Suite / NorviOS
NorviOS
The NorviTech look for Ubuntu 26.04, from the boot splash to the window glass.
A reversible layer over stock Ubuntu and GNOME 50, applied only through the override points Ubuntu provides, so updates keep working and one command puts the original back.
NorviOS is the desktop the NorviTech apps are built on: stock Ubuntu 26.04 LTS with GNOME 50 on Wayland, rebranded from the first boot frame and restyled so GTK windows read as frosted glass. It is not a separate distribution. It is a layer you install on an existing Ubuntu desktop, and remove again, with one command for each half.
What it does
Brands the boot
A Plymouth theme — the NorviTech mark on black, above Ubuntu's own spinner — registered with update-alternatives above Ubuntu's default and built into the initramfs of every installed kernel. No Ubuntu file is edited.
Brands the login screen
The login screen logo goes through Debian's own greeter-customisation file, and the edit is validated with dconf compile before it can reach the live greeter, so a bad edit can never lock you out.
Brands Settings → About
A light and a dark variant of the mark replace Ubuntu's two logo files through local dpkg diversions, with Ubuntu's copies kept beside them for the uninstaller.
Turns GTK windows to glass
A per-user GTK3 and GTK4 stylesheet stops each window painting its background at full opacity, and Blur my Shell blurs the desktop behind it. Text, lists and canvases stay opaque; the installer refuses any transparency that would take text below WCAG AA contrast.
Undoes exactly what it did
One uninstaller restores Ubuntu's splash, greeter and logo files byte for byte. The desktop half records your stylesheet and your Blur my Shell settings before it changes them, and puts back exactly those.
A desktop to match
The screenshots show the whole NorviOS desktop: XDock, named workspaces, a transparent top bar, GEweather and a restyled lock screen. Those extensions — several of them forks, each credited — are not published yet; the README lists every one and where it comes from.
Nothing leaves the machine
Neither installer uses the network or holds a credential. Every path they touch is listed in the README.
Install
Ubuntu 26.04 — from source
Clone the repository, run sudo ./install.sh for the boot, login and About branding, and ./desktop/install-desktop.sh for the glass. The exact commands, and the two that undo them, are in the README.
What it needs
The glass needs Blur my Shell from extensions.gnome.org, which Ubuntu does not package; without it the desktop installer stops and says so. There is no APT package yet, and NorviOS has only been tested on Ubuntu 26.04 with GNOME 50.
Documentation
- How it works — the override point behind each surface, why each one survives an Ubuntu update, and the measurements behind the glass
- Changelog — one entry per tagged release
- Issues · Discussions · Report a vulnerability
Deployment and operations
Install, configure and verify NorviOS; plan authentication, backups, upgrades and recovery.