Rolling Rhino

Convert Ubuntu into a "rolling release" that tracks the devel series; for the toughest of Ubuntu users.

Rolling Rhino

Simple shell script to make Ubuntu track the `devel` series.

Made with 💝 for

Introduction

Rolling Rhino is a simple tool to convert Ubuntu Desktop, and the official desktop flavours, that has been installed from a daily image into a "rolling release" by opting into and tracking the devel series.

Rolling Rhino is intended for Ubuntu developers and experienced Ubuntu users who want to install Ubuntu once and the track all development updates with automatic tracking of subsequent series.

We have a Discord for this project:

Caveats

If you use Rolling Rhino to opt-in to devel series you're assuming support of your system, including taking care of PPA migrations, cleaning obsolete/orphaned packages and actively participating in any issue resolution for problems you may encounter via Launchpad using tools such as apport and ubuntu-bug.

You will see W: Conflicting distribution: warnings from apt as its configuration will now reference the devel series which is a pointer to the current in-development series. But they are just that, warnings.

Origins of Rolling Rhino

Ubuntu Podcast had feedback about making Ubuntu a rolling release, something we discussed during the main segment of S13E12 - Red Sky in the Morning and then covered again based on listener feedback during S13E14 - Ace of Spades. During episode S13E14 guest presenter Stuart Langridge proposed "Ubuntu Rolling Rhino" as the name for a rolling Ubuntu release along with some ideas as to how it could be implemented. Sergio Schvezov then followed up via Twitter reminding us that the devel series exists in Ubuntu. This inspired me to create this rolling-rhino tool to somewhat implement Stuart's idea by taking advantage of the devel series.

Where it all came together

See the video where I worked with the community to put together the initial implementation of rolling-rhino.

Usage

• Install Ubuntu Desktop, or one of the desktop flavours, from a daily image.
  • Ubuntu Desktop Daily Build
  • Kubuntu Daily Build
  • Lubuntu Daily Build
  • Ubuntu Budgie Daily Build
  • Ubuntu Kylin Daily Build
  • Ubuntu MATE Daily Build
  • Ubuntu Studio Daily Build
  • Xubuntu Daily Build
• Boot the new install and use rolling-rhino to convert it to a rolling release.

git clone https://github.com/wimpysworld/rolling-rhino.git
cd rolling-rhino
sudo ./rolling-rhino

Which will output something like this:

Rolling Rhino 🦏
  [+] INFO: lsb_release detected.
  [+] INFO: Ubuntu detected.
  [+] INFO: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS detected.
  [+] INFO: Detected ubuntu-desktop.
  [+] INFO: No PPAs detected, this is good.
  [+] INFO: All checks passed.
Are you sure want to start tracking the devel series? [y/N]

Credits

• Thanks to Stuart Langridge for naming the project and proposing the idea.
• Thanks to Sergio Schvezov for reminding me the devel series exists in Ubuntu.
• Thanks to RickAndTired for answering the call for help and making the Rolling Rhino logo.

TODO

• [x] Detect system is running an Ubuntu Development Branch.
• [x] Detect desktop meta packages.
• [x] Detect PPAs.
• [x] Detect sources.list is not already tracking devel.
• [x] Create clean sources.list that tracks devel.
• [ ] Use yad to create a UI