I’m new here and just wanted to say hello and maybe start some conversations. I recently attended the Open Source Summit/Embedded Open Source Summit and had a few conversations with @j0rge about my interest in the project. By way of background, I am an Embedded Linux developer (as well as a longer-term general Embedded developer). I have been a user of Linux Distros going back to Slackware in the early-to-mid 90s. I’ve never been a Distro developer so a lot of what happens in Project Bluefin is still unclear to me. My interests in this system are:
Immutable/Atomic updates. This is very similar to the system I support in my day job (https://www.torizon.io/) which uses an OSTree-based Yocto build to provide atomic updates to embedded devices in the Medical, Automotive and other IOT-type spaces.
Reproducible custom installers. I want to create a custom spin of Project Bluefin that targets embedded developers. My ultimate goal is to have an installer ISO with all the tools I use on a daily basis so that I can, if needed, grab a new piece of hardware, install and go without spending a lot of time installing and configuring apps.
The general topic of immutable/atomic distros in the Embedded and Desktop space (not so much enterprise servers for me). I recently gave a talk at Embedded World on this topic and Bluefin was one of my primary examples. Slides are here for anyone interested. I don’t believe Embedded World talks are recorded publicly. I do hope to give this talk again and have some more time to dig into it. The one thing I struggled with in the EW talk was how to demo the concept in an interesting fashion. I showed some “rpm-ostree” commands and such but it really was not terribly compelling. I would love to have suggestions on ways to make that talk better.
Welcome Drew! It was awesome to meet you at OSS Summit! We’re wrapping up a release so that’s our priority, but would love to help out here when I get some cycles.
Thanks for posting, maybe we can get other folks interested in the meantime. It’d be nice to see custom images for specific use cases across the industry, love to see it!
Hi, Drew - it’s so cool to see another person here interested in immutable/atomic/image-based distros for embedded Linux! I work on a small open-source hardware project (PlanktoScope) which heavily relies on the Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi OS, and it had a broken in-place update system before I joined that project - so I’ve been looking with envy at projects like Universal Blue and Torizon OS and Mender, which would be infeasible for the PlanktoScope project to use due to various constraints. I’ve been prototyping a new/experimental update system which would work within those constraints while giving our project’s end-users at least some of the benefits of atomic/image-based updates.
Regarding the third interest you listed: maybe a demo of rpm-ostree involving hardware-software integration could be tangible/interesting to an embedded audience? I just pre-recorded a short virtual talk for the upcoming Open Hardware Summit, and my demo in that talk showed how I use the PlanktoScope project’s equivalent of bootc switch/rpm-ostree rebase to change the behavior of the device (e.g. after I decide to integrate a third-party external hardware module with the device, then I deploy software/configs onto the device to add support for that module), and also to revert such changes cleanly. After my talk gets uploaded in two weeks, I can post an update about how that demo landed among a hardware-focused audience.
Nice. Interesting to see that folks want ublue on the embedded devices themselves. I was more interested in it for my developer setup on a laptop/desktop.
@ethanjli I’d like to take a look at your talk if/when it is available publicly. Please let me know. On a professional note, if you would like to discuss your OTA needs and how Torizon would not work for you, drop me a line: drew.moseley@toradex.com.
Here’s my talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKb9jmTnkGk&list=PLN2I5IwhHQ4obvE3xpmI3HoRDD_VlRYjY . Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to hear from hardware-focused people about whether the talk or demo made any sense to them, so I don’t have any insights to share back yet . (Context: I had assumed that async talks would be given threads for discussion in one of the Open Hardware Summit’s Discord channels for the event, but I haven’t seen anything like that; and as far as I’m aware the async talks were never announced to in-person attendees)
. (Context: I had assumed that async talks would be given threads for discussion in one of the Open Hardware Summit’s Discord channels for the event, but I haven’t seen anything like that; and as far as I’m aware the async talks were never announced to in-person attendees)