07/06/2026
Svitlo GNU/Linux. An independent distribution built from source
Launching the public phase of a project I have been working on for several months. Svitlo GNU/Linux. An independent Ukrainian distribution for x86_64. It is not a fork of Debian, Arch or Fedora. The entire system, from the toolchain (binutils, gcc, glibc), kernel and bootloader up to the desktop, is compiled from source by a single engine. The bootable image carries the kernel, the bootloader, the network and wifi stack, and the package manager itself, so the system can manage itself from first boot
The promin package manager
promin follows a model close to Nix. Each package is installed into a path whose key is a hash of all build inputs (source, version, recipe body, hashes of dependencies)
/promin/store/{hash}-{name}-{version}/
Different versions and flags produce different paths, so multiple versions coexist without conflict. The active environment is a symlink farm (a profile generation). Switching between generations is atomic and rollback is instant. The hash is computed from a canonical representation of the recipe, so cosmetic edits do not trigger needless rebuilds
Client and server
promin runs as a client and server. A thin server distributes recipes, sources and binary packages keyed by hash over HTTP and does not build anything itself. On an installed system the install path is binary-first. First the store is checked, then the local cache, then a binary from the server matching the hash, and only as a last resort building from source. The binary from the server is verified by sha256 before unpacking. For the end user this means packages install as quickly as in any ordinary distribution, while building from source stays an infrastructure detail on the server side
The desktop
COSMIC (libcosmic, Rust) on pure Wayland. The base system has no X11, XWayland is moved out to an optional end-user package. This removes the usual layer of hidden dependencies which in general-purpose distributions drags in the entire X11 stack without an explicit request
SvitloLinux-pkgs
A separate GitHub organization for the source base. The model is simple, one package one repository named exactly after the package with no prefixes. A version is a branch, the first commit on a branch is the vanilla upstream tree as-is, our changes sit on top, so the delta against upstream is always readable from history. There is no main branch, the default branch points at the latest version. The number of repositories equals the closure of a profile, not an arbitrary set
Current state
The project is in an early stage. The build infrastructure and the package manager work, and recipes grow bottom-up from the cross-toolchain to COSMIC. Encrypted user data with a key generated at install time, and the absence of telemetry, are stated as architectural goals, not the current state. The bootable image is not yet published, the date depends on readiness of the base profile. ARM is the next step after x86_64 stabilization
Who this may interest
Engineers working with reproducible builds, security professionals who need a transparent supply chain, educational institutions where bit-identical machine parks and instant generation rollback remove typical operational overhead, and anyone who wants to understand how Linux is built below the level of a general-purpose distribution package manager. Discussions of architectural decisions, bug reports and pull requests are welcome
Links
svitlolinux.org
github.com/SvitloLinux
github.com/SvitloLinux-pkgs
