary-only on ISO)
Init systemd
Bootloader ISOLINUX + GRUB (BIOS + UEFI)
Image Size ~1.7 GB, XZ-compressed squashfs

Kernel Command Line

boot=live components quiet splash console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8
username=veilbox locales=en_US.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=us timezone=UTC

DevOps Toolchain

Container & Orchestration

Tool Source Purpose
Docker CE get.docker.com Container runtime
Docker Compose Docker plugin Multi-container orchestration
containerd Docker bundle Container runtime daemon
nerdctl GitHub Releases containerd CLI
kubectl GitHub Releases Kubernetes CLI
Helm GitHub Releases Kubernetes package manager
k9s GitHub Releases Kubernetes TUI dashboard
stern GitHub Releases Multi-pod log tailing
kind GitHub Releases Local Kubernetes clusters
kustomize GitHub Releases Kubernetes config management
skopeo Debian repo Container image inspection
dive GitHub Releases Docker layer inspector

Infrastructure as Code & Cloud

Tool Source Purpose
Terraform HashiCorp APT Infrastructure provisioning
Ansible Debian repo Configuration management
AWS CLI v2 AWS installer Amazon Web Services
GitHub CLI GitHub APT GitHub operations

Utilities

Tool Source Purpose
yq GitHub Releases YAML/JSON processor
jq Debian repo JSON processor
fuzzel Debian repo App launcher
foot Debian repo Wayland terminal
xterm Debian repo X11 terminal (fallback)
mako Debian repo Notification daemon
grim / slurp Debian repo Screenshot tools
PipeWire / WirePlumber Debian repo Audio

Architecture

veilbox/
├── auto/config                 # live-build configuration
├── build.sh                     # Build wrapper (clean, config, build, qemu)
├── docker-build.sh              # Containerized build wrapper
├── Dockerfile.build            # Builder container (Python + live-build)
├── config/
│   ├── package-lists/           # APT package manifests
│   │   ├── base.list.chroot
│   │   ├── desktop.list.chroot
│   │   ├── devops.list.chroot
│   │   └── live.list.chroot
│   ├── hooks/
│   │   ├── live/                # Runtime chroot hooks
│   │   │   ├── branding.hook.chroot
│   │   │   ├── cleanup.hook.chroot
│   │   │   ├── devops-tools.hook.chroot
│   │   │   ├── docker-install.hook.chroot
│   │   │   ├── noctalia-install.hook.chroot
│   │   │   └── user-setup.hook.chroot
│   │   └── normal/
│   │       └── patch-isolinux-timeout.binary
│   ├── includes.chroot/         # Filesystem overlay
│   │   ├── etc/
│   │   │   ├── xdg/niri/        # Niri compositor config
│   │   │   ├── calamares/       # Installer modules
│   │   │   ├── motd
│   │   │   ├── update-motd.d/
│   │   │   ├── skel/
│   │   │   └── systemd/
│   │   ├── home/veilbox/
│   │   ├── usr/local/bin/
│   │   └── boot/grub/
│   └── includes.binary/
├── branding/
├── calamares/
└── output/

Build from Source

Prerequisites

  • Linux host with podman or docker
  • ~10 GB free disk space
  • Network access to Debian mirrors and GitHub/cloud provider releases

Quick Build (Containerized)

git clone https://github.com/Shreyas0047/veilbox.git
cd veilbox
./docker-build.sh build
# Output: output/veilbox-2.0-amd64.iso

Native Build

sudo apt install live-build
./auto/config
sudo lb clean
sudo lb build

Build Commands

Command Description
./build.sh clean Clean build artifacts
./build.sh config Re-run lb config
./build.sh build Build the ISO
./build.sh all Clean + config + build
./build.sh qemu Boot the ISO in QEMU

Usage

Live Session

The ISO boots to GRUB (auto-selects after 5 seconds):

  1. Boots with Plymouth splash and quiet kernel parameters
  2. Auto-logs in as veilbox on the display (tty1) and serial console (ttyS0)
  3. Starts Niri via niri-session wrapper
  4. Launches Noctalia shell, Mako notifications, foot terminal

Credentials

Field Value
Username veilbox
Password veilbox
sudo Passwordless (NOPASSWD: ALL)

Desktop Keybindings

Shortcut Action
Mod+D Open fuzzel launcher
Mod+Return Open foot terminal
Mod+Q Close focused window
Mod+F Toggle fullscreen
Mod+H / L Focus column left / right
Mod+Shift+H / L Move column
Mod+1-9 Switch to workspace
Mod+Shift+1-9 Move window to workspace
Mod+Shift+S Screenshot region
Print Fullscreen screenshot

Session Recovery

If Niri crashes, the niri-session watchdog restores the text console with diagnostic logs at /tmp/veilbox/.

Install to Disk

pkexec calamares -d

License

Veilbox is built on Debian GNU/Linux and the Linux kernel. Build scripts, configuration, and documentation in this repository are licensed under GNU General Public License v2.0.

Built on Debian Live Build · Kernel 6.12 · Niri · Noctalia · Docker
github.com/Shreyas0047/veilbox

About

Veilbox Linux — Container-native live OS with Niri compositor + Noctalia shell. Debian-based, DevOps toolchain, Docker, Calamares installer.

github.com/Shreyas0047/veilbox

Topics

amd64bootable-isocalamarescloud-nativecontainerdebiandevopsdockerhelmkubectlkuberneteslinuxlinux-distributionlive-buildlive-cdnirinoctaliaterraformtiling-window-managerwayland

Resources

Readme
Activity

Stars

9 stars

Watchers

0 watching

Forks

0 forks
Report repository

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages