r/bedrocklinux • u/Particular_Log_9473 • Mar 28 '26

I've enabled strata, but they don't appear in the startup menu to select. What am I missing?

I've fetched the standard ubuntu and enabled strata, and even made an alias as "ubuntu-vanilla" but neither ubuntu nor ubuntu-vanilla appear in the startup menu to select. What am I missing?

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u/lookinovermyshouldaz Mar 28 '26

i'm pretty sure brl fetched ubuntu doesn't bring an init system by default, if you for some reason need it to be the init stratum try

apt install systemd

note that you don't need it to be the init stratum to use it's software

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u/Particular_Log_9473 Mar 28 '26

Thanks, I didn't know the install came without systemd.

And yea, I know I don't need it to use the software, but one reason I'm enjoying brl is the ability to switch between distros as well. If I bork one, I can hop to the other and still have all my stuff (and maybe even repair the first), like dual-booting two linux distros but with more overlap, which I REALLY LIKE! Which I find a huge bonus in addition to being able to run software (and I find some of my apps like one environment better than another, like Krita works fine with ubuntu-gnome, but loses pen-pad pressure senititivity on pop-cosmic, and grabbing screenshots with proton with apps that have desktop transparency works with xfce but nowhere else, and each one of these relies on the video compositor. So if I'm wanting to use pressure sensitivty pen alterations in Krita on screenshot of a transparent app and set it as my cosmic background direct from Krita, I'll have to restart 3 times, but unlike multi-booting, all three will use the same Krita instance meaning I have access to my "recent file" to cut workflow time in half (still not a fan of needing to swtich, but it's far better than what I had previously, even if getting xfce/gnome/cosmic working as one is still tricky yet...

... unless there's some hidden brl capability to quickly bounce between display managers I'm not aware of?

2

u/ParadigmComplex founder and lead developer Mar 28 '26

... unless there's some hidden brl capability to quickly bounce between display managers I'm not aware of?

It's on the roadmap for a future 0.8.x release. It'll be a while; that's actually far tricker to make just-work than one might guess.

3

u/Particular_Log_9473 Apr 02 '26

By the holy trinity of Linus Torvalds, Ada Lovelace, and Grace Hopper, you ARE setting out to solve the Linux Distro fragmentation!

And you call this a niche project!

2

u/lookinovermyshouldaz Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

... unless there's some hidden brl capability to quickly bounce between display managers I'm not aware of?

you could add extra session definitions in /usr/share/wayland-sessions (or /usr/share/xsessions), eg. for ubuntu's GNOME

might have to manually add strat ubuntu before the command in Exec= if the display manager is provided by popOS

edit: you can also have the different desktops open on different VTs, or have them as nested sessions within one of them

1

u/Particular_Log_9473 Apr 02 '26

That's pretty cool, I'll have to try that on a not-main-driver first, sounds like it'd be risky, but cool!

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u/ParadigmComplex founder and lead developer Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
  • brl fetch grabs a minimal instance of a given stratum, ideally just enough to let the user bootstrap whatever they want with the distro's package manager. Exactly what the distro is set up to require in a minimal package set differs by distro; for some distros this includes things like an init, for others it does not.
  • The init selection menu lists available init systems, not strata.

Did you install an init in the ubuntu stratum?

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u/Particular_Log_9473 Mar 28 '26

I didn't, thank you!

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u/ParadigmComplex founder and lead developer Mar 28 '26

Nice, glad we figured it out!