# Prepare for removal of rpm-ostree and gaps vs bootc

**URL:** <https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [March 2, 2025, 9:52am UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170 "2025-03-02T09:52:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![akarypid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@akarypid](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/akarypid)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 9:52am UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170/1 "2025-03-02T09:52:32Z")

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Hello,

I had not been paying much attention to bootc till now, thinking of bootc as a drop-in replacement that does everything rpm-ostree does.

But hearing Jorge saying that [the plan is to become “bootc-only”](https://youtu.be/BBDOhvS_3SM?t=742) soon, I’ve been looking at commands I typically use and found a couple of things:

1. Checking status no longer possible as simple user

```auto
❯ rpm-ostree status
State: idle
AutomaticUpdates: stage; rpm-ostreed-automatic.timer: no runs since boot
Deployments:
● ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx-nvidia:stable
                   Digest: sha256:64f38a4e38b8492145d5d1de9f554d044fa57fb053532459b2e407d737c62283
                  Version: 41.20250223.1 (2025-02-23T06:09:12Z)
          LayeredPackages: igt-gpu-tools

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx-nvidia:stable
                   Digest: sha256:64f38a4e38b8492145d5d1de9f554d044fa57fb053532459b2e407d737c62283
                  Version: 41.20250223.1 (2025-02-23T06:09:12Z)

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx-nvidia:stable
                   Digest: sha256:36a7d16d2a92709c29387d2b49d7c48498f0be9e0cedaca2deeab8ff1639a1a5
                  Version: 41.20250216.1 (2025-02-16T06:09:36Z)
                   Pinned: yes

~ 
❯ bootc status
ERROR Status: Initializing storage: Acquiring sysroot: Preparing for write: Querying root privilege: This command must be executed as the root user

```

Why does bootc need write access to report status? This does not seem correct?

1. db subcommand missing

I use this snippet in my fish login to notify my when an update is pending:

```auto
❯ rpm-ostree db diff | head -n 2 | grep -B1 "pending" || echo "No update staged"
No update staged

```

However bootc does not have a “db” subcommand at all. How would I go about doing the same with bootc?

```auto
❯ bootc db diff | head -n 2 | grep -B1 "pending" || echo "No update staged"
error: unrecognized subcommand 'db'

Usage: bootc <COMMAND>

For more information, try '--help'.
No update staged

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j0rge](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/j0rge/32/8_2.png) [@j0rge](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/j0rge)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170/2 "2025-03-02T16:43:19Z")

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The sudo thing we’re working on, `sudo bootc status`, etc is what you have to do right now. If there’s no unique string in a staged image that users can use then we can file an issue with bootc for them to add it.

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**Author:** ![werner](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/werner/32/2594_2.png) [@werner](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/werner)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170/3 "2025-03-02T19:52:32Z")

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All RPM actions afaik?

- layer packages
- override remove them
- override replace them (locally, Bodhi URL)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mshrm](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/mshrm/32/5588_2.png) [@Mshrm](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/Mshrm)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170/4 "2025-03-05T02:08:24Z")

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I think dnf will replace rpm commands.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j0rge](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/j0rge/32/8_2.png) [@j0rge](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/j0rge)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/prepare-for-removal-of-rpm-ostree-and-gaps-vs-bootc/7170/5 "2025-03-05T03:35:04Z")

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The one I’m unsure of is what replaces the kargs subcommand?