General FAQ
Project identity
Section titled “Project identity”What does AerynOS mean and how do I pronounce it?
Section titled “What does AerynOS mean and how do I pronounce it?”AerynOS is a stylized spelling of “Erin”, alluding to the project’s Irish roots. It is pronounced exactly the same as “Erin” - “AIR-in” OS. It’s also a play on “aer” and the phonetic “air” sound, indicative of our desire to produce an open, trusted and high-performance operating system.
It’s pronounced as “AIR-in” OS.
What was Serpent OS?
Section titled “What was Serpent OS?”Serpent OS is the former name of AerynOS. We announced our rebrand back in February 2025, which culminated with the inaugural release of AerynOS 2025.03 on March 25th, 2025. Per the announcement, our desire to rebrand was chiefly driven due to effectively being lumbered with a hastily chosen name, that poorly reflected the project’s goals and aspirations.
The project itself remains the same, with the same goals and aspirations, but with a new name and a fresh coat of paint.
Usage Questions
Section titled “Usage Questions”Why don’t application icons for newly installed apps show up in my current session after a sync or install?
Section titled “Why don’t application icons for newly installed apps show up in my current session after a sync or install?”It is a known issue and we are working on a solution.
For now, log out and back in again and they will show up.
When do I need to reboot after updates?
Section titled “When do I need to reboot after updates?”- Kernel updates require a reboot.
- Some updates require you to log out of your desktop session and back in (see above).
- Most updates only require you to close the apps that were updated and start them again.
How do I configure custom kernel command line parameters applied at each boot?
Section titled “How do I configure custom kernel command line parameters applied at each boot?”See the blsforme repo readme for the expected format.
Typically, it is necessary to change the installed system state with moss for command-line snippets to take effect.
One way of doing that is to sudo moss boot sync. This will also provide an output to show the new cmdline snippet is now active.
Package Questions
Section titled “Package Questions”How come your package repository is so small?
Section titled “How come your package repository is so small?”We are still in heavy development (“Alpha”) and are developing our backend and associated automated rebuild processes.
If we discover that it is necessary for us to rebuild our entire repository, we would like the ability to do so in the span of an afternoon (using multiple builders in parallel).
Once our backend story and our automated rebuild process story are both further advanced, we will begin scaling out the repository to contain more packages.
Could you package (…) please?
Section titled “Could you package (…) please?”See above.
For now, we encourage users to use flatpaks for the applications we do not yet carry in our repository.
Currently, we are focusing on adding must-have packages for platform bring-up, for things that give us a development edge, or for things that help us showcase AerynOS capabilities.
If the use-case for the package you are proposing is in line with the ethos above, you can make a package request here
Where can I learn how to package for AerynOS?
Section titled “Where can I learn how to package for AerynOS?”Consult the packaging documentation here.
In addition, consult the AerynOS recipes/ repository.
Finally, join the AerynOS Zulip space and make sure to join the #Onboarding channel in the General - Public space.
Project Questions
Section titled “Project Questions”Which distribution is AerynOS derived from?
Section titled “Which distribution is AerynOS derived from?”AerynOS has been bootstrapped and built from scratch and is not based on any other distro.
This implies that AerynOS has its own:
- package manager (
moss) - package build tool (
boulder) - build pipeline consisting of:
- the package build dashboard and controller (
summit) - the builder-as-a-service middleware (
avalanche) - the package repository manager (
vessel)
- the package build dashboard and controller (
This also implies that AerynOS does NOT build upon or use either:
.rpmrelated tooling from Red Hat.debrelated tooling from the Debian Project- Arch-related tooling
When will AerynOS be considered stable?
Section titled “When will AerynOS be considered stable?”AerynOS is taking on the ambitious task of creating a distribution from scratch, whilst building its own tooling and solutions for this.
As such, there is no official ETA.
Now that the project has hit alpha status, you will see frequent updates and progress reports.
What is AerynOS’ position on the use of LLMs
Section titled “What is AerynOS’ position on the use of LLMs”Contributions must not include content generated by large language models or other probabilistic tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot.
This policy exists due to:
- ethical concerns about the data gathering for training these models
- the disproportionate use of electricity and water of building / running them
- the potential negative influence of LLM-generated content on quality
- potential copyright violations
This ban of LLM-generated content applies to all parts of the projects, including, but not limited to, code, documentation, issues, and artworks. An exception applies for purely translating texts for issues and comments to English. We may make more exceptions for other accessibility-related uses.
Project-related use of LLMs
Section titled “Project-related use of LLMs”We heavily discourage the use of LLM chat bots as a replacement for reading AerynOS’s documentation.
Support requests referencing misleading or false LLM output relating to the project may be ignored, since it is a waste of time for us to “debug” where things went wrong based on this output before human support was sought. Once you’re ready to submit your code, create a pull request, and one of our maintainers will review it.