by gearhead » 05 Jan 2020, 21:01
I, too, would like a version that could be periodically updated to incorporate later kernels and such, but, for me, the reason for Rune was to be true to the audio quality. Also, it must have a responsive UI. To do so, IMO, we need some features which are not yet in the arch maintained kernel and some other packages which are not in the standard Arch package list. Hence the reason there has been a purpose built RuneOS to go with the RuneUI.
The OG Rune was back in 2014 when SD cards were expensive and the only RPi was a Pi1. The original version could fit on a 2G SD card! Well, it is 2020 and SD cards are cheap, the smallest SD cards I have seen recently are 16Gb, and the RPis are much faster. The need for a pared down version of the packages to keep the image small, IMO, are not nearly as great as they once were. Also the OG Rune had pared down versions of a number of packages with functionality removed that are/were not needed or added compared to the standard Arch packages (Samba, MPD, etc.). Some standard packages have developed to incorporate some of the OG Rune 'special functionality' over the years. Well, with more speed and more storage and these developments, we can move to standard Arch packages for some but still need to fill in with some AUR packages for stuff that is not in the standard Arch package list and a still need to modify a few standard packages to get some of the functionality the UI needs as well as add some audio capability that is not yet in the Arch kernel. Also, with teh RPi2 and later, we can have graphical UI on the RPi which was not even possible with the Pi1! In summary, I do not think the original focus of the project is compatible with just going 'pacman -Syu' and letting it update. I do not know how ACX and Simone feel about this, but that is my take. If you do this with a Rune image, 'Things (tm)' will break.
The Rune versions 0.3b up to 0.5b are all based on php5.x. We updated PHP to 5.6.33 (I think) in the 0.5b image to incorporate a more current ssl package and incorporate other php5 bug fixes, but php5 is deprecated and no longer maintained. Rern's image uses all standard packages and is also based on php7 but appears to be a ground up rewrite of a RuneUI. In comparison, Janui and I have been working to get the basic 0.5b OS/UI updated to use a standard php7.x packages, to use more standard packages (mpd, etc) and some 'standard' AUR packages as well as some custom packages. The image is 'mostly there' but there are still functionality issues with the UI which we have not yet resolved. There are also functionalities which extend the Rune, one example is a snapcast feature which has been developed for multi room capability (). I'd love to add this once the basic functionality is restored... Some of the original features of the OG Rune UI are no longer functional (Jamendo and Dirble for example) and these could be removed. Dirble now requires a login and it appears that Jamendo could be added back, but there is a new API which is incompatible with the OG Rune code and this would probably have to be built form scratch if it were to be incorporated.
Gearhead
