Testing new aproach on Silverblue and Kinoite

thephatlee · May 20, 2025, 11:59am

today been testing and setting things on silverblue 42 and idea is to not use layers for anything else than Nvidia drivers. rest are done on using systemd-sysext.

here i just use 2 extenssions that i took from gnome extenssion site Dash-To-Dock and AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support

Here you can see all layered packages and systemd-sysext packages and all is working 1passowrd with cli just perfect and even Openh264 from cisco works so makes life so much easier for things and keeps layering minimal

i still need to setup my workflow with toolbox and setup neovim and see if there will be nordVPN sysext or do i need to use rpm-ostree hacks to force install and stuff

huge thanks for all for making systemd-sysext work on the background

arturasb · May 20, 2025, 12:11pm

Would you mind sharing an instruction or point to documentation on how to use sysext, please ?

thephatlee · May 20, 2025, 12:15pm

here and thanks to travier and all others doing this work

siosm · May 20, 2025, 12:29pm

Thanks for trying them out. Does the openh264 one work well? The last time I had tried it did not but I never found out why.

thephatlee · May 20, 2025, 12:34pm

i had enable Firefox openh264 extension just in case and then use the openh264 sysext and tested the videos that didint work and no issues for now. i already made some issues for enhancements features on some i use and that nordvpn if that could be added to list somehow.

for now i dont see major issues on any usability so great work there

thephatlee · May 20, 2025, 12:36pm

found it why you didint work you need to have enabled the extenssion/plugin from firefox

when i first enabled it it was showing error and installing it and now it is all good and enabled

hricky · May 20, 2025, 5:13pm

I recently spent many hours trying to make a sysext for NordVPN, but unfortunately I was unable to get it to work.

It may be off-topic, but following the official installation script as a guide, I was able to build a derived Fedora Silverblue bootable container image that at least has the NordVPN CLI and GUI, I think, properly installed. I was also able to create an Ubuntu-based application container following the instructions from the official support site, which appears to have the NordVPN CLI properly installed. If you are interested, I can create a repository or/and upload the images to a container registry for testing.

Also, here’s a link to a NordVPN application container repository, which I haven’t tried:

thephatlee · May 20, 2025, 5:43pm

If I remember correctly the Rpm-ostree issues was that installer needs root access to create folders and install stuff there and since Rpm-ostree is read only it can’t somehow access those anymore.

But I am down to test what ever works since using year+ old Rpm-ostree nordvpn software that can’t be updated is not good idea.

But I have high hopes on sysext tho

hricky · May 20, 2025, 6:31pm

Timothée will probably be able to make a NordVPN sysext. I will continue to try to figure out why it works in containers but not in sysext.

I will make a repository with the container images in the coming days. In the meantime, I would suggest you try out the already available NordVPN container from my previous post.

thephatlee · May 21, 2025, 12:12pm

Went more on testing side and actually added TPM modules to unlock LUKS and it works and I like it simple and works. Should be option for installation to enable it if want and maybe someday with FDE

thephatlee · May 21, 2025, 2:13pm

not sure is this more help, but i seem to be found that people modifies just the installer script to adding rpm-ostree

github.com/bshephar/fedora-sb

nordvpn-install.sh

main

#!/bin/sh

# check for root access
SUDO=
if [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ]; then
    SUDO=$(command -v sudo 2> /dev/null)

    if [ ! -x "$SUDO" ]; then
        echo "Error: Run this script as root"
        exit 1
    fi
fi

set -e
ARCH=$(uname -m)
BASE_URL=https://repo.nordvpn.com/
KEY_PATH=/gpg/nordvpn_public.asc
REPO_PATH_DEB=/deb/nordvpn/debian
REPO_PATH_RPM=/yum/nordvpn/centos
RELEASE="stable main"

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here someone made hack to get files to correct places

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Testing new aproach on Silverblue and Kinoite

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