🐟 remora

A container-native way to add local layers to bootc systems.

A remora fish travels with a larger fish. This tool travels with your TunaOS image. It holds a small manifest of your packages and your changes. It builds a local derived image from that manifest. Then it rebases your system to the new image. When the base image changes, remora builds the local image again.

On an image-based system, users ask how to install one package. remora is the answer, and the answer is the same on each TunaOS variant: dnf, zypper, pacman, apt, portage (emerge), and apk.

sudo remora init                 # one-time setup
sudo remora install htop vim     # layer packages, rebuild, rebase
sudo remora enable               # rebuild automatically when the base updates

remora ships preinstalled on TunaOS images. Source: tuna-os/remora.

How it works

/etc/remora/remora.yaml ──► Containerfile ──► podman quadlet (Pull=newer)
                                                     │
                                                     ▼
                                       localhost/remora:latest
                                                     │
                                                     ▼
                            bootc switch --transport=containers-storage

Your system updates in the same way as a stock TunaOS system. There is one difference: remora first builds the update again, with your layers on top. remora changes nothing in place. Each change makes a new image, and bootc rollback reverses each change.

The manifest

/etc/remora/remora.yaml

base: ""                  # empty = follow the booted image
package_manager: ""       # empty = auto-detect
packages:
  - htop
  - tailscale
extra_run:                # verbatim shell before package install (repos, keys)
  - dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/fedora/tailscale.repo
schedule: "*-*-* 04:00:00"

Beyond packages:

• /etc/remora/build_files/*.sh — scripts run at the end of the build (enable services, tweak configs, call BuildStream or any other builder).
• /etc/remora/system_files/ — copied over / verbatim.

Package-manager shims

sudo remora shims

After this, dnf install foo (which can't work against a read-only /usr anyway) explains what's going on and offers to run remora install foo. Read-only commands — search, info, pacman -Q — pass straight through. Remove anytime with sudo remora shims --remove.

uupd integration

TunaOS desktop images include uupd. When uupd is on the system, remora init connects the rebuilds to it with a systemd drop-in. uupd then controls all of it: the schedule, the limits on battery and network use, and the reboots. remora adds no other timers, and neither tool depends on the other.

Commands

Command	Effect
remora init	Create /etc/remora, install quadlet + timer (+ uupd hook)
remora install PKG...	Add to manifest, rebuild, rebase
remora remove PKG...	Remove from manifest, rebuild, rebase
remora list	Show layered packages
remora build	Rebuild + rebase now
remora enable / disable	Toggle the rebuild timer
remora status	Booted image, manifest summary, timer state
remora generate	Regenerate the Containerfile only
remora shims [--remove]	Package-manager interception on/off