Hi all,
I’m curious what experiences others have had using Bluefin or other “immutable” distro for a headless/server install. I currently have a large machine that I use for Embedded Software builds (using Yocto so it needs to be huge). I’ve been using straight ubuntu on that machine as my primary desktop for a long time but I’m considering moving it to a server closet.
Does anyone have thoughts on Bluefin or similar distros without a GUI?
Drew
You would want to look at the ucore project. More specifically it is a variation of the Fedora CoreOS project. I also have interest in installing and using ucore for all the immutable benefits from bluefin but have been off put by the installation process. I don’t think the CoreOS installer uses anaconda for an installer so an Ignition file must be produced to do things like user creation, network setup, and filesystem layout. Since I just want to install ucore and forget about it, having to learn, create, and implement an ignition for a one off install seems like more work then it’s worth.
EDIT: reading through the uCore section of this form maybe you could just do a normal bluefin install and then rebase to uCore? This would allow you to use anaconda for first time set up and then roll along with uCore updates.
Rebasing from silverblue to coreos won’t work, it needs to be a clean install.
Any insights as to why it would not work?
After reading the forum post mentioned earlier, I decided to make an attempt myself.
I went to the bluefin website and downloaded the bluefin-latest stable iso, I wanted to ensure I was on 41 for bootc. I then installed it on a VM. This iso’s anaconda seems to be a lot more sparse then I remember, all I really had control over was the disk partitioning (which I left at automatic). I thought you use to be able to define network and user creation at this step…
Install went without any problems, first boot prompted me to create a user. Once dropped to the desktop I opened a terminal and ran bootc status to confirm that’s all working and then ran sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/ublue-os/ucore This command ran with out any issues. Once rebooted I had a CoreOS option which did drop me to a login screen.
On login I did get an error systemd-remount-fs.service failed. After reading around some old Arch/Reddit post’s it seemed like the simplest thing to do is just comment out the / definition in fstab. With Systemd Discoverable Partitions I don’t think this is that much of an issue?
I also could not ping ipv6 address’s. At time of writing I did not resolve this but ipv4 does work and running podman run hello-world all went smoothly.
Now I’ll give you “this isn’t supported/isn’t a good idea for production” especially as I haven’t lived in this install for very long, but I’m trying to understand why it theoretically won’t work. Maybe some of the Flatpak data or custom scripts that run with the bluefin install could cause issues. I just dont think there would be a very big show stopping issue that wouldn’t let it boot, or couldn’t be corrected manually.
This seems to have gotten more complicated lately. At the time I originally posted I was unaware of the bootc migration. And now given the apparent retirement of ucore I’m not sure if that recommendation is still stands. Of course the fact that I know nothing about CoreOS and it’s configuration seems to match some of the reasons for retiring the project.
I see the post suggesting a Fedora-based bootc custom image but I am way out of my depth here.
Basically I am looking for an immutable, headless install for a high-powered build machine for Embedded Linux (ie lots of Yocto project builds). Can anyone dumb down the alternatives for me? I’ve considered learning NixOS but have not gotten there yet. I love what I hear about bootc but am just coming up to speed.
I think at a minimum I will install Proxmox natively on my build machine which will at least give me some flexibility in trying various alternative. I appreciate any input and feedback others may provide.
Drew
Hi Drew, hang tight, we’re rebasing onto centos, consider the ucore deprecation more of a rebrand - but there’s work to do. I’d love to intro you to some of the coreos folks working on proxmox enablement but I’m pretty busy atm.
Excellent. I look forward to hearing more about it. Any idea on time frame?
Drew
12 hours ago? 