Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Dan Nicholson]

On Mon, 5 Nov 2018 11:13:06 + Simon McVittie  wrote:
> On Sat, 03 Nov 2018 at 12:44:16 +0100, Felix Krull wrote:
> > what's the status on this? Is there anything else I can do or did you
just not
> > get around to it yet?
>
> Reviewing this is on my list, but it's a somewhat long list :-)
>
> (Because this involves new package names and the NEW queue, there's a
> strong incentive to get it right first time, rather than having more
> than one attempt.)

ostree-boot got in a while ago and it looks like you added the
documentation Felix started in
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/ostree/-/commits/debian/master/debian/ostree-boot-examples.
So, I think this can be closed now?

--
Dan

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Simon McVittie]

On Sat, 03 Nov 2018 at 12:44:16 +0100, Felix Krull wrote:
> what's the status on this? Is there anything else I can do or did you just not
> get around to it yet?

Reviewing this is on my list, but it's a somewhat long list :-)

(Because this involves new package names and the NEW queue, there's a
strong incentive to get it right first time, rather than having more
than one attempt.)

smcv

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Felix Krull]

Hi Simon,
what's the status on this? Is there anything else I can do or did you just
not get around to it yet?
-Felix

On Fri, 31 Aug 2018 at 00:34 Simon McVittie  wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Aug 2018 at 23:09:10 +0200, Felix Krull wrote:
> > Ok, I wrote up a guide on how to build and deploy a Debian-based ostree
> root
> > with ostree-boot; I've attached the files for now. I can also add it to
> the Git
> > repository directly and make another merge request, if you prefer.
>
> Thanks! I'm probably not going to be able to review this for a couple
> of weeks, but I'll get to it when I can.
>
> The ostree-boot package will need to go through the NEW queue, so don't
> expect to see that particularly quickly.
>
> smcv
>

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Simon McVittie]

On Thu, 30 Aug 2018 at 23:09:10 +0200, Felix Krull wrote:
> Ok, I wrote up a guide on how to build and deploy a Debian-based ostree root
> with ostree-boot; I've attached the files for now. I can also add it to the 
> Git
> repository directly and make another merge request, if you prefer.

Thanks! I'm probably not going to be able to review this for a couple
of weeks, but I'll get to it when I can.

The ostree-boot package will need to go through the NEW queue, so don't
expect to see that particularly quickly.

smcv

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Felix Krull]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2018 at 21:39 Simon McVittie  wrote:

> The bug is tagged "help" because the maintainer does not know how to
> test this. If you can help to document how, please do, but the bug is not
> going to progress without someone's help.
>

Ok, I wrote up a guide on how to build and deploy a Debian-based ostree
root with ostree-boot; I've attached the files for now. I can also add it
to the Git repository directly and make another merge request, if you
prefer.

For reference: I've used this VM for testing:
https://app.vagrantup.com/bento/boxes/debian-9
But any other system should work so long as it satisfies the requirements
in the guide. The operative word being "should", of course...

I've also opened a merge request for the package changes to get
ostree-boot:  https://salsa.debian.org/debian/ostree/merge_requests/1

-Felix


ostree-2.conf
Description: Binary data


ostree-1.conf
Description: Binary data


ostree-boot-instructions
Description: Binary data

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Simon McVittie]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2018 at 20:21:11 +0200, Felix Krull wrote:
> Has there been any progress on this?

The bug is tagged "help" because the maintainer does not know how to
test this. If you can help to document how, please do, but the bug is not
going to progress without someone's help.

> I have one question about the description: The ostree-boot.control file states
> that "the root filesystem must be one that dracut can mount without a root=
> command-line argument". Unless I'm misunderstanding it, this doesn't seem to 
> be
> correct (any more)? In my tests, I've happily booted VMs from MBR disks with
> LVM2 root partitions.

I think that was true at some point. If it is no longer true I'm happy
to remove that statement; you almost certainly know better than I do!

smcv

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Simon McVittie]

Control: block 824650 by -1

On Fri, 18 May 2018 at 18:24:31 +0700, Arnaud Rebillout wrote:
> I played a bit with that lately, so I can also provide some additional
> documentation, a real step-by-step to use these scripts.

Yes please! What I would need to be able to test is something like:

* have one Debian root filesystem, without (say) the 'hello' package
* have another Debian root filesystem, with the 'hello' package
* make a bootable system with the first root filesystem
* "upgrade" to the second root filesystem
* successfully reboot into the second root filesystem

> Note that these scripts require access to the apt repository
> https://deb-ostree-test.endlessm.com/debian, that provides the
> ostree-boot package. If we wait for #824650 [1] to be solved, then we
> don't need a third-party repo, and we can simplify the procedure. So
> probably better to wait for that.

This bug is a prerequisite for #824650. I am not going to reinstate the
ostree-boot package in Debian and put it through the NEW queue until I
can confidently say it works, and I can't say it works until I know how
to test it!

Please branch the ostree package and patch it to produce ostree-boot,
then write your instructions with the assumption that your branch is
the one in use. Hopefully it should be as simple as this:

* append debian/ostree-boot.control to debian/control
* delete the section in debian/rules that deletes the files listed in
  debian/ostree-boot.install (look for TODO)
* rebuild
* publish with reprepro or apt-ftparchive or similar

but maybe further adjustments are needed; I don't know.

> BTW, how do you plan to publish the documentation? In a README in the
> packaging files, or Debian wiki?

I was thinking in the ostree package itself (debian/ostree-boot.README.Debian
or similar), so that the documentation can evolve alongside ostree.

If it's feasible to have this process be scripted and usable as an
automated test, that would of course be even better, but let's make sure
we can walk before we try to run.

smcv

Bug#824649: ostree: document how to prepare and update a .deb-based system root

[Simon McVittie]

Package: ostree
Version: 2016.5-2
Severity: wishlist
Tags: help

We should document how to prepare a Debian-derived system with specified
contents (for example task-desktop) for deployment via OSTree, analogous
to what  does for Red Hat
systems.


has some general notes based on experience of deploying RPM systems
with OSTree, which should be broadly applicable to dpkg systems.

In particular, carrying out the /usr merge (usrmerge) is recommended
when deploying via OSTree, /etc may need some special handling,
dpkg metadata needs to be moved/symlinked/bind-mounted under /usr
(because it is only as mutable as /usr) or removed, and special handling
will be needed for /etc/passwd and /etc/group because the OSTree deployment
includes uids/gids by numeric value. Reserving a uid/gid range for
the OSTree-managed system users in each ostree-deployed Debian derivative,
and using libnss-extrausers or similar, might be useful.

I think this aspect of OSTree is perhaps more practically useful right now
for limited-scope Debian derivatives (Endless? SteamOS?) than it is for
general-purpose Debian or Ubuntu.

S