A beta version of the RHEL based EuroLinux 8.7 is now available for testing. 

EuroLinux 8.7 beta released – the fastest released clone of RHEL 8.7 beta

On the 12th of October, we released the EuroLinux 8.7 beta version. It is compatible with the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.7 beta. It allows you to test technical innovations and compatibility with the upcoming EuroLinux 8.7. Version 8.7 beta includes new versions of developer software (GCC 12, LLVM 14, Rust 1.62.1, NodeJS 18, Ruby 3.1). The changes also apply to system security – NSS no longer supports RSA keys shorter than 1023 bits.

In this article, we will describe the technical advantages and new capabilities of the EuroLinux ecosystem. We will also present the release notes (release notes) along with the launch documentation. All new items in the release are marked as (New) in the header.

(New) The fastest-released RHEL 8.7 beta clone

EuroLinux 8.7 beta is the fastest-released clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.7 beta.

(New) Version 8.7 beta for ARM 64 architecture

So far, when releasing beta versions, we have put special emphasis on the most popular x86_64 version. Then we released EuroLinux on ARM64. EuroLinux 8.7 beta is the first release in which we are simultaneously releasing a beta version for the x86_64 and ARM 64 (aarch64) architectures. This will allow organizations using ARM processors to make the transition from 8.6 to 8.7 even smoother.

(New) Open aarch64 buildroot for beta version

Other than EuroLinux, none of the distributions derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources (both RHEL itself and those that try to call themselves community-developed systems) provide their buildroot. This means that people who are not directly involved in the project cannot fully enjoy the privilege of building their own software on a given system.

With the exception of EuroLinux, all other systems provide repositories stripped of many packages. This is particularly true of development packages, which contain, among other things, the headers needed to develop custom software for Enterprise Linux platforms. EuroLinux is the only Enterprise OS vendor to provide full build trees to the community. They contain all the packages produced for the packages contained in each repository.

NOTE: Packages and repositories that give access to full builds are not officially supported. In the case of Perl packages, they are broken by design, as it is impossible to simultaneously provide access to all build artifacts and support 100% modularity.

Below is a sample .repo file that contains addresses to the BaseOS, AppStream and PowerTools repositories for the aarch64 architecture. These repositories should be used to build packages – they should not be used as the main system repositories.

[baseos-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux BaseOS Beta ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/aarch64/beta-BaseOS/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[appstream-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux AppStream Beta ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/aarch64/beta-AppStream/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[powertools-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux PowerTools Beta ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/aarch64/beta-PowerTools/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

EuroLinux build trees are also available in the mock program and in the mock-core-configs package that comes with it.

Open Core

As of version 8.3, EuroLinux is available both as a paid supported subscription and free of charge in the Open Core model. The advantage of such a solution is to deliver the greatest possible value to users and the community. It is a modern, transparent and responsible business model.

As of version 8.3, every user of EuroLinux and EuroLinux containers receives a complete system with updates released at the same time for users using the paid and free versions.

The paid version of the system additionally provides, among other things:

• direct manufacturer technical support
• access to additional intermediate packages (if the support service requires it)
• the ability to influence product development.

The EuroLinux distribution without charges also applies to the released version of EuroLinux 9 and EuroLinux 9 Desktop.

Universal migration scripts

We have released universal migration scripts from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux to EuroLinux. They are available at https://github.com/EuroLinux/eurolinux-migration-scripts. What is important, these scripts update all packages of the distribution from which you are migrating. No packages of the previous vendor remain after migration. This is the realization of one of the important requests that customers and users have made to us. In addition, the scripts have options for customization. Among other things, we described the course of the migration here. A video tutorial can also be found there.

Open buildroot x86_64 for beta version

The open x86_64 buildroot is a foundation for developers working in companies that build solutions for Enterprise Linux systems. Below is a sample configuration.

[baseos-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux BaseOS Beta ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/x86_64/beta-BaseOS/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[appstream-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux AppStream Beta ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/x86_64/beta-AppStream/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[powertools-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux PowerTools Beta ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/x86_64/beta-PowerTools/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[ha-beta-all]
name=EuroLinux 8 HighAvailability Beta All
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/$basearch/beta-HighAvailability/all/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=file:///usr/share/distribution-gpg-keys/eurolinux/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[rs-beta-all]
name=EuroLinux 8 ResilientStorage Beta All
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/$basearch/beta-ResilientStorage/all/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=file:///usr/share/distribution-gpg-keys/eurolinux/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

EuroLinux build trees are also available in the mock program and the mock-core-configs package that comes with it.

Open i686 buildroot

Although the 32-bit architecture is slowly going away, a huge part of software still requires a runtime stack for 32-bit applications. What's more, due to the growing popularity of Linux, it is de facto impossible to fully abandon it - if only because of support for full versions of WineHQ and PC games. Canonical's team found this out painfully, when it tried to abandon support for 32-bit libraries in Ubuntu 19.10 - and thus also support for platforms such as GOG and Steam. The dissatisfaction of the community and the exodus of users was so great that it was decided to bring back 32-bit libraries.

Below is a sample repo file that contains addresses to BaseOS, AppStream and PowerTools beta repositories for the i686 architecture. These repositories should be used to build packages – they should not be used as the main system repositories.

[baseos-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux BaseOS ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/i686/BaseOS/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[appstream-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux AppStream ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/i686/AppStream/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-eurolinux8

[powertools-beta-all]
name = EuroLinux PowerTools ALL REPO (NOT SUPPORTED)
baseurl=https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/dist/eurolinux/server/8/i686/PowerTools/all
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

The complete stack – all system versions

EuroLinux is available and supported in versions 9.x, 8.x, 7.x and 6.x. This allows it to be used as the only system in the organization's ecosystem.

The latest supported versions of EuroLinux are:

• 9.0 – fully supported system
• 8.7 beta – development version
• 8.6 – fully supported system
• 7.9 – fully supported system
• 6.10 – system covered by Euro ELS (Extended Life Support - individual subscription).

The complete stack – more than a system

In addition to the operating system, we offer a number of other versatile products. All of them are based on open source projects and together form a useful technology stack. These include:

• EuroAP – Java application server based on and compatible with JBoss EAP
• EuroDB – PostgreSQL-based database platform
• EuroSSO – complete Single Sign-On backend
• EuroTower – automation management platform with Ansible
• EuroStorage – software-defined storage (SDS) platform based on Ceph
• EuroIQ – hybrid cloud management platform
• EuroMan – Linux update management platform.

Release notes

Release notes are available in the open documentation: EuroLinux 8.7 beta Release Notes.

System installation and installation images

An abbreviated installation of the system, along with information on where to get the installation media, is described in the open source EuroLinux 8 Jump Start documentation.

Installation images are available for download at the following link: https://fbi.cdn.euro-linux.com/isos/.

EuroLinux 8.7 beta released – the fastest released clone of RHEL 8.7 beta