A Gamer's OS. · LaCOS for short.
Turn an old Windows 10 PC (no TPM required — Linux doesn't care) into a Minecraft-themed SteamOS / Bazzite gaming + local-AI + mod-dev machine — with Nugget, a resident AI agent living on the box.
"That's a Spicy Lava Chicken!" — your PC, every boot.
👨👩👧👦 Parents: start here → INSTALL.md — how to set this up for your kids, in plain English: keep Windows or go all-in, make the USB stick from your Mac (or Windows), and what the AI helper will and won't do. Already running? UPGRADING.md — how to keep it updated (and roll back if an update ever misbehaves).
⚠️ Only do this to an old computer that's headed for the trash — this process might turn it into a paperweight. But if you've got an old junker collecting dust, this can breathe a few more years of life into it. No warranty, no take-backs. Back up anything you care about first.
- SteamOS 3.8+ or Bazzite as the base OS (AMD GPU: both work; NVIDIA: Bazzite only)
- Gaming Mode boot video with sound — you supply your own copy of Steve's Lava Chicken, our script turns it into a Steam startup movie
- Desktop login sound (same audio, systemd user service)
- Minecraft-style wallpapers — bring your own, or generate original blocky art with the included script
- ollama baked into the image, loopback-only (models
live in
/var, surviving atomic updates); ROCm on supported AMD GPUs, CPU inference on older cards (e.g. Polaris) - newt-agent — small, fast, local-first agentic coder, pointed at your local ollama
- Minecraft Java Edition mod toolchain — JDK 21, Gradle (via SDKMAN),
Fabric + NeoForge templates, IntelliJ IDEA CE + Prism Launcher (Flatpak); Nugget
has a
moddingskill that coaches a kid from first mod to writing their own - Wireless VR —
lacos vr doctor/sudo lacos vr setupopen just the two ports ALVR needs (9943-9944), not the "open everything" hack; Nugget'svr-setupskill walks through SteamVR + ALVR (or the easier WiVRn) to a Quest - Nugget boot splash — a Plymouth theme with the mascot and Lava Chicken OS
- Nugget, your resident agent — a dedicated on-box account running newt-agent in a persistent session; a "nugget" icon on every desktop attaches you to it
- Day-zero remote access — key-only SSH seeded from your GitHub account, plus Sunshine/Moonlight game streaming, ready from first boot
- Bootc image — Bazzite builds in GitHub Actions → GHCR with an install ISO;
SteamOS gets the same setup via
bootstrap.sh
LaCOS is for old hardware headed for the recycling pile, so the honest yardstick is the reference machine it's built and tested on — "Nugget":
| Part | Nugget — the reference machine (verified working) |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4790 — 4-core / 8-thread, 2014-era Haswell (any 64-bit x86) |
| RAM | 16 GB |
| GPU | AMD Radeon RX 580 (Polaris, Vulkan via RADV) |
| Storage | 512 GB SSD |
| Firmware | UEFI — no TPM (yes, the PCs Windows 11 rejects) |
| Network | Gigabit Ethernet (no Wi-Fi) |
| Ports | USB 3.0 |
If your machine is in that ballpark or better, LaCOS runs. Concretely:
Minimum
- 64-bit x86 CPU, ~4 cores, roughly 2013 (Haswell / AMD equivalent) or newer.
- 16 GB RAM. This is the real floor, not a suggestion: the on-box AI's 7B model wants ~6–8 GB on top of the desktop and a running game. 8 GB will boot but the AI will crawl and swap.
- A Vulkan-capable GPU. AMD is the smooth path (RX 580 and up work out of the box); NVIDIA works on the Bazzite base only.
- A 256 GB SSD or larger. An SSD, not a spinning disk — the OS image, the AI models (~5 GB), and games need the speed and the room.
- UEFI firmware. No TPM required — that's rather the point.
Recommended / good to know
- More RAM (32 GB) and more cores make the local AI noticeably snappier — it runs on the CPU on Polaris-class cards. A ROCm-capable AMD GPU (RDNA or newer) accelerates it a lot.
- Keep the box on wired Ethernet — also ideal when it's the VR streaming host.
- A USB 3 port for the install stick and wired VR headsets.
- Game Mode (
:deck) black-screens on Polaris GPUs (RX 5xx) today (#38) — use the desktop:stablevariant with Steam Big Picture on those cards. - NVIDIA GPUs are supported on the Bazzite base, not SteamOS.
This project erases disks, replaces operating systems, and asks you to change firmware settings. Done carefully it's reversible at nearly every step — done carelessly, use of this software may turn your computer into a paperweight. Per the MIT license it ships with NO WARRANTY of any kind.
What we do about it: the installer path is tested nightly with byte-level
checksums against a synthetic Windows disk, every image boots in CI before it
ships, bootc rollback undoes an OS switch, and the firmware boot menu always
survives. What you do about it: back up anything you love first, read the
prompts before typing yes, and never point a disk-writing command at a drive
you haven't triple-checked. If something goes wrong,
tell us — but the risk is
yours.
This project versions v0.0.1 → v0.0.99 until a fresh install delivers every
promise end-to-end; v0.1.0 is that gate. Where things stand after the first
real-hardware install (2026-07-12):
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
Bootc image + :stable/:deck variants, CI-built & signed |
✅ builds + boots, CI-verified (:stable) |
:deck Game Mode on Polaris GPUs (RX 5xx) |
🚧 black screen — upstream gamescope bug (#38); use Steam Big Picture on :stable meanwhile |
| Day-zero remote access (GitHub-key SSH) | ✅ verified on hardware |
lacos mode console|desktop switching |
✅ verified on hardware |
| Dual-boot safety (installer can't touch Windows) | ✅ proven nightly in CI (byte-checksums) |
| Resident agent + ollama | 🔧 fixed — ollama now baked (#27, #28); re-verify on hardware |
| First-boot provisioning (accounts, persona, skills, wallpaper) | 🔧 fixed — was wedging on v0.0.1 (#27); CI now requires convergence (#29) |
| Setup wizard: kid accounts + Tailscale | 🔧 fixed (#30) |
| Boot splash, chime, Game-Mode movie | 🔧 fixed (#31); visible from next boot after update |
SteamOS-base parity (bootstrap.sh) |
🚧 designed, never hardware-tested (#13) |
If a fresh install disagrees with this table, that is a bug — tell us.
-
Install the OS — parents/first-timers: INSTALL.md; deep dives: docs/INSTALL-STEAMOS.md / docs/INSTALL-BAZZITE.md.
-
Boot to Desktop Mode, open a terminal:
git clone https://github.com/hartsock/lava-chicken-os cd lava-chicken-os ./bootstrap.sh # runs all steps; or run scripts/NN-*.sh individually
-
Drop your audio/wallpaper files into
assets/user/when prompted (see assets/user/README.md). -
In Gaming Mode: Settings → Customization → Startup Movie → Lava Chicken.
- Everything lives in
$HOME. SteamOS's root filesystem is read-only and wiped on atomic updates; we never touch it. This also means the same scripts work unmodified on Bazzite. - No copyrighted assets in this repo. The song, movie clips, and official Mojang art are yours to supply locally. See docs/LEGAL-ASSETS.md.
- Idempotent scripts. Re-run anything safely.
bootstrap.sh entry point — detects OS, runs all steps
scripts/ numbered, independently runnable steps
assets/user/ your local media (gitignored)
assets/generated/ wallpaper generator (original art only)
systemd/ user units (login sound, ollama)
templates/ Fabric / NeoForge mod starter notes
docs/ install guides, plan, legal notes
Pre-alpha. Built and tested against SteamOS 3.8 and Bazzite (KDE, AMD).
MIT (code and docs only — media assets are never part of this repo).