News Archive

Bedrock Linux 0.7.17 released

2020-04-30

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Fix sudoers injection return value

Bedrock Linux 0.7.16 released

2020-04-29

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Add cross-stratum /etc/crypttab support

Add cross-stratum /etc/profile.d/*.sh support

Add cross-stratum dkms support

Fix brl-fetch fedora, void, void-musl

Improve brl-fetch error messages

Improve pmm pacman/yay handling to only supersede identical commands

Restrict kiss package manager

Bedrock Linux 0.7.15 released

2020-04-16

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Add pmm to brl-tutorial

Fix brl-tutorial typo

Fix pmm apt no-cache package availability check

Bedrock Linux 0.7.14 released

2020-04-14

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Add ppc and ppc64 support

Add Package Manager Manager ("pmm")

Add code to recover from bad bedrock.conf timezone values

Add sanity check against GRUB+BTRFS/ZFS issue

Fix Path and TryExec handling in crossfs ini filter

Fix brl-fetch centos, kiss, void, void-musl, and debian sid

Bedrock Linux 0.7.13 released

2020-01-06

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Fixed brl-fetch arch

Fixed brl-fetch kiss

Bedrock Linux 0.7.12 released

2019-12-16

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Fixed brl-fetch artix

Fixed bash completion for brl-tutorial

Bedrock Linux 0.7.11 released

2019-12-14

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Added brl-tutorial command

Added basics tutorial

Added brl-fetch tutorial

Added brl-fetch support for Fedora 31

Added brl-fetch support for Manjaro

Fixed brl-fetch debug handling

Fixed brl-disable handling of invalid stratum

Bedrock Linux 0.7.10 released

2019-10-21

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Add Artix fetch support

Add brl-fetch CentOS support for CentOS 8 and 8-stream

Fix brl-fetch debian, devuan, raspbian and ubuntu libapt-pkg.so warning

Fix ubuntu default release detection considering "devel" a release

Improve hijack warning to better explain what it will do

Bedrock Linux 0.7.9 released

2019-09-20

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

This fixes a bug in 0.7.8 update code which may break crossfs access.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.8 released

2019-09-15

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Added LVM support

Added brl-fetch Arch Linux 32

Added brl-fetch Exherbo

Added caching support

Added debug subsystem Add etcfs debug support Add brl-fetch debug support

Added i386, i486, i586, and i686 support

Added wait for keyboard initialisation This fixed no keyboard in init selection menu issue

Fixed brl-fetch exherbo

Fixed crossfs handling of live bouncer changes

Fixed etcfs file descriptor leak This fixed Void init emergence shell issue

Improved build system performance

Restrict apt-key by default

Restrict debuild by default

On Tipping Bedrock Linux Developer

2019-09-03

There have been repeated requests for avenues to tip the lead Bedrock Linux developer.

Bedrock Linux development is not limited by funding, and there is no intended obligation associated with benefiting from Bedrock Linux development efforts.

If you are interested in tipping the lead developer as a thanks for his efforts, see here.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.7 released

2019-08-27

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Added brl-fetch KISS Linux support

Added brl-report check for environment variables

Added brl-update support for verifying signature of offline updates

Added brl-update support scanning multiple configured mirrors

Added init message about bedrock.conf

Added installer check for corrupt embedded tarball

Added installer check for grub2-mkrelpath bug

Added installer message about bedrock.conf

Added official installer/update binaries for ppc64le

Fixed brl-fetch arch

Fixed brl-fetch fedora

Fixed brl-fetch mirrors with paths in http indexes

Fixed brl-fetch non-native void

Fixed brl-fetch solus

Fixed installer handling of quotes in distro name

Fixed login.defs handling bug

Fixed resolv.conf handling for some distros

Fixed various shell tab completion issues

Improved etcfs robustness to power outages

Removed /var/tmp from share list

Update expiration date of signing key

Various minor fixes and improvements.

Bedrock Linux beta channel available

2019-08-20

Bedrock Linux now offers a beta channel for those who are interested in testing upcoming updates. See the documentation here.

Future beta updates will not necessarily be announced.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.6 released

2019-05-11

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

Added experimental non-native CPU architecture strata support. Requires qemu-user-static .

Added experimental non-native CPU capabilities to brl-fetch. See new -a and -A flags in brl fetch --help .

Added official installer/update binaries for additional CPU architectures.

Fixed Firefox font handling issue. Work-around is no longer needed.

Various minor fixes and improvements.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.5 released

2019-04-28

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root.

This is a fix for an issue found 0.7.4's handling of sandboxed software whose local files do not map directly to those of any particular stratum. Most notably, this fixes crashes in Chromium.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.4 blocked

2019-04-28

The Bedrock Linux 0.7.4 update was found to cause Chromium to crash. The update has been temporarily pulled while the issue is being investigated.

There are no known security or data-loss concerns with any 0.7.X release at this time.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.4 released

2019-04-28

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root. See the release notes here.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.3 released

2019-04-14

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root. See the release notes here.

Bedrock Linux now listed on DistroWatch

2019-04-08

Bedrock Linux was submitted to DistroWatch on 2012-08-04, almost seven years ago. DistroWatch had (understandable) requirements Bedrock failed to meet until very recently. It is now listed here.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.2 released

2019-03-27

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root. See the release notes here.

Bedrock Linux 0.7.1 released

2018-12-27

A point update has been released for 0.7. To update to it, run brl update as root. See the release notes here.

Bedrock Linux 0.7 Poki released

2018-12-17

Bedrock Linux 0.7 Poki has exited beta and is ready for general consumption. See here for the release's documentation.

Poki public beta testing

2018-11-05

Pre-release builds of Bedrock Linux 0.7 Poki are now available for testing. See here for further details. If you have the time and resources, assistance testing would be appreciated.

Poki feature complete, undergoing internal testing

2018-09-29

An internal build of the upcoming Bedrock Linux release is now feature complete. Internal testing and bug fixing is now underway.

A release candidate is expected to be made public sometime in October or November for further testing. Any assistance testing at that time will be greatly appreciated. The proper release will follow, likely before the end of 2018.

May 2018 Poki Progress Update

2018-05-05

Given the relatively long release cycle, it seems prudent to provide an occasional progress update. Poki's development progress, updated 2018-05-05, can be found here. While a substantial amount of work has been done, much is left to do before the release is ready.

Project status as of the end of 2017

2017-12-10

Development over the past year and a half has been very slow due to unrelated priorities consuming Bedrock Linux development time. These priorities are largely passed, and development should restart in earnest within the first half of 2018.

There has been a fair bit of research towards the upcoming 1.0beta3 Poki release before the development stagnation. However, there is still some research left to do, as well as a lot of time consuming development and testing, and so it is unlikely that Poki will be released any time soon. It is unclear at this time if the increased scope for Poki mentioned in the last news item will remain in place, or if it will be scoped back to hit an earlier release date.

Apologies for the delay. Hang in there, we want the next release at least as much as you do.

Increase in scope for upcoming Bedrock Linux 1.0beta3 Poki

2017-01-14

The current Bedrock Linux release, 1.0beta2 Nyla, saw a substantial increase in community feedback. Given the focus on accessibility of the upcoming 1.0beta3 Poki release it is likely to see an even greater increase in user base. It is desirable to clear the backlog of smaller issues and toughen up the project infrastructure before this projected uptick. While the major features planned on the roadmap are retained as the key goals, additional work will be put in to clean up the code base, add tests, and rework the build system, amongst other improvements. This will likely push back the upcoming release but will help ensure the upcoming increased attention is manageable.

Project status as of the end of 2017

2017-12-10

Development over the past year and a half has been very slow due to unrelated priorities consuming Bedrock Linux development time. These priorities are largely passed, and development should restart in earnest within the first half of 2018.

There has been a fair bit of research towards the upcoming 1.0beta3 Poki release before the development stagnation. However, there is still some research left to do and a lot of time consuming development, and so it is unlikely that Poki will be released any time soon. It is unclear at this time if the increased scope for Poki mentioned in the last news item will remain in place, or if it will be scoped back to hit an earlier release date.

Apologies for the delay. Hang in there, we want the next release at least as much as you do.

Bedrock Linux AMA on /r/AskLinuxUsers

2016-05-21

/u/ParadigmComplex represented Bedrock Linux during an "Ask Me Anything" ("AMA") session at http://reddit.com/r/AskLinuxUsers. The session is now over, and the resulting discussion can be found here.

Bedrock Linux forum hosted on LinuxQuestions.org

2016-03-01

Bedrock Linux now has a forum available on linuxquestions.org at:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/bedrock-linux-118/

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta3 Poki Plans, project roadmap

2016-01-23

The design plans for the upcoming release of Bedrock Linux, 1.0beta3 Poki, are available here.

A rough roadmap for Bedrock Linux is available here.

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta2 Nyla released

2016-01-16

The second beta of Bedrock linux, 1.0beta2 Nyla, has been released. See the major features, the high-level changelog, and either the full installation instructions or, if you'd like to expedite the install process, the quickstart installation instructions.

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta2 Nyla in final development stages

2015-10-03

All major features and changes for Bedrock Linux 1.0beta2 Nyla are complete; it is currently undergoing final testing and bug squashing. The release should be soon.

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta2 Nyla delayed

2015-02-22

A large number of complications have arisen since Nyla's original release date was set, including the numerous hardware failures. Moreover, while working on Nyla many of the required changes have been found to require much more time to implement than previously expected. Thus, Nyla's release is being delayed. The new tentative release date is end-of-summer 2015.

Columbus Linux User Group presentation

2014-11-20

Slides from a presentation on Bedrock Linux to the Columbus Linux User Group on 2014-11-19 are available here.

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta2 Nyla Plans

2014-06-28

The design plans for the upcoming release of Bedrock Linux, 1.0beta2 Nyla, are available here.

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta1 Hawky Released

2014-06-17

The first beta of Bedrock Linux, 1.0beta1 Hawky, has been released. See a demonstration video here, the high-level changelog here and the installation instructions here.

Bedrock Linux 1.0beta1 Hawky Plans and release date.

2014-06-11

The plans for Bedrock Linux 1.0beta1 Hawky are available here. This release is planned for July 1st, 2014.

Bedrock Linux on Linux Action Show, Linux Unplugged

2014-06-11

Bedrock Linux was discussed on Linux Action Show Episode 316 (starting at forty minutes in). The Bedrock Linux found/lead developer was then interviewed on Linux Unplugged Episode 44 (starting at 8 minutes 30 seconds in).

Repos and issues moved

2014-05-21

The public/centralized Bedrock Linux repositories were moved from http://github.com/paradigm to http://github.com/bedrocklinux . The Bedrock Linux issue trackers migrated over to GitHub's issue tracker as well.

Bedrock OS Invite-only beta (April Fools 2014)

2014-04-01

Below is a April Fools 2014 joke -- no closed beta, code has no use

The Bedrock OS project has entered an invite-only beta. This comes with numerous new features and functionality, including:

Support for FreeBSD and Android

80% of the code has been formally verified (planning on verifying the rest before release)

Core utilities have been rewritten in Haskell

New QT5-based GUI UX

Switched to a systemd-based init

The first 50 IP addresses to reach this website should see an invite code below:

c135e9caef83e81f8c246229a7e371cac580f273

Above is a April Fools 2014 joke -- no closed beta, code has no use

Early 2014 plans

2014-01-14

The plan for Bedrock Linux development in the coming months revolves around functionality which can be added without significant under-the-hood changes to Bedrock Linux. Various ideas currently being worked on:

Additional research on recommended/default client settings.

Man pages for Bedrock Linux utilities.

Tab-completion in bash and zsh for Bedrock Linux utilities.

A replacement for the current brp which will update on-the-fly.

A new utility, brg ("BedRock Get"), which will be used to easily acquire clients.

A new utility, brm ("BedRock Manual"), which can be used to find a man page. available in at least one client, irrelevant of which client provides it.

A new utility, pmm ("Package Manager Manager"), which will abstract away client-specific package management.

A new utility, iss ("Init System System"), which will abstract away individual client init system differences.

Bedrock Linux 1.0alpha4 Flopsie released

2013-12-30

The fourth Bedrock Linux release, 1.0alpha4 Flopsie has been released. See the high-level changelog here and the installation instructions here

Ohio Linuxfest 2012 Presentation Video

2013-10-31

The audio from the Bedrock Linux presentation at the 2012 Ohio Linuxfest was recorded. This has been played over the slides and is available to be viewed as a video here. The audio recording can be found here and the slides can be found here.

Flopsie feature backported to Bosco

2013-10-13

Flopsie plans discussed here are showing promising results. One of the features, the union filesystem intended to fix the /etc-issue, has been backported to Bosco for those who are interested in trying it out before Flopsie is ready. See here for instructions on how to install the backport.

Bedrock Linux 1.0alpha4 "Flopsie" delayed, additional features planned

2013-07-17

At this point in time it does not look like Bedrock Linux 1.0alph4 "Flopsie" will be completed by the previous target date of "end of summer 2013". The new target date is January 1st, 2014.

The delay is entirely due entirely to time availability expectations not being met, and is not the result of any unforeseen technical issues; the plans for Flopsie still seem viable at this point in time. The additional time allows for additional goals for the next release. In total, expect the following:

A fix for the /etc issue

Installation scripts; much less manual installation work.

Moving to musl as the standard C library for core components.

Updates to brs to let it setup/teardown clients on-the-fly

to let it setup/teardown clients on-the-fly Updates to bri including: the ability to indicate which client is providing a given PID. making bri -w and bri -W act the same (current difference is confusing)

including: Updates to brw (essentially aliasing bri -w/W if provided an argument)

(essentially aliasing if provided an argument) A script to automate acquiring and setting up (some) client distributions.

a new brp which: updates the BRPATH on-the-fly (no more manually running brp ) can force a given executable to always be provided by the same client (out-prioritizing local-to-client executables). can force a given executable to always be provided only locally, even if it could be provided to another client. Good to avoid confusion in some cases (e.g.: local python vs shared python2 )

which:

See the Flopsie Plans page for more details.

Bedrock on LHS Podcast 107 Now Available

2013-06-30

As was mentioned in the last news item, Bedrock Linux was on two podcasts recently; however, only one was available online at the time. The other podcast is now available online, and can be found here:

http://lhspodcast.info/2013/06/lhs-episode-107-sorry-for-party-bedrocking/

Bedrock Linux Interviews

2013-05-23

The founder and lead developer of Bedrock Linux was interviewed on not one, but two Linux podcasts in the last few days: Linux in the Ham Shack and The Linux Link Tech Show. If you would like to listen in, both were recorded. Linux in the Ham Shack's podcast is not up yet, but you can listen to TLLTS here:

http://tllts.org/rsspage.php

Look for episode 506 on May 22, 2013. The discussion veers away from Bedrock Linux after about the first hour.

Another news item will likely be put up once the Linux in the Ham Shack interview, episode 107, goes up.

Bedrock Switching to OSX (April Fools 2013)

2013-04-01

The April fools joke for 2013:

The primary complaint about the Bedrock OS project throughout its history is that it is insufficiently user friend. To quote Jonathan Corbert of Linux Weekly News:

[Bedrock Linux] may be especially well suited for those users who have gotten frustrated with the way distributions like Gentoo do everything for them.

Clearly, this needs to be remedied. The Bedrock Linux developers feel very strong that if you're going to do something, you should do it right, and no Linux-based operation system has ever gotten the reputation for user-friendliness that OSX has. Switching to OSX is a necessity if the Bedrock OS is ever going to become truly user friendly.

From a technical standpoint it seems quite doable. The crux of how Bedrock works under the hood - chroot() - is available on OSX as well. Apple OSX is UNIX. Moreover, work to make things like CUPS or webkit work on Bedrock will cleanly carry over.

Really, there isn't any downside. This Linux thing was never going to catch on anyways. The upsides, though, are tremendous. Consider:

Rosetta - the PowerPC-x86 binary translator for OSX - is not supported on OSX as of 10.7 "Lion". What about those poor people who bought software like Diablo 2 for OSX in the PowerPC days? With Bedrock OSX, they can just use an older OSX release that supports Rosetta and play Diablo 2 on their shiny newer OSX!

The latest version of OSX, as of the time of writing, has some applications crash when a user enters "FILE:///" into a number of text objects, such as a Finder window's search box. Prior releases of OSX did not have this. You could simply use an older Finder release until this is fixed!

With Linux, the lack of standardization makes developing Bedrock OS a pain. If some obscure distro does things in a way the Bedrock developers are not familiar, it might not work out of the box as a client. OSX, however, has a known number of releases. We just have to support those. Much easier. Bedrock development will likely speed up greatly once the switch has occurred.

However, converting the base project will take about one year. Expect Bedrock OSX to be available on April 1st, 2014.

2013-01-16

Bosco has been updated, fixing various issues. If you are currently using a Bosco installation from before 2012-01-16, it is recommended you update. Download and untar the userland to a temporary directory (such as /tmp/bosco-update ), and replace the following files from the core system with those from the userland tarball:

/etc/init.d/rcS

/etc/init.d/rcK

/etc/init.d/rc.local careful not to overwrite any settings you may have placed in here

/bedrock/bin/brc you'll have to compile the updated brc.c gcc -Wall brc.c -o /bedrock/brc/brc -static -lcap setcap cap_sys_chroot=ep /bedrock/bin/brc

/bedrock/sbin/bru

Bedrock Linux 1.0alpha3 Bosco released

2012-12-25

The third Bedrock Linux release, 1.0alpha3 Bosco has been released. See the high-level changelog here

Bedrock Linux mentioned on linux.com

2012-12-12

Bedrock Linux was mentioned in an article on linux.com about new Linux distributions created in 2012.

Website Overhaul, includes atom/rss

2012-11-18

Website overhauled. Huge thanks to simonlc for assisting me with a new website design. Note that the website now supports atom, and so if you would like to follow Bedrock Linux development and news feel free to point your RSS feed reader to "http://bedrocklinux.org/atom.xml".

Bosco performance boosted; backported to Momo

2012-11-16

Bosco plans discussed here have been implemented and show a huge real-world performance boost. This functionality was backported to Momo for those who are interested in trying it out before Bosco is ready. See here for benchmarks and instructions on how to install the backport update.

Bedrock Linux at Ohio Linux Fest 2012

2012-09-29

Bedrock Linux's founder/lead dev is presenting Bedrock Linux today at the Ohio LinuxFest 2012. The slides for the presentation are available here.

Bedrock Linux is on LWN

2012-09-13

An article on Bedrock Linux is available here; however, it is currently only available to LWN subscribers. It will be made freely available to everyone on September 20th, 2012

Bosco Plans

2012-09-03

Plans for the upcoming release, 1.0alpha3 Bosco, are now available here. In summary, the next release should be simpler and faster.

Hosting and domain change

2012-08-18

Bedrock Linux is now at its own domain: bedrocklinux.org

Bedrock Linux mentioned on Linux Action Show

2012-08-14

Bedrock Linux is on the Linux Action Show. Relevant section goes from 11:15-16:41. "One of the most fascinating Linux distributions we've heard of in years."

Bedrock Linux 1.0alpha2 Momo releasd

2012-08-13

The second Bedrock Linux release, 1.0alpha2 "Momo" has been released. This release primarily addresses issues brought up from the prior release as well as contributions from others.

Short video demonstration of Bedrock Linux

2012-08-09

A short video demonstration of Bedrock Linux can be found here

Bedrock Linux on Wired's website

2012-08-05

Bedrock Linux was very briefly mentioned on Wired magazine's website here

Bedrock Linux on Slashdot

2012-08-05

Bedrock Linux is on Slashdot.

First public Bedrock Linux release out

2012-08-03

The first release of Bedrock Linux, 1.0alpha1 "Appa," is now out.