Re:
That was my thinking really. Plus what you have diagnosed and apparently done already on the CentOS side is far more than would be required to build the new installer; complexity wise.
We did release for both Leap and CentOS for over a years of so. But in the end we simply couldn’t build on CentOS anyway due to a dependency issue involving setup tools I think it was. Anyway all in the past now.
We still have folks installing 3.9.1 from 2017 and applying zero updates. We failed to release 3.9.2 (testing channel 3.9.1-15 or so) as it had broken replication. And by the time replication was fixed the ‘Built on openSUSE’ endeavour had begun as a concept. Inevitably it was a larger than expected endeavour. But we are almost there now. Except we found at the last minute that some AD stuff was flat out broken. This also indicated that we have insufficient testing in place both in-house and in the community. So I’ve back off a little from the release cadence to make sure we release a more proper instance. And the ISO release, as indicated by folks running 3.9.1 still without any updates, marks some what of a statement for many. I’m also very keen to spread the DIY capability of the ISO builds. And unless folks have to do this they often wont ever explore it. Plus we are in testing still and the intention is to only offer paid support for example on the stable releases. All in I’m reluctant to label the final Stable 4 until we are fairly assured it is sound. Especially since it will represent our first release in 3 years and in a very real sense a re-launch for the project as a whole since RedHat announced their removal of btrfs from even the tentative technical preview status. Hence the requirement to re-base on openSUSE. Just as well as it turns out given the more recent news re CentOS.
I hope note 
. Whenever you install openSUSE or the Rockstor 4 derivative, you will notice an initial license within the installer. Rockstor’s License here is a straight sed edit of the ‘Marks’
rockstor-installer/config.sh at master · rockstor/rockstor-installer · GitHub
so that we might comply with the openSUSE guidelines for derivatives. Their docs, from my reading, are highly encouraging of derivatives and they go out of their way to help with such things. And as far as we are aware we have done all that is required. But as stated in our developer notes:
And since then we have released our DIY installer recipe which helps us test our installer (which uses kiwi-ng, again from the openSUSE/SuSE folks) prior to releasing the binary variant. We also had a regression issue with kiwi-ng where the resulting installer images were no longer compliant where they had been previously:
https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi/issues/1575
As usual the kiwi-ng folks were super helpful and responsive.
We have also had GitHub interactions already with the prior openSUSE board chairman Richard Brown aka sysrich here:
https://github.com/rockstor/rockstor-core/issues/2024#issuecomment-472803765
and the recent openSUSE board member Neal Gompa (ニール・ゴンパ)
Conan-Kudo (of openSUSE/Fedora fame) advising on our Python 2 to 3 move here:
https://github.com/rockstor/rockstor-core/issues/1877#issuecomment-678662593
We also have, among our forum members and Rockstor installers, a CTO @ SUSE UK. So we are not unknown to the openSUSE/SuSE folks. But as per our recent ‘Built on openSUSE’ installer doc howto:
http://rockstor.com/docs/installer-howto/installer-howto.html
we are keen, obviously, to be a good open source citizen. And our use in fact of the term “Built on openSUSE” here on the forum and in our docs, and the term “Uses openSUSE” within the Web-UI itself comes from the openSUSE guide here:
openSUSE:Trademark guidelines
openSUSE:Trademark guidelines - openSUSE Wiki
subsection:
Distributing openSUSE With Modifications:
https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Trademark_guidelines#Distributing_openSUSE_With_Modifications
Where these two variants are among those suggested.
Me and @Flox have also been actively involved in reporting and testing issues with kiwi-ng during the development of our installer recipe. Plus I’ve made minor upstream contributions to the shellinabox package, all using obvious rockstor related identities. I.e. check out the last (to date) changelog entry here (Tue Mar 03 15:21:00 GMT 2020):
https://build.opensuse.org/package/view_file/shells/shellinabox/shellinabox.changes?expand=1
which was submitted from our official “rockstor” OBS account:
https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/781298
So as stated: I hope we are OK on the license side. Plus I hear from our Ten64 hardware partner, see:
“Rockstor on Ten64 HOW-TO and notes”
https://ten64doc.traverse.com.au/applications/rockstor/
that the openSUSE/SuSE folks are nothing if not helpful, and from my own meagre interactions this has definitely been the case. I just want to have a good show out of the gate so we don’t let the side down .
But yes, I would really like to soon publicly distribute a pre-built installer but I’m awaiting confirmation that we ‘meet the mark’ re ‘Marks’ use prior to doing this. But currently I’ve had my plate full with some last minute hick-ups concerning background tasks and our use of a long abandoned library to mange these. So I’ve yet to chase up on this side of things.
Oh well, all in good time.
Yes, it’s actually pretty straight forward once you get going. And “Good luck”.
Do remember to take notes of ‘stuff’ that is not clear (read pain points) as I’m super keen on making this admittedly potentially intimidating process as straight forward as possible. We have already made a number of changes to the Readme in that repo so do feel free to make your own pull requests there if you fancy. Or open a forum thread as stated earlier in this thread.
Hope that helps.