Chimera Linux

new images for 20250420: https://chimera-linux.org/news/2025/04/new-images.html
risc-v still alive (and freshly rebuilt on native hardware), loongarch64 newly available, apk not segfaulting anymore, limine instead of grub for the images themselves on supported platforms (all but ppc*), better compatibility with older bios machines

2025-03-20 23:16:09 UTC

we have a new #riscv build server: https://chimera-linux.org/news/2025/03/new-riscv-server.html
this is now provisionally a part of the infrastructure to test its stability, and the repos have been rebuilt

2025-03-16 18:45:59 UTC

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this is about half done now...
pull requests into cports and most other updates are on hold while doing this, so please be patient
at this point it seems like we'll deploy it so once it's plugged into the infra everything will continue

2025-03-14 12:09:20 UTC

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a little update on this: we now have (possibly long-term) remote access to a milk-v pioneer box; the world is currently being rebuilt on it
assuming there are no significant issues during the build, this decision will be reverted (and there will be freshly rebuilt repositories built on actual hardware with tests on)

2025-03-12 18:25:28 UTC

we will soon be dropping #riscv support from the repositories for the time being, read about why:
https://chimera-linux.org/news/2025/03/dropping-riscv.html

2025-03-10 00:55:41 UTC

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this is already fixed in the feburary images

2025-03-09 23:25:17 UTC

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based on prior feedback, another testing image is available: https://repo.chimera-linux.org/live/testing/chimera-linux-x86_64-LIVE-20250310-base.iso
those who haven't experienced any problems don't need to test again, but anyone newly testing might as well use this one

2025-03-08 04:39:55 UTC

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yep, that's expected as the configurations i can test include x220 and qemu

2025-03-08 04:38:43 UTC

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no explicit plans no

2025-03-08 04:37:15 UTC

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there is definitely supposed to be a menu, thanks

2025-03-07 14:53:10 UTC

also, since we are still evaluating switching bootloaders on live images, it'd be very helpful if everyone willing tried booting this iso and reporting whether it boots:
https://repo.chimera-linux.org/live/testing/chimera-linux-x86_64-LIVE-20250307-base.iso
all combos are wanted, i.e. efi, bios, from usb stick, from optical media (but few probably have the option nowadays), please test the ones that you can

2025-03-07 11:45:22 UTC

a rebuild for python 3.12->3.13 update is currently in progress, once done it is recommended to use `--available` when upgrading (however, it should work either way)

2025-03-06 01:43:59 UTC

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this is now done, the repos have been published and the buildbot worker is in the fleet
so everything will resume now

2025-03-04 14:22:10 UTC

btw, if you're curious why not a lot of updates are coming in the last couple days: we're currently in the process of introducing the loongarch64 architecture into the repos/build fleet
once the build queue has cleared, updates and pull request reviews will resume
a testing loongarch64 image is now available at https://repo.chimera-linux.org/live/testing (of course, without public repos it's not yet very useful)

2025-02-27 20:33:40 UTC

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that's the point, "open source" doesn't even carry a good idea and is associated with something much worse than the fsf

2025-02-27 20:29:36 UTC

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also might as well use the term that people are already familiar with == it's more accessible
there is nothing wrong with the idea it carries, even if stallman sucks

2025-02-27 20:14:11 UTC

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we have nothing to do with gnu/fsf and you won't find any support for rms here
he also doesn't own the term and there is no more appropriate alternative one, so...

2025-02-27 18:53:16 UTC

reminder: free software without its politics is called "open source" and it's what corporates and certain other entities want to gaslight you into thinking is the appropriate soul-draining default
we don't do that; chimera is not a product and will always act in the interest of the community + try to be self-sustaining without external control
and it will always strive to be a fun and safe space where everyone can feel comfy and appreciated (except nazis, bigots, and other disruptive elements)

2025-02-14 16:16:55 UTC

20250214 images are out, bringing new apk-tools, infrastructural changes, 32-bit powerpc support, and more:
https://chimera-linux.org/news/2025/02/new-images.html

2025-02-09 22:18:20 UTC

since we have apk-tools 3.0_rc4 now, it comes with modernization and resolves some old pain:
1) repos provide v3-style index names (Packages.adb) alongside v2-style (APKINDEX.tar.gz) for compat
2) we have a stable way for the user to select their system repo mirror, without modifying the repo packages, read about it here: https://chimera-linux.org/docs/apk/mirrors
x86_64 and ppc64le repos are done (others are still building and may take some hours)
unrelatedly, gcc packages (14.2.0) are coming on all platforms

2025-02-07 09:38:43 UTC

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this is also a reminder that it may be a good idea to use this flag in general every once in a while, as it will e.g. correctly deal with packages that may have been downgraded in the repository, so in order to keep your system tidy, at least check its interactive output once in a while :)

2025-02-07 09:35:41 UTC

note: in order to properly upgrade with the latest rename batch, it is recommended to use the `--available` flag with `apk upgrade` (not using it may result in apk refusing to proceed, or not upgrading every package)
that said, when using `--available`, make sure to use interactive mode every time and check what is being upgraded/removed

2025-02-06 09:07:03 UTC

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there is now a `base-removed-dbg` package that contains a (hopefully complete) list of providers for all the -dbg packages that are gone, so they should not actually prevent updates, but it will not install the replacements for you (so it is recommended to keep your world file clean)

2025-02-06 08:19:57 UTC

there has been a big batch of package renames to prepare for cbuild changes (which will become stricter)
in order to make sure your update will be smooth and complete, it is recommended that you remove all `-dbg` packages from your apk world file if you have them (or well, those related to the packages that were renamed)

2025-01-11 00:25:59 UTC

the raspberry pi kernel is now using the 6.12 series instead of 6.6, so take care when updating those devices; i have tested it on several of them and found no obvious regressions, but considering the number of devices it covers, it's never possible to know fully

2025-01-04 00:50:23 UTC

the 32-bit ppc repos are up (both main and user), though remaining pieces of infrastructure (buildbot worker, static apk, etc.) are yet to be put in place
also, if you've updated in the last two days and have not rebooted yet, make sure to have installed latest updates from ~the last hour, as they contain an important fix for potential (not sure how much %) kernel breakage
if you've happened to end up in initramfs shell already, install updates using a live system and it should be brought back

2024-12-31 12:02:12 UTC

as a minor surprise to end the year, there is an upcoming 32-bit powerpc architecture support, the repos of which are currently in the process of being built (a local prototype can already boot on bare metal as well as in a virtual machine)
of course, it wil be a tier-3 architecture (like big-endian ppc64)

2024-12-27 20:20:21 UTC

apk-tools has been updated to a rc version, and with that, i am declaring the project officially beta
announcement post: https://chimera-linux.org/news/2024/12/entering-beta.html
there is still much to be done next year, but overall we're in a much better shape than last year
the last half a year of development has been under sponsorship by netgate, allowing me to dedicate half my igalia time; they've also been contributing to cports, overall a big help, this will go on in 2025
here's to another year full of improvements :)

2024-12-13 01:14:06 UTC

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now for the good things - the new system keeps backups while also automatically pruning old kernels, so you don't need chimera-prunekernels anymore; after the upgrade, you can run `chimera-prunekernels rm all` (the command will remain for a while) to ditch all the pre-transition stuff and from now on you won't have to worry about it
it also has much nicer initramfs regen behavior, centralized depmod handling, and finally no package pre/post hooks

2024-12-13 01:12:51 UTC

CAUTION: the new kernel management/backup system has landed in https://github.com/chimera-linux/cports/compare/a40feaf75b9c...b0dd53277ee4
this will result in your most recent kernel before the updated one disappearing due to package hooks going away
also be extra careful everything is intact after upgrade especially if you use out of tree modules (e.g. zfs) and report issues if you run into any
i tried my best to iron out any edge cases, so hopefully i got it all right, but still

2024-12-04 16:35:54 UTC

so ahead of beta, there is now one more new image set out today; this is a prerequisite for implementing a new kernel backup/prune system that we want to deploy before the beta phase, as a new apk-tools feature was necessary to implement this
while at it, the project has two new committers (congrats :)) and lost one :(
https://chimera-linux.org/news/2024/12/new-images-committers.html

2024-11-27 01:11:40 UTC

by the way, since a couple days ago, if you're running a standard desktop environment (gnome/plasma/...) that integrates with the session bus, you might have noticed that your graphical user services come up at the right moment without manual intervention
this is because i've finally deployed the dbus patch that autoexports all its environment into user dinit as well; enjoy

2024-11-15 15:20:50 UTC

in https://github.com/chimera-linux/chimera-live/commit/c502d31ed8bc0523e840b94b713e2acac12a9aa6 support for the limine bootloader instead of grub was added for efi+bios platforms (powerpc stays on grub as it's the only extant bootloader for the platform)
it would be great to get some testing on it, so anyone that feels like it should generate a custom image with MKLIVE_BOOTLOADER=limine set in environment and test it on any platform that is relevant (and report any issues)

2024-11-06 11:32:27 UTC

from this point onwards, the 20241027 images are the earliest supported for network installations
older images will likely fail to install a working system (unless apk-tools is upgraded beforehand or a recent static binary is used) due to not having recent enough apk that can deal with conflicts in install_if; do not use them

2024-11-04 16:32:43 UTC

the getty handling has undergone a significant rework, which may break some edge cases - notably if you had any of the tty-specific services enabled (instead of using ACTIVE_CONSOLES/EXTRA_GETTYS and similar), they do not exist anymore
instead, a parameterized agetty-service exists (e.g. agetty-service@ttyS0) that works for any character device
also, active serial consoles are detected (incl baudrate etc.) and enabled automatically now (no need to do anything)
config files remain the same

2024-10-27 15:59:03 UTC

new images for 20241027: https://chimera-linux.org/news/2024/10/new-images.html
besides random updates and a major update to apk-tools, erofs has become the default for live root filesystem (instead of squashfs) and a second desktop iso variant has become available (with kde plasma 6)

2024-10-17 22:34:26 UTC

apk-tools is bumped to latest version in master again (will take a bit to get to users) so please take extra care upgrading and report any potential issues if they arise
it should be safe this time, but anyway...
if something goes wrong, @npub1quu…al3u is to blame :)

2024-10-15 22:10:07 UTC

just to avoid future confusion: dinit service files for newly built packages from now on install in `/usr/lib/dinit.d` instead of `/etc/dinit.d` - users wishing to edit them can copy them over to the old location and it will take priority (this follows the same pattern as the other `foo.d` config dirs)
this is a part of the ongoing effort to make chimera systems stateless (no mutable files in packages, removal of mutable dirs/files == reset to defaults)

2024-10-06 14:55:07 UTC

if you get error on upgrade of firmware-sof now, you should run "apk fix" to fix it; unfortunately, https://github.com/chimera-linux/cports/commit/d229918040a7144d8356f1cba6754fd937716ddf triggered an apk bug when the firmware files just go missing, and upgrading from the broken version to reverted might make apk error, reinstalling with "apk fix" afterwards makes that go away

2024-10-03 13:24:41 UTC

there have been changes in the user service system that may affect users; the addition of user service targets (login.target and graphical.target) means user service files now need to add an explicit `before` constraint if they need to start before login finishes
this enables user services that are not needed for login, and makes graphical ones nicer though not complete (graphical.target is a triggered service, so you can trigger it after activation env setup to delay graphical service startup)

2024-10-01 17:08:26 UTC

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write an acceptable installer and it can be considered? :p
but without something preexisting it's just a huge amount of effort (that can be instead put elsewhere) with dubious benefit (because for everyone the distro is targeting, the existing installation method is easy enough)

2024-10-01 17:02:44 UTC

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probably not? what would that be

2024-09-16 03:21:29 UTC

repos are back
the main change is that the "contrib" repository is being phased out and merged with "main"; in order to avoid breakage, the repository still exists but now contains only a non-installable placeholder package
next up will be cports refactors to phase out the category entirely, documentation updates, and chimera-repo-contrib will become a transitional metapackage (and you will no longer need to install it)

2024-09-16 01:20:45 UTC

the repos are currently down for some maintenance by the way, they'll be back in a couple hours

2024-08-24 10:57:05 UTC

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issue has been reported upstream: https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/apk-tools/-/issues/11017

2024-08-24 03:04:16 UTC

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the repository has been restored
if you were unfortunate enough to have updated between august 23 21:24 cest (19:24 utc) and the time the repo was taken down (previous message), your apk-tools got updated; this may or may not mean that your package database got messed up
if you can perform a normal upgrade now (i.e. no apk segfault post-upgrade, etc.), you are most likely okay; if not, you will need to restore from scratch:
https://gist.github.com/q66/3afe7fdf438f308801890df16bc55266
we will make a website post later as well

2024-08-24 01:12:22 UTC

we've taken the repository down due to regressions in apk-tools update a few hours ago; it will remain down until we've addressed this
more info will follow later

2024-08-11 10:07:07 UTC

you can now help test the mimalloc system allocator integration @npub1quu…al3u has been working on: https://github.com/chimera-linux/cports/pull/2673
any findings, reports, etc. would be appreciated (though the settings are subject to further changes)