// docs

About

Overview

rawnix is a source-based Linux distribution built on a pure LLVM/musl toolchain. The entire system is compiled with clang/clang++ against musl libc — there is no GCC and no glibc anywhere in the base system.

Requirements

Architecture: x86_64 only.
Firmware: UEFI only — legacy BIOS is not supported.
RAM: 16 GB recommended for building packages from source.
Disk: 20 GB minimum for a base system. More for a full ports tree with sources.

Toolchain

The core toolchain consists of LLVM (clang, lld, llvm-tools), musl (libc), compiler-rt (builtins and sanitizers), libc++ (C++ standard library), and libunwind (stack unwinding). GCC compatibility shims are provided where needed — libgcc_s.so symlinks to libunwind and libstdc++.so symlinks to libc++ — so software expecting GNU toolchain components works without modification.

LLVM GPU targets

The llvm-toolchain port is built with AMDGPU as the default GPU backend target. This is required by Mesa for AMD Radeon shader compilation (radeonsi, radv) and by the LLVM-based software rasterizer (llvmpipe). If your system uses different hardware, you can change the targets and rebuild:

# Edit the llvm-toolchain MAKEPKG
# cd /ports/core/llvm-toolchain
# vi MAKEPKG
# Find the -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD line and adjust:
#   AMDGPU    — AMD Radeon (required for radeonsi/radv)
#   NVPTX     — NVIDIA (compute/CUDA)
#   X86       — always required
# Rebuild and upgrade
# mkpkg -c && mkpkg -d
# addpkg -u llvm-toolchain#*.pkg.tar.gz
# Then rebuild Mesa to pick up the new backend
# cd /usr/ports/xorg/mesa
# mkpkg -c && mkpkg -d
# addpkg -u mesa#*.pkg.tar.gz

Intel GPUs do not need an LLVM backend target — Intel's Mesa drivers (iris, anv) use their own compiler stack. If you run Intel-only graphics, you can remove AMDGPU entirely to reduce the LLVM build time and binary size.

Installation model

rawnix uses a hybrid installation model. During initial installation, pre-built binary packages are fetched over the network and installed with addpkg. Once the system is running, you transition to source-based updates and customization through the ports system — syncing port trees, building packages with mkpkg, and managing dependencies with pkg.

Getting help

Join #rawnix on Libera.Chat for support, questions, and discussion.

Filesystem Layout

rawnix uses a flat library layout — there is no lib32, lib64, or multilib. Libraries live in /lib and /usr/lib, period. This reflects the single-arch, single-libc nature of the system.

The filesystem splits into two install prefixes. The ports tree mirrors this split directly:

# Root prefix — core system (packages from /ports/core) / ├── bin/ # essential binaries ├── boot/ │ └── efi/ # EFI system partition mount ├── etc/ │ ├── boot.d/ # boot-time setup scripts │ ├── ports/ # ports sync configuration │ ├── profile.d/ # shell environment scripts │ ├── ssl/ # certificates │ └── sv/ # runit service definitions ├── home/ ├── include/ # core headers ├── lib/ # core libraries (no lib32, no lib64) │ └── firmware/ ├── media/ ├── mnt/ ├── ports/ │ └── core/ # core ports → install to / ├── root/ # root home directory ├── sbin/ # essential system binaries ├── service/ # supervised services (symlinks → /etc/sv) ├── src/ ├── usr/ │ ├── bin/ # user binaries │ ├── include/ # user headers │ ├── lib/ # user libraries + pkgconfig │ ├── ports/ # non-core ports → install to /usr │ │ ├── devel/ # development tools │ │ ├── libs/ # shared libraries │ │ ├── opt/ # optional apps │ │ ├── perl/ # perl modules │ │ ├── python/ # python modules │ │ └── xorg/ # graphical stack │ └── share/ # man pages, data, etc. └── var/ └── lib/ └── pkg/ # package database & dependency db

The rule is simple: packages in /ports/core install into the root prefix (/bin, /sbin, /lib). Packages in /usr/ports/* install into the /usr prefix (/usr/bin, /usr/lib). This is set by --prefix=/ vs --prefix=/usr in each port's build function.

The setup-filesystem script creates this entire skeleton, including /var/lib/pkg/db (the empty package database), default /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/profile, and other base configuration files. It must be run before any packages are installed.

XDG runtime directories

rawnix sets up XDG base directories through two scripts rather than relying on elogind, dumb_runtime_dir, or session managers. This means Wayland compositors work out of the box with no extra session infrastructure.

/etc/profile.d/xdg.sh exports the environment variables on login:

#!/bin/sh
export XDG_DATA_HOME="$HOME/.local/share"
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config"
export XDG_CACHE_HOME="$HOME/.cache"
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u)

/etc/boot.d/xdg-runtime creates the runtime directories at boot for each user:

#!/bin/sh
# Create XDG_RUNTIME_DIR for root and regular users
for user in root $(awk -F: '$3 >= 1000 && $3 < 65534 {print $1}' /etc/passwd); do
    uid=$(id -u "$user")
    dir=/run/user/$uid
    mkdir -p "$dir"
    chmod 0700 "$dir"
    chown "$user":"$user" "$dir"
done

No PAM, no elogind

rawnix does not use Linux-PAM or elogind. Authentication is handled by traditional shadow utilities. Session setup — XDG runtime directories, seat management via seatd — is done with minimal, purpose-built scripts that interface directly with the system rather than through abstraction layers.