Download

Install images for Solnix — Nix on illumos. Each image below lists its checksum; verify it before writing.

First release: v2026.08.07 (unstable edition). A bootable x86_64 ISO and a raw ZFS-root disk image are available below — this is an early, preview-grade release (a flag planted on a known-good state, not a polished 1.0), so expect rough edges. The binary cache and package search are live too. Follow the architecture roadmap for what's next.
Desktop is coming — honestly, not yet. The COSMIC desktop has been shown to compile for illumos (Rust, Wayland, GTK4, Mesa/Vulkan), which proves the toolchain stack is viable — but a GPU-driven display on real hardware is not working yet (it is gated on a kernel console-handover and up-to-date GPU drivers). Solnix does install and run headless on real hardware today, with wifi; see the news for the dated, honest status. A graphical install image will appear here when it genuinely boots to a desktop, not before.

Images

Checking for published images…

Coming soon

Graphical install ISO/DVD — coming soon
arch x86_64-solarisdesktopCOSMIC
A live graphical installer with the COSMIC desktop. The stack (Rust, Wayland, GTK4, fonts/toolkit, Mesa/Vulkan) compiles for illumos; driving a real display still needs the kernel console handover and current GPU drivers. No download yet; this card turns into a real image only when one boots to a desktop.

What works today

Use the binary cache

A Nix user on illumos can point at the Solnix cache and stop recompiling — signed, verifiable, edge-cached. Two lines in /etc/nix/nix.conf:

# /etc/nix/nix.conf
substituters = https://cache.solnix.io https://cache.nixos.org
trusted-public-keys = cache.solnix.io-1:8UNrVAOSOrI9PGHc8/pD2Yqp265ZeYb3OId+gv4+wm8=

Full details in the binary cache chapter.

Search packages

Full-text search across everything in the cache, per architecture.

Search packages →

Install instructions (for when images land)

1 · Verify the checksum

Every image ships a .sha256. Confirm your download is intact before writing it.

# download the ISO and its .sha256 into the same directory, then:
sha256sum -c solnix-<arch>-<release>.iso.sha256
# or compare by hand against the sha256 shown above:
sha256sum solnix-<arch>-<release>.iso

On illumos/macOS use shasum -a 256 if sha256sum is absent. The hash must match exactly — if it doesn't, re-download; do not boot a corrupted image.

2 · Write to a USB stick

Write the raw image to the whole disk (not a partition). This erases the target device.

DANGER: dd to the wrong device destroys data. Identify the USB stick first (lsblk on Linux, diskutil list on macOS, diskinfo / rmformat -l on illumos) and double-check the device node.
# Linux:  of=/dev/sdX   macOS: of=/dev/rdiskN   illumos: of=/dev/rdsk/cNtNdNp0
sudo dd if=solnix-<arch>-<release>.iso of=/dev/rdiskN bs=4M conv=fsync status=progress
sync

Replace /dev/rdiskN with your actual device. Disk images (.raw/.img) are written the same way. Cloud images (.qcow2/.vmdk) are imported into your hypervisor instead.

3 · Boot it

The x86_64 image will be UEFI + legacy BIOS bootable. Boot from the USB stick (use your firmware's boot menu — often F12/F2/Esc/Del), then follow the installer. See the getting-started guide for the walkthrough.