Mastodawn

2️⃣1️⃣ Here's the 21st and last post highlighting key new features of the recently published v260 release of systemd. #systemd260 #systemd

If you have been following this series of posts I am sure you recognized some repeating themes. One of them is the progressing Varlinkification of systemd's functionality. The last item on my list of features to post about for v260 is another one in this theme:

"bootctl install" is what gets systemd-boot installed in your ESP. With v260 there's now a Varlink…

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Lennart Poettering 2d ago

…API for it. This is useful as a backend for OS installers.

To provide a bigger picture: in my view of the world an OS installer does four things:

1. Stream in a /usr/ tree and very few auxiliary partitions via systemd-repart
2. Install a suitable UKI kernel image in the ESP or XBOOTLDR
3. Install systemd-boot as boot loader in the ESP
4. Configure a few basic parameters for the new installation via systemd-creds.

Of these 4 steps, #1, #3 and #4 now are accessible via nice Varlink APIs.

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Lennart Poettering 2d ago

The last remaining step, i.e. #2 I am currently working on.

Once that's in place an interactive OS installer could then just install an OS very cleanly, very robustly, and very quickly via 4 Varlink IPC calls. Yay!