RefreshOS 3.0 is built from a fresh Debian 13 “Trixie” installation and extensively customized, configured, and packaged into a complete RefreshOS desktop operating system.

Debian 13 Base

• Built on Debian 13 “Trixie” with KDE Plasma and GRUB.
• Installed Debian's standard system utilities.
• Configured deb.debian.org as the Debian package mirror.
• Disabled Debian's Package Usage Survey so package-usage statistics are not submitted to Debian.

System Configuration

• Configured the default user as an Administrator with sudo access.
• Set the default display resolution to 1600×900 (16:9) for consistent scaling and future RefreshOS TV integration.
• Configured default power management and screen-locking behavior, including automatic sleep, display dimming, display shutdown, and screen locking.
• Updated the base system and installed software to the latest available Debian packages.
• Set Nemo as the default file manager and LXTerminal as the terminal emulator.
• Added the RefreshOS system root directory to establish the filesystem structure used throughout the build.

Software Changes

• Marked required KDE Plasma, SDDM, NetworkManager, PipeWire, UDisks2, sudo, XWayland, and other required system packages as manually installed to prevent them from being removed during cleanup.
• Removed software not included in RefreshOS 3.0.
• Replaced redundant KDE applications with the selected RefreshOS applications:
  • Gwenview → PhotoQt
  • Firefox ESR → Brave
  • KCalc → Kalk
  • Dragon Player → VLC
  • Juk → Elisa
  • Kate/KWrite → Pluma
  • KAddressBook → Merkuro Contacts
  • KOrganizer → Merkuro Calendar
  • KMail → Thunderbird
• Removed applications that were not needed and had no replacement, including Konqueror, ImageMagick, and XTerm.
• Removed unnecessary packages and cleaned the APT package cache.
• Added the RefreshOS application suite:
  • PhotoQt, Elisa, Pluma, Kalk, Merkuro, VLC, Thunderbird
  • Kdenlive, KWave, Timeshift, K3b, ISO Image Writer
  • KolourPaint, Kamoso, KWeather
• Added KDE PIM and calendar integration packages so Merkuro events can integrate with the Plasma clock/calendar.
• Added required utilities including curl and pkexec.
• Installed Brave Browser as the default web browser.
• Added RefreshOS default games:
  • SuperTux 2
  • Neverball
  • KPatience
  • Mokomaze
  • Kapman
  • KBlocks
  • KMines
• Retained software already provided by the Debian/KDE base, including GIMP, LibreOffice, wget, and nano.
• Added Node.js 22 to the RefreshOS software environment.

Hardware Support & Power Management

• Enabled Debian's contrib and non-free repositories for proprietary firmware and additional hardware support.
• Added firmware and drivers covering:
  • AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA graphics
  • Intel, Realtek, Atheros, Broadcom, MediaTek, and other wireless hardware
  • Intel and other audio hardware
  • Bluetooth, printers, webcams, USB, and mobile-device connectivity
• Added video and DVD codec support, including libavcodec-extra and libdvd-pkg.
• Added TLP and configured it as the system power-management solution to improve laptop battery efficiency.
• Disabled power-profiles-daemon to prevent conflicts with TLP.
• Established a comprehensive hardware-support baseline so RefreshOS can work with a wide range of desktop and laptop hardware out of the box.

RefreshOS Branding

• Added Fastfetch and htop.
• Integrated the RefreshOS 3 icon system throughout the operating system.
• Rebranded the system as RefreshOS 3.0 (Colorful Cosmos).
• Updated RefreshOS website, support, and bug-report URLs.
• Added the custom RefreshOS logo to KDE Info Center.
• Updated terminal login and SSH identification.
• Updated the system hostname and terminal login message.
• Added branding restoration scripts that preserve RefreshOS branding after Debian updates while retaining the underlying Debian version information.

KDE Plasma & Visual Customization

• Integrated custom RefreshOS Plasma components:
  • Custom boot screens
  • RefreshOS cursors and icon themes
  • Custom SDDM login screens
  • Reload Menu Plasma widget
  • Custom window decorations
  • System sounds
• Added custom Plasma configuration, including sidebar folder visibility through a customized user-places.xbel.
• Added third-party Aurorae window decorations, icon themes, cursor themes, Plasma styles, and color schemes used by RefreshOS.
• Configured the RefreshOS desktop appearance, including the Plasma style, window decorations, icons, cursors, sounds, SDDM login screen, and lock screen.
• Reconfigured the KDE Plasma panel around the Reload Menu, custom spacing, task manager, virtual desktops, system tray, and clock.
• Established Reload Menu favorites and hid applications not included in the RefreshOS user experience.
• Configured the desktop clock with custom date formatting, font settings, and Merkuro calendar event integration.
• Added the RefreshOS 3 wallpaper collection and set the Colorful Cosmos wallpaper as the default while removing unwanted Debian wallpaper choices.
• Added a second virtual desktop and configured mouse-wheel desktop switching.
• Customized the default user icon.
• Adjusted default audio levels and other desktop behavior to match the intended RefreshOS experience.

Boot & Startup

• Created and integrated a custom RefreshOS GRUB boot screen and background.
• Configured the custom RefreshOS 3 Plymouth boot screen with silent boot parameters and systemd status suppression for a clean startup experience.
• Enabled GRUB OS Prober to detect other operating systems.
• Customized the BIOS/ISOLINUX bootloader and boot screen.
• Customized the UEFI/GRUB bootloader with RefreshOS branding, boot timeout, and quiet-boot parameters.
• Added the RefreshOS 3 (Colorful Cosmos) boot menu title and RefreshOS splash artwork.

Default Applications & File Associations

• Standardized the RefreshOS default applications:
  • Brave Web Browser
  • Thunderbird
  • KDE Connect
  • PhotoQt
  • Elisa
  • VLC
  • Pluma
  • Okular
  • Nemo
  • LXTerminal
  • Ark
  • wheelmap.org
• Corrected file associations that were not assigned to the intended applications by default.
• Expanded PhotoQt, Elisa, VLC, Okular, and LibreOffice associations for additional image, audio, video, document, and archive formats.
• Configured Brave as the handler for web URLs.
• Configured Discover as the handler for Debian .deb packages.
• Ensured selected RefreshOS applications are used consistently across a broader range of file types instead of relying solely on Debian/KDE defaults.

Nemo Integration

• Fixed Nemo integration with the KDE desktop.
• Restored the “Open in Terminal” context-menu function using LXTerminal.
• Made Nemo the true system-wide default file manager.
• Configured Brave and other applications to open downloaded files and folders with Nemo instead of Dolphin.
• Added nemo-python support.
• Added Nemo integration and file-manager routing to the default user configuration so new users inherit the same behavior.

Removable Devices

• Enabled automatic mounting of removable devices when logging in or attaching new devices.
• Removed machine-specific USB automounter information from the installed-user configuration.

Default User Environment

• Created a customized /etc/skel containing RefreshOS default desktop configuration, application settings, themes, file associations, panel layout, favorites, and system preferences.
• Added RefreshOS Global Themes:
  • Hybrid
  • Light
  • Dark
  • Super Dark
• Set RefreshOS Hybrid as the default theme and configured the themes to use no splash screen.
• Added preconfigured settings for:
  • PhotoQt
  • K3b
  • KolourPaint
  • LibreOffice
  • Merkuro
  • GIMP
  • VLC
  • Kapman
  • KMines
  • KPatience
• Added the customized KDE/Plasma configuration controlling the Reload Menu, panel layout, taskbar pins, clock, virtual desktops, desktop behavior, themes, sounds, power settings, automounting, and file associations.
• Added the default RefreshOS user profile image to /etc/skel.
• Added a first-login initialization system using a system-wide script and systemd user service to configure user-specific Nemo sidebar paths for each new account.
• Set appropriate ownership and permissions throughout /etc/skel/ so configurations are inherited correctly by newly created users.

Packaging & Installer

• Updated and cleaned the build system before packaging, including system upgrades, package removal, GRUB updates, and APT cleanup.
• Restructured /etc/skel/ to separate live-user configuration from installed-user configuration.
• Added a staged /RefreshOS/Backups/etc/skel/ configuration that is copied into the installed filesystem by a custom Calamares shell process before user creation.
• Standardized installed-user power settings:
  • Do nothing when inactive
  • Show logout screen when the power button is pressed
  • Dim the display after 5 minutes
  • Turn off the display after 15 minutes
  • Lock the screen after 15 minutes
• Configured the live user with the same power settings while disabling automatic screen locking and lock-after-wake behavior.
• Added proper ownership and permissions to staged /etc/skel/ files.
• Added Penguins' Eggs to the packaging process and configured it for RefreshOS.
• Added custom Calamares shell processes to deploy RefreshOS configuration files during installation.
• Added RefreshOS Calamares branding and disabled the installer support, known-issues, and release-notes links.
• Configured Penguins' Eggs and Calamares to use the RefreshOS theme, current kernel, XZ compression, and RefreshOS ISO naming.
• Renamed Install System to Install RefreshOS.
• Added staging for the custom SDDM configuration to prevent the installed system from retaining live-session autologin settings.
• Added custom Plasma desktop configuration to remove unwanted desktop icon spacing.
• Removed the Penguins' Eggs application from the live desktop and application menu.
• Removed the blank space left above the Install RefreshOS icon.
• Added RefreshOS-specific configuration deployment throughout the installation process.

System & ISO Cleanup

• Performed extensive system and ISO cleanup before release.
• Removed unnecessary packages, APT caches, logs, crash data, old kernels, package lists, temporary files, network configurations, thumbnails, stored network connections, and other unnecessary build-system data.
• Removed stored machine- and network-specific information.
• Cleared the machine ID so the resulting ISO does not retain the identity of the build machine.
• Removed saved Wi-Fi/network configurations so the resulting installation can be deployed cleanly to new hardware.
• Reduced the final ISO size through package, cache, and build-system cleanup.

Final ISO

• Created the final 64-bit RefreshOS 3.0 installation image:
  • RefreshOS_3-0_amd64.iso

End-user License Agreement

RefreshOS™, a Linux-based operating system developed by eXybit Technologies™, is built on the foundation of Debian and is distributed as free software. As such, RefreshOS is provided "as-is" without any express or implied warranties. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

By using RefreshOS, you acknowledge that the software is provided without any guarantees regarding its performance, reliability, or suitability for any specific task. eXybit Technologies™ and its contributors shall not be held liable for any damages or losses arising from the use or inability to use RefreshOS.

We encourage users to contribute to the ongoing development and improvement of RefreshOS, but please do so with the understanding that the software is used at your own risk.

Thank you for choosing RefreshOS.