Download MaluOS

MaluOS 26.04.20261024 · server and desktop · released 2026-10-24 · free edition

MaluOS is an operating system built around MaluDB: the database, its API, the credential vault, the model gateway and the agent runtime install and provision themselves on first boot. The free edition is the full system. No account or licence is needed. It comes as a server and as a desktop.

Releases are dated: 26.04 is the package base, 20261024 the build date. The current release number is always at download.maluos.com/LATEST. Each release is also on GitHub with the cloud images and checksums attached.

The desktop

MaluOS Desktop is the server with a GNOME 50 workstation on top: the same database, vault, model gateway and agent runtime run on the machine, so agents on your desk have local memory and credentials while it is on. The MaluOS session adds an indicator to the top panel that shows the agents on the host and lets you start and stop them, the gateway and its backends, your model budget, your vault secrets and delegations, and the latest alerts; changes arrive as desktop notifications. There are no snaps; the browser is Firefox from Mozilla's own apt repository, GNOME Software installs debs only, and security and MaluOS updates install themselves through apt (maluctl update status shows what is pending).

The desktop is the fifth desktop release, and the first to carry two slices at once. The desk now protects agents from a sleeping machine (the screen never blanks and nothing suspends on its own), and five new windows sit in the dock: the Upgrade Manager (pending updates, install now, the automatic-update switches, the history), the Tools Installer (Google Chrome, VS Code, Claude Code, Codex and Ollama in one click), MaluApps (the office's applications and the public catalogue as launchers), the Credential Manager (your vault secrets, delegations and requests) and the Agents app: one window to talk to and control the agents on your desk and, on an enrolled desk, the office's, with each agent an icon in the Agents folder of the app grid and in ~/Desktop/Agents. Agents gain a task interface (maluctl agent send NAME "…"); the server images carry it too. It is tested in virtual machines (BIOS and UEFI) and installed on a laptop and on Proxmox; the graphics stack and the boot splash have not yet been seen on a range of real hardware. The desktop needs at least 4 GB of memory and 40 GB of disk; 8 GB or more is recommended, plus the memory of any local model you run.

Verify the download

Every release is signed with the MaluOS archive signing key:

MaluOS Archive Signing Key (2026) <[email protected]>
Fingerprint: 6387 5A4A 5397 B902 E9C5  CFF8 731A DA39 4135 B9FF

Fetch the key from the package repository, check the signature on the checksum file, then check the file you downloaded:

V=26.04.20261024
curl -fsSLO https://download.maluos.com/$V/SHA256SUMS
curl -fsSLO https://download.maluos.com/$V/SHA256SUMS.gpg
curl -fsSL  https://apt.maluos.com/bootstrap/maluos-archive-keyring.gpg -o maluos-archive-keyring.gpg
gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring ./maluos-archive-keyring.gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.gpg
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

gpg must print Good signature from "MaluOS Archive Signing Key (2026) <[email protected]>" with the fingerprint above, and sha256sum must print OK for the file you downloaded. Stop if either differs.

Requirements

Local language models run through Ollama on the same machine when present; a GPU is optional. Without one, MaluOS routes model requests to the cloud backends you configure.

Install from the ISO

1. Write the ISO to a USB stick (dd, Rufus, balenaEtcher) or attach it to a VM, and boot from it.
2. Choose Install MaluOS Server (or Install MaluOS Desktop on the desktop ISO). The installer asks for language, keyboard, network, proxy, disk layout, your user account and SSH access, then installs and reboots.
3. For a hands-off install choose the unattended entry. It erases the first disk without asking, creates the user maluos with the password maluos, and forces a password change at the first login.
4. On the first boot MaluOS provisions itself: the database cluster, the tenant, the API, the credential vault and the model gateway. This takes a few minutes. On the desktop the login screen appears while this runs in the background; log into the MaluOS session. On either, check:

maluctl status          # provisioning summary and service health
sudo maluctl token      # your API bearer token

The installer is the stock Ubuntu live installer, so its screens show Ubuntu naming during the install; the installed system is MaluOS.

Run the cloud image

The qcow2 image boots with cloud-init. Provide user data the way your platform does (NoCloud seed, OpenStack metadata, Proxmox cloud-init drive). A minimal NoCloud example for local KVM:

cat > user-data <<'UD'
#cloud-config
users:
  - name: maluos
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    shell: /bin/bash
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-ed25519 AAAA... you@example
UD
echo 'instance-id: maluos-1' > meta-data
cloud-localds seed.iso user-data meta-data
qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b maluos-26.04.20261024-server-amd64.qcow2 -F qcow2 disk.qcow2 40G
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 4096 -smp 2 -drive file=disk.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -drive file=seed.iso,if=virtio,format=raw -nic user,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22
ssh -p 2222 [email protected] maluctl status

Add MaluOS to an existing Ubuntu 26.04 system

The bootstrap script adds the signed package repository and installs the server metapackage; first-boot provisioning runs on the next boot.

curl -fsSL https://apt.maluos.com/bootstrap/install-maluos.sh | sudo bash

To add only the repository, with the keyring from apt.maluos.com/bootstrap/maluos-archive-keyring.gpg:

Types: deb
URIs: https://apt.maluos.com
Suites: resolute
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/maluos-archive-keyring.gpg

Source and licensing

MaluOS is built on the Ubuntu 26.04 package base. MaluOS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Canonical Ltd.; Ubuntu is a trademark of Canonical. The MaluOS packages, build system and installer configuration are at github.com/maludb/maluos; the MaluDB engine is at github.com/maludb/maludb-core-26.

Support

Questions and bug reports: github.com/maludb/maluos/issues. Professional and Enterprise editions with support subscriptions are in preparation; the free edition stays free.