Choose your distro. Root it in ZFS.
Build anything. Ship anywhere.
One ISO. Four distros. ZFS on root, boot environments, WireGuard, eBPF, NVIDIA, and a local AI assistant — out of the box. Export to qcow2, VMDK, VHD, OVA, or raw — one install deploys to every platform on earth. Clone datasets in milliseconds. Replicate to any node over encrypted WireGuard tunnels. Run containers, microVMs, databases, and GPU workloads — all on self-healing storage that never loses a byte. No vendor. No cloud dependency. No internet required. The tools are free. The knowledge is yours.
kldload Free — AMD64
One ISO. Four distros. CentOS, Debian, RHEL, Rocky. ZFS on root, boot environments, 30+ tools. Offline darksites baked in.
Desktop · Server · Core profiles. Export to qcow2, VHD, VMDK, OVA.
↓ Download Freegit clone https://github.com/kldload/kldload.git && ./deploy.sh build
What kldload actually does:
kldload downloads official packages directly from upstream sources — CentOS mirrors, Debian repos, Red Hat CDN (with your own subscription), Rocky mirrors — and assembles them into a single bootable ISO with ZFS on root. Nothing is patched. Nothing is forked. Nothing is modified. Every package is stock, verified, and traceable to its upstream source.
The ISO itself is a live CentOS environment — a build artifact, not a distribution. It’s a
portable installer that carries two offline package mirrors (RPM + APT) so you can install without
internet. When you boot it and click install, it runs dnf --installroot or
debootstrap against those mirrors — the same tools your distro uses natively.
You pick a distro. You pick a profile — Desktop, Server, or Core. kldload handles the partitioning, ZFS pool creation, DKMS module build, initramfs, and bootloader. The result is a stock distro install with ZFS on root. That’s it.
What comes out the other side is your distro — not ours. Export it to qcow2, VHD, VMDK, or OVA. Feed it to Packer as a base image. Deploy it with Terraform. Plug it into your existing IaC pipeline. The image is yours to ship anywhere.
The Desktop and Server profiles add optional quality-of-life tools — automatic snapshots before every package change, boot environments for instant rollback, one command set that works the same on Debian and CentOS. The Core profile skips all of that and gives you just ZFS on root with a stock distro. Nothing added. Nothing changed.
Every script is readable bash. No compiled binaries. No vendor SDK.
cat any file and read what it does.
Kernel modules & tools — bundled on first boot.
✓ ZFS on Root
Checksummed, compressed, snapshot-capable root filesystem. Boot environments via ZFSBootMenu. Self-healing on mirrors.
✓ WireGuard
Kernel-level encrypted networking. Built as a DKMS module alongside ZFS. Available on first boot for VPNs, site-to-site links, or mesh overlays.
✓ NVIDIA Drivers
GPU drivers baked into the image. CUDA-ready on first boot. No post-install driver dance. No nouveau conflicts.
✓ ZFSBootMenu
UEFI bootloader that understands ZFS. Boot environment selection. 15-second rollback. No GRUB hacks.
✓ Automatic Snapshots
Before every package change. Every 15 minutes for /srv. Hourly boot environment snapshots. Configurable retention.
✓ 30+ CLI Tools
kst, ksnap, kbe, kdf, kdir, kpkg, kupgrade, krecovery — short names, no flags to memorize.
✓ Secure Boot / MOK
Per-machine key generation. Automatic module signing. DKMS auto-sign on kernel upgrades. Works with Secure Boot enabled.
✓ Offline / Air-Gap Ready
Complete package mirror baked in. No internet at install time. No phone home. The USB drive is the deployment.
Pick how much kldload you want.
Desktop
GNOME workstation + ZFS on root + all kldloadOS tools + web UI + automatic snapshots + offline darksites.
Server
Headless + SSH + ZFS on root + all kldloadOS tools + web UI + automatic snapshots + offline darksites.
Core
ZFS on root only. Stock distro. No kldload tools, no web UI, no sanoid, no darksites. Just the kernel modules and boot environments. For advanced users.
Desktop and Server include the full kldloadOS experience. Core solves the hard problem — getting ZFS on root with proper DKMS, initramfs, and ZFSBootMenu — and gets out of the way. Nothing is removed from the base distro in any profile. The k* tools are optional additions, not replacements. apt, dnf, zfs, and zpool always work directly.
A foundation. Build whatever you want on top.
Containers
Docker, Podman, LXC on ZFS. Copy-on-write storage, instant snapshots, transparent compression.
VMs
KVM + QEMU + libvirt with zvol-backed storage. Clone a VM in milliseconds. Roll back a bad patch.
Storage servers
NFS, iSCSI, Samba on ZFS. Self-healing, checksummed, compressed. Your own TrueNAS.
Media servers
Jellyfin or Plex on a filesystem that never silently corrupts a frame. Snapshot your library.
Clusters
Start with one node. Add more. WireGuard for connectivity, ZFS replication for data. Build your own orchestration.
Whatever you want
Firewall. DNS. CI/CD runner. Game server. kldload is the foundation. postinstall.sh is your hook.