RPM package for Fedora and EPEL

[Conan-Kudo]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe

I'd like to be able to install Podman Desktop through DNF on Fedora or RHEL/CentOS, which also opens doors to being able to bundle/ship Podman Desktop in a container-focused spin or third-party remixes.

Describe the solution you'd like

This requires the Podman Desktop software to be packaged as an RPM and reviewed for inclusion in Fedora and EPEL.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

As this is Electron-based, Fedora needs to package and ship an Electron runtime. Fortunately, @cryptomilk has gone through the effort of figuring that out and merely needs co-maintainers before he submits it for review. @thunderbirdtr noted on Twitter he'd help here, but more folks would be welcome. 😄

This ticket was suggested by @gbraad on Twitter to ensure we have this on the roadmap and prioritized properly.

[benoitf]

electron builder can provide RPM out of the box so we could enable this option but I'm not sure if it's the RPM you would expect ?

https://www.electron.build/configuration/linux

We could provide AppImage or Snap as well

[onuralpszr]

electron builder can provide RPM out of the box so we could enable this option but I'm not sure if it's the RPM you would expect ?

We would like to able install via "dnf" from Fedora repository. That's the RPM we looking for.

[rhatdan]

We will be packaging it for Fedora, but right now, it is being updated on a daily basis.
I would figure when it is declared 1.0.

[gbraad]

Packages can be generated from our builds if needed
... Or package as flatpak? @benoitf WDYT?

[benoitf]

For sure flatpak or Snap packages can be added. It seems lot of people are interested by the GUI on Linux as well.

[rhatdan]

I want a standard RPM, so users can just do.

dnf -y install podman-desktop

And end up with Podman-desktop and podman installed on their box.

[gotmax23]

@rhatdan:

I want a standard RPM, so users can just do.

dnf -y install podman-desktop

That would be great.

@benoitf:

electron builder can provide RPM out of the box so we could enable this option but I'm not sure if it's the RPM you would expect ?

https://www.electron.build/configuration/linux

You can use Electron Builder to build a binary RPM, but not to ship it in the Fedora repositories. RPMs built like this are in no way compatible with Fedora's packaging guidelines or build system.

[cryptomilk]

I've packaged nodejs-electron and other dependencies to build electron apps in the openSUSE Build Service for Fedora:

https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/devel:languages:nodejs/nodejs-electron
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/devel:languages:nodejs/app-builder

Here is an example how to build an electron app:
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/network:im:signal/signal-desktop

[benoitf]

@cryptomilk are you interested in contributing RPM for Podman Desktop ?

[cryptomilk]

I don't have the time for it. But the work for electron is already done. A fedora maintainer is needed ...

[rhatdan]

@jnovy @lsm5 PTAL

[lsm5]

@rhatdan do we have anyone in the podman-desktop team that would like to become fedora maintainers? I can work with them, but I'd rather not be the point person for this.

[gotmax23]

Just to be clear, nodejs-electron isn't packaged in Fedora, either. Perhaps you can reach out on the Fedora devel mailing list to see if anyone is interested in helping out with that.

[lsm5]

Just to be clear, nodejs-electron isn't packaged in Fedora, either. Perhaps you can reach out on the Fedora devel mailing list to see if anyone is interested in helping out with that.

so nodejs seems to be cool with bundling afaict. https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/Node.js/ . Can't electron be bundled into podman-desktop or does it need to live in a separate package?

[Conan-Kudo]

Electron needs to be built as a shared dependency because it's a nodejs runtime platform extension. It's not pure JavaScript. The rest of Podman Desktop's dependencies can and should be bundled, but we definitely don't want to do that for Electron.

[lsm5]

Electron needs to be built as a shared dependency because it's a nodejs runtime platform extension. It's not pure JavaScript. The rest of Podman Desktop's dependencies can and should be bundled, but we definitely don't want to do that for Electron.

ack, makes sense. Thanks @Conan-Kudo

[lsm5]

I see another response on a different thread that electron depends on fetching prebuilt blobs at build time.

@rhatdan If that's still the case, we might be better off with a copr or continuing with obs, unless someone is really willing to invest time into this.

[Conan-Kudo]

Electron can be built entirely from source, as @cryptomilk has done.

[cryptomilk]

We build electron completely from source for Fedora:

https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/devel:languages:nodejs/nodejs-electron

The OBS build runners don't have any network connectivity!

[jhoblitt]

+1 for flatpak

[jhoblitt]

It seems that flatpak already exists: https://podman-desktop.io/docs/Installation/linux-install

[benoitf]

yes it exists https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.podman_desktop.PodmanDesktop

[jhoblitt]

Confirmed the flatpak as working on F36.

[lsm5]

not an official package but I got a copr setup in case anyone wants to try: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/rhcontainerbot/podman-desktop/

[shivdhar]

I'm interested in being able to dnf install podman-desktop as well; it was rather surprising to see it hasn't landed yet. What are the steps I can can help out with to make this happen?

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