Chimera Linux is a general-purpose Linux distribution designed from scratch, focusing on robustness, portability, and security hardening, based on FreeBSD tools and optimized with a custom packaging infrastructure. The project aims to make a well-rounded system for users while supporting various architectures and a lightweight, flexible design philosophy. Upcoming developments include improved service management and session tracking, with plans for a beta release in late spring/summer 2024.

1. 2023/02/03 Chimera Linux @ FOSDEM 2024 1
2023 in Chimera Linux

2. 2023/02/03 Chimera Linux @ FOSDEM 2024 2
Overview
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General-purpose Linux distribution
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Built from scratch with broad focus
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Based on FreeBSD core tools, musl, and LLVM
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Hardened (more than most)
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Portable (aarch64, ppc64le, ppc64, riscv64, x86_64)

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Overview
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Binary packaging (apk-tools), rolling release
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Custom-built source packaging infra (cports)
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Lightweight and pragmatic, but also versatile
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Not trying to be like anything else
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No systemd, but not militant about it

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Why?
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Make a well-rounded system I’d enjoy using
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Make proper use of LLVM (e.g. security hardening)
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Improve software I’m unhappy with
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Focus on robustness, determinism, and good defaults
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Have some fun doing all that

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Core tenets
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Purity is counter-productive and makes things worse
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“Minimalism” doesn’t actually mean anything
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Simple > complex, but complex > complicated
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Opinionated = good, but dogmatic = bad
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Good software design is key

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Core tenets
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Inclusive, open, accessible
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It’s free software
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It’s important to have fun
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Reactionaries ruin everything, so keep them out
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Otherwise, almost anything goes

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System design
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Always be strict by default
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There should be a good, obvious way to do things
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Portability > security > benchmarks
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Self-sustaining, transparent tooling
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Flexible, retargetable infrastructure

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System design
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Atomicity and determinism
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It should usually not be written in shell
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Encourage doing good
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Always improve, nothing is good enough
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Systemd is not the devil, no shame in inspiration

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Packaging infrastructure
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Custom system (cports)
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Written in Python
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Sandboxed, fast, and easy to use
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Optimized to minimize effort needed for small teams
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Easy to add new packages

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Cports templates in 2023-now
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Cports commits in 2023-now
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Cports authors in 2023-now
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Alpha “release”
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The project is now ready to take on adventurous users
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Repositories receiving major expansion
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The system is usable as a daily driver
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Still plenty more work to be done in all areas
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Add what you like to the repos

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Major software packaged
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All big open source web browsers present:
– Firefox, Chromium, GNOME Web
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Container infrastructure
– Podman, Docker, containerd, and related
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LibreOffice

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Major software packaged
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Qt6
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OpenJDK 17
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GIMP, Inkscape, Thunderbird, QEMU, etc.
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Various popular software, from neovim to emacs and sway
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Flatpak support

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Toolchain changes
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LLVM 17
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-fno-semantic-interposition by default
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-ftrivial-auto-var-init=zero by default
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Hardened libc++, expanded _FORTIFY_SOURCE
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-z pack-relative-relocs for smaller executables

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Infrastructure update
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Buildbot
– Packages are now built automatically for all architectures as
soon as changes reach the cports Git repo
– Build servers for aarch64, ppc64le, ppc64, riscv64, x86_64
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Fancy package browser at pkgs.chimera-linux.org

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Low level userland changes
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Initial API for our Turnstile session tracker
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Userland based on FreeBSD 14
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Systemd-udev in place of eudev
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Adoption of systemd-tmpfiles and systemd-sysusers
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Systemd-compatible binfmt support

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Service management
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Preparing for adoption of dbus-broker
– Fully service-driven dbus activation (supervised)
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Libdinitctl
– An API to interact with Dinit from C and over D-Bus
– To be used in various other places

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Service management
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New service targets (e.g. for firewalls and time-sync)
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Early services overhaul
– Various new helpers, e.g. for swclock, swap, sysctl
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Improved support for read-only root
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Countless minor quality-of-life improvements

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Hardware support

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Hardware support
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LTS kernel 6.6 and stable kernel 6.7
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Raspberry Pi 5 support (unified image 3/4/5)
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Steam Deck support (incl. OLED)
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Big endian ppc64 repos introduced (G5+)
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Ampere Altra amdgpu support out of the box

23. 2023/02/03 Chimera Linux @ FOSDEM 2024 23
Conclusion
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A good, productive year
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Beta release possibly in late spring/summer
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Upcoming focus is service mgmt, session tracking
– And getting rid of elogind if we can
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And also package management

24. 2023/02/03 Chimera Linux @ FOSDEM 2024 24
Thanks for listening!
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https://chimera-linux.org
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https://github.com/chimera-linux
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https://floss.social/@chimera_linux
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#chimera-linux @ OFTC (irc.oftc.net)
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#chimera-linux:matrix.org