Boykisser Linux :3

A gay, gimmicky, actually daily-drivable Debian distro. XFCE, but make it pink.

Website · Download · Discord

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Repositories

Repo	What
BoykisserLinux ← you are here	ISO build config, live-build, CI, release workflow
boykisser-tools	All boykisser-* scripts and the control center - update independently of the ISO
boykisser-web	Website & docs at boykisser.taymaerz.de

What is this?

Boykisser Linux is a custom Debian 13 (trixie) live ISO built with live-build and installed with Calamares. It ships an XFCE desktop with a full Boykisser theme, gaming and streaming tools, and Flatpak ready to go.

Features

• 💅 Full Boykisser XFCE theme - pink accents, Tela-circle icons, light & dark, custom Plymouth splash and boot menu
• 🖥️ Choose your desktop in the installer - XFCE by default, or pick KDE Plasma (fully pink Boykisser-themed, pulled from the net during install)
• 🐲 Pink GRUB theme on the installed system, with the first entry (Boykisser) auto-selected
• 📦 Flatpak + Flathub out of the box (GNOME Software, Flatseal, Gear Lever)
• 🎮 Steam, Heroic, GameMode, MangoHud - with 32-bit libs enabled
• 🎥 OBS Studio with a working virtual camera (v4l2loopback)
• 🌐 Firefox, VS Code Insiders, VLC, Discord
• 🖥️ UEFI + BIOS, broad firmware, Nouveau for universal boot
• 🟩 One-click helper to install proprietary NVIDIA drivers after setup
• 🔒 Automatic security updates (unattended-upgrades) on the installed system
• ⚡ zram compressed swap + power-profiles-daemon for snappy laptops
• 🛡️ ufw firewall enabled by default (deny incoming, allow outgoing)
• 🖨️ Printing (CUPS) and firmware updates (fwupd) out of the box
• 🐛 Built-in error reporting - boykisser report (or "Report a Problem" in the menu) opens a pre-filled GitHub issue with your system info
• 🎛️ Boykisser Center - a full GTK control center GUI (boykisser center) with system status and one-click tiles for updates, apps, themes, drivers and more
• 📦 Optional app bundles in the installer - Gaming, Streaming & Creation, Development, Office
• 🧩 boykisser presets - one-click Flatpak preset groups (Art, Social, Office, Music)
• 🌐 boykisser browser - pick Firefox, LibreWolf, Brave or Chromium
• 🧹 boykisser debloat - remove app groups you don't want
• 🔓 boykisser autologin - toggle passwordless login on installed systems
• 💾 Deja Dup for file backups + Timeshift snapshots before every boykisser update (once configured)
• 🌍 Language chooser in the live boot menu (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch)
• 👋 First-login welcome checklist that walks you through setup
• 🌙 Night light (redshift) and weekly SSD TRIM out of the box
• 🚀 boykisser kernel installs the newest kernel from trixie-backports

Build it yourself

You need podman (or docker). The ISO is built inside a Debian container, so it works from any host.

./build.sh        # build the full ISO
./build.sh --netinstall   # build the slim ISO (pulls apps from the net on first boot)
./build.sh --fast # incremental: keep the chroot, regenerate the ISO only
./build.sh --clean        # deep clean, also wipes the package cache
./test-vm.sh      # boot it in QEMU

Rebuilds reuse the downloaded packages in cache/ (much faster); pass --clean to start truly from scratch. --fast is for bootloader/ISO-level tweaks only - after changing package lists or chroot hooks, do a normal build. The full build log is written to build.log.

The result lands at boykisser-linux-amd64.iso (or boykisser-linux-netinstall-amd64.iso for the slim build).

Full vs netinstall

• Full - every app is in the squashfs; installs and runs fully offline.
• Netinstall - a much smaller ISO (kept under 1.2 GB) with only the base desktop, browser and store. It drops APT Recommends and the DKMS/build bits from the squashfs, then downloads the rest (OBS, VLC, codecs, Steam, VS Code, gaming bits + Flatpaks) on first boot of the installed system via boykisser-postinstall-apps, so it needs an internet connection to finish setup. You can also re-run sudo boykisser-postinstall-apps any time.

Picking KDE Plasma in the installer also needs an internet connection, on both the full and netinstall ISOs - KDE is downloaded during install to keep the images small. XFCE installs completely offline.

Automatic weekly rebuilds

The live image keeps itself fresh two ways:

• CI: the build workflow runs every Monday (03:00 UTC) and publishes a rolling weekly-YYYYMMDD prerelease with the current trixie kernel and security updates baked in.

• Locally: tools/bk-autobuild.sh rebuilds the ISO only when Debian ships a new linux-image-amd64. Wire it up as a weekly systemd user timer:

  ./tools/bk-autobuild.sh --install-timer   # enable the weekly timer
  ./tools/bk-autobuild.sh --check           # just ask if a rebuild is due
  ./tools/bk-autobuild.sh --force           # rebuild right now
  ./tools/bk-autobuild.sh --uninstall-timer # remove the timer

  State lives in .autobuild-state, logs in autobuild.log (both gitignored).

Releases

Tagged pushes (v*) trigger the build workflow, which builds the ISO and publishes it two ways:

• Internet Archive - the whole ISO as a single direct download plus an auto-generated torrent, so there's nothing to reassemble. (Needs the IA_ACCESS_KEY / IA_SECRET_KEY repo secrets; the step is skipped without them.)
• GitHub Releases - a fallback copy split into 1.9 GiB parts to stay under GitHub's 2 GiB asset limit:

cat boykisser-linux-amd64.iso.part* > boykisser-linux-amd64.iso
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
sudo dd if=boykisser-linux-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

The live session logs in automatically; if you ever get a login prompt, the live user is boykisser with password live.

Layout

Path	What
auto/config	live-build configuration
config/package-lists/	what gets installed
config/hooks/normal/	build-time setup (Flatpak, Steam, theme, ...)
config/includes.chroot/	files overlaid onto the image
config/bootloaders/	Boykisser boot splash + GRUB theme
docker/Dockerfile.builder	the build container
tools/	maintainer helpers (weekly auto-rebuild)

Error reporting

boykisser report (also "Report a Problem" in the app menu) opens a GitHub issue pre-filled with basic, non-personal system info (version, kernel, desktop, GPU, failed services). Nothing is sent automatically - the user reviews and submits the issue themselves.

Known limitations

• The proprietary NVIDIA driver isn't in the live session (DKMS can't build against the live kernel) - install it after setup with boykisser nvidia.
• Picking KDE in the installer needs internet; XFCE installs fully offline.
• The netinstall ISO needs internet on first boot to fetch the heavy apps.

Disclaimer

AI tooling helped build this OS. Everything is reviewed and tested by a human, but please read the code before running it. Run ./README.sh for the cute version. :3

Debian is a trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Boykisser Linux is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Debian.