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So you've decided to give this Linux thing a try. Which Linux distribution should you choose? Do you want...
Which features are important, and which are you willing to give up? If you want (almost1) everything - stable and cutting edge, customizable and minimal, with access to popular-distro-only packages - Bedrock Linux is the Linux distribution for you.
1Well, everything except for user-friendly. At the moment, Bedrock Linux can not honestly be considered "user-friendly."
Bedrock Linux uniquely manipulates the filesytem and PATH to allow software from various other Linux distributions to coexist as though they were all from the same single, cohesive Linux distribution. With Bedrock Linux, for example, one could have an RSS feed reader from Arch Linux's AUR open a webpage in a web browser from Ubuntu's repos while both of them are running in an X11 server from Fedora. Moreover, this interactions feels as though all of the packages were from the same repository; for day-to-day activity, Bedrock Linux feels like any other Linux distribution. The typical concerns for things such as library conflicts are a non-issue with Bedrock Linux's design - if there is a package out there for a Linux distribution on your CPU architecture, it will most likely work with Bedrock Linux.
In addition to doing (almost) anything any other Linux distribution can do, there are a number of things Bedrock Linux can do which no other distribution can.
These are all examples of real-world situations which came up while Bedrock Linux was in development which showed quite clearly Bedrock's strength.
LD_PRELOAD. Bedrock Linux users, however, could continue using
Arch Linux's cutting-edge packages and use Quake Live without having to touch
LD_PRELOAD.Bedrock's magic is based around filesystem and PATH manipulation.
A chroot changes the apparent filesystem layout from the point of view of programs running within it. Specifically, it makes a chosen directory appear to be the root of the filesystem. Think of it as prepending a given string to the beginning of every filesystem call. For example:
/var/chroot/arch/user/bin/firefox.chroot /var/chroot/arch /usr/bin/firefox./usr/bin/firefox/usr/lib/libgtk2.0-0,
/var/chroot/arch is prepended to the call, and thus it actually gets the
file located at /var/chroot/arch/usr/lib/libgtk2.0-0Bedrock Linux retains within its own filesystem the full filesystems of other Linux distros, each in their own directory. These other Linux distributions are referred to as clients. If one would like to run a program from any given client, via chroot, the program can be tricked into thinking that is running in its native Linux distribution. It would read the proper libraries and support programs and, for the most part, just work.
Linux can take mountable devices (such as usb sticks) and make their
filesystems accessible at any folder on the (virtual) filesystem. Mounting usb
sticks to places such as /media/usbstick or /mnt/usbstick is typical, but
not required - just about any directory will work. Linux can also mount virtual
filesystems, such as /proc and /sys. These do not actually exist on the
harddrive - they are simply a nice abstraction.
Moreover, Linux can bind mount just about any directory (or file, actually) to any other directory (or file). Think of it as a shortcut. This can "go through" chroots to make files outside of a chroot accessible inside (unlike symlinks).
With bind mounts you can, for example, ensure you only have to maintain a
single /home on Bedrock. That /home can be bind mounted into each of the
chrooted client filesystems so that they all share it. If you decide to stop
using one client's firefox and start using another's, you can keep using your
same ~/.mozilla - things will "just work."
Through proper usage of chroots and bind mounts, Bedrock Linux can tweak the filesystem from the point of view of any program to ensure they have access to the files they need to run properly while ensuring the system feels integrated and unified.
Programs read your $PATH environmental variable to see where to look for
executables, and your $LD_LIBRARY_PATH for libraries. For example, with
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin", when you attempt to run firefox, the
system will check for an executable named "firefox" in the following locations
(in the following order):
/usr/local/bin/firefox/usr/bin/firefox/bin/firefoxUsing a specialized $PATH variable, Bedrock Linux can have a program attempt to
run a (chrooted) program in another client Linux distribution rather than only
looking for its own versions of things. By changing the order of the elements
in the $PATH variable, search order can be specified.
Due to Bedrock's unusual goals, several unusual design choices were made. These choices were the reason Bedrock Linux needs to be its own distribution rather than simply a system grafted onto another Linux distribution.
Understanding Bedrock's filesystem layout (with the chroots, bind mounts, and
dynamic $PATH) can be quite confusing. Additionally, no user-friendly
standalone installer with pre-compiled packages will be available for quite
some time; users will be required to compile Bedrock Linux "from scratch."
Moreover, users will have to maintain things on a very low level; they will be
expected to, for example, hand-edit the init files (reasoning explained later).
In order to ensure Bedrock Linux is viable for as many users as possible,
everything which does not have to be confusing or complicated should be made as
simple as possible.
Bedrock Linux thus chooses some unusual packages. GRUB, the de-facto bootloader for most major Linux distributions, is a tad complicated. Syslinux is significantly easier to setup and maintain by hand, and thus is the "official" choice for Bedrock. However, GRUB should work fine, if the user wants to figure out how to install and manage it himself.
Most major Linux distributions have much larger and more experienced teams. Where directly comparable, they are most likely better than the Bedrock Linux developer at Linux-distribution-making. Thus, where possible, it is preferable to use functionality from a client rather than Bedrock Linux itself. If something can be deferred to a client it will be; Bedrock Linux only does what it has to do to enable the integration of other Linux distributions.
Typically, most executables refer to other libraries for their components. If this is done at runtime, this is known as dynamic linking. By contrast, one can (sometimes) statically link the libraries into the executable when compiling.
When using dynamically linked executables, the libraries for the executable must be available at run time. This is why you can not simply take an executable from one Linux distribution and run it on another - if the libraries do not match what it was compiled against, it will not work. Statically linked executables can, however, run just about anywhere irrelevant of libraries (of course, one still needs the same kernel, CPU instruction set, etc).
In order to ensure the following items, Bedrock's core components are all statically linked:
Note that clients may freely use dynamically linked executables; this is only important for core Bedrock Linux components.
It should be noted that statically linked compiling is frowned upon by many people who are knowledgeable on the subject. For example, Red Hat is staunchly against it:
Static linking is emphatically discouraged for all Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases. Static linking causes far more problems than it solves, and should be avoided at all costs.
Ulrich Drepper, notable glibc contributor and maintainer, stated emphatically:
Never use static linking!
The Bedrock Linux developer believes that Bedrock's unique situation creates a justifiable exemption, but do your own research.
It should be noted that another Linux-distribution-in-progress, stali from suckless, also makes heavy use of static compilition.
Most Linux distributions automatically manage the programs which are run at startup and shutdown, but Bedrock Linux will not be one of them for the foreseeable future. It is quite possible (and, in fact, likely) that multiple clients will have startup and shutdown scripts which conflict with those from other clients. Moreover, there are a variety of Linux init systems, each of which have their own system for ensuring the programs are launched in the proper order to meet their prerequisites.
The Bedrock Linux developer has been unable to think of any sane way of determining which init script to run when the clients conflict (which CUPS daemon should run, if multiple are available?). Additionally, an automated way to determine the launch order from all of the possible systems it will run into seems far too challenging of a project. Thus, Bedrock Linux requires manually setting which programs from which client's init is launched when.
The Bedrock Linux developer feels strongly that
This means that if one would like a client to do something required when
booting (for example, manage /dev), core Bedrock Linux will have to do this
first itself. Only later, after the essentials are done and the system is
functional, will the core Bedrock Linux stop its management of /dev and let a
client take over.
No other operating system kernel has such a great variety of userland options which could benefit from Bedrock's unique userland sharing system.
This is the simplest bootloader the Bedrock Linux developer knows of. Setting it up is just a handful of commands.
Busybox is an all-in-one solution for a minimal(/embedded) Linux userland. It is significantly smaller and easier to set up than most of its alternatives. Statically-linking it is relatively common, and it can be found in many Linux distribution client repositories statically-compiled.
The standard chroot command requires root. If setuid'd or capsyschroot'd it
is possible to use chroot to escalate privileges. Thus, Bedrock Linux
requires a specialized chroot command intended to be used by non-root users.
Moreover, it is beneficial to also have this program break out of a chroot
before entering another one to allow one chroot'd program launch a program in
another chrooted environment. No existing command did both of these things,
and thus Bedrock Linux had to create its own, brc. brc is largely based on
capchroot.
Additionally, Bedrock Linux uses some of its own shell scripts (using
busybox's /bin/sh) for things such as booting and integrating the system.
Since busybox was already chosen, using its shell scripting option was an
obvious choice.
Note that these are the commands as they are at the time of writing (where Bedrock Linux 1.0alpha2 is current release). Since Bedrock Linux is still in alpha, all of these are subject to change - in fact, there are plans to change them for the next release.
brc provides the ability to run commands in clients, properly chrooting to
avoid conflicts. Once Bedrock Linux is properly set up, it will allow the user
to transparently run commands otherwise not available in a given client. For
example, if firefox is installed in a Arch client but not in a Debian client,
and a program from the Debian client tries to execute firefox, the Arch
firefox will be executed as though it were installed locally in Debian.
If firefox is installed in multiple clients (such as Arch and Fedora), and
the user would like to specify which is to run (rather than allowing Bedrock
Linux to chose the default), one can explicitly call brc, like so: brc
fedora firefox.
If no command is given, brc will attempt to use the user's current $SHELL.
If the value of $SHELL is not available in the client it will fail.
Very early (before any public release) versions of Bedrock Linux would try to
detect if you tried to run a command which isn't available and, on the fly,
attempt to find the command in a client. This proved to slow. Instead,
Bedrock's brp command will search for all of the commands available and store
them in directories which can be included in one's $PATH so that those
commands work transparently. /etc/profile should include the relevant
directories in the $PATH automatically.
The brl command will run its argument in all available clients. If, for
example, you want to test to ensure that all of your clients have internet
access, you could run the following: brl ping -c 1 google.com
Updating all of the clients is a very common task, and so bru was created to
make it a simple one. bru can be used to update all of the clients in a
single command. Note that eventually this will likely be replaced by a more
comprehensive package manager manager (not a typo) command.
brs will set up the share items from brclients.conf in the client(s)
provided as (an) argument(s). In Bedrock Linux 1.0alpha3, this is automatically
used at boot and rarely needs to be run by the user. The exception is if a new
client is added or a share mount point accidentally removed, in which case the
user can simply call brs . Unlike prior versions, this will
not check if a client has already been set up - do not run in a client which
has already been set up.clientname
Due to its purposeful minimalism, the core Bedrock Linux install only includes busybox's very limited shells; users will most likely want to use a client's shells by default. However, this raises three problems:
/bin/sh? For
example, maybe the chroot system broke, or he/she is debugging a busybox
update./etc/passwd. However, this path will
likely change depending on which client is attempting to run the shell. For
example, the core Bedrock Linux see zsh located at /var/local/brpath/zsh, but
a Debian client will see the same zsh located at /bin/zsh. Having two
differing paths for zsh like this will not work with a single login and the
traditional Unix /etc/passwd system.Bedrock Linux provides two options to resolve these issues:
brsh, which will log in to a
configured client's shell, if available. If it is not available, it will
automatically drop to /bin/sh if it is available in the client, and if not,
then it drops down to the core Bedrock's /bin/sh. The path to brsh should
remain in the same location irrelevant of which client is running it, meaning
it will work in /etc/passwd while still allowing access to shells which have
changing paths.The traditional Unix /etc/passwd allows creating multiple entries with different login names and different shells but same password, home, etc, for the same user. For example:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/opt/bedrock/bin/brsh brroot:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh
This can be advantageous over brsh as (1) it should work if brsh fails to
detect a client has broken, and (2) it does not require logging in, changing
the brsh configuration file, then logging back out, and logging back in
again, if the user wants to directly log into the core Bedrock shell.
The bri command will provide information about the clients based on which
flag is used.
bri -l will print a List of clients.bri -n will print the name of the client in which the command is run.bri -p will print the path of the client in which the command is run if
no arguments are given. Otherwise, it will print the paths of the clients
provided in the argument.bri -s will print the shared mount points for a client. It does not check
if these are actually set up yet (from brs); it only prints the items
listed in the brclients.conf for the respective client(s). If no argument is
provided, it will print for the client in which the command is run;
otherwise, it will print for all clients.bri -w will print the client which will provide the command if it is not
available locally.bri -W will print the client which will provides the command - either the
client it is run in (ie, bri -n) if it is available locally or the output
of bri -w if it is available in the brpath.bri -c will cache the values of -n and -p to speed up
future requests. Note that this requires root. It is recommended that this
is run in newly made clients immediately after they are made.The brw command is simply an alias to bri -n for convenience.