Video Recording of openSUSE Conference session which introduced the project
Core Project
MicroOS (and it's Kubernetes focused sister, Kubic) is an exciting distribution that takes much of the cool stuff we're doing in Tumbleweed, adds solutions to the problems of updating a running system, and is becoming the perfect base system for running containers.
But in openSUSE, running server stuff is only half the fun.
Why should servers be the only platform enjoying automatic, atomic, "auto-rollbackable" system updates?
Surely desktop users want to be lazy like server admins also?
Can the tools and approaches implemented in MicroOS help create the desktop distribution of the future?
Let's find out!
This Project will try to build, test, and introduce to the world the 'openSUSE MicroOS Desktop', a desktop focused variant of MicroOS based on Tumbleweed.
Sub Projects (Hackweek 18/19)
BPF powered Tor networking for flatpaks
A BPF program which can we attached to flatpaks (via CGROUP_BPF, "cgroup/skb" section) which will redirect all the egress traffic from the given flatpak to Tor network. Such a program should be trivial to write, but it will be a good alternative for running whole virtualized systems like Tails or Whonix.
openSUSE Flatpaks
in the similar way Fedora is doing that - flatpaks based on OCI images. Those OCI images could be build with kiwi. That approach gives us benefits from flatpak, but at the same time we avoid bundling libraries in each flatpak image, instead we reuse our packaging and good model of handling dependencies globally for all the software.
Hackweek 20
During Hackweek 20 (March 22-26 2021) I'm going to be working again on getting MicroOS Desktop polished and ready for primetime use.
For those interested in joining this Hackweek, I'd recommend watching the following videos to catch up with the Project's current status
Richard talking about MicroOS Generally and the Desktop current status at FOSDEM 2021
Dario talking about how he uses MicroOS Desktop already as his daily driver
Most of the Hackweek will be addressing the problems with the current builds and inventing solutions for the current main sticking points of getting MicroOS's config 'perfect' out of the box, such as configuring Flatpak with Flathub and installing some Flatpaks by default.
People can join the kubic@lists.opensuse.org mailing list to discuss issues asynchronously
We will also be on #microos-desktop on irc.freenode.org to talk to us via chat
And we'll also be on video chat on meet.opensuse.org/MicroOSDesktop as often as we can. Specific 'open hours' may be announced on the MicroOS Twitter Account
Hackweek 20 Results
After Hackweek 20 the GNOME variant of the MicroOS Desktop finally achieved [BETA] status, meaning its now feature complete and ready for most people to use, with the caveat of a small possibility of bugs/issues which will be fixed quickly.
Looking for hackers with the skills:
This project is part of:
Hack Week 18 Hack Week 19 Hack Week 20 Hack Week 21
Activity
Comments
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almost 5 years ago by mrostecki | Reply
I would like to join that project and propose two "subprojects" I would like to work on:
- A BPF program which can we attached to flatpaks (via CGROUP_BPF, "cgroup/skb" section) which will redirect all the egress traffic from the given flatpak to Tor network. Such a program should be trivial to write, but it will be a good alternative for running whole virtualized systems like Tails or Whonix.
- openSUSE flatpaks - in the similar way Fedora is doing that - flatpaks based on OCI images. Those OCI images could be build with kiwi. That approach gives us benefits from flatpak, but at the same time we avoid bundling libraries in each flatpak image, instead we reuse our packaging and good model of handling dependencies globally for all the software.
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almost 5 years ago by dfaggioli | Reply
I was wondering, how does one do development, in an environment like this. I mean, the classic dev cycle of a good old (say, for instance) C project where even just to build test it (perhaps with your changes), you'd need to install a bunch of libfoo-devel, libbar-devel, libfoo-bar-devel, etc., which I don't think one wants to install on the "main OS" and, e.g., have to reboot each time that building with a new dependency is necessary. Libvirt, QEMU, Xen could be examples, arbitrarily chosen just because they're the ones I deal with sort of on a daily basis, but I think there may well be others.
My wild guess would be that a "toolbox like" [1] approach could work? That is, having a simple way to spin up a container inside which one can build his project? Dependencies, one would install them inside the container manually, or we can allow for stashing a (or more) "dockerfile(s)" somewhere, that can then be fine-tuned and reused...
If this makes any sort of sense, I would like to join the project with the aim of testing such a workflow, give feedback about it and, hopefully, improve it.
I feel like adding that I have very few experience with MicroOS/Kubic, as well as with containers in general. And although learning new things is indeed the purpose of Hackweek, I'm not sure how far I'll be able to get.
Anyway, let me know what you think. :-)
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almost 5 years ago by mrostecki | Reply
That's an interesting problem to solve and I was also thinking about it, but didn't come up with any solution.
But yes, working on something "toolbox like" based on podman and container images sounds like a good approach to me.
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almost 5 years ago by dfaggioli | Reply
Ok. So I guess I'm actually joining, I will look into how toolbox actually works and see if I can come up with something similar (but different! :-D)
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almost 5 years ago by mrostecki | Reply
Can't we actually use toolbox and contribute to it if you are not going to find any big disadvantages of that project? It's under "containers" organization on Github - https://github.com/containers/toolbox, so IMO we shouldn't consider it to be a "Red Hat project" - SUSE contributes to various github.com/containers projects too. It seems to use podman and it doesn't seem to depend on (rpm-)ostree, so it should work on openSUSE just fine.
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almost 5 years ago by mrostecki | Reply
On the other hand, seems like there is a huge rewrite in Go pending https://github.com/containers/toolbox/pull/318
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almost 5 years ago by RBrownSUSE | Reply
Our toolbox we already have is already better than most other distros toolboxes..it does everything I'd ever want (except one thing..which I will fix one day) but hey if others want to look at it I dont object :)
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almost 5 years ago by RBrownSUSE | Reply
Hi all - anyone working on this project, I'm hanging out in #microos-desktop on irc.freenode.org now - we should use that to coordinate/chat :)
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almost 5 years ago by RBrownSUSE | Reply
Current Steps In Progress at Time of Writing:
- Submit new skelcd-control-MicroOS to YaST>Factory
- Submit new microos-patterns to Factory
- Ensure product builds media with new patterns-microos-[gnome|kde]-desktop patterns
At this point MicroOS ISO's should have both a KDE and GNOME system role in 'Alpha' status
Steps that must be accomplished to reach 'Beta'
- Some openQA testing
- Basic working functionality like logging in, application installation, etc
Steps to remove the ugly 'Alpha' or 'Beta' flag from the installation
- openQA testing for boot, login, application installation and some apps running
- No unexpected reboots/sensible rebootmgr configuration
- Notification to the user when a reboot is required
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almost 5 years ago by RBrownSUSE | Reply
> Steps to remove the ugly 'Alpha' or 'Beta' flag from the installation
- Both KDE and GNOME should have an optimised package list from the hacked together examples right now
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almost 5 years ago by RBrownSUSE | Reply
> Current Steps In Progress at Time of Writing: > > * Submit new skelcd-control-MicroOS to YaST>Factory > * Submit new microos-patterns to Factory > * Ensure product builds media with new patterns-microos-[gnome|kde]-desktop patterns
https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/773663 https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/773664 https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/773665
Above is all otw to Factory, to be staged and adjusted there
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almost 5 years ago by dfaggioli | Reply
Update from me: - we're discussing (in opensuse-kubic@opensuse.org) whether/how to change our toolbox image in order for it to fulfill the requirements of https://github.com/containers/toolbox - Thorsted has pushed some of those changes to devel:kubic:containers (see: https://build.opensuse.org/package/rdiff/devel:kubic:containers/opensuse-toolbox-image?linkrev=base&rev=7 ) - I've worked on making our toolbox a little bit more comfortable to use for development: https://github.com/dfaggioli/microos-toolbox/tree/user-mode https://github.com/kubic-project/microos-toolbox/pull/2
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almost 5 years ago by dfaggioli | Reply
[Sorry for posting this twice, but the previous comment I wrote is barely readable! :-/]
Update from me:
we're discussing (on opensuse-kubic-AT-opensuse-DOT-org) whether / how to change our toolbox image in order for it to fulfill the requirements of containers/toolbox
Thorsten has pushed some of those changes to devel:kubic:containers already (see: here)
I've worked on making our toolbox a little bit more comfortable to use for development:
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over 3 years ago by RBrownSUSE | Reply
Hackweek 20 went well, briefest summary is currently on twitter, and will be included in the Lightning talks on Friday
https://twitter.com/sysrich/status/1375443718132613120
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Join the Gitter channel! https://gitter.im/uyuni-project/hackweek
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The idea is testing Salt and Salt-ssh clients, but NOT traditional clients, which are deprecated.
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- Package management (install, remove, update...)
- Patching
- Applying any basic salt state (including a formula)
- Salt remote commands
- Bonus point: Java part for product identification, and monitoring enablement
- Bonus point: sumaform enablement (https://github.com/uyuni-project/sumaform)
- Bonus point: Documentation (https://github.com/uyuni-project/uyuni-docs)
- Bonus point: testsuite enablement (https://github.com/uyuni-project/uyuni/tree/master/testsuite)
If something is breaking: we can try to fix it, but the main idea is research how supported it is right now. Beyond that it's up to each project member how much to hack :-)
- If you don't have knowledge about some of the steps: ask the team
- If you still don't know what to do: switch to another distribution and keep testing.
This card is for EVERYONE, not just developers. Seriously! We had people from other teams helping that were not developers, and added support for Debian and new SUSE Linux Enterprise and openSUSE Leap versions :-)
Pending
FUSS
FUSS is a complete GNU/Linux solution (server, client and desktop/standalone) based on Debian for managing an educational network.
https://fuss.bz.it/
Seems to be a Debian 12 derivative, so adding it could be quite easy.
[W]Reposync (this will require using spacewalk-common-channels and adding channels to the .ini file)[W]Onboarding (salt minion from UI, salt minion from bootstrap script, and salt-ssh minion) (this will probably require adding OS to the bootstrap repository creator) --> Working for all 3 options (salt minion UI, salt minion bootstrap script and salt-ssh minion from the UI).[W]Package management (install, remove, update...) --> Installing a new package works, needs to test the rest.[I]Patching (if patch information is available, could require writing some code to parse it, but IIRC we have support for Ubuntu already). No patches detected. Do we support patches for Debian at all?[W]Applying any basic salt state (including a formula)[W]Salt remote commands[ ]Bonus point: Java part for product identification, and monitoring enablement
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Description
Automate the creation of product definition
Goals
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Join the Gitter channel! https://gitter.im/uyuni-project/hackweek
Uyuni is a configuration and infrastructure management tool that saves you time and headaches when you have to manage and update tens, hundreds or even thousands of machines. It also manages configuration, can run audits, build image containers, monitor and much more!
Currently there are a few distributions that are completely untested on Uyuni or SUSE Manager (AFAIK) or just not tested since a long time, and could be interesting knowing how hard would be working with them and, if possible, fix whatever is broken.
For newcomers, the easiest distributions are those based on DEB or RPM packages. Distributions with other package formats are doable, but will require adapting the Python and Java code to be able to sync and analyze such packages (and if salt does not support those packages, it will need changes as well). So if you want a distribution with other packages, make sure you are comfortable handling such changes.
No developer experience? No worries! We had non-developers contributors in the past, and we are ready to help as long as you are willing to learn. If you don't want to code at all, you can also help us preparing the documentation after someone else has the initial code ready, or you could also help with testing :-)
The idea is testing Salt and Salt-ssh clients, but NOT traditional clients, which are deprecated.
To consider that a distribution has basic support, we should cover at least (points 3-6 are to be tested for both salt minions and salt ssh minions):
- Reposync (this will require using spacewalk-common-channels and adding channels to the .ini file)
- Onboarding (salt minion from UI, salt minion from bootstrap scritp, and salt-ssh minion) (this will probably require adding OS to the bootstrap repository creator)
- Package management (install, remove, update...)
- Patching
- Applying any basic salt state (including a formula)
- Salt remote commands
- Bonus point: Java part for product identification, and monitoring enablement
- Bonus point: sumaform enablement (https://github.com/uyuni-project/sumaform)
- Bonus point: Documentation (https://github.com/uyuni-project/uyuni-docs)
- Bonus point: testsuite enablement (https://github.com/uyuni-project/uyuni/tree/master/testsuite)
If something is breaking: we can try to fix it, but the main idea is research how supported it is right now. Beyond that it's up to each project member how much to hack :-)
- If you don't have knowledge about some of the steps: ask the team
- If you still don't know what to do: switch to another distribution and keep testing.
This card is for EVERYONE, not just developers. Seriously! We had people from other teams helping that were not developers, and added support for Debian and new SUSE Linux Enterprise and openSUSE Leap versions :-)
Pending
FUSS
FUSS is a complete GNU/Linux solution (server, client and desktop/standalone) based on Debian for managing an educational network.
https://fuss.bz.it/
Seems to be a Debian 12 derivative, so adding it could be quite easy.
[W]Reposync (this will require using spacewalk-common-channels and adding channels to the .ini file)[W]Onboarding (salt minion from UI, salt minion from bootstrap script, and salt-ssh minion) (this will probably require adding OS to the bootstrap repository creator) --> Working for all 3 options (salt minion UI, salt minion bootstrap script and salt-ssh minion from the UI).[W]Package management (install, remove, update...) --> Installing a new package works, needs to test the rest.[I]Patching (if patch information is available, could require writing some code to parse it, but IIRC we have support for Ubuntu already). No patches detected. Do we support patches for Debian at all?[W]Applying any basic salt state (including a formula)[W]Salt remote commands[ ]Bonus point: Java part for product identification, and monitoring enablement
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Description
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If we would take inspiration from openSUSE MicroOS and their handling of the /etc/ directory, we could theoretically use systemd-sysupdate to swap out the /usr/ partition and create an A/B boot scheme, where the /usr/ partition is always freshly built according to a central system description. In the best case it would be possible to still utilise snapshots, but an A/B root scheme would be sufficient for the beginning. This way you could get the benefit of NixOS's declarative system definition, but still use the distros package repositories and don't have to deal with the overhead of Flakes or the Nix language.
Goals
- A simple and understandable system
- Check fitness of
mkosior write a simple extensible image builder tool for it - Create a declarative system specification
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/usr/partition - Create an A/B root scheme
- Swap to the new system without reboot (kexec?)
Resources
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- https://0pointer.net/blog/fitting-everything-together.html
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