Last edited on 2026-04-03 • Tagged under #chimera #linux #zfs #encrypt #zfsbootmenu
Chimera Linux is a delightful community-driven Linux distribution built from scratch that does things differently: musl instead of the typical glibc for C library, dinit over systemd for system init, and a userland derived from FreeBSD core tools.
Using the Chimera base install image and working my way through this excellent installation guide for configuring Chimera with the OpenZFS filesystem and the ZFSBootMenu bootloader, I show the choices I make to create an encrypted, minimal Linux system with “just enough” to provide a solid foundation to build upon further: whether that be setting up a desktop, laptop, or server.
Chimera Linux is installed as the sole operating system on a single disk using a two-partition layout:
The latest live ISO install images are available here: repo.chimera-linux.org
Download chimera-linux-x86_64-LIVE-[RELEASE]-base.iso , the sha256sums.txt file, then verify the image integrity: