Allowing for a source or complete bootstrap mode

[td5038]

Sorry, I'm not a dev at all, and I don't know the architecture of mkosi. But what if we could add a source build or even a bootstrap mode, for when you have almost nothing to use to install anything? Maybe people smarter than me about mkosi in particular can discuss this. I'm more of an ideas guy than a dev.

[MoltenArmor]

This command may help you (use debian for example):

mkosi -d -p systemd,systemd-sysv,udev,dbus-broker [--format directory] build

Just pick those minimal packages for the intended distribution and you will get what you want.

There used to be a guidance in https://mkosi.systemd.io/, but it seems it was removed after update. Anyway, this shouldn't be too difficult.

[td5038]

This is more of an idea for adding support for source-based distributions, like Gentoo. Because, if something is bootstrapped, you don't even need the package manager for the distro itself. All you'd need is a C or C++ compiler to get the ball rolling. I should've mentioned that in the original discussion 😂

[DaanDeMeyer]

This is more of an idea for adding support for source-based distributions, like Gentoo. Because, if something is bootstrapped, you don't even need the package manager for the distro itself. All you'd need is a C or C++ compiler to get the ball rolling. I should've mentioned that in the original discussion 😂

From what I understand this isn't possible without requiring lots and lots of code on our end. If portage had a trivial way to do this we could use it but this doesn't exist today afaik.

[td5038]

Well, the idea is if we get bootstrap support for Gentoo, we could extend that to other source-based or even binary distros.

This could unlock whole new possibilities, like making an mkosi image from outside a Linux system.

[td5038]

And this is literally about how to install a whole system with nothing but a host toolchain and a lot of audacity.