Workstation/Technical Specification

Core Services and Features

This section should describe the core services of the platform and their intended use. The items here should refer back to the PRD for a functional justification.

Service management

Systemd provides ways to control and monitor the activity and status of system services, resources they require, etc. System services are expected to provide systemd units. See the systemd documentation.

Logging

The systemd journal will be used as the local storage backend for system logs. For 'managed' scenarios (e.g the 'developer in a large organization' use case of the PRD), it will be possible to collect the logs in a centralized location, off the local machine.

Applications and services can either use the syslog API or the journal APIs for their logging. See the journal API documentation.

Networking

Network devices and connections will be controlled by NetworkManager. This includes support for VPN, which is relevant for 'corporate' scenarios. Applications are advised to use higher-level APIs (such as GNetworkMonitor in GIO) to monitor online status.

Firewall

The firewall will be controlled by firewalld.

Session tracking

Logind will be used as the session tracking facility.

Applications that need to interact with sessions can use the logind library API, the D-Bus API, or a higher-level API

Account handling

SSSD is providing the backing storage for identity management. For 'managed' scenarios (e.g. the 'developer in a large organization' use case of the PRD), it will be possible to configure it to rely on a directory service for this information. The accountsservice is providing a D-Bus interface for user account information; this may be integrated into SSSD at some point.

Depending on their needs, application and services can either use the POSIX APIs (getpwent(), etc) or the accountsservice D-Bus interface to obtain user information.

Software updates

dnf will be used to obtain and install software updates for packaged applications and the OS itself. The recommendation for applications is to use the PackageKit APIs to interact with the underlying packaging system.

Miscellaneous system information

System locale, timezone, hostname, etc. will be managed through the services provided by systemd for this purpose. See developer documentation for localed, timedated and hostnamed

Virtualization

libvirt-daemon will be used to manage virtualization capabilities.

Display manager

gdm will be used as the display manager. It is responsible for showing a login screen on each seat. It will be able to launch both X-based sessions and Wayland sessions.

Desktop environments are expected to make themselves known as an available session option on the login screen by dropping a .desktop file into /usr/share/xsessions (or its wayland equivalent).

Other facilities provided by the display manager include screen unlock authentication and user switching.

Accessibility

The accessibility support in the workstation includes a screen reader, a high-contrast theme and a zoom capability, amongst others. The screen reading is provided through orca, which runs as a session service and requires the at-spi infrastructure. Applications are expected to provide suitable information to the screen reader via the toolkit's accessibility support. Applications are also expected to work acceptably in the high-contrast theme. The zoom is implemented in the desktop shell and does not need any application support.

Graphics

The workstation session will switch to using a Wayland compositor as soon as feasible. Until then, it will be based on X11. Even after the switch, an X server will be included, so applications can either connect to Wayland natively, or run as an X client.

Media support

Sound hardware and audio streams will be managed by pulseaudio. Applications are recommended to use the gstreamer framework for media playback.

Appearance

The workstation will ship with a single theme, which will have support for the included toolkits: gtk3, qt and gtk2. Applications are expected to work well with this theme, as well as with the high-contrast theme that is used for accessibility. The theme will include a dark variant that applications can opt into using (this is most suitable for certain content-focused applications). The theme also includes an icon theme that provides named icons according to the icon-naming spec, plus symbolic variants.

Application Integration

Installed applications are expected to install a desktop file in /usr/share/applications and an application icon in the hicolor icon theme.

Packaged applications are also expected to provide appdata for use in the application installer.

System Installer

The desired installation experience for the workstation product is to limit the pre-installation user interaction to the minimum. The storage configuration UI should be focused on the classes of hardware that are expected in workstation-class machines. Package selection is not necessary, the installer will install the workstation product as defined. Tweaks, customizations and software additions should be performed after the installation.

One aspect of storage configuration that will be needed is support for dual-boot setups (preserving preexisting Windows or OS X installations), since e.g. students may be required to run software on those platforms for their coursework.

gnome-initial-setup already provides support for post-install user creation, language selection, timezone configuration, etc. If necessary, it should be extended to cover all required setup tasks.

Other

TBD: input methods, geolocation, containers

Core Applications

Application installer

gnome-software will serve as graphical application installer, offering to install and remove applications, system extensions and add-ons (such as fonts, or codecs) and other optional software. To be presented in the application installer, applications need to provide appdata.

Web Browser

firefox will be used as the web browser.

Terminal emulator

gnome-terminal will be installed as a simple terminal. More powerful options, such as terminator, can be investigated.

Virtualization frontend

gnome-boxes will be available for the creation and use of vms, as well as for connecting to remote systems, e.g. ovirt.

TODO

• editor

Core Package list

List the core packages of the product. This list includes all packages that will be shipping on the core media. This is the mandatory minimal list of packages that needs to be installed on a system at all times for it to qualify as a Fedora workstation install. This package list will be the priority focus for QA and bug fixing.

Package list

Here is the full list of packages that are installed as dependencies of systemd, gdm, gnome-shell, gtk3, orca, control-center, qt (qt5-qtbase and qt5-qtdeclarative), firewalld, gnome-boxes, gnome-terminal, firefox, gstreamer1-plugins-good

sgabios-bin
at-spi2-atk
setup
libcgroup
libgusb
telepathy-filesystem
iproute
libcanberra-gtk3
heisenbug-backgrounds-gnome
lvm2
gnome-keyring
linux-firmware
bluez-libs
libnm-gtk
nss-softokn-freebl
totem-pl-parser
gnome-themes-standard
ncurses-libs
numad
pyatspi
pcre
qemu-kvm
libxml2
libgovirt
gnome-session-xsession
libcom_err
tracker
realmd
shared-mime-info
libvirt-client
libsoup
p11-kit
libvirt-daemon
geoclue
libICE
libvirt-daemon-driver-secret
upower
libgcrypt
radvd
xorg-x11-server-utils
freetype
gnome-boxes
kernel
libuuid
fedora-bookmarks
libvisual
libgdata
popt
libsecret
gnome-settings-daemon
hunspell-en-US
libtalloc
libXau
brltty
libXfixes
festival-speechtools-libs
libXdamage
festival
libXinerama
python3-gobject
libplist
libwbclient
libtool-ltdl
libunistring
libtasn1
libwnck3
nss-softokn
libgomp
mozjs24
cups-pk-helper
orc
sox
harfbuzz
flite
harfbuzz-icu
libgnomekbd
ca-certificates
orca
libXxf86misc
xcb-util-renderutil
startup-notification
qt5-qtbase-gui
acl
dbus-python
libdb-utils
iptables
desktop-file-utils
ebtables
diffutils
libnl3
mozjs17
caribou
avahi-libs
yajl
abattis-cantarell-fonts
device-mapper-event-libs
libproxy
clutter-gtk
libverto
boost-system
libsamplerate
gvnc
libxshmfence
snappy
libthai
libee
libXdmcp
lzop
openssl-libs
nmap-ncat
cracklib-dicts
spice-server
libmount
crontabs
shadow-utils
gnutls-dane
util-linux
cryptopp
libusbx
iscsi-initiator-utils
cups-libs
logrotate
fedora-logos
glusterfs
curl
qemu-img
newt-python
qemu-common
openssl
tcp_wrappers
fipscheck-lib
fuse-libs
cryptsetup-libs
libexif
polkit
gettext-libs
mesa-libEGL
quota
pango
which
librsvg2
libgcc
dbus-x11
fontpackages-filesystem
gtk2
filesystem
accountsservice-libs
basesystem
colord-libs
libX11-common
gcr
heisenbug-backgrounds-base
libwacom-data
dconf
mobile-broadband-provider-info
gnome-keyring-pam
hwdata
gnome-bluetooth-libs
ncurses-base
gjs
glibc-common
adwaita-gtk2-theme
libstdc++
gnome-desktop3
bash
pygobject3
libsepol
libselinux
dbus-libs
rtkit
nspr
gnome-session
info
libwacom
libffi
PackageKit-glib
glib2
trousers
atk
glib-networking
libwayland-client
libgweather
json-glib
geocode-glib
audit-libs
rest
libogg
libimobiledevice
libgpg-error
kpartx
libwayland-cursor
mcpp
libpng
xorg-x11-xinit
mesa-libwayland-egl
dracut
libxkbcommon
pulseaudio
libSM
gnome-terminal
gnome-bluetooth
sqlite
libvpx
gstreamer1-plugins-base
libattr
gnome-online-accounts
libacl
evolution-data-server
chkconfig
sed
gdm-libs
libvorbis
libnotify
grep
gdm
hunspell
hunspell-en
bzip2-libs
libtevent
libxcb
python3
libXext
brlapi
libXrender
gupnp
libXi
libXcomposite
festvox-slt-arctic-hts
libXcursor
gupnp-av
libxkbfile
python3-cairo
telepathy-glib
python3-pyatspi
mesa-libglapi
pytalloc
libicu
samba-libs
libcap-ng
libsmbclient
libtdb
wavpack
libical
libXres
libXxf86vm
avahi-glib
lua
nm-connection-editor
libidn
dotconf
kmod-libs
rygel
redhat-menus
libgtop2
tcp_wrappers-libs
libao
graphite2
festival-freebsoft-utils
pixman
newt
espeak
gnome-menus
python3-speechd
p11-kit-trust
control-center
nettle
xorg-x11-xkb-utils
libXevie
xcb-util
jasper-libs
enchant
libmetalink
libxslt
cyrus-sasl-lib
libtheora
libgee
cpio
make
findutils
xml-common
libxklavier
psmisc
lyx-fonts
ncurses
libmodman
libpciaccess
json-c
gdbm
libsndfile
qrencode-libs
speex
jbigkit-libs
gdk-pixbuf2
sbc
cdparanoia-libs
ustr
krb5-libs
nss-tools
cracklib
openldap
libpwquality
libuser
coreutils
pam
libutempter
nss-sysinit
pulseaudio-libs
alsa-lib
gnome-icon-theme
pulseaudio-libs-glib2
python
libssh2
liboauth
rpm-libs
color-filesystem
pygobject3-base
libXft
authconfig
procps-ng
fipscheck
device-mapper-libs
systemd
libgudev1
polkit-pkla-compat
mesa-libgbm
libcanberra
cairo
cairo-gobject
NetworkManager-glib
fuseiso
seabios-bin
cyrus-sasl-md5
seavgabios-bin
linux-atm-libs
libcue
device-mapper-persistent-data
net-snmp-libs
corosynclib
lua-socket
libquvi
kbd-legacy
initscripts
cyrus-sasl
qemu-system-x86
sheepdog
pm-utils
poppler-data
poppler-glib
bzip2
gnutls-utils
libvirt-glib
dmidecode
libvirt-daemon-driver-nodedev
libvirt-daemon-driver-interface
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage
libdaemon
libvirt-daemon-driver-network
libvirt-daemon-kvm
cheese-libs
liblouis-python3
qt5-qtbase
xcb-util-image
xcb-util-wm
mesa-libGLES
qt5-qtdeclarative
python-six
python-decorator
libnetfilter_conntrack
libselinux-python
python-slip-dbus
firewalld
clutter
caribou-gtk2-module
python-caribou
libiscsi
numactl-libs
usbredir
libibverbs
libpcap
mutter
libevent
iptables-services
libvirt-gconfig
libosinfo
lzo
libtirpc
libwsman1
libestr
leveldb
libgxps
gtk-vnc2
mutter-wayland
ldns
lvm2-libs
clutter-gst2
fedora-release-rawhide
cronie
unbound-libs
libseccomp
dnsmasq
ceph-libs
quota-nls
lua-lpeg
libusal
rsyslog
glusterfs-libs
glusterfs-fuse
glusterfs-api
libcacard
spice-gtk3
file-libs
ipxe-roms-qemu
augeas-libs
exempi
SDL
parted
giflib
gmime
gettext
e2fsprogs-libs
libiptcdata
nfs-utils
fuse
at-spi2-core
control-center-filesystem
libfdt
accountsservice
tzdata
enca
gtk3
adwaita-cursor-theme
lua-expat
bluez
mozilla-filesystem
corosync
adwaita-gtk3-theme
emacs-filesystem
libquvi-scripts
colord
glibc
hostname
pycairo
xz-libs
vte3
zlib
kbd
GConf2
nss-util
poppler
ibus-libs
pkgconfig
autogen-libopts
gnutls
gobject-introspection
libvirt-gobject
geoclue2
libwayland-server
libvirt-daemon-driver-nwfilter
usbmuxd
libdb
mtools
libmcpp
gsettings-desktop-schemas
libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu
hardlink
expat
gnome-shell
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
readline
firefox
webkitgtk3
libcap
zenity
dbus-glib
gstreamer1
pulseaudio-gdm-hooks
libjpeg-turbo
python3-libs
libX11
gssdp
libXrandr
festival-lib
libXtst
python3-brlapi
libXt
libldb
gmp
samba-common
lcms2
glx-utils
libXmu
vino
libcroco
gupnp-dlna
kmod
colord-gtk
elfutils-libelf
slang
speech-dispatcher
xorg-x11-xauth
liblouis
telepathy-logger
qt5-qtxmlpatterns
libXv
xcb-util-keysyms
hunspell-en-GB
libnfnetlink
desktop-backgrounds-gnome
libmnl
flac-libs
python-slip
ModemManager-glib
libevdev
gawk
caribou-gtk3-module
iso-codes
libaio
xz
celt051
webrtc-audio-processing
librdmacm
libasyncns
openjpeg-libs
gsm
opus
keyutils-libs
libarchive
libtiff
libqb
libwebp
rpcbind
libsemanage
boost-thread
gzip
device-mapper-event
systemd-libs
fedora-release
nss
cronie-anacron
libblkid
kbd-misc
fontconfig
libgsf
hicolor-icon-theme
lua-json
python-libs
rsyslog-mmjsonparse
libcurl
glusterfs-devel
rpm
spice-glib
gnome-icon-theme-symbolic
genisoimage
sound-theme-freedesktop
netcf-libs
device-mapper
libnfsidmap
dbus
iputils
libdrm
taglib
mesa-libGL
keyutils
cogl
libdv
gstreamer1-plugins-good
libshout
libv4l
libiec61883
libavc1394
libraw1394

TODOS

• do we need to pin down versions ?
• add vpn packages

Policies for software add-ons

General rules and policies for how extra software is installed and what requirements are put on that software.

• Optional software must not interfere with the regular functionality of mandatory components. E.g. installing optional audio software must not prevent other applications from using pulseaudio and gstreamer for media playback.

• Optional software should integrate properly into the defined extension points of the OS:
  • Applications should provide desktop files and icons
  • Applications should provide appdata (link?) for the software installer
  • System services should provide systemd units
  • Desktop environments should provide a desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions

• It must be possible to remove optional software from the system again

Engineering Roadmap

Not sure if we want this section here or if we should just make this a pure description document and put the implementation roadmap in a separate document.