Migrate to mkosi + sysupdate by jumpyvi · Pull Request #809 · elementary/os

jumpyvi · 2026-07-22T18:58:28Z

Migrate to mkosi and sysupdate

I got basic boot, missing a few package update to be able to check the full experience with Resolute.

Fixes elementary/settings-daemon#167
Fixes #717
Fixes #724

Add post-boot configuration for NetworkManager

Mask firstboot

nikodunk · 2026-07-22T23:17:29Z

This is more elegant than #808, and builds out the mkosi/sysupdate method from #793 that fully supports ubuntu already. In comparison to my bootc suggestion, this:

Build: mkosi build --profile=sysupdate Create disk image (currently .raw but could be a fake .iso).
Install: rsync mkosi.output/elementary.raw https://r2.cloudflarestorage.com/installer/x86.iso Copy the image to the download link, so users can download it and write to a USB drive. Live boot session would need to copy this image to disk. Installer would need to be adapted.
Update: rsync mkosi.output/* https://r2.cloudflarestorage.com/updates Push image to any static host so all existing ElementaryOS installs can run updatectl update (settings app would need to be adapted). This checks a static folder at ie. updates.elementary.io (currently set to 10.0.2.2:7676 for testing), downloads anything newer than the currently-booted IMAGE_VERSION, drops it into the inactive A/B slot, and reboots into it on next boot. Even over major versions like 8=>9=>10.

nikodunk · 2026-07-23T17:42:47Z

@danirabbit what's the best way to land this? This PR currently replaces the old stuff, but I'm guessing some the 8.1 stable jobs might be run in parallel with the 9.0 sysupdate jobs until 8.1 reaches EOL?

Edit: My proposal, not speaking for @jumpyvi here:

When ready to merge, make current os/main branch into archive and keep running the 8.1 stable jobs off of that archive branch.
This becomes main, and starts building the sysupdate isos and updates.

nikodunk · 2026-07-23T18:14:02Z

OK so going back on my above suggestions, how about we keep sysupdate on a branch, and add a 4th job on a sysupdate branch then:

daily-8.1 (main branch)
daily-9.0 (main branch)
stable-8.1 (main branch)
image-9.0 (sysupdate branch this can be a manual kick-off, and not advertised until there's delta updates?)

jumpyvi · 2026-07-23T18:25:52Z

* image-9.0 (sysupdate branch this can be a manual kick-off, and not advertised until there's delta updates?)

We don't know when/if systemd will choose to implement this.

idk if there is any other solutions

systemd/systemd#28227

lewisgoddard · 2026-07-24T11:02:31Z

For S3 compatible storage I would recommend Cloudflare R2. We already use Cloudflare and there is no bandwidth billing there, only storage and action costs.

nikodunk · 2026-07-24T12:51:03Z

Thank you! Looks like we were holding it wrong: cost won’t be a problem at $0.60 for 10,000 users downloading a 4gb image once a week on Cloudflare R2 (50 gb, 4 writes per mo, 70% egress, 40,000 reads per mo) - thank you @lewisgoddard .

OK so maybe @jumpyvi we don't optimize for transmission size yet for now then, and optimize for deltas later as sysupdate matures - other projects will have this problem too.

* re-add sysupdate jobs * make only monthly image. * make monthly * update scripts * done * merge * revert * fix typo, PR feedback on build * add date to raw * better update file matching * update sha * update upload.py for cloudflare R2

nikodunk · 2026-07-25T00:25:56Z

@jumpyvi got updates working (hosted on a temporary CDN), @jumpyvi has also booted the .raw off of a usb stick (I don't have one that's big enough).

Finally, an initial job has been added @danirabbit - edited upload.py to upload to Cloudflare R2

jumpyvi · 2026-08-20T22:59:22Z

We should probably move this repo to the org too: https://github.com/jumpyvi/elementary-build-containers

It's used in the CI and local builds

jumpyvi · 2026-08-22T00:14:30Z

Everything has been switched away from XZ to zstd.

Compression time are a much faster and all partitions are now compressed.

I also removed the esp parition for the .efi instead, still not 100% sure of how that part works, so I just copied what gnomeOS is doing.

ryonakano · 2026-08-22T03:18:27Z

@jumpyvi

Updatectl is the most important for now I would say, it pretty easy to build, maybe it could be added to the elementary PPA?

I'm sorry for being late. updatectl is now available in the systemd-container package on OS 9 Daily.

user@elementary-9-daily:~$ apt policy systemd-container 
systemd-container:
  Installed: 259.5-0ubuntu3.4+elementary2~ubuntu9.1
  Candidate: 259.5-0ubuntu3.4+elementary2~ubuntu9.1
  Version table:
 *** 259.5-0ubuntu3.4+elementary2~ubuntu9.1 999
        999 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/elementary-os/os-patches/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     259.5-0ubuntu3.4 500
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-security/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-updates/main amd64 Packages
     259.5-0ubuntu3 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
user@elementary-9-daily:~$ dpkg -S updatectl
systemd-container: /usr/share/man/man1/updatectl.1.gz
systemd-container: /usr/bin/updatectl
user@elementary-9-daily:~$ updatectl --help
updatectl [OPTIONS...] [VERSION]

Manage system updates.

Commands:
  list [TARGET[@VERSION]]       List available targets and versions
  check [TARGET...]             Check for updates
  update [TARGET[@VERSION]...]  Install updates
  vacuum [TARGET...]            Clean up old updates
  features [FEATURE]            List and inspect optional features on host OS
  enable FEATURE...             Enable optional feature on host OS
  disable FEATURE...            Disable optional feature on host OS
  -h --help                     Show this help
     --version                  Show package version

Options:
     --reboot             Reboot after updating to newer version
     --offline            Do not fetch metadata from the network
     --now                Download/delete resources immediately
  -H --host=[USER@]HOST   Operate on remote host
     --no-pager           Do not pipe output into a pager
     --no-legend          Do not show the headers and footers

See the updatectl(1) man page for details.
user@elementary-9-daily:~$

jumpyvi · 2026-08-22T03:21:59Z

@jumpyvi

Updatectl is the most important for now I would say, it pretty easy to build, maybe it could be added to the elementary PPA?

I'm sorry for being late. updatectl is now available in the systemd-container package on OS 9 Daily.

user@elementary-9-daily:~$ apt policy systemd-container 
systemd-container:
  Installed: 259.5-0ubuntu3.4+elementary2~ubuntu9.1
  Candidate: 259.5-0ubuntu3.4+elementary2~ubuntu9.1
  Version table:
 *** 259.5-0ubuntu3.4+elementary2~ubuntu9.1 999
        999 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/elementary-os/os-patches/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     259.5-0ubuntu3.4 500
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-security/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-updates/main amd64 Packages
     259.5-0ubuntu3 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
user@elementary-9-daily:~$ dpkg -S updatectl
systemd-container: /usr/share/man/man1/updatectl.1.gz
systemd-container: /usr/bin/updatectl
user@elementary-9-daily:~$ updatectl --help
updatectl [OPTIONS...] [VERSION]

Manage system updates.

Commands:
  list [TARGET[@VERSION]]       List available targets and versions
  check [TARGET...]             Check for updates
  update [TARGET[@VERSION]...]  Install updates
  vacuum [TARGET...]            Clean up old updates
  features [FEATURE]            List and inspect optional features on host OS
  enable FEATURE...             Enable optional feature on host OS
  disable FEATURE...            Disable optional feature on host OS
  -h --help                     Show this help
     --version                  Show package version

Options:
     --reboot             Reboot after updating to newer version
     --offline            Do not fetch metadata from the network
     --now                Download/delete resources immediately
  -H --host=[USER@]HOST   Operate on remote host
     --no-pager           Do not pipe output into a pager
     --no-legend          Do not show the headers and footers

See the updatectl(1) man page for details.
user@elementary-9-daily:~$

Thank you so much! I testing this as soon as I can!

jumpyvi · 2026-08-22T23:01:32Z

Thanks Niko!

I didn't remember why it was there 😅

nikodunk · 2026-08-24T19:07:54Z

@ryonakano - @jumpyvi reports in discord

closing the loop here

nikodunk · 2026-08-25T02:50:19Z

@lenemter I think your feedback should all be implemented now!

ryonakano · 2026-08-28T15:31:33Z

@jumpyvi What is the conclusion of this?

ryonakano · 2026-08-28T15:39:24Z

@jumpyvi Could you back to GPLv3 if you don't use any of the original code?

danirabbit

Few more comments/questions

I kind think we should put that install script in a package or something. It doesn't really belong in this repo. But I get it's temporary so I won't block on it

danirabbit · 2026-09-02T01:25:03Z

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+[Partition]
+Type=home
+Format=btrfs


We currently default to ext4 and we do a single LVM partition not separate root and home partitions. Is the switch to btrfs or the partitioning scheme required here? I think I'd like to keep changes as minimal as possible so we can do a good job evaluating them

It could be ext4, but not sure about lvm...

Alright no worries. I think the general vibe I get is that LVM is not well loved anyways 😅

….feature Co-authored-by: Danielle Foré <danielle@elementary.io>

feat: Transfer old repo

1aceede

danirabbit added this to OS 9 Jul 22, 2026

danirabbit moved this to In progress in OS 9 Jul 22, 2026

nikodunk and others added 4 commits July 22, 2026 12:18

Add post-boot configuration for NetworkManager

4142d3c

Merge pull request #3 from nikodunk/patch-1

16c8783

Add post-boot configuration for NetworkManager

Mask firstboot

bdee221

Merge pull request #5 from jumpyvi/disable-firstboot

b210a04

Mask firstboot

JumpyVi added 3 commits July 22, 2026 19:41

feat: Switch to systemd-boot and remove UKI profiles, fix #6

cbde144

feat: Add swap (zram)

5c91da4

Add tools for testing updates locally

e3bb0b8

nikodunk reviewed Jul 23, 2026

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Comment thread mkosi.profiles/sysupdate/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/sysupdate.d/10-usr-verity-sig.transfer Outdated

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JumpyVi and others added 3 commits July 24, 2026 14:17

feat: Full upgrade support

e423488

Update readme (#8)

1b78f39

Re-add build & upload jobs (#7)

80dd71f

* re-add sysupdate jobs * make only monthly image. * make monthly * update scripts * done * merge * revert * fix typo, PR feedback on build * add date to raw * better update file matching * update sha * update upload.py for cloudflare R2

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jumpyvi and others added 2 commits July 27, 2026 12:10

Refactor image building (#10)

fc8ddf7

Use mkosi@26

702cf2e

ryonakano self-requested a review August 20, 2026 23:06

jumpyvi commented Aug 21, 2026

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Comment thread etc/config/archives/patches.pref Outdated

Comment thread mkosi.images/sysupdate/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/sysupdate.d/20-uki.transfer

Switch everything to zstd (#33)

6dc785c

Update release-daily.yaml

335c628

add id to extract date step so that extension tag resolves

d73857e

lenemter requested changes Aug 26, 2026

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Comment thread mkosi.profiles/daily/mkosi.sandbox/etc/apt/preferences.d/deprioritize-gnome

Remove cleanup.conf

efe192f

jumpyvi requested a review from lenemter August 27, 2026 00:00

ryonakano reviewed Aug 28, 2026

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danirabbit requested changes Aug 28, 2026

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Comment thread mkosi.images/base/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/01-systemd.preset Outdated

Comment thread mkosi.images/ext-devel/mkosi.conf Outdated

jumpyvi added 6 commits August 28, 2026 18:55

Revert to original license

d6a2f53

Add newlines

afb13fe

Do not enable firewalld

d727c4a

Remove apparmor overwrite

c234b41

Add firstboot fix for apparmor

f7b7fdd

Replace ext-devel with ext-sdk

ea99f13

ryonakano self-requested a review August 30, 2026 13:01

danirabbit reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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lenemter approved these changes Sep 2, 2026

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jumpyvi and others added 4 commits September 2, 2026 10:39

Change workflow name to match elementary

eefbdbe

Update mkosi.images/sysupdate/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/sysupdate.d/ext-sdk…

41c9301

….feature Co-authored-by: Danielle Foré <danielle@elementary.io>

Remove reference to personal github

802c2a9

Quick fix tmpfile formating

cbd24b8

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