Dakota Alpha 3: New Installer available for testing! #4754
Replies: 19 comments 8 replies
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Someone should wire up that SaveDesktop app so it magically can be wired into the installer so you can just "restore" a machine with your desktop setup! |
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Its sad that Gnome 50 drops support for GDrive :( |
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@Ffffnord - I read that the reason native Google Drive file integration was completely dropped from GNOME Online Accounts is because the backend library it relied on (libgdata) had been unmaintained for nearly four years and depended on an obsolete, insecure version of libsoup. As a result, the "Files" toggle was axed entirely, leaving only Mail, Contacts, and Calendar. Regardless, I started using rclone for this a couple years ago and I'm the hugest fan now. I use it even on my Mac instead of the typical plug-in apps. Game-changer. |
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Checksum file must be somewhere - got a link? |
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Boots up - connects to WiFi and Bluefin fine; I'm typing this from the live running on my laptop. But the installer is dying. 
Is it me or the server? Also, can you tell from the screenshots whether it found the GPU?? |
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Looks like it found the GPU and died trying to download the NVIDIA image. |
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got the same no matter what iso you're using dakota-latest (~4.4gb) or dakota-alpha3 (~8+gb) |
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I'm on intel gpu |
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Ok on it, found the problem, working on a new set! |
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checksum is ok but naming is not |
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Right - forgot to file that one! |
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Ok everyone try now, should be sorted. |
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sadly its failed again, now with "no space left on device" error: Full Log [fisherman] version: dev
{"elapsed_ms":4,"message":"Checking image cache...","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:42.039369104Z","type":"info"}
+ skopeo inspect docker://ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-nvidia:stable
+ skopeo inspect containers-storage:ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-nvidia:stable
{"elapsed_ms":232,"message":"Offline: registry unreachable, using locally cached image","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:42.266734678Z","type":"info"}
{"elapsed_ms":246,"message":"Live audio config skipped: detecting audio devices: no audio devices found via pactl","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:42.280474655Z","type":"info"}
{"elapsed_ms":246,"message":"Checking for Windows wallpapers to migrate...","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:42.280507207Z","type":"info"}
{"elapsed_ms":267,"message":"No Windows wallpapers found — continuing normally","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:42.301582738Z","type":"info"}
{"cumulative_pct":0,"elapsed_ms":267,"step":1,"step_name":"Partitioning disk","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:42.301652913Z","total_steps":8,"type":"step","weight_pct":0}
+ fuser -km /dev/nvme0n1 (kill remaining holders)
+ fuser -km /dev/nvme0n1
+ blockdev --flushbufs /dev/nvme0n1
+ udevadm settle
+ sfdisk --wipe=always /dev/nvme0n1
Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ... OK
Performing full device TRIM /dev/nvme0n1p2 (236.47GiB) ... Label: root {"cumulative_pct":1,"elapsed_ms":1845,"step":4,"step_name":"Mounting filesystem","timestamp":"2026-06-10T05:57:43.87954963Z","total_steps":8,"type":"step","weight_pct":0}
TMPDIR=/mnt/fisherman-target/.fisherman-scratchGetting image source signatures
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Ok new branches:
This is set to run nightly, currently there's not much different other than GNOME 51, etc. But at least it's set up so you'll be ready to go for GNOME 51 testing. |
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A quick test of the current build from the link above on Boxes with UEFI / 8GB ram /60GB drive yields: |
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BTW I personally think that in this Installation Failed page |
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I don't think there should even be a "Try Again" button unless the installer has detected a recoverable network error. This is an alpha - we want bug reports, not irritated testers! ;-) |
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Found the issue and fixed it, should be in the nest round of builds - it helps if you paste in the actual logs (the screenshots don't actually help since it's the logs that we're going through.) Hopefully this one will have |
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`
Disk /dev/sdb: 223.57 GiB, 240057409536 bytes, 468862128 sectors Old situation: Device Start End Sectors Size Type
New situation: Device Start End Sectors Size Type The partition table has been altered.
Performing full device TRIM /dev/sdb2 (221.57GiB) ... Label: root {"cumulative_pct":1,"elapsed_ms":3976,"step":4,"step_name":"Mounting filesystem","timestamp":"2026-06-14T15:11:03.936664635Z","total_steps":8,"type":"step","weight_pct":0}
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Ok new ISOs from the weekend pushed, another set is pushing now! |
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dakota-live-latest.iso |
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Ditto. Just hit the same error |
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Today installing dakota-live-alpha3.iso: OK |
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Still working on latest, it's a combination of the ISO and the image itself so had to unplug both pipes, but we're making good progress, thanks for your patience so far! |
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I tried Dakota, very much liked the installer and experience, but does Dakota not have the secure boot support that normal Bluefin has? I ended up chasing my tail for quite a while with Dakota refusing to boot when secure boot was on. |
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Now that the factory is working we're getting the good stuff:
First off let's talk about Dakota Alpha 3. This is the latest image, and we now have testing and stable builds going. The biggest feature is one unified installer for Nvidia and non-nvidia. It will install the correct one based on detecting your hardware. Easy! Once we get feedback on this with Dakota we'll have a new unified, snake-free installer for all Bluefins!
All Bluefins should settle into a tuesday weekly cadence. This is now my daily driver!
But the big thing for today is the installer: https://github.com/projectbluefin/bootc-installer
This is a hard fork of the VanillaOS installer for bootc. And it was fine just like that but the problem with Linux installers is their either too minimal or too Linux user. There's so much we can fix here. So we looked at three main installers. MacOS, Ubuntu, and Windows, and here's what we have so far:
First off it does all the normal stuff, it supports any bootc image, James even has a "superiso" with every ublue image in a menu - all easy now. This is a focus on how we use this installer for Bluefin!
Ok so first things first, while you are waiting for the thing to install you can connect your bluetooth, wifi, all of that stuff. We'll also rename your audio devices to sane descriptions ootb, find printers, and even run that wallpaper cache thing for you. This is all "jank" that we want to fix but would suck to maintain in the image.
Plus I think the OEM logo thing is a nice touch, let's make the things feel like they were made to come with Linux ya know? We also want to do the nice thing where we detect the closest bluetooth keyboard and mouse and just pair it. We're totally open to ideas!
/var/lib/bluetoothinto the installed OS so previously-paired devices reconnect immediately on first boot.nmconnectionfiles so saved networks reconnect automaticallyalsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo) to human-readable names, and hides S/PDIF and Pro Audio sinkscups-browsed,avahi-daemon, andipp-usbso USB printers and AirPrint work out of the boxOk here's where we went for it. We used to do this in the Ubuntu days. In the past there was a tool that you could run on Windows machines that would copy all the user's stuff over. These days partition management just sucks in general so no one bothers.
But, we can snag some cool things, namely:
When an existing Windows partition is detected, the installer offers to import your data. A scan runs asynchronously and shows per-user category checkboxes with size estimates:
Documents,Desktop,DownloadsPicturesMusicAppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FontsA RAM budget warning appears if the selected categories would exceed available memory. Wallpaper thumbnails for the GNOME wallpaper picker are pre-generated during install.
And then lastly I want a QR code so I can sign into my accounts on my phone and it sets up gnome online services and my browsers and stuff for me too. Any other ideas?
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