Apertis 15.06 Release

15.06 is the current development distribution of Apertis, a Debian/Ubuntu derivative distribution geared towards the creation of product-specific images for ARM (ARMv7 using the hardfloat API) and Intel x86 (64/32-bit Intel) systems. Features planned for Apertis can be found in the Roadmap page.

What’s available in the distribution?

The software stack in 15.06 is comprised of the following technologies:

  • Linux 3.19
  • Graphical subsystem based on Xorg X server 1.17.1 and Clutter 1.20.0 with full Multi-Touch support
  • Network management subsytem provided by ConnMan 1.27, BlueZ 4.101 and Ofono 1.14
  • Multimedia support provided by GStreamer 1.0.
  • The Telepathy framework, with XMPP and SIP support
  • The Folks contact management framework
  • The Clutter port of the WebKit browser engine with support for WebGL

What’s new in the distribution?

  • Migration to WebKit2GTK+
  • API review and submission workflow
  • Preferences and Persistence Design document
  • First phase of the transition from X11 to Wayland.

Release downloads

Apertis 15.06 images
Intel 32-bit
Intel 64-bit / Minnowboard MAX
  • Apertis 15.06 repositories:

 deb https://repositories.apertis.org/apertis/ 15.06 target development sdk hmi

  • Apertis 15.06 infrastructure tools:

For Debian Jessie based systems:

 deb https://repositories.apertis.org/debian/ jessie tools

For Ubuntu Trusty based systems:

 deb https://repositories.apertis.org/ubuntu/ trusty tools

Apertis 15.06 Release

This release builds on the Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid) as base distribution. The 15.06 release has been verified in the 15.06 test report.

Migration to WebKit2GTK+

Work has been started on migrating from WebKit Clutter to WebKit2GTK+. Since the port was still in its early stages, it was decided that the best use of time was on pushing the migration forward in the source code base rather than on integration, so there are no packages yet. Details can be found on the WebKit2 page, the code can be found here:

https://git.collabora.com/cgit/webkit-clutter.git/tree/?h=gtk-clutter

API review and submission workflow

The APIs for a number of Apertis core modules, such as the phone call API, have undergone an initial stage of review. Changes as a result of those reviews are being undertaken, and will continue into the next release. These API reviews are tracked in bug reports.

The following modules have had a preliminary review:

  • Thetford (vehicle information application) (by e-mail)
  • Walton (vehicle information manager) (by e-mail)
  • Welbourn (vehicle information simulator) (by e-mail)

The following modules have had a high-level review:

The following APIs have had a more detailed review:

Applications Design document

The Applications document has been updated to use clearer terminology (avoiding the term “application” in favour of either “application bundle” or “graphical program”, depending on context), and to recommend standardizing on Android-style reversed DNS names such as com.example.MyApp for all of the various internal names of bundles and programs. Version 0.5.4 of the document is available here: Apertis Applications Design v0.5.4. The Glossary has been updated accordingly.

Multi-user Design document

The Multi-user design document has been split into two documents:

  • an “umbrella” document with terminology, comparisons with other platforms, and general recommendations for the topic of multi-user as a whole, but no specific use-cases for particular Apertis variants’ models of how multiple users relate;
  • a document specific to transactional switching between users, describing use-cases and their proposed solutions for that model

These documents are currently under review and will be published during the next quarterly release cycle.

Preferences and Persistence Design document

A new design document has been produced, detailing Collabora’s recommended approach for securely implementing app and user preferences, and for storing persistent data to allow apps to save and restore their state when restarted. This has undergone initial review, and will continue to be discussed, and potentially implemented, during the next release.

Version 0.2.0 of the document is available here: Apertis Preferences and Persistence Design v0.2.0.

Security Design document

The Security design document has been updated to define terminology, incorporate a new chapter on PolicyKit, describe the various security boundaries present in the platform, and correct outdated information. The updated version is currently under review and will be published during the next quarterly release cycle.

First phase of the transition from X11 to Wayland

The core HMI implementation has been ported from being specific to X11 to be display system agnostic, which means it can either run under X11 or Wayland. Furthermore the Mildenhall mutter plugin has been update to the latest mutter release (3.16) to, again, be able to run both as an X11 compositor and a Wayland display server. As this work was finalized later in the quarter it was decided to not include it in the distribution for 15.06, however the results of this work are available in the apertis git repositories and will be made available in a proof of concept image for the 64 bit intel platform shortly after the release based on initial 15.09 images.

Infrastructure

Rebase on Ubuntu Vivid

During Q2 cycle, several activities have been carried out to be able to rebase Apertis against new upstream base (Ubuntu Vivid Vervet). Over 292 packages have been updated in Target Platform, 408 packages in Development Platform and 134 in SDK Platform.

HMI Packages

HMI packages have also been updated to newer versions, and changes to image tools to be able to accommodate variant builds.

OBS Build Projects

At Collabora’s OBS instance:

Shared Repositories

Repositories are found at:

 deb https://repositories.apertis.org/apertis/ 15.06 target development sdk hmi

To be able to access those, a temporary user/passwd has been created until properly publicly published: Username: sac-dev Password: Apa8Uo1mIeNgie6u

Images

Image daily builds, as well as release builds can be found at:

 https://images.apertis.org/

Use your Collabora credentials to access those until those get publicly published.

Image build tools can be found in the Apertis tools repositories. Note that a string is added to package version depending on the distribution suite based on. For example, if trusty system is to be used expect to install image-builder_4trusty1
Package Version
image-builder, image-tools 5
apertis-image-configs, apertis-image-scripts 12
linaro-image-tools, python-linaro-image-tools 2012.09.1-1co38
parted, libparted0debian1 2.3-11ubuntu1co3
python-debian >=0.1.25

Test Framework

LAVA service at Collabora triggers test cases upon image builds, service is found at:

 https://lava.collabora.co.uk/

The list of available test cases, including those can be found here.

LAVA service packages are available in the Apertis tools repository. To be able to install it, please follow instructions

Mailing List

A mailing list setup and configuration has been deferred for next quarter release (15.09).

Known issues