Governor

Your personal hypervisor appliance

A minimal Debian-based distro that turns bare metal into a VM orchestration platform with GPU passthrough, device handoff, and a fullscreen kiosk dashboard.

Download ISO Learn More
v0.1.0 Latest Release Debian 12 Based x86_64 Open Source

Download

Get Governor

Choose the download that fits your setup. All images are built on Debian 12 (Bookworm) stable.

Recommended

Governor ISO

Full installer image. Flash to USB and boot. Includes host agent, dashboard, and cage kiosk.

governor-0.1.0-amd64.iso ~1.2 GB
Download ISO
SHA256: e3b0c44298fc1c149afb...

Net Install

Minimal image that pulls packages during install. Requires wired internet connection.

governor-0.1.0-netinst-amd64.iso ~350 MB
Download Net Install
SHA256: a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9...

Guest Agent

Standalone agent binary for your VMs. Available for Linux and Windows guests.

guest-agent-0.1.0 ~8 MB
Linux (.deb) Windows (.exe)

Other Downloads

Checksums (SHA256SUMS) GPG Signature (.sig) Source Code (tar.gz) GitHub Repository

What You Get

A complete hypervisor in a box

VM Management

Create, run, and snapshot Linux and Windows VMs from a fullscreen kiosk dashboard.

GPU Passthrough

Safe token-based GPU handoff between VMs. Clean shutdown, never hot-unplug.

Device Handoff

USB, GPU, and PCI groups assigned to VMs with exclusive, hotplug, or cold-attach modes.

NAT & Bridge Networking

Isolated or LAN-visible VMs. Wi-Fi and Ethernet managed from the dashboard.

Shared Storage

SMB, NFS, Google Drive, virtiofs. Transfer files between VMs with a drag-and-drop tray.

Guest Agent

Cross-platform Go agent for clipboard sync, file transfer, and device release coordination.

Before You Install

System Requirements

Minimum

  • CPU x86_64 with VT-x / AMD-V
  • RAM 8 GB
  • Storage 64 GB SSD
  • GPU Integrated (for host UI)
  • Network Ethernet or Wi-Fi
  • BIOS IOMMU enabled (VT-d / AMD-Vi)
Recommended

Recommended

  • CPU 8+ core (Ryzen 7 / i7 or better)
  • RAM 32 GB+
  • Storage 512 GB+ NVMe SSD
  • GPU iGPU + dedicated GPU (for passthrough)
  • Network Gigabit Ethernet
  • BIOS IOMMU + ACS override if needed

Get Started

Installation

From USB to running VMs in minutes.

1

Flash the ISO

Write the ISO to a USB drive using your preferred tool.

dd if=governor-0.1.0-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress

Or use Rufus / balenaEtcher on Windows / macOS.

2

Boot & Install

Boot from USB. The installer will set up Debian minimal, KVM, libvirt, and the Governor host agent automatically.

Enable VT-d / AMD-Vi and IOMMU in your BIOS before booting.

3

First Boot

Governor boots into a fullscreen kiosk dashboard via cage (Wayland). The host agent starts automatically as a system service.

4

Create Your First VM

Use the dashboard to create a VM from a template, attach devices, configure networking, and start it up.

governorctl vm create --name dev-linux --template debian-12 --vcpu 4 --ram 8G
5

Install Guest Agent

Install the guest agent inside each VM for clipboard sync, file transfer, and GPU release coordination.

# Linux dpkg -i governor-guest-agent_0.1.0_amd64.deb # Windows governor-guest-agent-0.1.0-setup.exe

Preview

What it looks like running

governor — dashboard 
governor v0.1.0 — host agent running

VMs
  ● dev-linux      4 vCPU · 8 GB · running
  ● win-gaming     8 vCPU · 16 GB · running · GPU: RTX 4070
  ○ lab-docker     2 vCPU · 4 GB · stopped

Devices
  GPU   RTX 4070 Ti   → win-gaming (exclusive)
  USB   Xbox Controller → win-gaming (hotplug)
  USB   YubiKey 5       → dev-linux  (hotplug)

Network
  NAT     ● active  192.168.122.0/24
  Bridge  ● active  eth0 · 10.0.0.0/24

│ GPU handoff ready · 3 guest agents connected

Take control of your hardware.

One system, many modes. Download Governor and turn your machine into a personal hypervisor.

Download Governor View on GitHub