Hi. I am loving Kinoite so far, but I’m still learning about life with rpm-ostree. Specifically, I wonder about when to layer a package.
For example, if I would like to install a Plasma Widget (Control Centre 6), and it only seems to be available from the “KDE Store” in Discover, will Discover layer that install? Same question for “Global Themes” or “Icons”.
Is there a problem with “layering too many packages”? I don’t remember where I read it, but I have the idea that it isn’t a good idea to layer packages unnecessarily. Am I concerned for no reason?
No, Discover has “get new stuff” integration, which is a system to install KDE Addons for various places.
None of these are layered. Only RPM packages are.
SDDM themes are placed in /usr/share/sddm/themes which doesnt work. This is the only extension type currently broken and there is work on a patch to allow a workaround.
Layering packages is not problematic. rpm-ostree reset always brings you back.
It is way better than installing RPMs on traditional Fedora actually, because of this.
The updates and packages installations are separate things. Updates are always the same, and on top of the system update, the packages are always installed.
This is called “layering” and it is done on every update, causing big speed differences.
The big effect is between not layering a single package, and layering one. After that, the speed difference doesnt grow that much.
So if you cant live without a single layered package, might as well layer what you want.
Note: some things can be installed without layering:
rust packages: use the rustup instructions on their site
python packages: you need pythin3-pip layered (for whatever reason it is not included, making people need layering
go: I think works without layering
Some things can be used from Flatpaks, like ffmpeg. I did a howto on that.
Some things can be used in a Distrobox, like RStudio and QGis. This is a workaround for GUI apps and not a great user experience, especially because dnf system-upgrades dont work in Distrobox/Toolbox. And because Distrobox is not installed, while Toolbox lacks critical features like a separate homedir per application