Bluefin Server Alpha 2
Alright, here it is, Bluefin Server, this one actually boots. This is the base of the Bluefin Factory, the thing you'll build your homelab on. And in turn, your desktops or whatever you want. Kubernetes for the home.
An FSDK-based, image-based Linux server OS.**
To celebrate this milestone, enjoy the latest video, with some fresh lore!
Bluefin Server targets the same use-case space as Flatcar Container Linux, Kairos, Fedora CoreOS, and Talos, but is built from scratch with BuildStream 2 from freedesktop-sdk (FSDK 26.08) components and uutils coreutils.
It is designed to be installed and then managed entirely through the Kubestellar GUI. I'll be releasing point releases quickly over the next few days. After the install it will give you a web address, then you go to it on your computer. Then that's it, your perfect home server.
Except the dashboards are empty. The more people we have making these the better, including a ZFS one! This variant will have ZFS support so now's the time to jump onboard!
It is DDI first: the OS payload is a compressed XFS DDI filesystem image that is deployed by an offline, systemd-native installer.
Release status: Alpha
Bluefin Server is currently in Alpha:
- Milestone status: Phase A (reproducible build path, uutils, k0s sysext, graph validation) is complete. Phase B (automated boot verification on lab cluster) is in progress.
systemd-sysupdateshould work, we're about to find out! configurations.- Readiness roadmap: Track completed criteria and remaining gates toward
1.0 in
docs/MVP_1_0_READINESS.md.
How this works
- A/B root rollback — an MVP 1.0 gate:
50-root.transfernamesroot-aandroot-b; the installer currently creates onlyroot-a. - DDI-first delivery — the installer embeds the OS payload as a data partition; no network is required at install time. This is basically Linux systemd style.
- Minimal, distroless OS image — no shell in the running rootfs by default IS what we are shooting for. We'll probably fail at this lol.
- systemd-native installer —
systemd-sysinstallprovides the interactive terminal UI andsystemd-reparthandles partitioning and block-copy DDI placement. Finally distro installers can all go die! - Optional k0s as a
systemd-sysextso the base image stays distroless. We started with k3s but I want to see how this one goes, stripped down for the home.
SSH ON: SSH is enabled for cluster boot tests and remote debugging. It is scheduled for removal once diagnostics move to serial logs or a guest agent. See
docs/skills/factory-integration.md.
Quick start
Bare metal sorely needed! However this runs on any Linux, feel free to fire up a VM and start designing that dashboard! Once we get home assistant and all the goodies it'll be amazing! Thanks for checking it out!
You need only podman and just. BuildStream
runs inside the FSDK bst2 container, so BuildStream is not installed locally.
just validate # resolve the element graph
just show-me-the-future # end-to-end QEMU installer smoke test
See AGENTS.md
for the full build command matrix, hard rules, and agent skill routing.
Contributing
See
CONTRIBUTING.md
for the contributor checklist, Conventional Commit rules, and
docs/skills/index.md
for task-specific guidance.
