amethystora-diagnose

Amethystora

Amethystora is a cloud-native desktop operating system built on Fedora, using container technology and atomic updates. Its desktop is GNOME.

For end users, it aims to be as reliable as a Chromebook with near-zero maintenance. For developers, it offers a cloud-native workflow with integrated container tools, declarative system management and CI/CD-built images.

Amethystora is created and maintained by Arsslen Idadi (@iarsslen).

Mission

Amethystora aims to be a robust, cloud-native desktop that brings enterprise-grade infrastructure practices to everyday computing:

• Reliability: Atomic updates keep the system stable
• Developer Experience: Integrated cloud-native tooling and workflows, including Kubernetes and container support
• Sustainability: Low maintenance overhead through modern cloud-native build infrastructure

Images

Each image is published in the stable, latest and beta streams.

Each stable image also comes sealed, as stable-sealed (experimental): its kernel, the kernel's settings and the digest of every file of the system are one image signed for Secure Boot, and a file changed on the disk cannot be read at all. A sealed system can only be installed fresh, from the live ISO's Install Amethystora, sealed launcher, never switched to; the manual's Installing page says what it changes.

The ISOs carry the images without NVIDIA's driver. On a machine with an NVIDIA card, a notification a few minutes after the first boot offers to switch to the matching -nvidia-open image through ame system rebase, which takes signed images only; it never switches by itself. The NVIDIA images run without kernel lockdown (see Security).

Getting Started

Download amethystora.iso, write it to a USB stick and start the computer from it: Amethystora runs from the stick, to try without changing anything on the computer, and installs from there, offline, beside Windows if you want to keep it. It needs UEFI firmware. The installer alone, which also starts older computers, is amethystora-non-uefi.iso. Each has its checksum beside it as <name>.sha256, signed with the key in cosign.pub; the manual's Installing page says how to check it and how to install next to Windows.

From an existing Fedora Atomic or Universal Blue system, switch to Amethystora with:

sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/iarsslen/amethystora:stable

Then reboot. Replace amethystora with any image name from the table above, and stable with the stream you want.

Using the desktop

You log in on GDM to a GNOME session with the Amethystora wallpaper and a purple accent. These GNOME Shell extensions are preinstalled: Dash to Dock, Blur my Shell, AppIndicator, Caffeine, GSConnect, Logo Menu, Search Light, PaperWM, Space Bar, TopHat, Just Perfection, Clipboard Indicator, Fuzzy App Search, Gradia and Bazaar integration. Turn them on or off in Extension Manager.

The top bar carries the six workspaces on the left, where Activities used to be, and CPU, memory and network meters on the right. Both follow the current theme.

The manual

Everything about using Amethystora is in the Amethystora Manual, which ships with the image and works offline: getting around, the hotkeys, themes, installing software, developer mode, updates and rollbacks, security, hardware and troubleshooting. Open it with Super+F1, from the app grid or the Amethystora menu, or with amethystora-manual; amethystora-manual <page> opens a page directly. The pages are Markdown in system_files/shared/usr/share/amethystora/manual, and the hotkeys page is the same keybindings.md that ame desktop keybindings shows.

Languages

The Manual, Security, System Updates, Logs, Notes, Control and Backups, the security report and the manual's pages follow the session's language. They are translated into French, Arabic (right to left), Spanish and German, and on Weblate into whatever language people take up; CONTRIBUTING.md says how. A message without a translation yet shows in English.

System commands

ame runs the commands that come with the image, in groups: ame lists the groups, ame security lists the commands in that group, and ame security scan now runs one. ame pkg is amethystora-pkg. ujust runs the same commands, and still takes the names they had before they were grouped, such as ujust setup-backup.

Tiling and keyboard navigation

Windows tile on their own with PaperWM: each workspace is a strip of windows side by side that scrolls to keep the focused one in view. Super and an arrow moves between windows, Super+Ctrl and an arrow moves the window, Super+R steps its width and Super+F fills the screen. Super+Shift+V opens the clipboard history.

There are six fixed workspaces on Super+1 to Super+6, Super+Shift+N takes the window with you, and Alt+1 to Alt+9 reach the pinned apps in the dock. Super+Return opens a terminal (Ptyxis), Super+W closes a window, Super+Space searches.

Super+Alt+Space opens the Amethystora menu, which reaches all of this from the keyboard. The full list is in ame desktop keybindings.

Windows that float and overlap instead, as on Windows and macOS, are ame desktop layout classic, which updates leave alone; the first login offers it in a notification. ame desktop layout tiling brings the strip back.

Themes

Super+Ctrl+Shift+Space picks a theme, Super+Ctrl+D flips between light and dark, and Super+Ctrl+Space cycles the wallpaper (every theme has three wallpapers of made-up places drawn in its palette and opens on the first, the Amethystora themes open on a cut stone's facets instead and add the crystal field and a night sky, and pictures added to ~/.config/amethystora/backgrounds/<theme>/ join them). One switch repaints GNOME's colour scheme and accent, the Ptyxis palette, the shell prompt, btop, the dock and the wallpaper, because each theme is a single palette file everything else is rendered from. The same from a terminal:

ame desktop theme                # pick one
amethystora-theme set nord       # or name it
amethystora-theme list

Amethystora ships Amethystora (light and dark), Tokyo Night, Catppuccin Mocha and Latte, Gruvbox, Nord, Rosé Pine Dawn, Everforest and Matte Black. To add your own, drop a directory into ~/.config/amethystora/themes/ with a colors.toml in it; a directory that matches a shipped theme's name is layered over it, so you can change one colour without copying the rest. /usr/lib/amethystora/theme/lib.sh documents the other files a theme can hold.

The icons are candy-icons, the same set under every theme; the panel keeps GNOME's own monochrome icons so the meters and indicators stay legible. The set draws folders, file types and the apps that do a plain job; an app with a