Bomb-proof by design, fast on the CachyOS kernel, with a GNOME re-wired for tiling, every codec and driver already in place, and a curated set of creator tools that make it ready for work from minute one.
Verify integrity: SHA256SUMS then sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
Margine's signed CachyOS/BORE kernel does up to ~1.8× the scheduling throughput and 40–55% lower median / average latency than the stock Fedora kernel — measured on the same laptop.
MEDIAN OF 4 RUNS · FRAMEWORK LAPTOP 13 · GOVERNOR PERFORMANCE · how this was measured →
01 — What you get
Everything here is on from the first boot — no post-install checklist, no hunting through settings. Open Details on any card for the specifics, and most link into the docs for the full story.
CachyOS kernel with the BORE scheduler — lower desktop latency, and Secure Boot never has to come off.
Mainline kernel from the bieszczaders/kernel-cachyos COPR. The kernel image and every module are signed at build time with the Margine MOK and enrolled into shim on first boot — so you keep Secure Boot on without disabling anything.
Six sched_ext schedulers in the base image — switch in two seconds, no reboot.
scx_lavd for gaming, scx_bpfland for busy desktops, scx_flash for audio, and more — from the GUI picker or `ujust margine-scheduler`. Off returns to BORE; if a scheduler misbehaves the kernel ejects it on its own.
`ujust margine-ai` adds Alpaca — chat with local LLMs fully offline, sandboxed, and removable.
Opt-in and 100% Flatpak — nothing is layered onto the host. Alpaca bundles its own Ollama backend; pick a model on first launch (llama3.1:8b general, qwen2.5-coder:7b for code, phi3.5:3.8b for CPU-only). Everything runs on your machine; `ujust margine-ai-remove` undoes it. A RamaLama CLI path is printed for power users.
Proprietary codecs, hardware video acceleration, and browser DRM all work out of the box.
Mesa freeworld, full ffmpeg (H.264, HEVC, AAC, MP3, AC3, DTS), VA-API/VDPAU hardware acceleration, and the GStreamer plugin set. DRM in Firefox and Chromium works with no extra setup.
A real scroll-speed control for touchpad scroll and pinch — the slider GNOME never shipped.
wsf (wayland-scroll-factor) is preloaded into GNOME Shell: one factor for scroll and pinch, set with `wsf-gui` or `wsf set 0.7`, applied live to every app. Defaults to 1.0 — byte-for-byte stock until you touch it.
Stock GNOME plus binary-tree auto-tiling and Hyprland-style keybindings.
o-tiling preinstalled and enabled. Super+1..0 for workspaces, Super+Arrow to move focus, Super+Shift+Arrow to move windows, Super+Return for the terminal.
37 curated apps are already there the moment you log in — no first-boot wait.
Zen, Thunderbird, Bitwarden, LibreOffice, the GNOME suite, Pinta, Audacity, EasyEffects, Reaper, g4music, Blanket, Fragments, Apostrophe and more — baked into the system at install time. Four heavy creatives (GIMP, Inkscape, darktable, OBS Studio) arrive in the background within 5–15 min. VS Code is inherited from Bluefin DX.
A system-wide EQ / compressor / limiter chain so cheap laptop speakers sound right.
EasyEffects preinstalled, sitting between every app and your output device, with per-device preset autoload and an instant bypass A/B. A hand-tuned preset for the Framework 13's stock speakers is on its way to the image.
/usr is read-only; updates stage as a new deployment and roll back in one command.
Updates pull a new OCI image and stage it as a new deployment; the previous one stays on disk. `bootc rollback` returns to it at the next reboot.
A release that doesn't boot in a VM never reaches your computer.
Every release passes static image inspection and a QEMU smoke-boot, and only then gets promoted to :stable.
One-checkbox LUKS2 full-disk encryption at install — and we recommend you tick it.
Set a strong passphrase; TPM2 auto-unlock can be enrolled after install via systemd-cryptenroll, keeping the passphrase as recovery.
The full documentation is baked into the image and works offline.
Refreshed daily in the background; the Margine Documentation launcher opens the local copy instantly — aeroplane mode included. The website and the offline copy are the same content.
ISO and qcow2 on the Internet Archive as both torrent magnets and direct HTTP.
SHA256SUMS published alongside. Same bytes, two transports.
02 — A look
03 — Install
Margine ships a single ISO. Rebase remains available for existing Bluefin DX systems. Gaming is one command on top — ujust margine-gaming after first boot installs the gaming stack (gamescope, vkBasalt, Steam, Lutris, Heroic, Bottles, ProtonPlus, RetroArch).
The ISO boots a full live GNOME session with Margine already in it — try the desktop first, then install from the launcher (Anaconda Web UI). Validated end to end as of 2026-06-11.
Margine
SHA256SUMS.EFI/MOK.der → verify the fingerprint → Yes → reboot. No password on that path, and you won't see it again. Full walkthrough: /docs/install-iso.ujust margine-bootstrapInstall Bluefin DX stable first, then switch to Margine without reinstalling. This keeps the fresh-install path on upstream's currently validated ISO while Margine's own ISO finishes hardening.
rpm-ostree rebase \ ostree-image-signed:docker://\ ghcr.io/daniel-g-carrasco/margine:stable systemctl reboot
After reboot: enroll the Margine MOK via the blue MOK Manager screen (passphrase margine-os — full walkthrough), then ujust margine-bootstrap. Why this path is first right now.
Post-install verification
$ mokutil --sb-state # SecureBoot enabled $ uname -r # 7.0.x-cachyos*.fc44.x86_64 $ margine-validate-atomic-layout $ margine-validate-cachyos-kernel
04 — Gaming
Two ways to game — both opt-in, both reversible, and you can switch later. Pick by how seriously you play. Controllers, launch-option recipes, and the per-tool guide live in the gaming docs.
Flatpak · the default
Most people$ ujust margine-gaming $ systemctl reboot
Best for the occasional gamer. Roll back: ujust margine-gaming-remove.
Native · RPM-layered
Daily / competitive$ ujust margine-gaming-native $ systemctl reboot
Best if you game daily or play anti-cheat titles. Roll back: ujust margine-gaming-native-remove.
Steam
Launcher
Lutris
Launcher
Heroic
Epic / GOG
Bottles
Wine prefixes
Protontricks
Proton tweaks
ProtonPlus
Proton manager
RetroArch
Emulator front-end
05 — Technical reference
06 — Standing on