120 lines
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120 lines
7.7 KiB
HTML
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<title>OCI Images as a "Filesystem": Vanilla OS</title>
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<h1 id="oci-images-as-a-filesystem-vanilla-os">OCI Images as a
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"Filesystem": Vanilla OS</h1>
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<p>In looking for a layered solution to blendOS's issues, I
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found that the lead maintainer and creator of blendOS was
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looking into using OCI images, and has even forked a repo from
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Vanilla OS. So I'm trying out Vanilla OS's usage of OCI images
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(which are inherently layered) to see about implementing a
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similar system in blendOS.</p>
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<h2 id="installation">Installation</h2>
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<p>Installation is pretty simple, you're again dropped into a
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simple GNOME session with a GTK installer:</p>
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<img src="/assets/vanilla-os/1.png"
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title="A basic GNOME session with a white GTK-based installer; it's showing the date and time/time zone selector." alt="A basic GNOME session with a white GTK-based installer; it's showing the date and time/time zone selector." />
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<p>The process was very similar to blendOS's, though it also
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detects virtual machines and offers an option to install tools
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(e.g. clipboard sharing, video drivers) to help with that.</p>
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<p>Another notable bit is that it requires more space than
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blendOS, with a minimum disk size of 50 GB, but given its A/B
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slot architecture (which I'll get to later), this makes
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sense.</p>
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<h2 id="first-boot">First boot</h2>
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<p>On first boot, there's a very similar setup tool, surely
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based off the installer. It makes you put in your language,
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timezone, etc. again, which I was a bit annoyed by, but it's no
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big deal. Then it has you create your login, select what you
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want installed (from basic programs like a calendar, office
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suite, etc.), then restarts and does all that.</p>
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<img src="/assets/vanilla-os/2.png"
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title="A similar wizard to the installer; it has the Vanilla OS logo and says "Welcome", "Make your choices, this wizard will take care of everything"" alt="A similar wizard to the installer; it has the Vanilla OS logo and says "Welcome", "Make your choices, this wizard will take care of everything"" />
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<p>Then you just get a little slideshow detailing automatic
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updates, its Apx package manager, and other basics, nothing
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interesting, and nothing I care about.</p>
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<h2 id="usage-and-configuration">Usage and configuration</h2>
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<p>I tried checking the docs (<em>Vanilla OS Docs</em>), which
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by themselves were difficult to find. They're a bit hidden in
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"Help" despite being <em>absolutely essential</em> to using this
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distro[^1]. But what I found easily was screenshots of
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Overwatch. (<em>Vanilla OS</em>)</p>
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<p>Regardless, once I found the docs, I tried to figure out how
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it worked, and I was still very confused. After looking over it
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again, I decided to check Apx's docs, its package manager, and
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found how to install packages, of course. (<em>Vanilla OS
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Docs</em>) I tried to install GParted; after it not running at
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first due to Vanilla OS not being configured correctly and not
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showing a password prompt for it, causing GParted to exit, I ran
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it in the terminal with <code>sudo</code>, just to get a
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permission denied error. That's because all packages are
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installed in containers, there is no system package manager...
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kinda.</p>
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<h3 id="abroot">ABRoot</h3>
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<p>ABRoot is the magic behind Vanilla OS's OCI image backend. As
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far as I can tell (again, I don't believe there are no relevant
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for docs for this) it essentially generates a tarball of the
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relevant data for the new iteration, then symlinks to either
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that or the current iteration on boot, depending on what the
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user selects. It provides essentially no advantages over
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blendOS's approach, and is, in my opinion, massively
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overcomplicated. (<em>GitHub: Vanilla-os/abroot</em>)</p>
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<p>It also acts as a package manager of sorts - it's the only
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way to install packages system-wide on Vanilla OS, and it does
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this by running <code>apt</code> when the new image is built,
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similar to Akshara.</p>
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<p>ABRoot's config file is at
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<code>/etc/abroot/abroot.json</code>, but it doesn't support
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declarative system-wide packages. Instead, run the
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following:</p>
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<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre
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class="language-bash"><code class="language-bash"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="ex">abroot</span> pkg add <span class="va">$PACKAGE_NAME</span></span></code></pre></div>
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<p>(<em>Install additional drivers and libraries in Vanilla
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OS</em>)</p>
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<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
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<p>Vanilla OS wasn't very helpful as to OCI-based layers, but I
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don't think it was a complete waste of time. Vanilla OS gave me
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some ideas, and I like its backend's ideas; it will most likely
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serve as inspiration for when I add layers to blendOS. Plus, my
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idea would have an advantage: compression.</p>
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<p>But I'll get into it later, once it's a bit more fleshed out;
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plus, that's not the point of this post anyways.</p>
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<p>P.S. I can't get it across while keeping this post decent
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quality and on-topic, but I need to emphasize how confusing the
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docs were for Vanilla OS. It feels like they try to appeal to
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users with basic tech literacy while not explaining how it
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actually works or what anything does. They write how-to guides,
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not documentation.</p>
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<h2 id="footnotes">Footnotes</h2>
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<p>[^1] Below the big download button, there's a link to the
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installation guide, but this provides nothing helpful, it just
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guides you through the already extremely simple
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installation.</p>
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<h2 id="sources">Sources</h2>
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<p>“Install Additional Drivers and Libraries in Vanilla OS.”
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<em>Vanilla OS Docs</em>, Vanilla OS, <a
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href="https://docs.vanillaos.org/handbook/en/install-additional-drivers">docs.vanillaos.org/handbook/en/install-additional-drivers</a>.
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Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.<br />
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“Vanilla OS Docs.” <em>Vanilla OS</em>, Vanilla OS, <a
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href="https://docs.vanillaos.org/collections/docs">docs.vanillaos.org/collections/docs</a>.
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Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.<br />
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<em>Vanilla OS</em>, <a
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href="https://vanillaos.org">vanillaos.org</a>. Accessed 19
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Sept. 2024.<br />
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Vanilla-OS. “GitHub: Vanilla-Os/Abroot.” <em>GitHub</em>, <a
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href="github.com/Vanilla-OS/ABRoot">github.com/Vanilla-OS/ABRoot</a>.
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Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.</p>
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