At the end of February of this year, We share a post here on the blog related to the information provided by openSUSE about the roadmap for the development of the new installer that has been working on for several months now.
Formerly known as D-Installer, Agama distinguishes itself by separating the user interface from the internal parts of YaST, allowing the use of various interfaces, such as a web interface to manage the installation.
In the post we shared, We mentioned that openSUSE would present two updates important Agama for this year. The first is scheduled for mid-April and the second for mid-July.
The YaST team is back with more news about Agama. In our previous post, we laid out the first two steps of our 2024 roadmap: a more powerful UI for storage configuration and a new Cockpit-less architecture with a better API for external calls. We are now proud to announce Agama 8, offering initial versions of both features.
The first of them has already been presented and in the new version of Agama, A completely renewed architecture is presented, marking a transition from the use of pre-existing modules developed by the Cockpit project towards a standalone framework with a modernized user interface.
Instead of D-Bus, HTTP is now used as the main communication protocol for interaction between Agama components. This move to HTTP has expanded the project's ability to integrate with larger systems and simplified the organization of automated installations.
It is mentioned that the Leaving aside the use of Cockpit allowed to eliminate additional external dependencies, such as the Python and C components that Cockpit required, while Agama uses Ruby and Rust. The removal of Cockpit also freed developers from the limitations encountered when implementing automatic installation modes and allowed them to redesign the storage configuration interface, striking an optimal balance between simplicity for beginners and functionality for advanced users.
Furthermore, The new architecture has significantly reduced installer startup time and has improved its performance, while maintaining the ability to use already proven low-level components. Among the features that have not yet been ported to the new implementation are the integrated terminal emulator and tools for managing DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) and zFCP (SCSI-over-Fiber Channel) devices.
In addition to the new architecture, Agama 8 offers a completely redesigned and more functional interface for configuring storage and partitioning disks. This interface retains all the basic capabilities of the classic YaST storage configuration system and allows for advanced customization, but has also been adapted to be easier to understand for beginners. For example, the new interface allows you to select the location of each LVM partition or logical volume, mount or reformat previously accessible file systems, configure encryption and boot options, and resize partitions.
I change thems also include a new interface for selecting application sets, improved configurations for TPM-based full disk encryption, a completely rewritten networking stack, modernization of some widgets, improved interfaces for editing file system parameters and creating users, and better visualization of problems encountered during installation. In addition, Agama 8 is translated into 10 languages.
We are already working on Agama 9, which should be released within a month. The focus will be on improving support for unattended installations and compatibility with AutoYaST.
Finally, it is mentioned that In about a month, the launch of Agama 9 is expected, which will include a major reorganization of the web interface, take advantage of opportunities missed during the transition to the new architecture, and expand options for automatic installation without human intervention. The goal of the development is to be compatible with AutoYaST and allow Agama to be used as an alternative to AutoYaST.
If you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details in the following link