Status of Eddie on Linux distributions

[Staff 10014]

Last update: 16 May 2018 - Related to version: Eddie 2.14.4

Any Linux distribution has at least:

• a different graphics server (X11, Wayland)
• a different desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, LXTE etc.)
• a package manager with a specific format (deb, rpm, tar.xf etc.)
• a different packaging signature for trust and security
• a different method to obtain administrative privileges, required by advanced features of Eddie (also because OpenVPN requires them)
• a different set of packages used by our client, that sometimes have different names (for example 'stunnel4' under Debian, 'stunnel' for Fedora)
• maybe a different DNS management.

We are working at our best to support every kind of configuration managed by our source code directly, when possible.
 

Tested without known issues

• Debian (tested 7/8/9)
• Ubuntu (18.04 GNOME tested)
• Ubuntu Mate (18.04 tested)
• Devuan (tested Ascii)
• Mint
• Arch (XFCE tested)
• Fedora (28 tested)

With minimal issues

• openSUSE (Tumbleweed KDE tested)
  openSUSE (Tumbleweed GNOME tested)
    Works, with no tray icon.
• Elementary
    Works, but tray icon, web and folder links don't work.

Fatal issues

 
None known.

Tech notes

• Sometimes Tray icon works, but it is not shown because the desktop environment hides it.
  For example, latest GNOME may require a separate shell extension (generally TopIcons).
• Currently Eddie 2.x under Linux requires root privileges (like GParted or Synaptic Manager).
  Elevation is generally obtained with a polkit policy file (pkexec) if installed, otherwise fallback methods are used when available (gksu, kdesu, beesu etc.).
  
  When the UI runs as root, there are four -optional- actions that are performed as normal user: tray icon, notifications, open web links and open file folders.
  If it is not possible to act as a normal user, such actions are not performed at all.
  
  A totally separated UI (as a normal user) vs. root-actions (as root user, service or separate process) is currently under development.

Needed improvements

• Minimal lintian warnings on .deb edition
• General info details on .deb edition (for example, reporting Proprietary as License, not true.)
• General info details on .rpm edition (for example, reporting Proprietary as License, not true.)
• Create official package for AUR and other distributions.
• Create packages also for CLI-only edition.
• Create packages based on direct source compilation.
• Procedures to include Eddie in official/standard repository