Chimera Linux is a novel Linux distribution built around FreeBSD core tools and the LLVM toolchain. Since its initial launch in 2021, it has made a lot of progress and is now in alpha stage. The system can be deployed on a wide array of hardware and many people are using it as their desktop system; it works on x86_64, AArch64, POWER (little and big endian) as well as RISC-V and by now comes with thousands of packages. While trying to be practical, Chimera is also highly hardened, partly thanks to the LLVM toolchain, rendering it immune to various security issues other distros are vulnerable to. It has transparent and robust infrastructure, ensuring smooth deployment of packages. We are also developing various new tooling that the whole ecosystem can benefit from, including the Turnstile session tracker. Service management is based around Dinit, a modern, supervising system; we maintain and create a variety of tooling around it, trying to break the existing status quo with systemd, while abandoning legacy approaches. 2023 has seen several major milestones, so I will focus on these, while also giving a short overview so that people unfamiliar with the system don't feel lost. I will also explain how our work benefits the entire Linux ecosystem, as well as beyond. (c) FOSDEM 2024 3 & 4 February 2024 https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-2524-2023-in-chimera-linux/

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

21. 2023/02/03 Chimera Linux @ FOSDEM 2024 21
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