Apertis is a Debian derivative distribution geared towards the creation of product-specific images for ARM (both the 32bit ARMv7 and 64-bit ARMv8 versions using the hardfloat ABI) and Intel x86-64 (64-bit) systems.

Apertis v2023dev1 is the second development of the Apertis v2023 stable release flow that will lead to the LTS Apertis v2023.0 release in March 2023.

This Apertis release is built on top of Debian Bullseye with several customisations. It currently ships with the Linux kernel 5.15.x LTS series but later releases in the v2023 channel will track newer kernel versions up to the next LTS.

Test results for the v2023dev1 release are available in the following test reports:

Release flow

  • 2021 Q4: v2023dev0
  • 2022 Q1: v2023dev1
  • 2022 Q2: v2023dev2
  • 2022 Q3: v2023dev3
  • 2022 Q4: v2023pre
  • 2023 Q1: v2023.0
  • 2023 Q2: v2023.1
  • 2023 Q3: v2023.2
  • 2023 Q4: v2023.3
  • 2024 Q1: v2023.4
  • 2024 Q2: v2023.5
  • 2024 Q3: v2023.6
  • 2024 Q4: v2023.7

Release downloads

Apertis v2023dev1.0 images
Intel 64-bit fixedfunction hmi base SDK SDK
ARM 32-bit (U-Boot) fixedfunction hmi
ARM 64-bit (U-Boot) fixedfunction
ARM 64-bit (Raspberry Pi) fixedfunction hmi

The Intel fixedfunction and hmi images are tested on the reference hardware (MinnowBoard Turbot Dual-Core), but they can run on any UEFI-based x86-64 system. The sdk image is tested under VirtualBox.

Apertis v2023dev1 repositories

deb https://repositories.apertis.org/apertis/ v2023dev1 target development sdk

New features

Completion of the GPL-3-free modernization

This release completes the modernization of the approach to licensing expectations compliance started with the v2022dev2 release.

The v2022.0 release already addressed the licensing challenges in the TLS stack, Coreutils, and GnuPG and this release addresses all the smaller challenges identified in the GPL-3 Deltas Assessment, in particular the move to rust-findutils and libedit.

Build and integration

Build-test packages on OBS before merging

A new feature of the CI for packaging is the inclusion of OBS build test on branches to be merged. Thanks to this addition, now developers can confirm that their changes successfully build in OBS before being merged in the main branches.

Improve developer experience while importing packages

The infrastructure around Apertis has been improved in order to make the importing of new packages straightforward, by avoiding as much as possible any manual steps. With these changes the effort invested to import new packages has been reduced drastically and the possibility of errors in the process has been notably reduced.

Automated note importing in QA Report App

The QA report app is the tool used to collect and summarize the test results for all the Apertis images. To improve the user experience for testers running manual tests and to reduce the amount of information introduced, now the results notes are automatically propagated from previous submissions, giving the chance to the user to amend them to match the current results.

Documentation and designs

Thin proxies - REST APIs

This release includes a concept document [Thin proxies: REST APIS]({{ < ref “thin-proxies.md” >}}) with guidelines for developers to access system APIs through high level REST APIs. Using this approach the complexity of system APIs can be hidden and developers can chose the language/technology that better fit their needs.

Documentation refresh to match the switch to Flatpak

Continuing with the effort of updating documentation after switching to Flatpak, this release also includes a reviewed version of several documents related to the Application Framework to provide developers with the best practices to build their applications.

Deprecations and ABI/API breaks

Regressions

No known regressions.

Deprecations

No known deprecations

Breaks

GPL-3 replacements revamp on target images (HMI and FixedFunction)

The obsolete findutils-gplv2 and readline5 packages are not longer available in the target packaging repositories.

The HMI and FixedFunction images now use the rust-findutils tools and the API-compatible libedit to be compliant with the Apertis licensing expectations while avoiding unmaintained forks of GPL-3 components.

See the GPL-3 Deltas Assessment document for further details.

Infrastructure

Apertis Docker images

The Apertis Docker images provide a unified and easily reproducible build environment for developers and services.

As of today, this includes the apertis-base, apertis-image-builder, apertis-package-source-builder, apertis-flatdeb-builder, apertis-documentation-builder, and apertis-testcases-builder, Docker images.

Apertis infrastructure tools

The Apertis v2022 infrastructure repository provides packages for the required versions of ostree-push and ostree for Debian Buster:

deb https://repositories.apertis.org/infrastructure-v2022/ buster infrastructure

Images

Image daily builds, as well as release builds can be found at https://images.apertis.org/

Infrastructure overview

The Apertis Image Recipes provides an overview of the image building process and the involved services.

Known issues

High (22)

  • T8456 aum-api: test failed
  • T8470 secure-boot-imx6 test failed
  • T8530 evolution-sync-bluetooth test not available in v2022 and v2023dev1 testcase page
  • T8545 BOM file generation pick default license
  • T8547 sanity-check: test failed
  • T8603 AUM fails to detect rollback on Lava for RPi64 board
  • T8604 AUM tests fails on Lava for RPi64 board
  • T8660 Random FS issues on OSTree images
  • T8689 Branching for v2023dev2 disabled CI for several projects
  • T8729 “Segmentation fault” observed during enabling BT and Wifi dongle
  • T8749 aum-offline-upgrade-signed: test failed
  • T8757 aum-ota-api: test failed
  • T8762 aum-ota-signed: test failed
  • T8763 aum-out-of-space: test failed
  • T8764 dbus-dos-reply-time: test failed
  • T8765 aum-ota-auto: test failed
  • T8772 aum-power-cut: test failed
  • T8789 API test
  • T8790 aum-ota-rollback-blacklist: test failed
  • T8803 QA Report App: Pipeline fails to test MR
  • T8822 aum-offline-upgrade: test failed
  • T8823 connman: test failed

Normal (41)

  • T2896 Crash when initialising egl on ARM target
  • T3920 arm-linux-gnueabihf-pkg-config does not work with sysroots installed by ade
  • T5748 System users are shipped in /usr/etc/passwd instead of /lib/passwd
  • T5896 sdk-dbus-tools-bustle testcase is failing
  • T5900 evolution-sync-bluetooth test fails
  • T6024 sdk-dbus-tools-d-feet: folks-inspect: command not found
  • T6111 traprain: 7_traprain test failed
  • T6292 gettext-i18n: test failed
  • T6349 sdk-code-analysis-tools-splint: 3_sdk-code-analysis-tools-splint test failed
  • T6366 sdk-cross-compilation: 10_sdk-cross-compilation test failed
  • T6768 Fix the kernel command line generation in OSTRee for FIT image
  • T6773 HAB testing: the unsigned image may pass validation in several circumstances
  • T6795 SabreLite failing to boot due to failing “to start udev Coldplug all Devices”
  • T6806 HAB on SabreLite in open state accepts any signed kernel regardless of the signing key
  • T7000 DNS resolution does not work in Debos on some setups
  • T7512 debos sometimes fails to mount things
  • T7721 Fakemachine in debos immediately powers off and hangs in v2021 and v2022dev1 when using UML on the runners
  • T7785 DNS over TLS does not work on systemd-resolve
  • T7817 rhosydd: test failed
  • T7819 newport: test failed
  • T7852 Investigate test failure TestGetSourceMount
  • T7859 spymemcached: Investigate failing test due to hostname mismatch
  • T7872 Error building package ruby-redis on OBS
  • T7879 sdk-debos-image-building: test failed
  • T7923 Gitlab pipeline OBS job reported “success” but OBS build was “unresolvable”
  • T7945 evolution-sync-bluetooth test fails
  • T8175 License scan fails on package texlive-extra
  • T8194 ci-license-scan prints final error paragraph in the middle of scan-copyrights output
  • T8281 dashboard: gnome-settings-daemon-data incorrectly flagged as missing the git repository
  • T8504 LAVA/Phab bridge timeouts
  • T8516 apparmor-pipewire: test failed
  • T8524 grilo: test failed
  • T8572 Missing warning on coreutils overwrite
  • T8613 apparmor-functional-demo: test failed
  • T8622 Manual testcase results should not have any hyperlink in the LavaPhabridge report page
  • T8629 frome: test failed
  • T8634 Failed to start Access poi…server : logs seen in v2023dev1 Amd64 boot logs
  • T8667 cgroups-resource-control: test failed
  • T8668 Test apparmor-chaiwala-system does not work properly on OSTree images
  • T8683 “firmware: failed to load” logs seen during boot
  • T8748 sdk-docker: test failed