idea: Linux Installation Script (Bash)

[gabrielle-ong]

Problem Statement

• We need to support all distros
• Bash script likely the most straightforward

Feature Idea

Considerations:

• Bundles individual libraries / can use old versions of dependencies
• security considerations of libraries for flatpak maintainer?

[hiento09]

For bash installer script it will be a network installer, not local install

[hiento09]

Current Updater Flow for Linux

• User types cortex -v.
• Check the remote version against the current version => display a message to run sudo cortex update.
• User types sudo cortex update.
• Download the .deb file locally.
• Run a command to extract and install the .deb file.

Suggested Flow with Bash Script

• User types cortex -v.
• Check the remote version against the current version → display a message to run sudo cortex update.
• User types sudo cortex update.
• Run the installation script with is-update=true passed as a parameter. (Ex: curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/janhq/cortex/feat/linux-bash-install-script/engine/templates/linux/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --channel stable --is_update)

The installation bash script will perform the following tasks (all logic for update will be put into the bash script):

• Detect whether the user is performing a new installation or an update.
• Detect whether a .deb package needs to be installed or if the binary file should be installed directly.

How do you think @dan-homebrew @0xSage @gabrielle-ong @vansangpfiev

[TC117]

Prerequisites
- OpenMPI
- curl
- jq
- tar

• Missing Prerequisites

tinb@tinb:~$ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/janhq/cortex/main/engine/templates/linux/install.sh | sudo bash -s
[sudo] password for tinb:
jq could not be found ...
Please install jq then rerun this script
tinb@tinb:~$

• Install successful

tinb@tinb:~$ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/janhq/cortex/main/engine/templates/linux/install.sh | sudo bash -s 
Downloading cortex stable version 1.0.3 from https://github.com/janhq/cortex.cpp/releases/download/v1.0.3/cortex-1.0.3-linux-amd64-network-installer.deb
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
100 24.9M  100 24.9M    0     0  10.4M      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:-- 30.7M
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'cortexcpp' instead of '/tmp/cortex.deb'
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cortexcpp
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 22 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/26.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 /tmp/cortex.deb cortexcpp amd64 1.0.3 [26.2 MB]
Selecting previously unselected package cortexcpp.
(Reading database ... 197731 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack /tmp/cortex.deb ...
Unpacking cortexcpp (1.0.3) ...
Setting up cortexcpp (1.0.3) ...
Download cortex.llamacpp engines by default for user tinb
Config file not found. Creating one at /home/tinb/.cortexrc
Default data folder path: /home/tinb/cortexcpp
Starting server ...
Could not start server
HTTP error: Could not establish connection
Uninstall script created at /usr/bin/cortex-uninstall.sh
Installation complete. Run cortex-uninstall.sh to uninstall.
tinb@tinb:~$ cortex -v
v1.0.3
tinb@tinb:~$

• Uninstall successful

tinb@tinb:~$ sudo /usr/bin/cortex-uninstall.sh 
[sudo] password for tinb: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  cortexcpp
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 22 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 197733 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing cortexcpp (1.0.2) ...
Do you want to delete the ~/cortexcpp data folder and file ~/.cortexrc? (yes/no) [default: no]
yes
Deleting cortex data folders...
Removing /home/tinb/cortexcpp
Removing /home/tinb/.cortexrc
tinb@tinb:~$ cortex ps 
cortex: command not found
tinb@tinb:~$

[gabrielle-ong]

@hiento09 Thanks! Adding a discord User @david_12870 report:
"#Cortex-help: Install script fails on alma linux 9.4":

Error:

Failed to get JSON from https://api.github.com/repos/janhq/cortex.llamacpp/releases/latest: CURL request failed: Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?) - curl_utils.h:216
20241122 10:51:28.470110 UTC 558641 ERROR Failed to get latest llama.cpp version: CURL request failed: Problem with the SSL CA cert (path? access rights?

Fix:

• on alma linux 9 (probably RHEL as well), you need to sudo ln -s /etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

[hiento09]

Thanks @gabrielle-ong for pointing this out!

Linux systems will need to, one way or another, add the CA certificates of trusted sites. Otherwise, any curl or wget command run on that OS will result in the similar error. Most Linux users will be aware of this.

Let me update the troubleshooting section (#1761) to include guidance for users on what they should do when encountering this issue since the method for adding CA certificates varies between distributions.