IT EN
Usage

Updates and repository

How SkillFishOS updates safely, without being broken by Debian sid.

SkillFishOS is based on Debian sid (unstable), Debian’s development branch: always up to date, but by nature subject to occasional regressions. On “exotic” hardware like the BC-250, a bad update (of Mesa, firmware or the kernel) can break the system. SkillFishOS addresses this with two tools.

1. Our own components, from a dedicated repository

The most critical parts are built and distributed by us, from our own, signed APT repository:

  • the optimized kernel (image + headers);
  • the SMU governor and the overclock tools;
  • the Tuner and AI native apps;
  • the steampunk theme and the branding;
  • the system configuration.

Publishing a component from our own repo means we can test it first on the real hardware and update it only when it brings benefits — not whenever upstream happens to change.

2. “Pinning” the fragile packages

For the packages that come from Debian but are delicate on this hardware, SkillFishOS uses APT pinning: it keeps them at a verified version until we test a newer one. The main pinning candidates are:

  • Mesa / Vulkan drivers (RADV) — an update can regress gfx1013;
  • AMD firmware / linux-firmware — GPU microcode;
  • the Debian stock kernel — to block the known-problematic versions (see kernel);
  • KDE Plasma — to avoid unstable releases.

This way “normal” updates (most of the system) keep arriving regularly, while the handful of packages that could break everything stay frozen at versions we know work.

How to update

Like any Debian system, from the terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

…or from the Discover graphical app, or from the SkillFishOS Hub — our Discover-style software centre that installs, removes and updates in one place across APT, Flatpak and Snap, with category browsing, app pages with a screenshot carousel and a one-click “Update all”. Thanks to the Snapper hooks, a Btrfs snapshot is created before and after every update: if something goes wrong, the rollback from the GRUB menu restores the previous state.

In short: we give you a tested kernel, apps and themes; Debian gives you the rest of the updated software; pinning prevents surprises; Btrfs is the safety net. Three layers of protection, so updating isn’t scary.

The official repository

The SkillFishOS APT repo is live, GPG-signed and hosted on GitHub Pages (suite aetherium):

# 1. import the signing key
sudo curl -fsSL https://mtsistemi.github.io/SkillFishOS/skillfishos-archive-keyring.gpg \
  -o /usr/share/keyrings/skillfishos-archive-keyring.gpg
# 2. add the repo
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/skillfishos-archive-keyring.gpg] \
https://mtsistemi.github.io/SkillFishOS aetherium main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skillfishos.list
# 3. install/update the kernel via apt
sudo apt update && sudo apt install skillfishos-kernel

Recent SkillFishOS builds ship it pre-configured; otherwise the commands above set it up. The kernel (152 MB image) is published as a GitHub release asset: the tiny skillfishos-kernel package downloads and installs it automatically, so the update still goes through apt. The repo is managed with reprepro and the client verifies the signature via the dedicated keyring.

Sources