The OS

MarlinOS is FreeBSD with a kernel config, a CAN networking stack, the fleet agent, the WAKE detection daemons, and a set of platform YAML files. The host stays small; package mass lives in the jails, picked per workload.

Base system

We track FreeBSD-CURRENT and ship a custom kernel config plus a short list of additions. No fork: MarlinOS installs on top of the FreeBSD pkgbase stream.

Hardened base: GENERIC minus debug, ZFS-only root with boot-environment rollback, PF composed from platform + overlay, fleetd as unprivileged _fleetd with path-scoped sudoers. No extra userland attack surface on the host beyond what the platform YAML declares.
MARLINOS kernel config: Derived from GENERIC with debug options removed (include "std.nodebug"), plus the NetCAN device modules built in. Built for both architectures.
pkgbase delivery: Base system and kernel ship as pkg-installable sets from pkg.marlinos.io. Upgrades are pkg upgrade; rollback is a ZFS boot environment.
Dual architecture, native builds: Both FreeBSD:16:amd64 and FreeBSD:16:aarch64 are built on native Poudriere runners.
ZFS root, boot environments: ZFS is the only supported root filesystem. Each base upgrade produces a new boot environment; a failed upgrade rolls back from the loader.

What MarlinOS adds

Two delivery channels: pkgbase for the kernel and base system (MARLINOS kernel config + NetCAN userland), ports for everything else. Linux gets the ports layer only, with naming and coverage in Linux support below.

Component	Where	What it does
MARLINOS kernel + NetCAN	pkgbase	`GENERIC` minus debug, plus NetCAN (`can`, `can_raw`, `can_nmea2000`, `vcan`, `ahc0512`). See NetCAN.
CAN userland	pkgbase	`canconfig`, `candump`, `cansend`, `slcand`, `n2kdump`. Ship with the base system.
fleetd	`fleetd`	Device agent. Talks to `fleetserver`, applies platform YAML, reports drift.
fleetserver	`fleetserver`	Headless REST API + enrollment broker. Required on one node.
fleet-cli	`fleet-cli`	`fleetctl` for operators. Multi-namespace, fan-out for list verbs.
fleet-platforms	`fleet-platforms`	Eight YAML platforms (`hosting`, `nas`, `identity`, `wake-edge`, `soc-console`, `vpn-hub`, `build-worker`, `racing-boat`) plus their default `app_configs/`. See Platforms.
fleet-backup	`fleet-backup`	Sanoid/syncoid wrapper with engine helpers (MariaDB, PostgreSQL).
rsyslog	`rsyslog`	FreeBSD’s rsyslog rebuilt with our SIMD TurboVM patches against `liblognorm`, plus the WAKE modules `mmenrich` / mmsigma / `mmwake`.
WAKE	`wake`	`waked` + `libwake` + the WAKE rsyslog rulebases. See WAKE.
host-defaults	`host-defaults`	Canonical `/usr/local/etc/*` for common tools.
Racing daemons	`compute-daemon`, `assistant`	Fill the `compute` and `vis` jails on `racing-boat`.

The host is small; the jails are not. A hosting platform pulls in PHP 8.4, MariaDB clients, Redis, Nextcloud, WordPress, Dolibarr, certbot, and Stalwart, one jail at a time.

Linux support

No image, no MARLINOS kernel, no jails: on Linux the ports layer drops onto whatever base install is already there. amd64 only, on the dev channel, one package repo per distro on pkg.marlinos.io.

Debian 13 amd64 · dev rsyslog · wake · marlinos-fleetd

Ubuntu 26.04 amd64 · dev rsyslog · wake · marlinos-fleetd

Alpine 3.24 amd64 · dev rsyslog · wake

Flatcar LTS 4081 amd64 · dev · OCI marlinos-rsyslog · marlinos-waked Preview: CI build is allow_failure until a live LTS 4081 load is verified.

Package names differ only where they would collide with a distro package: Linux ships marlinos-fleetd, marlinos-fleetserver, and marlinos-fleet-cli. rsyslog, wake, and libwake keep those names everywhere. Alpine carries the rsyslog + WAKE stack only, no fleetd or fleetserver. See Get it for the repo setup on each distro.

Flatcar is a different shape: read-only /usr, no apt/apk, so the detection stack ships as two OCI images (marlinos-rsyslog, marlinos-waked) instead of packages. journald stays the host logger; rsyslog tails it. No fleetd here either, same operator-managed config model as Alpine. See Get it for the docker load + compose steps.

Primitives

Each platform picks the primitives it needs. None of these is universal.

Bastille jails: Used by multi-service platforms - hosting (5 jails), racing-boat (5 jails), and identity (its keycloak-db jail). Synthesized server-side from the platform YAML. thin / thick / linux / clone are supported; vnet is intentionally not. The others (nas, wake-edge, vpn-hub, soc-console, build-worker) run services directly on the host.
NATS message bus: Used by racing-boat only - the gateway/compute/persistence/vis jails communicate over it. No other shipped platform brings in NATS today.
ZFS datasets with sanoid policy: Every FreeBSD platform uses ZFS root. Datasets are declared in the platform YAML with their Sanoid retention inline; fleet-backup hands off to engine-specific helpers (MariaDB, PostgreSQL) for consistent snapshots; syncoid ships them elsewhere when needed.
PF + dual-stack IPv6: FreeBSD platforms compose PF rules from platform + overlay, with synthesized RDR anchors per jail. ULA IPv6 with NPTv6 across the fleet’s WireGuard fabric where used.
WireGuard transport: Fleet-managed mesh, opt-out per host. nas and hosting on a LAN typically set wireguard_enable: NO; vpn-hub is the hub. See Fleet.

Build channels

Channel	Path on pkg.marlinos.io	Use
current	`FreeBSD:16:<arch>-current`	Release channel. Cut from `master`.
dev	`FreeBSD:16:<arch>-dev`	Tracking channel. Cut from `dev`. Use for testing.
pkgbase	`FreeBSD:16:<arch>/base_current`	FreeBSD base + MARLINOS kernel as `pkg` sets.