OSM Documentation 0.1.0 Search

Release notes

OSM 0.1.0

The first release of OSM: a home and office server on Debian 13 "trixie", with its web desktop, storage, shared folders and file protocols, apps, virtual machines, backups and security. Overview describes all of it.

Requirements

A 64-bit PC (x86-64) with UEFI or BIOS, or an arm64 computer with UEFI firmware; 4 GB of memory or more; one disk or more; a USB stick of 4 GB or more for the installation, or a DVD for the installer ISO (Hardware). A modern browser for the web desktop: the current versions of Firefox, Chrome, Edge or Safari.

Known limitations

These are the limits of this version that we know of. Each is a goal for the versions to come.

  • Real hardware. Every feature has been tested on virtual machines (QEMU/KVM, with UEFI, Secure Boot, BIOS and an emulated TPM). No real computer has been confirmed yet: please send a hardware report from yours (that page says where).
  • Updates. Every update comes from OSM's update service (Updates and upgrades), and never from anywhere else; a server without internet takes the same updates from an offline update brought on a USB drive (A server without internet). This version has no keys for the service yet, so it installs no updates: a version that has them can.
  • Automatic updates. OSM installs them itself in its maintenance window, with a restore point and the watch that rolls a broken update back, like every other update (Debian's own tool installs nothing). A server that is off at night installs the waiting security fixes when it is on again (after two days without a window).
  • New kernels on trial. Only a server that starts with UEFI tries a new kernel once before keeping it. A server that starts with BIOS uses a new kernel at once, as Debian does.
  • Firmware. The image includes the firmware of common network cards and Wi-Fi adapters. Other firmware (for graphics, among others) is installed from OSM's update service once the server reaches it. OSM does not update a computer's BIOS or UEFI firmware, or its disks' own firmware: use the maker's tools for those.
  • Arm computers. The arm64 version has been tested in QEMU only. RK3588 boards should work through their UEFI firmware but have not been tried. The Raspberry Pi 5 is not supported: Debian 13's kernel has no driver for the chip behind its network and USB ports. Virtual Machines makes x86-64 virtual machines, which an Arm processor cannot run with KVM: it is for x86-64 servers.
  • Virtual machine images. The images for Proxmox VE, VirtualBox, VMware and Hyper-V are made from the same system; only QEMU/KVM (which Proxmox VE uses) has been tested.
  • Languages. The web desktop is in English, German and French. OSM Setup, the App Catalog's descriptions of the apps and what the server itself says (its errors and logs) are in English only. Seven more languages are being translated and will appear when they are complete.
  • Graphics cards for apps. Giving an app the graphics card works with Intel, AMD and NVIDIA cards in principle, but has been tested only with an emulated card: hardware video transcoding has not been tried.
  • Installing over Wi-Fi. Setting up over Wi-Fi works, but a complete installation onto blank disks over Wi-Fi alone has not been tested end to end.
  • The next Debian release. The upgrade to Debian 14 is offered once Debian releases it; until then Preview... shows what it would do to the server. The upgrade itself cannot run on a server before Debian 14 is out, so it has not been tried for real yet.
  • Backups of the apps' data on ext4 volumes. ext4, the default file system of a new volume, has no snapshots, so the apps are paused while their data is read (usually a minute or less at night, two hours at most). On Btrfs and ZFS volumes they pause for about a second.
  • OSM inside OSM. The OSM choice of Create a virtual machine has not yet been seen to reach OSM's installer. Where the server was itself a virtual machine without hardware acceleration, the new virtual machine's firmware had not started after 40 minutes; on a real computer it has not been tried.
  • Update reports. Report how updates go can be turned on, but OSM's service that receives the reports is not running yet: until it is, a report waits a day and is dropped. Releases that wait because of reports (When a release waits) come once it runs.
  • The phone app. Notifications on a phone, OSM on the home screen and sharing files to OSM need an address the phone trusts: the server's OSM Connect address, or your own domain with a Let's Encrypt certificate (On your phone). They have been tested in a browser on a computer, not yet on real Android phones and iPhones.