EasyOS Daedalus-series version 6.5 released

December 03, 2024 — BarryK

The EasyOS Scarthgap-series is the current flagship; however, the Daedalus-series is introduced as a companion. They are essentially the same, or to put it another way have the same underlying infrastructure; however, built with different packages.

The Scarthgap-series is built with packages compiled in a fork of OpenEmbedded, and optimised for EasyOS, but a much smaller package repository; only about 1800 packages. However, more packages can be installed via Appi, the appimage manager, and Flapi, the flatpak manager. There is yet another avenue for adding packages to Scarthgap; another Linux distribution can be run in a container and within that container there is access to the entire package repository of that distribution.

Easy Scarthgap can run Easy Daedalus in a container, which means that you don't really need to run Easy Daedalus as a separate distribution. There is a downside to that though; running in a container has security restrictions, and some applications will not work; most will though. Some points:

Read more about how to run Easy Daedalus in a container within Easy Scarthgap here
Read how to quickly flip in and flip out of the container here
Read about /files shared folder between containers here
Sharing is also via the clipboard, copied in and out when flip
Introduction to Easy Containers here

Easy Scarthgap 6.5 release is pending, will be announced on this blog very soon. But, for those who want the actual, standalone, EasyOS Daedalus, read on...

Devuan Daedalus is the equivalent of Debian Bookworm, except without systemd. Most of the Devuan packages are in fact the Debian packages, except for those that need modification to work without systemd.

EasyOS is created with "woofQ", the build system. In fact, "Woof" is a build system also for Puppy Linux, currently "Woof-CE" being the official build system for the mainstream Puppy Linux. WoofQ forked off Woof2 about 2013. That's a bit of history, but the point is, Woof* can build a Puppy or Puppy-derivative or similar distribution, and does so by using binary packages from some other Linux distribition. Or, packages that have been compiled somehow -- in the case of Scarthgap, compiled in OpenEmbedded.

The big advantage of building from packages of another mainstream distribution is binary compatibility and access to the entire package repository of that distribution. This is what Easy Daedalus brings to the table.

Here are the release notes for Easy Daedalus 6.5:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2024/6.5/release-notes.htm

A short history; Easy Daedalus started life in October 2024. However, as built from woofQ, it has all the infrastructure of Scarthgap, so is already very mature. The main details to be sorted were issues raised by using the Devuan DEB packages. Yes, lots of issues, as Debian/Devuan packages are bloated, configured in sometimes strange ways and with dependencies that may be difficult to accommodate. So the process since October has been to resolve these issues.

One thing; due to the proliferation of dependencies, there are less packages "built in" compared with Scarthgap. For example, Scarthgap has Flowblade video editor built-in, whereas Daedalus has no video editor. Of course, Flowblade and other video editors are there in the repository.

Download and install

Easy is shipped as a drive-image file, there is no ISO. Download from here:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2024/6.5/

There is also a mirror in Europe, courtesy of the Netherlands Linux/Unix User Group (NLUUG):

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2024/6.5/

Also a mirror in Australia, courtesy of AARNET:

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2024/6.5/

If all that you know about are ISOs, and unfamiliar with how to install a drive-image file, it is pretty simple. You can write it to a USB-stick and boot that, or open up the img-file and install direct to internal drive. The easyos.org site has tutorials, including these:

"How to write EasyOS to a flash drive"
https://easyos.org/install/how-to-write-easyos-to-a-flash-drive.html

"How to install EasyOS on your hard drive"
https://easyos.org/install/how-to-install-easyos-on-your-hard-drive.html

There is an important conceptual difference between a drive-image and an ISO; when the drive-image file is written to a drive, for example a USB-stick, it is already installed. It is fully installed to the USB-stick, nothing more to do. You don't have to think about persistence; sessions are saved to the USB-stick.

Information and feedback

If you are new to EasyOS and wondering what it is all about, first up, it has to be clarified that Easy is not a mainsteam distribution; it is unique and experimental. Very different from any other Linux distribution. This page highlights the differences:

"How and why EasyOS is different"
https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html

Many ideas implemented in Easy are still a work-in-progress, so do bare that in mind; you might not get the maturity that you would expect in a mainstream distro.

We welcome feedback. Success stories, problems, let us know in this thread in the Puppy Forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=137023#p137023

Have fun!

Tags: easy