https://drewdevault.com/2026/03/28/2026 … rsync.html

  https://codeberg.org/small-hack/open-slopware

https://drewdevault.com/2026/03/25/2026 … g-vim.html

All the best

All the best

I believe Dragora and Hyperbola are the only self-hosting and online-capable (meeting these two criteria is crucial for development) distributions that are 100% free of udev and blobs by default? Another question I had is that Dragora seems to be considered the only independently compiled FSF-approved distribution for PCs, but I thought that Hyperbola also is.

It is not perfect as a few softwares such as Only Office are marked as free even if they are not. However, a lot of FLOSS softwares are now using only Flapak as an official way to install them.

XLibre has cleaned the original X.Org source and has made much improvement. There is also an issue about merging xenocara patches.

It is possible to use XLibre in Hyperbola.

https://wiki.hyperbola.info/doku.php?id … -pre-alpha

This is what i can mostly see where things are either implemented or not implemented or in progress. So how can i get assigned some task? Also i cant seem to find the repo.

But since we have stopped Linux releases and working on BSD one, why the site logo is still saying GNU Linux. Why not scrape it? Maybe you'll be scraping it later after you get hyperbola out of pre alpha.

Disclaimer: This thread may occasionally go off topic due to the vast amount of coverage with the sheer knowledge involved with a project like this, and this post may also change (for the better) since I'm just bad at writing.

Future: I do intend to cover the history and motivations behind my decisions that lead me down such a painful path, but that's it's own can of worms regarding how much Linux has further devolved into a cloud-focused insecure monolithic abomination that's done nothing but abuse me since I started using it in 2012 after my primary WinXP (an OS which I still use to date) install corrupted itself

My personal goal is to have minimal static device configurations within initrd for setting up what udev would otherwise detect and configure, which from what I need really only needs to mount the mouse and network devices (if that) to a common location, as anything else I can mount after login...
(Ultimately I intend to remove my init system (OpenRC) entirely to have nothing at all running as root, but that's a goal for potentially another thread if Hyperbola is interested in providing similar options)

My current solutions to many various issues with this approach is simply just configuration scripts run from a custom user-level service daemon after login... (Although I AM building software to ease the tediousness of everything)
If anything needs root, I'm prompted with a terminal window to grant root to... (at least I know for certain what's running as root and when, unlike with OpenRC which does a ton of stuff behind the scenes you'll only know about via reverse-engineering)
One such example is a custom memory manager that properly clears swap and caches [echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches] to avoid Linux becoming sluggish when disk-cache would fill up the remaining unused RAM...
(I used to clear it every 10 seconds which worked quite nicely, but Wine would have problems finding my nvidia GPU (yet another thing to fix), so I reduced it to every minute as a workaround, which causes tolerable instability)

But regardless, that's getting off topic...

The first major hurdle to removing udev was Xorg and libinput, which was, despite the tediousness, actually quite easy to do...
All you need to do for xorg is remove the extension modules for libinput and libevdev, but additionally ensure you have the extension modules installed for the mouse and keyboard directly
The rest is just ensuring those devices are configured in Xorg.conf

The keyboard is extremely easy to configure, as the extension (if not Xorg itself) primarily gets that from the TTY (via the launch command [Xorg -nolisten tcp :0 vt1 -keeptty ...]):

Section "ServerLayout"
    ...
    
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    ...

EndSection

...

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

(Bonus info, joystick, wacom, and even hyperpen and wiimote are also supported by Xorg directly with extensions, which not many seem to know about)
The mouse however... what little info I found about mounting the mouse via [mknod /dev/input/mice c 13 63] has failed to work, and I have yet to find any info that does

I assume a similar approach would be used to mount network devices, but I need some help figuring that out as [/sys/class/net/*] is empty without udev... >.>

IMPORTANT: Ensure your perms don't allow the user to freely read mouse/keyboard input, as that's the very reason why very many distros to date still run Xorg as root (ignoring the PE issues from doing so)
(Xorg should be ran as no more than user, or at least some mid-level group swapped to via newgrp, with the device nodes configured to allow Xorg to read them, but not the user, without granting full root access to Xorg)

But anyways, with Xorg out of the way, you should be able to remove udev without much issue...
The only thing that might stand in your way would be any packages depending on udev

dbus for example requires udev through libelogind, which obviously I don't have installed if I can remove udev XD
(The ONLY program I have that requires dbus at all is Nheko, which to make that work, I had to pack dbus into it's AppDir and run it with [dbus-run-session] which loads a shoddy script that runs a notification daemon and keepassxc under that)

So yeah, there ARE hurdles, but nothing too overly complex, especially if you focus on portability like I prefer (I guess it depends on what you prefer though, since I don't use a WM that can't live without dbus for example, heck I don't even use a login manager at this current moment)

I'll save the details of what I run for the history/pain thread, as I think it might already surprise a lot of people I even run Xorg

On that matter of using more than once programming-language at the same software-project: So-called "modern" implementations have a severe tendency to add just more than one language for building. So besides C and / or C++, Python, Perl, Rust and many more. Adding such complexity-level makes the whole project more complicated to audit, understand and ready for "easy" modifications. Users on the search to become their own developers get more blocks in the way and mandatory  efforts are being blocked out technical and social. Then resulting also within more points to look on solutions being clearly no solution likewise LLM / machine-learning to overcome complexity - like an illusion running into more needs and dependencies. So on the statement of minimalism Hyperbola is making this should be at all costs kept out.

High critical (build-infrastructure)

gcc: In need for a clear research as newer releases include Rust-definitions for a later inclusion of an own Rust-compiler, until unclear how dependencies should be resolved at build-time for Rust-projects later version of gcc (beyond version 12.x) need further evaluation

python: Newer releases are surely possible, but since version 3.9 there is no further support for libressl exclusive provided and need patching, furthermore based packages on python are using python-installer and python-build with clear inclusion of pip, this collides with Hyperbola's essential notes (quote from blacklisting: https://git.hyperbola.info:50100/softwa … klist.txt)

meson: Newer releases added an own package-repository for referencing at build-time (for reference: https://mesonbuild.com/Wrapdb-projects.html), as Hyperbola has already a pakage-manager and for clear security-reasonings this should be completely excluded and is therefore in need for research if even possible to be complete removed, otherwise this package is another one in need to be frozen

cmake: Newer releases will start adding an own package-management, for reference: https://www.phoronix.com/news/CMake-Tig … -Integrate

Medium critical (dependencies, frameworks and libraries)

git: With upcoming release of version 3.0 announced to make rust mandatory for build-infrastructure (see here: https://lore.kernel.org/git/20250904-b4 … @pks.im/), as long as there is no finalized reference-implementation being clear free from trademark- and copyright-issues there is no way around that

librsvg: Is in need of rust for building, therefore Hyperbola preserved the last working version without rust as librsvg-legacy which then resulted also as example for later on added so-called "legacy-packages" kept frozen in a concrete version-number

Low critical (applications)

inkscape: With version 1.1 added pre-defined templates for non-free services, therefore adapting non-free services on a social level and making a statement that their acceptance including their violation of user-rights and -freedoms is acceptable on different scale (in need for a decision of kept or handled different)

Uncritical (kept solely working)

==> Creating install root at /mnt
==> Installing packages to /mnt
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
:: There are 49 members in group base:
:: Repository core
   1) bash-shcompat  2) bzip2  3) coreutils  4) device-mapper  5) dhcpcd  6) diffutils  7) e2fsprogs  8) file  9) filesystem  10) findutils  11) gawk  12) gcc-libs  13) glibc  14) grep  15) gzip  16) hyperrc-sysvcompat  17) iproute2  18) iputils  19) jfsutils  20) less  21) licenses  22) linux-libre-lts  23) logrotate  24) lsb-release  25) lvm2  26) man-db  27) man-pages  28) mdadm  29) mksh-kshcompat  30) nano  31) netifrc  32) pacman  33) pacman-mirrorlist  34) pciutils  35) pcmciautils  36) perl  37) procps-ng  38) psmisc  39) reiserfsprogs  40) s-nail  41) sed  42) shadow  43) sysfsutils  44) tar  45) texinfo  46) usbutils  47) util-linux  48) which  49) xfsprogs

Enter a selection (default=all): 
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
warning: dependency cycle detected:
warning: bzip2 will be installed before its bash-shcompat dependency
warning: dependency cycle detected:
warning: ca-certificates-mozilla will be installed before its ca-certificates dependency

Packages (123) acl-2.2.53-1  attr-2.4.48-2  bash-5.1+008-2  ca-certificates-20210119-1  ca-certificates-mozilla-3.61-3  curl-7.72.0-5  db-5.3.28-4  eudev-3.2.9-4  expat-2.3.0-2  gdbm-1.18.1-3  gmp-6.2.1-1  gnupg-stable-2.2.27-3  gnutls-3.6.14-2  gpgme-1.14.0-3  groff-headless-1.22.4-2  hwids-20200813.1-1  hyperbola-keyring-20201208-1  hyperrc-0.28-4  iana-etc-20200904-1  icu-67.1-2  jansson-2.13.1-1  kbd-2.0.4-5  keyutils-1.6.1-2  kmod-27-2  krb5-1.17-3  libaio-0.3.112-2  libarchive-3.4.3-3  libassuan-2.5.3-1  libcap-2.43-3  libelf-0.180-2  libeudev-3.2.9-4  libffi-3.3-1  libgcrypt-1.8.7-1  libgpg-error-1.38-2  libidn2-2.3.0-1  libksba-1.4.0-3  libldap-2.4.50-3  libmnl-1.0.4-2  libnftnl-1.1.8-1  libnghttp2-1.41.0-1  libpipeline-1.5.3-1  libpsl-0.21.0-3  libressl-3.2.6-1  libsasl-2.1.27-1  libseccomp-2.4.3-1  libssh2-1.8.0-4  libtasn1-4.16.0-2  libunistring-0.9.10-1  libusb-1.0.23-3  libutil-linux-2.36.1-6  libxcrypt-4.4.17-1  linux-libre-lts-api-headers-5.10_gnu1-1  lz4-1:1.9.2-1  lzip-1.22-1  mkinitcpio-23-7  mkinitcpio-busybox-1.25.1-4  mksh-r.59.c-4  mpfr-4.1.0.p13-1  ncurses-6.2-3  nettle-3.6-1  nftables-1:0.9.7-3  npth-1.6-3  p11-kit-0.23.21-3  pcre-8.44-3  pinentry-1.1.0-5  pinentry-tty-1.1.0-5  popt-1.18-1  readline-8.0+004-3  sqlite-3.32.3-2  thin-provisioning-tools-0.9.0-1  tzdata-2020a-1  vlock-2.2.2-2  xz-5.2.4-2  zlib-1:1.2.11-4  bash-shcompat-5.1+008-2  bzip2-1.0.8-2  coreutils-8.30-2  device-mapper-2.03.11-3  dhcpcd-7.1.0-2  diffutils-3.7-2  e2fsprogs-1.45.6-1  file-5.38-2  filesystem-2017.03-11  findutils-4.7.0-2  gawk-5.0.1-2  gcc-libs-8.4.0-6  glibc-2.30-3  grep-3.4-2  gzip-1.10-3  hyperrc-sysvcompat-0.28-4  iproute2-5.9.0-2  iputils-20200821-2  jfsutils-1.1.15-5  less-551-2  licenses-20181108-5  linux-libre-lts-5.10.191_gnu1-1  logrotate-3.17.0-1  lsb-release-1.4-16  lvm2-2.03.11-3  man-db-2.9.3-3  man-pages-5.09-2  mdadm-4.1-3  mksh-kshcompat-r.59.c-4  nano-5.2-1  netifrc-0.7.1-2  pacman-5.0.2-11  pacman-mirrorlist-20230901-1  pciutils-3.7.0-2  pcmciautils-018-9  perl-5.30.3-3  procps-ng-3.3.16-3  psmisc-23.3-1  reiserfsprogs-3.6.27-1  s-nail-14.9.19-2  sed-4.7-2  shadow-4.8.1-6  sysfsutils-2.1.0-10  tar-1.30-2  texinfo-6.7-3  usbutils-013-1  util-linux-2.36.1-6  which-2.21-5  xfsprogs-5.6.0-1

Total Installed Size:  600.47 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
checking keyring...
downloading required keys...
error: key "5AA99D86E1AC7510" could not be looked up remotely
error: required key missing from keyring
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
==> ERROR: Failed to install packages to new root

I tried to import the Hyperbola signing key following the reference_installation wiki page and noticed that the key has expired recently.

Output of "gpg --list-key --with-fingerprint F9704456":

pub   rsa4096 2012-06-23 [SC] [expired: 2026-03-22]
      C92B AA71 3B8D 53D3 CAE6  3FC9 E697 4752 F970 4456
uid           [ expired] André Silva <emulatorman@hyperbola.info>
uid           [ expired] André Silva <emulatorman@riseup.net>

Even after some concerns from the community (https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954) this is going forward. And it makes me think that, even in the case of opensource (like systemd) freedom/privacy could be underprotected. I terms of governance would NOT say the Systemd/Linux OS is like Windows or Mac, a gap is still there. but the opinion of the community is not that strong anymore.