BookOS Documentation

BookOS is a free Linux distribution based on Fedora 44, with a desktop of its own: BookOS Desktop. It is not a theme on top of another desktop: the panel, the dock, the Launchpad, the lock screen and the gestures are drawn by a Wayland compositor written in Rust from scratch.

Download the ISO from Downloads. Its SHA-256 checksum and its signature are listed next to the download.

Check the download

Before writing it, make sure the ISO is the official one and was not damaged on the way:

sha256sum BookOS-0.7.0.iso

The output must match the SHA-256 shown on the Downloads page. To also check the signature, download the public key from /api/pubkey.php?type=minisign and the ISO's .minisig file:

minisign -Vm BookOS-0.7.0.iso -p bookos.pub

Create a bootable USB

You need a USB drive of 4 GB or more. It will be wiped.

sudo dd if=BookOS-0.7.0.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Replace /dev/sdX with your USB drive: the whole device, not a partition (/dev/sdb, not /dev/sdb1). If in doubt, run lsblk before and after plugging it in.

If you prefer a graphical tool, Fedora Media Writer, balenaEtcher or Ventoy all work.

Boot and install

1. Boot the computer from the USB drive. Usually F12, F10 or Esc at power-on, depending on the manufacturer.
2. You land in the BookOS live session: you can try it without touching the disk.
3. Open Install to hard drive. The installer only asks for the disk and the date and time; language, keyboard and your account are set up on first boot.
4. Pick the disk. If you want, tick Encrypt my data (LUKS2): you will be asked for the passphrase at every boot.

By default the installer creates this layout:

The first time you power on, BookOS Welcome opens full screen, before the login screen. It walks you through:

1. Language
2. Keyboard
3. Internet connection (Wi-Fi)
4. Privacy and terms
5. Your account: name, username and password. Your user can run sudo; the root account stays locked.
6. Computer name
7. Fingerprint, only if the computer has a reader
8. Theme: light or dark
9. Main shortcuts and gestures

Welcome only runs once. After that you always sign in through the BookOS login screen.

BookOS updates with dnf, just like Fedora. Fedora and BookOS updates arrive together.

From Settings

Open Settings → Software update. You can:

• Press Update now.
• Choose Update tonight.
• Turn on automatic updates and update notifications.

Before updating, Settings creates a system restore point (see Snapshots and recovery).

From the terminal

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Security

• Every BookOS package is signed with GPG and dnf checks each one before installing it. The key ships with the system.
• The check also applies to RPMs you download by hand.
• The ISO is signed with minisign.

BookOS Desktop is made of four pieces that are always at hand.

Top bar

On the right you have the clock, battery, network, Bluetooth, volume, brightness, notifications and the control centre. Each icon opens its own card:

Click the BookOS logo on the left to open the BookOS menu: About, Settings and Appearance.

Dock

At the bottom, with your pinned and open apps. A dot marks the ones that have a window. It only shows the windows of the virtual desktop you are on.

• Pin an app: drag it from the Launchpad to the dock.
• App menu: right-click its icon.
• Minimise: the window flies back into the dock.

Launchpad

Press the Meta key (the one with the logo) on its own, or pinch with four fingers on the touchpad. You see all your apps in pages, with a search field at the top.

• Create a folder: drag one icon onto another. Each folder can have its own colour.
• Hide an app: right-click → ✕. It only hides it from the Launchpad; it does not uninstall it.

Search

Meta+Space opens a search box in the middle of the screen. It finds apps, Settings pages, commands and system status.

Live activities

When music plays in the Music player, a Clock timer runs or the Voice Recorder is recording, a small island appears under the top bar so you can control it without opening the app. Turn it on or off in Settings → Advanced features.

Arranging windows

• Snap: drag a window to an edge to fill half the screen, or to a corner for a quarter. With the keyboard: Meta+arrow; a second arrow leaves it in a quarter.
• Maximise: Meta+F.
• Move: hold Meta and drag with the left button from anywhere in the window. The right button resizes it.
• Always on top: Meta+Alt+T.

Virtual desktops

You can have 1 to 5 desktops; two come by default. Meta+W opens the desktop overview: live thumbnails of each one, with its windows in a grid. From there you can:

• Create, delete and rename desktops.
• Drag a window from one desktop to another.

The number and the names can also be changed in Settings → Desktop.

Switching windows

• Alt+Tab: switcher with icons.
• Meta+Tab: switcher with previews.
• Add Shift to go backwards.

Meta is the key with the logo, between Ctrl and Alt.

System

Windows

Desktops

Bar and dock

The volume, brightness, keyboard backlight, microphone, touchpad and camera keys all work and show an on-screen indicator.

Two-finger pinch is left to apps, for zooming.

Speed, Tap to click and natural scrolling are in Settings → Touchpad and mouse.

Settings brings the whole system configuration together. Press Meta+Space and type what you are looking for, or go through its sections:

Under More settings you will find Advanced features, Recovery, Maintenance and About this laptop. Your picture, your name, the computer name and other users are changed by clicking your card at the very top.

In Settings → Themes:

• Mode: light, dark or automatic, which switches at the times you choose.
• Accent colour: blue, indigo, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, sand, green, teal or graphite. The desktop and BookOS apps use it, and so do GTK and Qt apps.
• Icons: light, dark or tinted with your accent colour, with the hue and intensity you like.

Dynamic palette

In Settings → Wallpaper you can turn on the dynamic palette: BookOS takes the colours from your wallpaper and applies them to the accent and, if you want, to the icons.

Wallpapers

BookOS wallpapers come in pairs: each one has a light and a dark version and switches with the mode. You can add your own in PNG, JPEG, WebP or SVG, and even animated WebP and videos.

Night light

In Settings → Display: off, on or scheduled, with a colour temperature between 2500 K and 8000 K.

Sounds

BookOS has its own sounds for volume, plugging and unplugging the charger, logging in, locking and unlocking and screenshots. Adjust them in Settings → Sound.

Because the system is on Btrfs, BookOS can keep restore points with snapper: a snapshot of the system that takes very little space and that you can go back to if something goes wrong.

• By default one is created before every system update.
• In Settings → More settings → Recovery you can list them, create one by hand and restore the one you choose.

From the terminal:

sudo snapper -c root list
sudo snapper -c root create -d "Before changing something"

The apps page and the Store have more BookOS apps you can install, such as Fonts, Calendar, Camera, Viewer, Voice Recorder, System Monitor or Lumina (WhatsApp in the BookOS style).

Files

Tabs, icon, compact or list view, two panes to drag between, search, trash, disks with their usage and per-folder colours. When an app asks you to open or save a file, Files is what appears, so you always get the same picker.

Notepad

Notepad's shortcuts can be changed from within the app.

The Store is where you install BookOS apps. The catalogue is downloaded from bookos.es and kept for a few minutes, so you can browse it even if you lose connection.

• Install and uninstall in one click. It asks for your password, because it installs system packages.
• Update all brings all your apps and the system up to date.

Under the hood the Store uses dnf: what you install from it is a regular signed RPM package, which you also see from the terminal.

Open the terminal with Meta+Enter or Ctrl+Alt+T. Everything from Fedora works the same:

sudo dnf install <package>        # install
sudo dnf remove <package>         # remove
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh        # update everything
dnf search <word>                 # search

BookOS apps live in the BookOS repository, which comes configured:

sudo dnf install bookos-explorer bookos-notepad bookos-calc bookos-clock

The BookOS repository can be turned on or off in Settings → Software update → BookOS repository.

BookOS is developed on Samsung Galaxy Book laptops and ships specific support for them:

Settings is the recommended way to configure BookOS, but the desktop keeps everything in text files you can read and edit:

If a line in panel.conf has an error, the desktop ignores only that line; if you delete the file, it goes back to the defaults.

teclas.conf

One line per change, in the form key = target:

copilot = accion:buscador
menu = cmd:bookos-shell
bloqmayus = nada

The target can be another key, nada (nothing), cmd:<program> or accion: followed by launchpad, buscador (search), vista_escritorios (desktop overview), mostrar_escritorio (show desktop), captura (screenshot), bloquear (lock) or terminal.

If the desktop freezes

Press Meta+Alt+Backspace twice within two seconds to close the desktop and return to the login screen. Ctrl+Alt+F2 takes you to a text console.

The session log is at $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/bookos-session.log.

BookOS is free software. If you find a bug, have an idea or want to help, come to the community.

When you report a bug, it helps a lot to include:

• The BookOS version (Settings → More settings → About this laptop).
• The computer model.
• What you did, what you expected and what happened.
• For desktop issues, the file $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/bookos-session.log.

What is BookOS based on?

Fedora 44, with its own desktop, BookOS Desktop. It does not use GNOME or KDE Plasma.

How much space does it take?

The ISO is 2.35 GB. Once installed the system takes about 4 GB, and the installer reserves at least 25 GiB for the system and 5 GiB for your files.

Will it run on my computer?

You need a 64-bit x86_64 processor (Intel or AMD). The safest way to find out is to boot the USB drive and try the live session before installing.

Can I install software that is not in the Store?

Yes. Everything in the Fedora 44 repositories installs with dnf, and RPMs built for Fedora 44 work too.

Does it support Secure Boot?

It boots with Fedora's signed shim, but BookOS has no signature of its own yet. If the USB drive will not boot, turn Secure Boot off to install.

Can I install it next to Windows?

Yes. The boot menu detects Windows and lets you choose at power-on. Make a backup first and free up disk space from Windows.

How do I go back if an update causes problems?

From Settings → More settings → Recovery, restore the point that was created before the update.