An image-based system

Kleinia is built on Fedora and works like Fedora Silverblue: the operating system is one image, built and tested as a whole, and your machine runs a copy of it. If you know Silverblue or another Fedora Atomic desktop, Kleinia behaves the same way.

Deployments

Each copy of the image on your disk is a deployment. An update downloads the new image and prepares a new deployment next to the running one; it takes effect on the next boot. The previous deployment stays on disk, so you can always boot back into it.

• An update either takes full effect or leaves everything as it was. A power cut in the middle of an update cannot leave a half-updated system.
• Every machine on the same version runs exactly the same system files.
• Rolling back takes one reboot.

The images are OCI container images, managed with bootc. See Updates and rollback.

What you can change

Location	Contents	Behaviour
/usr	The operating system	Read-only; replaced as a whole on update
/etc	System configuration	Writable; your changes are carried over to new deployments
/var	System state, containers, Flatpak apps	Writable; shared by all deployments
/home	Your files (a link to /var/home)	Writable; never touched by updates or rollbacks

See File system layout for more.

Software outside the image

Because the system image is read-only, software you add lives outside it:

• Desktop apps come from Flathub as Flatpaks. See Installing applications.
• Command-line and development tools go into containers with Distrobox. See Development tools.
• Agents are just programs: they run from your home directory, a container or a Flatpak, and the system manages them the same way.

Layering an RPM onto the image is possible, but it is a last resort.