BasedBased

Support

Start here if something isn't working and you're not sure it's a bug. If you already know it's a bug, report it.

There's no forum or chat for Based yet, and no public tracker. This page and Report a problem will carry their addresses when they open.

Find out what you're running

Every Based install carries its own release file. Open a terminal and read it:

cat /etc/based-release

PRETTY_NAME names the product and its base, such as Based Home D13 (debian trixie). GNOME, sway, SwayFX and Plasma all say Based Home, so the desktop you log into is what tells them apart. VERSION is the base: D13 for Debian 13, U26 for Ubuntu 26.04.

The pure editions have no /etc/based-release. There, /etc/os-release is Debian's own with VARIANT="Omarchy" or VARIANT="SwayOS" added.

Most answers are Debian's

Based is Debian 13 (trixie), or Ubuntu 26.04 on the Zorin look editions. Packages, disks, drivers, networking and the kernel work the way they do upstream, so upstream's documentation applies and so do its answers. Where Based differs is the desktop: the theme, the login screen, the boot splash, the installer and the first-login setup. A problem in one of those is ours.

Things people ask first

Which keys do what on sway and SwayFX?
Super+Ctrl+K lists them. Super+Space opens the Omarchy menu, where search reaches everything.
How do I update?
It updates itself once a day. To run it now, click the update icon in the bar, which shows whenever there is something to update, or on editions without the bar open Update Based Linux from your apps or type based-update. Anything past the Based packages and security updates is yours to take with sudo apt update and sudo apt full-upgrade.
An update broke something.
If you kept btrfs, restart and pick the snapshot from before the update in the boot menu.
I cancelled the setup window at first login.
Nothing breaks. The steps that need no answer from you run quietly at your next logins, and Finish setting up Based, in your apps, brings the rest back. The pure editions have no setup window at all.

Your own machine first

  1. Reboot. It clears more than it should.
  2. journalctl -b -p warning for what the current boot complained about.
  3. journalctl -b -1 -p err if the machine froze and you had to power it off.
  4. Log in as a second, fresh user. If the problem goes away, it's in your configuration and not in the image.

Still stuck

Then it's a bug, or close enough to one. Report a problem says what to include.