On the distribution build update of Chimera Linux, notable for its use of the Linux kernel combined with utilities from FreeBSD, the system manager dinit, and the standard C library Musl. The build is created using the Clang compiler. Bootable Live images have been generated for the architectures x86_64, ppc64le, aarch64, riscv64, and ppc64 in versions with GNOME (1.8 GB), KDE (2.5 GB), and a trimmed environment (1 GB).
The project aims to create a Linux distribution with an alternative toolkit and develops based on the experience from the development of Void Linux (the author of Chimera is a former maintainer of Void, responsible for the POWER and PowerPC architectures). Like Void Linux, this project follows a rolling release model for continuous version updates. FreeBSD user components are chosen as less complex and more suitable for lightweight and compact systems than the standard GNU toolkit.
Lisaks FreeBSD utiliitidele, mis asendavad selliseid pakette nagu coreutils, findutils, diffutils, sed ja grep, kasutatakse distributsioonis GNU Make'i, util-linux'i, syslog-ng'i, udev'i, pam'i, dinit'i, clang'i, lld'i, libc++'i ja musl'i. Mälu haldamise funktsioonid musl'is on asendatud mimalloc'iga. Failisüsteemina kasutatakse ZFS-i. Kaust /var ei säilita oma olekut restartide vahel (stateless). Multimeedia voogude haldamiseks kasutatakse PipeWire'i. Graafilistes keskkondades kasutatakse vaikimisi Wayland'i.
For installing additional programs, both binary packages and its own build system from source code — cports, written in Python, are offered. Currently, over 4000 ports are maintained. The build environment runs in a separate unprivileged container created using the bubblewrap toolkit. The package manager APK (Alpine Package Keeper, apk-tools) is used for managing binary packages, with Flatpak available as an option.
Uues väljaandes:
- An experimental console installer has been added, launched with the command chimera-installer after booting in Live mode. The installer supports local and remote installations, selecting an APK repository mirror, performing basic settings (setting the hostname, timezone, root password, and creating a user account), installing additional packages, choosing the kernel version, and configuring the bootloader (GRUB and systemd-boot). Partitioning and formatting of disk partitions are not supported yet (partitioning, formatting, and mounting should be done manually before starting the installer).
- Linux kernel 6.18 is used. Software versions have been updated, for example, GNOME 49.1, KDE Plasma 6.5.4, enlightenment 0.27.1, icewm 3.8.2, chromium 143, clang 21.1.4, docker 28.3.2, ffmpeg 8.0, flatpak 1.16.1, gtk 4.20.2, musl 1.2.5, python 3.13.9, pipewire 1.4.9.
- Automatic import of LVM and ZFS pools has been disabled in Live images, which in some situations caused system malfunctions.
Allikas: opennet.ru
