kldload Editions

kldload comes in two editions and three install profiles. Both editions install ZFS on root with ZFSBootMenu across all nine supported operating systems. The difference is what comes on top.

kldload-core

The kernel and ZFS. Nothing else.

kldload-core solves the hard problem: getting ZFS on root working properly on any supported distro. That’s it. No tools, no web UI, no darksites, no wrappers. You get a stock distro with ZFS on root and boot environments, and you take it from there.

What’s in core

• Stock distro of your choice — CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Rocky, RHEL, Arch, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD
• ZFS on root with kernel module compiled and signed at image build time
• Deterministic dataset layout (separate /home, /var/log, /var/cache, /srv)
• ZFSBootMenu bootloader with boot environment support
• EFI partition, Secure Boot chain, per-build MOK key signing
• Hostid configuration (zgenhostid)
• Initramfs with ZFS support (dracut)
• That’s it

What’s NOT in core

• No k* tools (kpkg, ksnap, kbe, kst, kdf, kdir, kclone, kexport, kupgrade, krecovery)
• No web UI
• No offline package mirrors (darksites)
• No sanoid (automatic snapshots)
• No desktop customizations
• No Firefox autostart
• No kldload-webui service
• No installer libraries beyond the base bootstrap

Who it’s for

• People who already know ZFS and want to manage it themselves
• Experienced sysadmins who have their own tooling and automation
• Minimalists who want the smallest possible footprint
• Anyone who looked at kldload-free and thought “I just want the ZFS part”

Using core

After install, you have a standard Linux system. Use the native tools:

# Package management
dnf install nginx              # CentOS/RHEL
apt install nginx              # Debian

# ZFS
zfs snapshot rpool/home@backup
zfs list -t snapshot
zfs rollback rpool/home@backup
zpool status

# Boot environments (manual)
zfs snapshot rpool/ROOT/default@before-upgrade
zfs clone rpool/ROOT/default@before-upgrade rpool/ROOT/rollback-point
zpool set bootfs=rpool/ROOT/rollback-point rpool

# Upgrades
dnf upgrade                    # CentOS
apt dist-upgrade               # Debian
# (no automatic snapshot — manage your own)

Everything ZFS gives you is available. Boot environments work through ZFSBootMenu. You just manage it all yourself with zfs and zpool directly.

kldload-free

The full experience. ZFS made automatic and seamless.

kldload-free starts with everything in core and adds a layer of optional tooling designed to make ZFS on root effortless — especially for people who haven’t used ZFS before.

What free adds on top of core

Who it’s for

• People who want ZFS on root without having to learn ZFS administration first
• Teams deploying both CentOS and Debian who want consistent tooling
• Air-gapped environments that need offline installs
• Home labbers who want boot environments and instant rollbacks
• Anyone who’s tired of reinstalling Linux because an upgrade broke something

The key point

Nothing in free replaces or modifies the base distro. Every k* tool is optional. apt and dnf work exactly as they do on a stock install. The k* tools wrap the native commands, add sensible defaults, and take automatic snapshots. If you uninstalled every k* tool and removed the web UI, you’d have exactly what core gives you.

Free is core with guard rails and shortcuts. Core is free without them. The underlying OS is identical.

Comparison

Building each edition

# kldload-free with desktop profile (full experience)
EDITION=free PROFILE=desktop ./deploy.sh build

# kldload-free with server profile (headless, all tools)
EDITION=free PROFILE=server ./deploy.sh build

# kldload-core (ZFS on root, nothing else)
EDITION=core PROFILE=core ./deploy.sh build

The EDITION variable controls which components are included in the ISO. Core skips the k* tools, web UI, darksites, sanoid, and desktop customizations. The build pipeline, container infrastructure, and ZFS/bootloader setup are shared.

Upgrading from core to free

If you start with core and later want the k* tools:

# Clone the kldload repo
git clone https://github.com/kldload/kldload.git /opt/kldload

# Copy the tools
cp /opt/kldload/live-build/config/includes.chroot/usr/local/bin/k* /usr/local/bin/
cp -r /opt/kldload/live-build/config/includes.chroot/usr/lib/kldload-installer /usr/lib/
for tool in kbe krecovery kupgrade; do
  ln -sf /usr/lib/kldload-installer/backend/bin/$tool /usr/local/bin/$tool
done
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/k*

# Install sanoid for automatic snapshots
curl -sL https://github.com/jimsalterjrs/sanoid/archive/refs/tags/v2.2.0.tar.gz | tar xz -C /tmp
cp /tmp/sanoid-2.2.0/{sanoid,syncoid,findoid} /usr/local/sbin/
chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/{sanoid,syncoid,findoid}

Or just rebuild with EDITION=free next time.

Philosophy

The core edition exists because the hardest part of running ZFS on Linux has always been the initial setup — partitioning, DKMS builds, initramfs, bootloader. That’s a 2-hour manual process with many opportunities to brick the install. kldload-core automates that one-time pain and then gets out of the way.

The free edition exists because most people don’t just want ZFS on root — they want the benefits of ZFS (snapshots, boot environments, compression, cloning) without having to learn the zfs and zpool command syntax. The k* tools make those benefits accessible to people who’ve never touched ZFS before, while leaving the native tools untouched for people who have.

Both editions produce the same underlying OS. The difference is how much hand-holding ships on the ISO.