[install] Create a new read-only image type

[LukeShortCloud]

Two possible solutions for providing a read-only image type:

• bootc provides a distro-agnostic way to use a container image as the root file system on bare metal hardware. Maintained by Red Hat.
• frzr provides a simple way to use a Btrfs subvolume archive to update the root partition. Maintained by ChimeraOS.

I feel comfortable using one of these two solutions because of the resources I have available to me. Other solutions are either unclear to me or are not widely used enough.

[LukeShortCloud]

This image type will be optional. The normal image types (minimal, performance, and secure) will remain writable with no changes. The new read-only image will likely be based on the minimal image rootfs.

[LukeShortCloud]

Some known issues of bootc that are relevant to us:

• / and /boot must be the same file system. This means that Btrfs and other interesting file systems are not supported.
  • https://github.com/containers/bootc/pull/529
  • https://github.com/containers/bootc/issues/499
• Some user accounts such as qemu need to be manually created.
  • https://github.com/containers/bootc/issues/553

[GuestSneezeOSDev]

why not use the steamos-readonly i know it is for steamos but somehow i think i can implement this into winesapOS

[LukeShortCloud]

bootc is the most flexible by allowing us to use a container image for deployment. It caches old deployments so we can rollback more than just once with a A/B configuration like SteamOS.

frzr is easy and stable. Both of those solutions we can easily implement re-using what we have today.

Do any projects re-use what SteamOS uses? I looked at ChimeraOS and HoloISO. They both use different solutions.

My biggest concern is that the read-only deployment should be used and maintained by more than one existing OS. I'm also not interested in re-using more technologies from SteamOS. I tried it and it was frustrating and a lot of work.

[LukeShortCloud]

The ChimeraOS team let me know that they have experimental support for using container images for the file system in frzr, similar to how bootc works. It sounds like they might be moving to that long-term. Cool stuff!

[GuestSneezeOSDev]

maybe in the grub flags replace rw to only r

[LukeShortCloud]

That technically works. The problem is how we then distribute and manage upgrades. Technically, the upcoming archupgrade project would handle that if we temporarily switch back to rw. However, the only way to guarantee that a user has 100% the same build is to distribute the same set of root file system files. As it is today, winesapOS Upgrades tend to have a drift between what is actually released and what you are running. It is never exactly the same. Looking at Android, ChromeOS, Fedora Silverblue, etc. for inspiration, we can see that the OS files are consistent across similar devices. That really helps with troubleshooting and providing a stable experirence.

[GuestSneezeOSDev]

I have added a service file which allows winesapOS to be read-only https://github.com/LukeShortCloud/winesapOS/pull/917

[GuestSneezeOSDev]

Use frzr instead of the scripts / services I Created

[GuestSneezeOSDev]

here are some steps that hopefully may help

Find your UUID

sudo blkid

$ sudo nano /etc/fstab
# $ sudo vi /etc/fstab
# $ sudo vim /etc/fstab

now insert this to the fstab

UUID=<the-uuid-you-got> / ext4 ro,defaults 0 1

then exit now we need to "adjust the boot parameters"

$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# $ sudo vi /etc/default/grub
# $ sudo vim /etc/default/grub

find the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line and add

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet ro"

then update the grub configuration

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
sudo reboot

Infromation Sources :

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/File_systems
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB

[LukeShortCloud]

Compared to what I was trying before, this guide is saying to also add the ro option to the root file system mount in /etc/fstab. I'll give that a try when I have some free time, thanks!

[GuestSneezeOSDev]

Welcome mate