The Collabora company presented the Holo Core project, in collaboration with Valve, focusing on the development of an Arch Linux distribution for the AArch64 platform. Holo Core is aimed at running SteamOS on a Steam Frame device, which incorporates a personal computer, a 3D headset, and two 3D controllers. The need for developing Holo Core arose because the existing Arch Linux distribution supporting SteamOS is only compatible with the x86_64 architecture, while the Snapdragon 8 chip, powering the Steam Frame device, operates on the ARM64 architecture. The project offers access to source code packages adapted for the ARM64 architecture, along with pre-built binary assemblies packages and a Docker container image for testing.
The primary objective of the project is to establish a continuous integration infrastructure for automating builds that track the status of continually updated Arch Linux repositories and identify necessary dependencies. Challenges encountered during the project implementation included addressing issues related to the repository’s dependency chain and the non-sequential order in which packages are added to the Arch Linux Git repositories. The need to reproduce entire dependency chains for certain packages, such as rust, and the impact of changes in build tools like icu and gpgme, added complexity to the project.
Another impediment was the unpredictability of the build order, as packages in the Arch Linux Git repositories are often added in a disorderly manner, making automated rebuilding challenging without recalculating dependencies. Additionally, attempts to build older versions were hindered by changes in upstream project infrastructures, such as source code relocation, project migration to new git hosting, and alterations in code checksums due to hash modifications. These factors, coupled with anti-bot protection hurdles, posed further obstacles to automated loading processes.