Apertis is a Debian derivative distribution geared towards the creation of product-specific images for ARM (both the 32bit ARMv7 and 64-bit ARMv8 versions using the hardfloat ABI) and Intel x86-64 (64-bit) systems.

Apertis v2022dev3 is the third development release of the Apertis v2022 stable release flow that will lead to the LTS Apertis v2022.0 release in March 2022.

This Apertis release is based on Debian Bullseye. It currently ships with the Linux kernel 5.10.x LTS series but later releases in the v2022 channel will track newer kernel versions up to the next LTS scheduled at the end of 2021.

Test results for the v2022dev3 release are available in the following test reports:

Release flow

  • 2020 Q4: v2022dev0
  • 2021 Q1: v2022dev1
  • 2021 Q2: v2022dev2
  • 2021 Q3: v2022dev3
  • 2021 Q4: v2022pre
  • 2022 Q1: v2022.0
  • 2022 Q2: v2022.1
  • 2022 Q3: v2022.2
  • 2022 Q4: v2022.3
  • 2023 Q1: v2022.4
  • 2023 Q2: v2022.5
  • 2023 Q3: v2022.6
  • 2023 Q4: v2022.7

Release downloads

Apertis v2022dev3 images
Intel 64-bit fixedfunction hmi base SDK SDK
ARM 32-bit (U-Boot) fixedfunction hmi
ARM 64-bit (U-Boot) fixedfunction
ARM 64-bit (Raspberry Pi) fixedfunction hmi

The Intel fixedfunction and hmi images are tested on the reference hardware (MinnowBoard Turbot Dual-Core), but they can run on any UEFI-based x86-64 system. The sdk image is tested under VirtualBox.

Apertis v2022dev3 repositories

deb https://repositories.apertis.org/apertis/ v2022dev3 target development sdk

New features

Updates from Debian Bullseye

This release is the second one based on Debian Bullseye, bringing plenty of upstream updates and fixes.

GNU coreutils replaced by uutils-coreutils

From this release the Rust-based uutils-coreutils replaces GNU coreutils on Fixed Function and HMI images to avoid GPL-3 licensing issues that would conflict with the Apertis licensing expectations.

This means that from this release the basic userland covered by coreutils is now provided by a modern and maintained implementation rather than an old fork.

GNU coreutils is still used when building packages and on the SDK images to maximise compatibility where the GPL-3 licensing is not a concern.

GPL-3 GnuPG replaced by sequoia-gpgv

Another step toward the modernization of the changes required to match the Apertis licensing expectations has been landed in this release.

The Fixed Function and HMI images no longer ship neither the current GPL-3 GnuPG nor the old GPL-2 fork that has been used so far, replacing the required subset of their functionality with a minimal compatibility shim using the Rust-based sequoia-gpgv.

The modern GPL-3 GnuPG is used for all the other use-cases that are not subject to the Apertis licensing expectations, like build environments and the SDK images.

Fixed Function and HMI images to replace minimal and target

Based on the Apertis Platform Technical Vision the set of reference images is now composed of:

  • Fixed Function
  • HMI
  • BaseSDK
  • SDK

This gives a clearer purpose to each image type, providing a better guide to developers looking at the reference images for their product recipes.

The Fixed Function image is meant to represent images that focus on a single, specific purpose and are built monolithic ally, with all the components subject to the same lifecycle. The reference use-case for Fixed Function image has been selected to be as simple as possible while still being meaningful, and the choice fell on serving a static web page over HTTP. The narrow goal of the Fixed Function gives the opportunity to further optimize it compared to the fuzzy, broad definition of the minimal image in previous releases.

The HMI images focus instead on more elaborate and featureful use-cases: they boot up in a graphical UI provided by the AGL compositor framework with the Maynard shell and use the Flatpak application framework to handle dynamically evolving workloads with life cycles decoupled from the one for the base operating system.

Improved Raspberry Pi support

Users of Raspberry Pi will find a better support in Apertis including:

  • Support for RPi 400 model.
  • Graphical interface now booting without input devices attached.
  • Fixed USB support.
  • Documentation to bring up Raspberry Pi 4.

Technology preview: iMX8MN Variscite Symphony support

With this new release the initial support for iMX8MN Variscite Symphony has been included, enabling Apertis users to develop their products on top of this hardware.

Docker available in the SDK

Having reproducible work environments is a must in today’s world to ensure to get the best from collaboration across the community. For this reason Apertis now includes Docker in its SDK which has proven to be perfect tool to support it.

Thanks to Docker it is easy to create an image and share it for a specific purpose. As an example, Apertis already uses Docker in its infrastructure for different purposes as described in Apertis Docker images

WPA3 support in ConnMan

Following the work from previous release, Apertis now has improved the support for WPA3/SAE in ConnMan. As part of it support for WPA3-Personal transition mode has been added.

QA

Improved handling of multiple releases in in the QA report app

With the new release of Apertis the test cases have diverged dramatically from previous ones. Therefore, QA Report App was enhanced to render the status report from different release independently, avoiding several previous hacks.

Improved automatic license compliance

During this release Apertis the process described in Automated License Compliance has been improved to ensure most packages ship license information and any possible issue could be detected during BOM file generation.

LAVA upgrade and deployment with Docker/Kubernetes

LAVA, the validation harness used by Apertis to execute automated tests on the reference hardware platforms, has been upgraded to the 2021.05 release.

Unlike previous releases, this time the whole application has been deployed with Docker containers, with a significant simplification of the setup. As a preview, integration with Kubernetes has also been made available in the test environment, while production still relies on Docker Compose.

Two important highlights from the new upstream release are:

  1. OpenID-Connect support for implementing Single-Sign-On authentication (not currently enabled)
  2. server ↔ dispatcher communication over HTTPS for easier traversal of proxies

Technology preview: RPi4 and iMX8MN Variscite Symphony on LAVA

With the improved support of Raspberry Pi 4 and iMX8MN Variscite Symphony on Apertis, the next step is to include them in the harness tests performed on LAVA.

Improve Bluetooth test robustness

In this new release Bluetooth test were improved by adding support for multiple pairings consecutively, preventing some test freezes waiting for the remote device to be discovered and paired.

Build and integration

OpenID-Connect authentication for OBS

Support for OpenID-Connect to implement Single-Sign-On authentication has been developed for OBS.

Authorization mediator for the Apertis infrastructure

Apertis now supports AuthZ mediator which intercepts the OpenID-Connect authentication flow, extract group membership information and apply it automatically to ensure that users have access to the right groups as soon as they access the Apertis services.

Thanks to to this enhancement downstream distributions can easily share Apertis infrastructure across different product teams.

Improve Gitlab workflow to derive release from the merge request

Since Apertis supports several releases the workflow in Gitlab has been improved to make it transparent the choice of the images to be used during build. This is achieved by deriving the release from the merge request target branch, which avoids extra configurations and potential errors.

Improve robustness when fetching large build logs

Apertis development process uses Gitlab and OBS as their pillars. However, in order to have a single point for all the information, Gitlab is used to collect build logs from OBS. This process was improved to overcome limitations when facing large build logs, making information more coherent.

Documentation and designs

Lifetime of documents

As Apertis is continuously evolving documentation should also evolve to reflect that. The lifetime of documents provides a workflow to handle the different stages of a document as well as making sure it is still up to date.

Deprecations and ABI/API breaks

Regressions

No known regressions.

Deprecations

Apertis Development Environment for application bundles

The next-gen Apertis application framework is based on Flatpak making the Apertis Development Environment only suitable for managing sysroots and native applications.

Breaks

No known breaking changes are part of this release.

Infrastructure

Apertis Docker images

The Apertis Docker images provide a unified and easily reproducible build environment for developers and services.

As of today, this includes the apertis-base, apertis-image-builder, apertis-package-source-builder, apertis-flatdeb-builder, apertis-documentation-builder, and apertis-testcases-builder, Docker images.

Apertis infrastructure tools

The Apertis v2022 infrastructure repository provides packages for the required versions of ostree-push and ostree for Debian Buster:

deb https://repositories.apertis.org/infrastructure-v2022/ buster infrastructure

Images

Image daily builds, as well as release builds can be found at https://images.apertis.org/

Image build tools can be found in the Apertis tools repositories.

Infrastructure overview

The Apertis Image Recipes provides an overview of the image building process and the involved services.

Known issues

High (27)

  • T7781 aum-ota-api: test failed due to new bootcount test needing a newer uboot
  • T7879 sdk-debos-image-building: test failed
  • T7928 tiny-container-system-connectivity-profile: test failed
  • T7963 apertis-update-manager-usb-unplug test fails on the v2022dev2 images
  • T7966 apertis-update-manager-rollback test fails on the v2022dev3 fixed-function images
  • T7984 Rhosydd test shows status as incomplete on v2021 images
  • T8009 sdk-flatpak-build-helloworld-app test fails on v2022dev2 sdk / base sdk
  • T8048 tiny-container-user-connectivity-profile: test failed
  • T8064 dbus-dos-reply-time: test failed
  • T8076 ade-commands: test failed
  • T8108 Connman pan network access test fails on v2022dev3 images
  • T8109 Connman pan tethering test fails on v2022dev3 images
  • T8113 Package gcc-10 does not provide license scan report
  • T8121 Rythmbox icon is not clearly visible on the agl-compositor
  • T8132 sdk-flatpak-demo: test failed
  • T8139 bluez-hfp test fails on v2022dev3 images
  • T8144 ConnMan: incomplete WPA3 support: connect failed
  • T8168 Apertis flatdeb-mildenhall runtime is not published
  • T8178 hmi-audio-skip-start-end : skip start and skip end button not working on v2022dev3 images using Rythmbox
  • T8179 root:Project is not configured : error when executing sdk-ade-remote-debugging test on v2022dev3 SDK/Base SDK
  • T8182 gstreamer1-0-decode: test failed
  • T8215 apparmor-functional-demo: test failed
  • T8229 aum-offline-upgrade: test failed
  • T8230 aum-offline-upgrade-signed: test failed
  • T8238 LXC tests fail because rust-coreutils touch returns 0 on failure
  • T8253 apparmor-pipewire: test failed
  • T8261 connman: test failed

Normal (74)

  • T2896 Crash when initialising egl on ARM target
  • T3210 Fix Tracker testcase to not download media files from random HTTP user folders
  • T3233 Ribchester: deadlock when calling RemoveApp() right after RollBack()
  • T3321 libgles2-vivante-dev is not installable
  • T3920 arm-linux-gnueabihf-pkg-config does not work with sysroots installed by ade
  • T4092 Containers fail to load on Gen4 host
  • T4293 Preseed action is needed for Debos
  • T4307 ribchester-core causes apparmor denies on non-btrfs minimal image
  • T4422 do-branching fails at a late stage cloning OBS binary repos
  • T4444 A 2-3 second lag between the speakers is observed when a hfp connection is made over bluetooth
  • T4693 Not able to create namespace for AppArmor container on the internal mx6qsabrelite images with proprietary kernel
  • T5487 Wi-Fi search button is missing in wifi application
  • T5748 System users are shipped in /usr/etc/passwd instead of /lib/passwd
  • T5863 Songs/Videos don’t play on i.MX6 with Frampton on internal images
  • T5896 sdk-dbus-tools-bustle testcase is failing
  • T5897 apparmor-ofono test fails
  • T5900 evolution-sync-bluetooth test fails
  • T5931 connman-usb-tethering test fails
  • T6024 folks-inspect: command not found
  • T6077 youtube Videos are not playing on upstream webkit2GTK
  • T6078 Page scroll is lagging in Minibrowser on upstream webkit2GTK
  • T6111 traprain: 7_traprain test failed
  • T6243 AppArmor ubercache support is no longer enabled after 18.12
  • T6291 Generated lavaphabbridge error report email provides wrong link for full report link
  • T6292 gettext-i18n: test failed
  • T6349 sdk-code-analysis-tools-splint: 3_sdk-code-analysis-tools-splint test failed
  • T6366 sdk-cross-compilation: 10_sdk-cross-compilation test failed
  • T6446 aum-update-rollback-tests/amd64: DNS not available in LAVA tests after reboot
  • T6727 FTBFS: Apertis v2020pre package build failures
  • T6768 Fix the kernel command line generation in OSTRee for FIT image
  • T6773 HAB testing: the unsigned image may pass validation in several circumstances
  • T6783 Kernel trace on armhf board with attached screen
  • T6795 SabreLite failing to boot due to failing “to start udev Coldplug all Devices”
  • T6806 HAB on SabreLite in open state accepts any signed kernel regardless of the signing key
  • T6885 gitlab-rulez fails to set location of the gitlab-ci.yaml on first run
  • T6961 audio-backhandling feature fails
  • T7000 DNS resolution does not work in Debos on some setups
  • T7012 Apparmor Denied session logs keep popping up on the terminal while executing tests
  • T7016 network proxy for browser application is not resolving on mildenhall-compositor
  • T7128 apparmor-session-lockdown-no-deny
  • T7129 apparmor-tumbler: test failed
  • T7333 apparmor-geoclue: test failed
  • T7512 debos sometimes fails to mount things
  • T7617 frome: test failed
  • T7721 Fakemachine in debos immediately powers off and hangs in v2021 and v2022dev1 when using UML on the runners
  • T7776 On executing system-update test on hawkbit-agent wrong delta is selected
  • T7785 DNS over TLS does not work on systemd-resolve
  • T7817 rhosydd: test failed
  • T7819 newport: test failed
  • T7827 When creaing new test repositories common-subtree.sh add gets confused if the checked out branch does not exists in tests/common
  • T7843 Package node-grunt-legacy-log fails to build in OBS due to environment variables
  • T7852 v2022dev2: Investigate test failure TestGetSourceMount
  • T7854 v2022dev2: FTBFS for package clisp in test streams.tst
  • T7872 Error building package ruby-redis on OBS
  • T7904 Failed unmounting /var message appears when v2022dev2 AMD64 Minimal OSTree image is shutdown
  • T7923 Gitlab pipeline OBS job reported “success” but OBS build was “unresolvable”
  • T7945 evolution-sync-bluetooth test fails in v2022dev2
  • T7964 assertion ‘G_IS_DBUS_PROXY (proxy)’ failed errors seeing on executing apertis-update-manager-ota-rollback test
  • T7977 v2022dev2 Persistent SDK tests fail
  • T8029 Unable to apply few of the gitlab-rulez for projects hosted on Gitlab
  • T8058 Rhosydd test fails to launch rhosydd-speedo-backend.service
  • T8069 Sound/Audio is not heard during the very first time when running the webkit2gtk-gstreamer1.0 test on SDK/Base SDK images
  • T8074 Error wifi: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying observed on v2022dev3 images
  • T8101 sound: ASoC: failed to init link HiFi: logs seen in v2020 image bootup
  • T8153 ci-license-scan on package libuv1
  • T8175 License scan fails on package texlive-extra
  • T8194 ci-license-scan prints final error paragraph in the middle of scan-copyrights output
  • T8239 tiny-container-system-aa-enforcement: test failed
  • T8240 tiny-container-user-aa-enforcement: test failed
  • T8241 tiny-container-user-basic: test failed
  • T8251 gupnp-services: test failed
  • T8254 cgroups-resource-control: test failed
  • T8255 glib-gio-fs: test failed
  • T8275 iptables-nmap shows incomplete state in QA report