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Try Nexus OS ​

Run a sovereign OS in 5 minutes. No hardware required. No account needed.

Prerequisites ​

  • QEMU ≥ 7.0 — full system emulation
  • 4GB RAM free on your machine
  • Linux, macOS, or Windows (WSL2)

Install QEMU ​

bash
sudo apt install qemu-system-x86 qemu-system-arm qemu-system-misc
bash
brew install qemu
bash
sudo apt install qemu-system-x86

Quick Start ​

Micro Demo — works ​

The fastest proven path. The CLI builds a development Micro image, boots it in QEMU, and shows the Nexus Micro banner plus a NexShell prompt.

bash
curl -fsSL https://get.nexus-os.org | sh
nexus run --profile=micro --demo

What happens: tries a prebuilt Micro image → builds the local demo image when no prebuilt image exists → boots in QEMU → NexShell appears.

NexBox VM — preview ​

NexBox is the desktop VM target with compositor, registry, and NipCell support. The command surface exists, but the current proof pack has not captured a NexBox boot yet.

bash
curl -fsSL https://get.nexus-os.org | sh
nexus run --profile=nexbox --vm

Nexus-Linux NipCell — proof-mode ​

The M9 proof now boots a staged ARM64 Linux guest from the Rumpk EL2 handoff. The proof reaches Linux /init, validates the mapped ION header, and loads nexus_ion, nexus_net, nexus_blk, and nexus_input.

This is a source-checkout proof, not the default production start path yet.

bash
cd nexus-forge/core/rumpk
zig build test-nipcell --summary all
zig build -Darch=aarch64 \
  -Dproof-stage-linux-image=true \
  -Dproof-el2-vmentry-smoke=true \
  -Dproof-el2-eret-attempt=true \
  --summary all
./run_aarch64.sh el2-staged-eret-attempt

Expected proof result:

text
=== EL2 Staged ERET Attempt Result: 33/33 ===

See Nexus-Linux NipCell for the current boundary between proven and planned work.

Dry-Run Build — works as preview ​

Preview what the Forge would build without running the full local image pipeline. The Mech dry run is backed by recipes/mech.kdl; full Forge image output is still planned.

bash
curl -fsSL https://get.nexus-os.org | sh
nexus build --edition=mech --arch=aarch64 --dry-run

The 5-Minute Tour ​

  1. Boot Sequence — Rumpk kernel loads. HAL initializes VirtIO devices. Under 100ms to prompt.
  2. NexShell — Type signal.fiber list. See a structured table, not a character grid.
  3. Verify — Run nexus verify /tmp/nexus-proof-home/images/nexus-micro-x86_64.img after the demo build. The current proof uses development signature, BOM, and proof sidecars.
  4. Crash & Restart — Planned. Driver crash and Blink Response demos need a separate NipCell proof.

Next Steps ​