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  • 2 min read

Unlocking Moss

Wait, what? Another blog post? In the same WEEK? Yeah totally doing that now. So, this is just another devlog update but there have been some interesting updates that we'd like to share.

LDC present in the bootstrap

Thanks to some awesome work from Peter, we now have LDC (The LLVM D Lang Compiler) present in the stage3 bootstrap. To simplify the process we use the official binary release of LDC to bootstrap LDC for Serpent OS.

In turn, this has allowed us to get to a point where we can now build moss and boulder within stage3. This is super important, as we'll use the stage3 chroot and boulder to produce the binary packages that create stage4.

Some patching has taken place to prevent using ld.gold and instead use lld to integrate with our toolchain decisions.

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Reworking the Payload implementation

Originally our prototype moss format only contained a ContentPayload for files, and a MetaPayload for metadata, package information, etc. As a result, we opted for simple structs, basic case handling and an iterable Reader implementation.

As the format expanded, we bolted deduplication in as a core feature. To achieve this, we converted the ContentPayload into a "megablob", i.e. every unique file in the package, one after the other, all compressed in one operation. We then store the offsets and IDs of these files within an IndexPayload to allow splitting the "megablob" into separate, unique assets. Consequently, we added a LayoutPayload which describes the final file system layout of the package, referencing the unique ID (hash) of the asset to install.

So, while the format grew into something we liked, the code supporting it became very limiting. After many internal debates and discussions, we're going to approach the format from a different angle on the code front.

It will no longer be necessary/possible to iterate payloads in sequence within a moss archive, instead we'll preload the data (unparsed) and stick it aside when reading the file, winding it to the ContentPayload segment if found. After initial loading of the file is complete, the Reader API will support retrieval (and lazy unpacking ) of a data segment. In turn this will allow code to "grab" the content, index and layout payloads and use advanced APIs to cache assets, and apply them to disk in a single blit operation.

In short, we've unlocked the path to installing moss packages while preserving the advanced features of the format. The same new APIs will permit introspection of the archives metadata, and of course, storing these records in a stateful system database.

Thank you for the unnecessary update

Oh you're quite welcome :P Hopefully now you can see our plan, and that we're on track to meet our not-28th target. Sure, some code needs throwing away, but all codebases are evolutionary. Our major hurdle has been solved (mentally) - now it's just time to implement it and let the good times roll.

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  • 2 min read

Cleanups Complete

Well, we're officially back to working around the clock. After spending some time optimising my workflow, I've been busy getting the entire codebase cleaned up, so we can begin working towards an MVP.

Lots and lots of work

Codebase hygiene

Since Friday, I've been working extensively on cleaning up the codebase for the following projects:

  • boulder
  • moss
  • moss-core
  • moss-format

As it now stands, 1 lint issue (a non-issue, really) exists across all 4 projects. A plethora of issues have been resolved, ranging from endian correctness in the format to correct idiomatic D-lang integration and module naming.

Bored

Granted, cleanups aren't all that sexy. Peter has been updating many parts of the bootstrap project, introducing systemd 247.3, LLVM 11.0.1, etc. We now have all 3 stages building correctly again for the x86_64 target.

And then....

Yikes, tough audience! So we've formed a new working TODO which will make its way online as a public document at some point. The first stage, cleanups, is done. Next is to restore feature development, working specifically on the extraction and install routines. From there, much work and cadence will be unlocked, allowing us to work towards an MVP.

TODO

You keep saying MVP..

I know, it makes me feel all ... cute and professional. At the moment we're cooking up a high level description of how an MVP demonstration could be deployed. While most of the features are ambiguous, our current ambition is to deploy a preinstalled QCOW2 Serpent OS image as a prealpha to help validate moss/boulder/etc.

It'll be ugly. Likely slow. Probably insecure as all hell. But it'll be something. It'll allow super basic interaction with moss, and a small collection of utilities that can be used in a terminal environment. No display whatsoever. That can come in a future iteration :)

ETA? Definitely not by the 28th of February. When it's done.

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  • 2 min read

Build System Functional

Wow, has it been a hectic few weeks, and it definitely shows: last time we blogged it was about re-bootstrapping with glibc. Feels like ancient news already! So, what's new in the world of Serpent OS? Apart from yours truly now being proud parent to a beautiful baby girl, work has resumed on the development of Moss, our package manager. And it builds stuff. Awesomely. Let's quickly catch up with those updates and see where we're headed next.

Look at all the buildiness

It lives!

We're now able to build the majority of a moss package. Notice I've made a distinction there. So, we're able to run the build instructions, and use all of the metadata, configuration and macros available. The only thing we're not actually doing is dumping the built files into a binary package.

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We're able to do the build-system part rather well, now. Right now we support the following features in the build system:

  • Multiple, profile-based architecture support
  • Automatic -m32 profile based cross compilation support for 32-bit libraries on 64-bit OS
  • Basic Profile Guided Optimisation via the workload key. Set a workload, optimise accordingly.
  • LLVM Context Sensitive Profile Guided Optimisation. This is default for LLVM with the workload key, and comes for free, with multiple build stages.
  • Profile based tuning options, such as optimize for speed, size, disabling hardening, etc.
  • Trivially switch between gnu and llvm toolchain in stone.yml, with profiles knowing the right flags to use with tuning options.
  • Recursive macro support in build scripts, defined on per-profile level
  • Architecture specific profiles support in stone.yml, i.e. profiles -> aarch64 -> setup: to avoid if/else spaghetti.

Next on the agenda

Now that the huge amount of scaffolding work has been done, we can actually turn the results of builds into installable binary packages using our moss.format.binary module. We'll add some magic sauce to have automatic subpackages + inter-package dependencies, along with the expected automatic runtime dependencies + such. Cue some linting, et voila, build tool that's a pleasure to work with.

Once we have all those packages building, we'll need a way to install them. Luckily some scaffolding is in place for this already, and it won't take much effort to support moss install somepkg.stone. Then we throw a few dozen packages in the mix, add some dependency handling, repo support, Bob's your uncle, and your aunt is downloading exclusive early-access images from our Open Collective as soon as they're available. :O

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  • 3 min read

Results Of The Experiment

It seems like only yesterday we announced to the world a Great Experiment. It was in fact 2 months ago, and a whole lot of work has happened since that point. A few take-homes are immediately clear, the primary one being the need to be a community-oriented Linux distribution.

To quote ourselves 2 months ago:

 If the experiment is a success, which of course means having tight controls on scope and timescale,
 then one would assume the primary way to use Serpent OS would be through some downstream repackaging
 or reconfiguration, i.e. basing upon the project, to meet specific user demand.

It turns out that so far the experiment has been successful, and being forkable is still at the very heart of our goals. Others have joined us on our journey, and expressed the same passion in our goals as we have. A community has formed around the project, with individuals sharing the same ambitions for a reliable, rolling operating system with a powerful package manager.

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An open community

Over the past 2 months we've transformed from set of ideas into a transparent, community-first organisation with clear leadership and open goals. I've stepped into the Benevolent Dictator For Life position, and Peter has taken on daily responsibilities for the project running. Aydemir is now our treasurer on Open Collective, and many individuals contribute to our project.

Transactional package management

No need to rehash this, but the defining feature of Serpent OS has clearly become moss, something initially not anticipated when we started. A read-only root filesystem, transactional operations, rollbacks, deduplicating throughout and atomic updates. Combine that with a rolling release model, stateless policy and ease-of-use, the core feature-set is already powerful.

Deferral of musl integration

In recent weeks we've been working on libwildebeest and libc-support, primarily as a stop-gap to provide glibc compatibility without using glibc. While musl has many advantages, it is clear to us now that writing another libc through our support projects isn't what we originally planned. With that in mind we're adopting glibc and putting our musl works under community ownership, until such time as reevaluation shows that musl is what is needed in Serpent OS. Note the primary motivator here is investing our efforts where it makes sense, and obtaining the best results in the most manageable fashion for our users.

Our new toolchain configuration will be as follows:

  • LLVM/clang as primary toolchain
  • libc++ as C++ library
  • glibc as C library
  • gcc+binutils (ld.bfd) provided to build glibc, elfutils, etc.
  • Permitting per-package builds using GCC, i.e. kernel to alleviate Clang IAS issues.

Thus our toolchain will in fact be a hybrid GNU/LLVM one. This will allow both source and binary compatibility with the majority of desktop + server Linux distributions, facilitating choice of function for our users.

It should be noted this decision has been made after much discussion internally, on our IRC, on our OpenCollective, etc. Our bootstrap-scripts is being improved to support both glibc and musl, so that the decision can continuously be reviewed. If we reach a position whereby musl inclusion once again makes sense, thanks to atomic updates from moss, it will be possible to switch.

Final thoughts

Initially Serpent OS emerged as a collective agreement on IRC as a set of notions as opinions. Over the past few months those opinions have solidified into tangible ideas, and a sense of community. In keeping with what is right for the community, our messaging has been reworked.

It is fair to say our initial stance appeared quite hostile, as a bullet-point list of exhaustion with past experiences. As we've pivoted to being a fully community-oriented distribution, we've established our goals of being a reliable, flexible, open, rolling Linux distribution with powerful features imbued by the package manager, and an upstream-first approach.

As such we've agreed to not let our own pet-peeves interfere with the direction of the project, and instead enable users to do what they wish on Serpent OS, be it devops, engineering, browsing, gaming, you name it. We're a general purpose OS with resilience at the core.

Our focus is on the usability and reliability of the OS - thus our efforts will be invested in areas such as the package manager, hardware enabling, the default experience, etc.

So, strap yourself in, as we're fond of saying. Development of Serpent OS is about to accelerate rapidly.

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  • 2 min read

Source Format Defined

Following quickly on the heels of yesterday's announcement that the binary format has been defined, we've now implemented the initial version of our source format. The source format provides metadata on a package along with instructions on how to build the package.

The next step of course, is to implement the build tool, converting the source specification into a binary package that the end user can install. With our 2 formats defined, we can now go ahead and implement the build routines.

Very trivial package recipe

A YAML based format

The eagle-eyed among you will already see this is a derivation of the package.yml format I originally created while at Solus. Minor adaptations to the format have been made to support multiple architectures via the profiles key, and package splitting behaviour has now been grouped under a packages key to make the structure more readable.

In package.yml, one would have to redefine subpackage summaries as a key in a list of the primary summary key, such as:

    rundeps:
        - primary-run-dep
        - dev: secondary-run-dep
    summary:
        - Some Summary
        - dev: Some different summary

We've opted to group "Package Definition" behaviour into core structs, which are allowed to appear in the root-level package and subpackages:

    summary: Top-level summary
    packages:
        - dev:
            summary: Different summary
            rundeps: Different rundeps

Multiple architecture support

In keeping with the grouping behaviour, we're baking multiple architecture configurations into the YML file. A common issue encountered with the older format was how to handle emul32:

    setup: |
        if [[ -z "${EMUL32BUILD}" ]]; then
            %configure --some-emul32-option
        else
            %configure
        fi

    build: |
    %make

Our new approach is to group Build Definitions into the root level struct, which may then individually be overridden for each architecture. For example:

    profiles:
        - ia32:
            setup: |
        %configure --some-emul32-option
    setup: |
    %configure

Permutations

Differences

As you can see it is highly similar to package.yml - which is a great format. However, with our tooling and aims being slightly different, it was time to reevaluate the spec and bolster it where appropriate. We're happy to share our changes, but in the interest of not causing a conflict between the 2 variants, we'll be calling ours "stone.yml".

Our main motivation came from the tooling, which is written in the D language. With D we were able to create a strongly typed parser and explicit schema, and with a struct-based approach it made it more trivial to group similar definitions.

Other than that, we have the same notions with the format, intelligent automatic package splitting, ease of developer experience, etc.

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  • 3 min read

Moss Format Defined

The core team have been hard at work lately implementing the Moss package manager. We now have an initial version of the binary format that we're happy with, so we thought we'd share a progress update with you.

Development work on moss

Explaining the format

Briefly, the binary container format consists of 4 payloads:

  • Meta (Information on the package)
  • Content (a binary blob containing all files)
  • Index (indices to files within the binary blob)
  • Layout (How to apply the files to disk)

Each payload is verified internally using a CRC64-ISO, and contains basic information such as the length of the payload both compressed and uncompressed, the compression algorithm used (zstd and zlib supported) as well as the type and version of the payload. All multiple-byte values are stored in Big Endian order (i.e. Network Byte Order).

Payloads

Internally the representation of a Payload is defined as a 32-byte struct:

    @autoEndian uint64_t length = 0; /* 8 bytes */
    @autoEndian uint64_t size = 0; /* 8 bytes */
    ubyte[8] crc64 = 0; /* CRC64-ISO */
    @autoEndian uint32_t numRecords = 0; /* 4 bytes */
    @autoEndian uint16_t payloadVersion = 0; /* 2 bytes  */
    PayloadType type = PayloadType.Unknown; /* 1 byte  */
    PayloadCompression compression = PayloadCompression.Unknown; /* 1 byte */

We merge all unique files in a package rootfs into the Content payload, and compress that using zstd. The offsets to each unique file (i.e. the sha256sum) are stored within the Index payload, allowing us to extract relevant portions from the "megablob" using copy_file_range().

These files will become part of the system hash store, allowing another level of deduplication between all system packages. Finally, we use the Layout payload to apply the layout of the package into a transactional rootfs. This will define paths, such as /usr/bin/nano, along with permissions, types, etc. All regular files will actually be created as hard links from the hash store, allowing deduplication and snapshots.

The Meta payload consists of a number of records, each with strongly defined types (such as String or Int64) along with the tag, i.e. Name or Summary. The entire format is binary to ensure greater resilience and a more compact representation. For example, each metadata key is only 8 bytes.

    @autoEndian uint32_t length; /** 4 bytes per record length*/
    @autoEndian RecordTag tag; /** 2 bytes for the tag */
    RecordType type; /** 1 byte for the type */
    ubyte[1] padding = 0;

TLDR that for me...

Binary format that is self deduplicating at several layers, permitting fast transactional operations.

Up Next

Before we work any more on the binary format, we now need to pivot to the source format. Our immediate goal is to now have moss actually build packages from source, with resulting .stone packages. Once this step is complete we can work on installation, upgrades, repositories, etc, and race to becoming a self hosting distribution.

Note, the format may still change before it goes into production, as we encounter more cases for optimisation or improvement.

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  • 4 min read

Defining Moss

Over the past few weeks, throughout the entire bootstrap process, we've been deliberating on what our package manager is going to look like. We now have a very solid idea on what that'll be, so it's time for a blog post to share with the community.

Initial moss prototype CLI

Old, but new

The team has been very clear in wanting a traditional package management solution, whereby repositories and packages compose the OS as a whole. However, we also want modern features, such as being stateless by default. A common theme is wanting to reduce the complex iterations of an OS into something that is sanely versioned, but also flexible, to ensure a consistent, tested experience with multiple end targets.

Additionally, the OS must be incredibly easy for contributors and team members to maintain, with intelligent tooling and simple, but powerful formats.

Atomic updates

One of the most recent software update trends of recent years is atomic updates. In essence this allows applying an update in a single operation, and importantly, reversing an update in a single operation, without impacting the running system.

This is typically achieved using a so-called A/B switch, which is what we will also do with moss. We won't rely on any specific filesystem for this implementation, instead relying on a smart layout, pivot_root and a few other tricks.

Primarily we'll update a single /usr symlink to point to the current OS image, with / being a read-only faux rootfs, populated with established mountpoints and symlinks. Mutation will be possible only via moss transactions, or in world-writable locations (/opt, /usr/local, /etc ...)

Deduplication

The moss binary package format will be deduplicated in nature, containing hash-keyed blobs in an zstd compressed payload. Unique blobs will be stored in a global cache, and hard-linked into their final location (i.e. /moss/root/$number/usr/...) to deduplicate the installed system too. This allows multiple system snapshots with minimal overhead, and the ability to perform an offline rollback.

Implications

We'll need to lock kernels to their relevant transactions (or repo versions) to prevent untested configurations. Additionally the boot menu will need to know about older versions of the OS that are installed, so they can be activated in the initrd at boot. This will require us doing some work with clr-boot-manager to achieve our goals.

Difference from existing solutions

We're trying to minimise the iterations of the OS to what is available in a given version of the package repositories. Additionally we wish to avoid extensive "symlink farms" as we're not a profile-oriented distribution. Instead we focus on deduplication, atomic updates and resolution performance.

Subscriptions

Keeping a system slim is often a very difficult thing to achieve, without extensive package splitting and effort on the user's part. An example might be enabling SELinux support on a system, or culling the locales to only include the used ones.

In Serpent OS (and moss, more specifically) we intend to address this through "subscriptions". Well defined names will be used by moss to filter (or enable) certain configurations in packages + dependencies. In some instances this will toggle subpackages/dependencies and in others it will control which paths of a package are actually installed to disk.

Going further with this concept, we will eventually introduce modalias based capabilities to automatically subscribe users to required kernel modules, allowing slim or fullfat installations as the user chooses. This in turn takes the burden of maintenance away from developers + users, and enables an incredibly flexible, approachable system.

Mandatory reboots

Where possible we will limit mandatory reboots, preferring an in-place atomic update to facilitate high uptime. However, there are situations where a reboot is absolutely unavoidable, and the system administrator should plan some downtime to handle this case.

Certain situations like a kernel update, or security fix to a core library, would require a reboot. In these instances, the atomic update will be deferred until the next boot. In most situations, however, reboots will not be mandatory.

Until the next time

Well, we've given a brief introduction to our aims with moss and associated tooling, and you can get more information by checking the moss README.md.

The takeaway is we want a package-based software update mechanism that is reliable and trusted, and custom-built to handle Serpent OS intricities, with a simple approach to building and maintaining the distribution.

For now, we're gonna stop talking, and start coding.

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  • 2 min read

Stage3 Complete

Another week, another milestone completed. We're pleased to announce that we've completed the initial Stage3 bootstrap. While we have some parallel works to complete for Stage 4, we can now begin to work on the exciting pieces! We're now bootstrapped on ARMv8(-a) and x86_64

Build

Announcing Moss

Our immediate focus is now to implement our package manager: moss. Currently it only has a trivial CLI and does absolutely nothing. We will now shift our attention to implement this as a core part of the Stage 4 bootstrap. Moss is so-called as we're a rolling release, a rolling stone gathers no moss. The package manager is being implemented in the D Programming Language.

Moss does not aim to be a next generation package management solution, it instead inspired by eopkg, RPM and swupd, aiming to provide a reliable modern package management and update solution with stateless design at the core. Core features and automatic dependencies will be managed through capability subscriptions. The binary format will be versioned and deduplicated, with multiple internal lookup tables and checksums. Our chief focus with moss is a reliable system management tool that is accessible even in situations where internet access is limited.

Ongoing Works

In order to complete stage3, we provided linker stubs in libwildebeest to ensure we can build. Obviously this introduces runtime errors in systemd and our stage3 isn't bootable, just chrootable. This will be resolved when systemd is properly packaged by moss in stage4.

Docker Image

We now have a test container available on Docker Hub. You can install and run the simple bash environment by executing the following command with a Docker-enabled user:

    docker run -it --rm serpentos/staging:latest

Currently we only have an x86_64 image, but may experiment with multiarch builds later in stage4.

IMPORTANT: The staging image is currently only a dump of the stage3 tree with minor cleaning + tweakups. It is not, in any way, shape or form, representative of the final quality of Serpent OS. Additionally zero performance work or security patching has been done, so do not use in a production environment.

The image is provided currently as a means to validate the LLVM/musl toolchain.

Future ISO

We cannot currently say when we'll definitely have an ISO, however we do know that some VM-specific images will arrive first. After that we'll focus on an installer (package selection based) and a default developer experience. All we can say is strap in, and enjoy the ride.

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  • 3 min read

Looking Stage4 In The Eye

Well, we've made an awful lot of progress in these last few days. It wasn't that long ago that we introduced some of the new projects required to get stage3 off the ground.

Building systemd the easy way

libc-support

Our libc-support project has been growing, thanks primarily to the contributions of Jouni Roivas. We now have initial working versions of getent and getconf. The getconf program is considered feature-complete for our current requirements, and the focus is now on cleaning up getent making it more modular and easy to maintain in the long run.

libwildebeest

We began work on libwildebeest to quickly unlock building systemd. Remember, our ambition with this project is to provide a sane, centralised way of maintaining source compatibility with various projects that rely on features currently only available in the GNU toolchain + runtime. This is our alternative vision to patching every single package that fails to build against our LLVM+musl toolchain, ensuring our work scales.

Right now, libwildebeest implements some missing APIs, and indeed, some replacement APIs, for when GNU behaviours are expected. It does so in a way that doesn't impact the resulting binary's license, or any of the system ABI. We provide some pkg-config files with explicit cflags and libs fields set, such as:

      -L${libdir} -lwildebeest-ftw -Wl,--wrap=ftw -Wl,--wrap=nftw -I${includedir}/libwildebeest --include=lwb_ftw.h

Our headers take special care to mask the headers provided by musl to avoid redefinitions, and instruct the linker to replace calls to these functions with our own versions, i.e.:

int __wrap_ftw(const char *dir, int (*funcc)(const char *, const struct stat *, int),
               int descriptors)

It then becomes trivial to enable wildebeest for a package build, i.e.:

        export CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} $(pkg-config --cflags --libs libwildebeest)"

Right now - we've only provided stubs in libwildebeest to ensure we can build our packages. Our next focus is to actually implement those stubs using MIT licensed code so that applications and libraries can rely on libwildebeest to provide a basic level of GNU compatibility in a reliable fashion.

Until such point as all the APIs are fully and safely implemented, it would be highly ill-advised to use libwildebeest in any project. We'll announce stability in the coming weeks.

systemd

We've made great progress in enabling systemd in Serpent OS. Where libwildebeest is in place, it now enables our currently required level of source compatibility to a point where systemd is building with networkd, resolved and a number of other significant targets enabled.

In a small number of cases, we've had to patch systemd, but not in the traditional sense expected to make it work with musl.

The only non-upstreamable patching we've done (in combination with libwildebeest enabling) was to the UAPI headers, as the musl provided headers clash with the upstream kernel headers in certain places (if_ether.h, if_arp.h) - but this is a tiny cost to bear.

The other patches, were simply portability fixes, ensuring all headers were included:

It should be noted both of these (very trivial) pull requests were accepted and merged upstream, and will be part of the next systemd release.

Next On The Agenda

Our major ticket items involve fleshing out stage3 with some missing libraries to further enable systemd, rebuilds of util-linux to be systemd-aware, and continue fleshing out dbus, systemd and libwildebeest support to the point we have a bootable disk image.

At that point we'll move into stage4 with package management, boot management, and a whole host of other goodies. And, if there is enough interest, perhaps some early access ISOs!

After having engaged in discussions with a variety of developers using musl as their primary libc, we've catalogued common pain points. We therefore encourage developers to contribute to our libwildebeest and libc-support projects to complete the tooling and experience around musl-based distributions.

Our aim for Serpent OS is a full fat experience, which means we have large ticket items on our horizon, such as NSS/IDN integration, performance improvements, increasing the default stack size, along with source compatibility for major upstream projects.

Until the next blog post, you can keep up to date on our IRC channel. Join #serpentOS on freenode!

  • in news
  • 4 min read

Stage 3 Progress

Well, it's been a few days since we last spoke, so now it's time for a quick roundup. Long story short, we're approaching the end of the stage3 bootstrap.

Fully functional chroot

In an effort to simplify our bootstrap process, we dropped the newly-introduced stage2.5 and came up with a new strategy for stage3. In order to make it all work nicely, we bind-mount the stage2 resulting runtime at /serpent within the stage3 chroot environment, executing the /serpent/usr/bin/bash shell.

In order to make this work, we build an intermediate musl package for libc.so in the very start of stage3, with all subsequent builds being performed in chroots. Part of the build is done on the host, i.e. extraction and patching, minimising the tool requirements for the chroot environment. The configuration, build and install is performed from within the initially empty chroot environment, replacing all the /serpent/usr/bin tools and /serpent/usr/lib libraries.

Mild Blockers

As we move further through stage3, towards a fully usable chroot environment, we've encountered a small number of blockers. Now, we could solve them by using existing patchwork and workarounds, but most have not and will not be accepted upstream. Additionally it is incredibly hard to track the origin and history of most of these, making security rather more painful.

libc-support

We're going to start working on a project to flesh out the musl runtime with some missing utilities, written with a clean-room approach. These will initially include the getconf and getent tools, which will be written only with Linux in mind, and no legacy/BSD support.

These will be maintained over at our GitHub

libwildebeest

As a project we strive for correctness in the most pragmatic way. Some software, such as systemd, is heavily reliant on GNU GCC/GLibc extensions. In some software there are feasible alternatives when using musl, however in a good number of cases, functionality required to build certain software is missing and has no alternative.

Over time we'll try to work with upstreams to resolve those issues, but we're working on an interim solution called 'libwildebeest'. This will provide source compatibility for a limited number of software packages relying on so-called 'GNUisms'. Binary compatibility is not an aim whatsoever, and will not be implemented. This convenience library will centralise all patchwork on packages that need more work to integrate with musl, until such time as upstreams have resolved the remaining issues.

Additionally it will help us track those packages needing attention in the distribution, as they will have a build-time dependency on libwildebeest. We do not intend to use this project extensively.

This will be maintained over at our GitHub

A Word On Init Systems

Recently we've had many queries regarding the init system, as there is an expectation that due to our use of musl/llvm we also dislike systemd or wish to be a small OS, etc. There is a place in the world for those projects already, and we wish them much success. However from our own stance and goals, systemd has already "won the battle" and actually fits in with our design.

If it is possible in future with package manager considerations and packaging design, then we may make it possible to swap systemd for a similar set of packages. However, we only intend at this time to support systemd/udev/dbus directly in Serpent OS and leave alternatives to the community.

Other News

Just a quick heads up, we've been talking to the cool folks over at fosshost.org and they've agreed to kindly provide us with additional hosting and mirroring. This will allow us to build scale in from the very start, ensuring updates and images are always available. Once the new server is up and running we'll push another blogpost with the details and links.

While initially we intended to avoid public bug trackers, the rate of growth within the project and community have made it highly apparent that proper communication channels need establishing. Therefore we will be setting up a public Phabricator instance for reporting issues, security flaws, and contributing packaging.

Much of our website is in much need of update, but our current priority is with building the OS. Please be patient with us, we'll have it all sorted out in no time.

Where We At?

Well, stage3 completes fully, builds the final compiler, which has also been verified. A usable chroot system is produced, built using musl, libc++, libunwind, clang, etc. Some might say that stage3 is complete, however we wish to avoid circular dependency situations. We'll mark stage3 as complete once we've integrated an initial slimmed down build of systemd and appropriately relinked the build.

As soon as this stage is done, we'll proceed with stage4. This is the final stage where we'll add package management and define the OS itself, with global flags, policies, etc.

With the speed we're moving at, that really isn't too far away.

And finally..

I personally wish to thank the Serpent OS team as a whole for the commitment and work undertaken of late. Additionally I want to thank the growing community around Serpent OS, primarily residing in our IRC channel (#serpentOS on freenode) and our Twitter account. Your input has been amazing, and it's so refreshing to have so many people on the same page. Stay awesome.