Using ostree

[Tom H]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2021 at 12:50 PM Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Jul 2021 at 19:40, MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz at gmail.com> wrote:


>> In my latest work, I need to set up a system that runs *buntu
>> within an ostree context.
>
> I have not heard of any such thing and I do not know of any way to
> do this.

> OStree is a Red Hat tool used inside the container-based Red Hat OS
> products. I only know of one other company that has used OStree at
> all: Endless OS, from Endless Computers.

Fedora Silverblue is an ostree version of Fedora that installs on bare metal.


> https://endlessos.com/
>
> This is a Debian derivative built with OStree.
>
> It is intended to looks and work like a smartphone OS. You have no
> package manager -- none at all -- and the user cannot install,
> remove, or update OS components. OS updates are atomic, an entire
> OS image, released periodically. Apps can only be installed as
> Flatpaks.

Googling also yielded https://windriver.com/products/linux/ too, but
AFAIk it's rpm-based, not that it really matters given that AFAIK
"/usr" is ro and you can't use package managers.


> Compare to, say, Android or iOS: you have no root access to your
> own OS, you don't get updates, but every few months the vendor
> releases a new point-release and you install this and get a newer
> OS.

You must need root access on ostree to update your system, no?! So
it's not quite the same as android or iOS.


> Your apps update separately, on top, via an app store.
>
> This is not something you can install onto an existing OS. It
> completely replaces how OSes are built and distributed.
>
> Ubuntu has its own broadly equivalent tech: Ubuntu Core and Snappy
> apps.

I've never thought of core as equivalent to ostree. I've never used
it, so it's unsurprising that I don't know... Is it really like
ostree? Does it update in the same way? It's interesting that with
core and snap we've circled back to a BSD-like model of base and
ports. LOL


> If you want to experiment with system-image-based deployment on
> Ubuntu, that's where to start.

> If you want to experiment with OStree, forget Ubuntu. Try Fedora
> Atomic or something..

ostree's packaged Ubuntu. There's no repository for using it. So,
you'd have set up the whole infra to do so.