Kernel Simulator was first launched as version 0.0.1 in 2018, and its home repository is found in GitHub. It has been going well since its launch until we started to think about the implementation of KS for Linux systems. The idea has emerged in 0.0.5.6 in the middle of 2019, and we kept testing the new versions until the massive challenge has started at the end of 0.0.8’s development in February 2020.
At first, we thought that the Debian packaging is so difficult. As we reached version 0.0.9, we found that Debian packaging is easier than we thought; We just have to add files to debian directory, edit them, and run debuild -sa to build binary package and debuild -S -sa to build source package. However, the build process required the active Internet connection. There is another reason for that. Because it makes use of MSBuild and NuGet packages, the build has failed on Launchpad because they’re non-existent.
So we have made two PPAs: Kernel Simulator, and MSBuild. MSBuild is the home of core-setup, msbuild, and mono-roslyn. We built the two source packages and published it to the MSBuild PPA, and thought that they are enough, so we have prepared the KS source directory for offline packaging, and uploaded the source package to Launchpad. To our dismay, it says that the build has failed because it needed Roslyn to build. So, KS has to make use of NuGet, MSBuild, and Roslyn to build.
We have downloaded the latest commit of Roslyn from GitHub, and examined what NuGet packages does the build system download. We then made its own folder which is the home for all the packages, and pointed NuGet.config to that folder. We have modified some source files to be equivalent to offline packaging for MSBuild, including making tools.sh make use of the local dotnet-sdk that resided in the required folder. We built everything without Internet connection, and saw that the build has succeeded.
We published it to Launchpad in 6/8/2020, because our quota was near to the maximum value. To our surprise, we saw that launchpad built Roslyn without any problem. We tried to build KS once again, but it tries to access the home directory of /home/<BuildUsername> for NuGet configuration file. Because sbuild forbids these kinds of access, the build has failed. We then fixed it so it accesses the temporary home directory that is created in the debian folder. We published it to Launchpad for the last time with the new version.
And this is the time when KS has successfully built on Launchpad without any errors. Now, KS users can enjoy following these steps to get KS up and running on their PCs without having to build from source:
- Open the terminal prompt
- Write
sudo add-apt-repository eofla/kernel-sim - Confirm the addition of the PPA. It should update the package cache automatically
- Run
sudo apt install kernel-simulator - Run
ks - KS should start
In the next version of KS, we will add the desktop menu entry for all desktop environments (and menu for those using window managers) to ensure that you don’t have to open the terminal emulator anymore to start KS.
What do you think of our success adding KS to our PPA? Feel free to comment below. Stay safe, and stay home.
Aptivi 
Thoughts?