CobaltOS replaces ChromeOS with a full, privacy-respecting Linux desktop. COSMIC DE, Rust-powered tools, and first-class Chromebook hardware support — out of the box.
Built for the hardware you already own, without the Google dependency.
Desktop in under 10 seconds on eMMC thanks to systemd-boot,
zram-generator, and a hand-tuned Debian base — no bloat.
The brand-new Wayland-native desktop by System76. Built entirely in Rust
with the iced framework — modern, beautiful, and snappy.
Keyboard remapping via keyd, audio UCM profiles, libinput touchpad
tuning, 3-finger workspace gestures, and HiDPI scaling — all applied automatically
for your exact board on first boot.
ripgrep, fd, eza, bat,
zoxide, starship and more — pre-installed and
aliased for a modern shell experience out of the box.
cobalt-installer offers a full GUI and a TUI mode.
Choose Guided (entire disk, one click) or
Manual (custom EFI and root partition sizes).
Pick ext4 or btrfs
(with @, @home, @snapshots
subvolumes and zstd:3 compression).
No Google account. No telemetry. No cloud lock-in. Debian Stable base with Flatpak for sandboxed apps from Flathub. Analytics and location access are off by default — configure them during the OOBE setup wizard.
Full apt package ecosystem plus Flatpak with Flathub enabled
by default. The Welcome wizard lets you pick your browser (Firefox, Chromium,
Brave) and 10+ curated apps — they install automatically in the background
on first login.
cobalt-update checks every 6 hours via systemd timer.
Before every upgrade it saves a dpkg package snapshot;
on btrfs systems it also creates a read-only subvolume snapshot.
If an upgrade fails the system rolls back automatically.
Run cobalt-update rollback to restore manually.
cobalt-oobe (6 pages) walks you through timezone, privacy, and account setup before the desktop loads. cobalt-welcome (6 pages) then handles appearance, locale, browser choice, and curated app recommendations — the selected apps install via Flatpak in the background while you explore.
Mainline LTS kernel with Chromebook-specific patches. Every standard Linux application, developer tool, and game works as expected. Plymouth boot splash with a custom CobaltOS theme.
Every piece of system tooling in CobaltOS is purpose-built for Chromebooks in Rust.
| Component | What it does | Key features |
|---|---|---|
cobalt-installer |
Installation wizard (GUI + TUI) | Hardware detection, guided & manual partitioning, ext4 / btrfs, debootstrap pipeline |
cobalt-hardware-probe |
Hardware detection & config | 60+ board database, keyboard remapping, audio UCM, touchpad tuning, COSMIC gesture config, Xorg fallback |
cobalt-update |
System & app update daemon | apt + Flatpak, smart notifications (notify only on new packages), dpkg snapshot, btrfs snapshot, auto-rollback on failure, 6h timer |
cobalt-welcome |
Post-login welcome wizard (6 pages) | Appearance (light/dark/cobalt theme), locale, browser choice, 10 curated Flatpak apps, writes COSMIC theme config |
cobalt-oobe |
Out-of-box experience (6 pages) | Timezone, privacy (analytics + location), display name/account setup, applies config system-wide via cobalt-first-boot |
CobaltOS holds your hand through every step of initial setup.
On completion, cobalt-first-boot.service applies timezone, locale,
display name, and COSMIC theme system-wide via timedatectl, locale-gen, and chfn.
Flatpak installs run in the background via cobalt-flatpak-install.service so you can use the desktop immediately.
cobalt-update keeps your system current without risk of a broken boot.
Checks for updates automatically. Notifies only when new packages arrive — not every cycle.
Before every apt upgrade, a dpkg --get-selections snapshot is saved. On btrfs, a read-only subvolume snapshot is also created in /.snapshots/.
If an upgrade fails, CobaltOS automatically restores the saved dpkg state and notifies you. Run cobalt-update rollback to trigger it manually.
Both system packages and Flatpak apps are upgraded together in a single scheduled pass.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
cobalt-update check | Check for available updates and notify if new packages found |
cobalt-update apply | Apply all pending apt + Flatpak updates (with pre-upgrade snapshot) |
cobalt-update rollback | Restore the most recent pre-upgrade dpkg snapshot |
cobalt-update daemon | Run the 6-hour background daemon (started automatically by systemd) |
CobaltOS supports all Chromebooks compatible with MrChromebox's UEFI Full ROM firmware — covering most Chromebooks from 2012 onwards across Intel and AMD platforms.
The full process takes 30–60 minutes. Follow the step-by-step guide.
Get the ISO and write it to a USB drive with Rufus, Etcher, or dd.
Enable ChromeOS Developer Mode to unlock firmware access.
Remove the WP screw or disconnect the battery to allow firmware flashing.
Run MrChromebox's script to replace the factory firmware with UEFI.
Boot from USB and follow the guided installer — GUI or TUI mode.
Every common CLI tool replaced with a faster Rust alternative — aliased so nothing breaks.
| Traditional | CobaltOS Replacement | Why it's better |
|---|---|---|
grep | ripgrep (rg) | 10–100× faster, respects .gitignore |
find | fd | Simpler syntax, faster, colorized output |
ls | eza | Icons, colors, git status in file listings |
cat | bat | Syntax highlighting, line numbers, git diffs |
cd | zoxide | Remembers your most-visited directories |
du | dust | Instant visual disk usage tree |
top / htop | bottom (btm) | Beautiful TUI, CPU, memory, network graphs |
ps | procs | Colorized, human-readable process list |
sed | sd | Intuitive regex find & replace |
ping | gping | Real-time latency graph in the terminal |
CobaltOS is actively developed. Each release brings meaningful improvements.
| Version | Highlights |
|---|---|
| v1.4.0 Latest |
cobalt-update rollback: dpkg snapshot + btrfs subvolume snapshot before every upgrade; auto-rollback on failure; cobalt-update rollback CLI command.
Installer manual partitioning: Guided vs Manual mode; custom EFI MiB and root GiB inputs in GUI and TUI.
|
| v1.3.0 |
COSMIC 3-finger workspace gesture config per board (EVE/ATLAS/NAMI sensitivity tuning).
Filesystem shown on installer Confirm screen. cobalt-first-boot service applies OOBE settings system-wide.
cobalt-welcome triggers Flatpak install on exit.
|
| v1.2.0 | cobalt-welcome expanded to 6 pages: Locale (23 options) + Browser choice (Firefox/Chromium/Brave/None). cobalt-oobe expanded to 6 pages: Timezone, Privacy (analytics + location), Account setup. systemd timers for update + Flatpak install. cobalt-first-boot integration. |
| v1.1.0 |
Touchpad quirks with per-board libinput sensitivity (EVE/ATLAS/NAMI/generic).
COSMIC touchpad.toml configs. btrfs installer support (subvolumes + zstd:3).
Update manager state persistence (smart notifications).
|
| v1.0.0 | First stable release. Full debootstrap install pipeline, hardware probe with 60+ board DB, welcome wizard, OOBE, update manager, Plymouth splash, GitHub Pages docs. |
v0.1.0 – v0.5.0 |
Initial scaffolding, Rust workspace, installer GUI/TUI, hardware probe, docs site. |