Basalt Linux is a collection of open-source software components, each distributed under its own license. This page provides an overview of the licensing for the distribution as a whole and its major components.
Basalt Linux is built entirely from free and open-source software. The distribution integrates thousands of software packages from the Debian 13 Trixie repositories, each governed by its own license. In accordance with standard Linux distribution practice, this page documents the licensing of Basalt Linux's original components and its major upstream dependencies.
Unless otherwise noted, all original code, branding assets, build scripts, and configuration files created by the Basalt Linux project are licensed under the MIT License. The full text of this license is reproduced below.
The Basalt Linux distribution as a whole is a collective work composed of many independently licensed components. The original content produced by the Basalt Linux project — including the build system, installer configuration, branding, and documentation — is made available under the MIT License.
This means you are free to:
The only requirement is that the original copyright notice and permission notice be included in all copies or substantial portions of the software.
Basalt Linux incorporates software from many upstream projects. Below are the licenses for the major components that make up the distribution.
The Linux kernel is the core of the operating system. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 only, with a syscall exception for user-space programs. Learn more at kernel.org.
The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), GNU C Library (glibc), GNU Coreutils, and other GNU utilities are licensed primarily under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 or the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 3, depending on the specific package. GPLv3 · LGPLv3.
The Xfce desktop environment and its core libraries (GTK, GLib, etc.) are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1. Learn more at xfce.org.
The systemd init system and service manager is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 or later. Learn more at systemd.io.
The X.Org display server and the Wayland display protocol are both licensed under the MIT License. Learn more at wayland.freedesktop.org.
The GRUB 2 bootloader is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3. Learn more at gnu.org.
The Calamares installation framework is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3. Learn more at calamares.io.
Thousands of additional packages included in Basalt Linux are sourced from the Debian 13 Trixie repositories. Each package carries its own license, as determined by its upstream authors. These licenses include, but are not limited to: GPL-2, GPL-3, LGPL-2.1, LGPL-3, MIT, BSD (2-clause and 3-clause), Apache 2.0, MPL-2.0, and zlib/libpng.
For full per-package license information, consult the documentation included with each package (typically in /usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright on an installed system) or visit the Basalt Linux GitLab repository.
This license applies to all original Basalt Linux project code, including the build system, branding, configuration files, and website content. Upstream components retain their own licenses as described above.
MIT License Copyright (c) 2026 Basalt Linux Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.