Sisyphus

Sisyphus is the base for creating stable repositories from which all ALT distributions are collected.

2024: Introduction of the 11th Salvia software platform

"BaseALT" released the 11th software platform (p11), called Salvia (Sage). This is a stable branch of the Sizif project software package storage, which is being developed and supported by BASEALT. The storage facility is under the jurisdiction and in the territory of the Russian Federation and cannot be disconnected from the outside. The developer announced this on May 31, 2024.

The 11th platform will become the basis for the development of new versions of the Alt family of operating systems and a large range of other software products - from software for embedded and mobile devices to software solutions for enterprise servers, data centers and clouds.

The release of products based on the 11th platform will begin in the fall of 2024. By this time, compatibility checks of this platform with the most popular Russian applications included in the register of domestic software will be completed. BaseALT will provide customers with the necessary upgrade instructions.

Support for Platform 10 for security updates will be discontinued on June 30, 2025. Technical support of operating solutions based on the 10th platform will be carried out in full until the end of 2025 or until the date specified in the technical support agreement.

As of May 2024, BASEALT customers use operating systems based on the 10th platform - Alt Workstation, Alt Workstation K, Alt Server, Alt Virtualization, Alt Education, Simply Linux. The high reliability of these systems has been confirmed by many years of operation among hundreds of thousands of users.

In 2024, the BASEALT company released the Alt Platform product on the basis of the 10th platform. This is a technological complex for assembling system-wide software, including operating systems, as well as applied software products.

2022: Ability to download Yandex Browser from the Sisyphus repository

Users of operating systems of the Alt family can now download Yandex Browser directly from the OS repository. It is part of the Sisyphus repository, one of the largest repositories of free software packages, along with Debian, Red Hat and SUSE. This was announced by the company "BASEALT" on October 10, 2022.

Sisyphus is closely integrated into the development infrastructure of domestic operating systems of the Alt family, which is located in and under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Repository development rules define ALT Linux Team, a community of free software developers; the developers of BASEALT are actively involved in his work.

Illustration: de.primacad.ru

The presence of the program in the repository is a great convenience for users. They do not need to waste time looking for the necessary software, they do not need to worry if the found program will work correctly on a computer with the Alt operating system, they do not even need to download the application themselves. It is enough just to open the "Application Center" of the OS, view the list of software of the desired category, select the program you like and click "install." The operating system itself will download and install it on an office or home computer - and the user can immediately start working with it. Each of the programs included in the Alt OS repository has been carefully tested for compatibility with operating systems.

The combination of a high-quality domestic operating system with a well-known browser provides an up-to-date, convenient and secure digital environment for working on the Internet. As the updated versions of the Alt and Yandex Browser family OS are released, BASEALT and colleagues from Yandex will ensure their compatibility so that the most relevant features of our software products are always available to people. told Sergey Trandin, General Director of BASEALT.

Yandex Browser has been verified for compatibility with the Alt Workstation 10, Alt Server 10, Alt Education 10 OS. Any user of these operating systems can install Yandex Browser in any usual and convenient way: with the command from the apt-get install yandex-browser-stable console or using the graphical utilities of the Application Center. Yandex will accompany the browser in the repository, updating as the latest versions are released.

In the summer of 2022, the company released a large Yandex Browser update for business and, of course, supported the version for the Alt operating system based on Linux. Using one browser at home and at work is convenient - the user will not feel the difference, even if he works in different operating systems. Yandex Browser allows you to customize the space for yourself: add frequently used links to the "Scoreboard" for quick access, share information on different work projects using tab grouping. For those who often encounter content in foreign languages ​ ​ at work, the browser will help translate texts, pictures or videos, told the head of the Yandex Browser development project office, Ilya Shibanov.

2021: ALT platform p10

On August 11, 2021, BASEALT announced the release of the Tenth Platform (p10) ALT (Aronia) - the next branch of the Sisyphus repository of free programs. It is designed to develop, test, distribute, update, and support end-to-end infrastructure and local solutions from embedded devices to clouds. The platform contains a variety of software tools that enable enterprises and organizations to gradually migrate infrastructure to domestic software and hardware systems. The tenth platform (p10) was created as part of the Sisif project of the ALT Linux Team based on the BASEALT infrastructure and will become the basis for the development of the company's products.

The release of the Tenth Platform took place just two years after the previous one, - said the Alexey Novodvorsky Deputy General Director of BASEALT. - Such a high dynamics of updates is due to the fact that kernel Linux other free technologies are developing very quickly. One of our main tasks is to provide users of BASEALT products with the latest, most up-to-date basic solutions. Therefore, we included them in the stable Sisyphus branch, which can be used by all free developers. ON I note that the latest versions of our repository and, accordingly, software based on it are not inferior, and often exceed the current stable branches of other Linux repositories.

The tenth ALT platform works with eight hardware architectures:

• five main (parallel assembly, open repositories): x86_64, i586, aarch64 (ARMv8), armh (ARMv7), ppc64le (Power8/9);
• three closed (separate assembly, repositories on request in mid-September 2021): e2kv3, e2kv4, e2kv5.

In the second half of 2021, it is planned to create a p10 repository for the riscv64 architecture. Work on the mipsel architecture will continue as part of the unstable Sisyphus branch and the Ninth Platform.

Assembly for all architectures is native, without cross-compilation. The tenth platform provides users and developers with the opportunity to use the Russian Baikal-M, Elbrus, Yadro, Elvis systems and a compatible, large range of equipment from world manufacturers, including powerful servers ARMv8 Huawei and a variety of single-board ARMv7 and ARMv8 systems.

The developers paid special attention to free solutions that allow corporate users to migrate from a proprietary infrastructure, ensure the continuity of a single directory service for enterprises and organizations, and provide remote work with up-to-date means.

To quickly start working with the Tenth Platform, BASEALT offers users who prefer to independently determine the composition and design of the system, boot images of starter kits for supported architectures, as well as Docker and LXD images.

Updates from versions 9.x of commercial products will be possible under the contract after the release of versions 10.0 of the corresponding products. Before upgrading to the Tenth Platform of a previously installed system, be sure to read the description. The developers do not recommend a mass update until the trial is successful.

The Tenth Platform repository includes software:

• cores 5.10 LTS, 5.12 and linux-rt 5.10;
• GCC 10.3.1, glibc 2.32, llvm 12.0, systemd 249.1, selinux 3.2;
• python 3.9.6, perl 5.34, php 8.0, Rust 1.53, dotnet 6.0;
• samba 4.14 c dc, openUDS 3.0;
• Gnome 40.3, KDE 5.84, Xfce 4.16, Mate 1.24;
• Chromium-gost 92;
• Firefox 90;
• LibreOffice 7.2 et al.

2020: Baikal-T and Baikal-M-based systems support

As of April 14, 2020, the Sisyphus project, which develops, BaseALT supports systems based on (processors Baikal-T BE-T1000) architecture MIPS and architecture processors, ARMv8 which include domestic Baikal-M development. Baikal Electronics

2019

Release of the Ninth ALT Platform (Vaccinium) of the Sisyphus Repository

On August 21, 2019, BASEALT announced the release of the Ninth ALT Platform (Vaccinium). This is a stable branch of the Sisyphus repository of free programs, designed to develop, test, distribute, update and support complex solutions of all levels - from built-in devices to enterprise servers and data centers. Read more here.

RISC-V Architecture Support

On April 9, 2019, Basalt announced that the Russian Sisyphus repository provided support for the RISC-V processor architecture with an open set of commands. RISC-V became the eighth hardware platform available to Sisyphus project participants and users. Now BASEALT, which manages the repository infrastructure, supports 8 platforms - both foreign and domestic. A large set of architectures expands the prospects for creating computer technology and software products.

RISC-V architecture is a technology that allows you to ensure the openness of the hardware "filling" of various devices. Large companies developing solutions for the Internet of Things are interested in using it.

It is on these boards that Sisyphus packages are also assembled, it implements regular assemblies for single-board computers with the RISC-V processor architecture (rv64gc) and for the Qemu emulator.

As of April 9, 2019, Sisyphus has support for processor architectures:

• intel (i586 and x86_64);
• ARM (armh и aarch64);
• Elbrus (e2kv3 and e2kv4);
• MIPS (mipsel used in Baikal-T processors);
• RISC-V (rv64gc).

2018: Meltdown vulnerability closure

BASEALT, a Russian developer of operating systems for the public sector, state corporations and large businesses, announced on January 12, 2018, the release of updates that block the possibility of exploiting the CVE-2017-5754 vulnerability (called Meltdown) in all distributions and the current development repository. Updates are available from January 11. Read more here.

2016

Since 2016, BASEALT have been develop and developing the Sisyphus product, where the ALT Linux team has moved.

2012

Over 10 years, more than 150 distributions for various purposes have been collected on the basis of the repository: from simple desktop and server versions to special assemblies for supercomputers.

2010

As of December 2010, Sisyphus is supported by the ALT Linux Team - enthusiasts from Russia and other countries who support repository packages. ALT Linux Team has about 200 members.

Facts about Sisyphus:

• Sisyphus is one of the 5 largest free program package banks in the world.
• Back in September 2001, the entire repository was placed on several CDs, but now its volume is about 80 gigabytes.
• In 2007, Sisyphus was awarded the CNews Awards
• Sisyphus (Sisyphus) is named after the character of Greek mythology and symbolizes constant change and renewal.
• Sisyphus repository has more than 10,000 packages

2008: Secure Package Assembly System git.alt

In 2008, a system for the safe assembly and maintenance of git.alt packages appeared.

2004: Hasher Assembly Tool

The process of assembling packages has been significantly improved. In 2004, the Hasher assembly tool was developed, which made life much easier for mantainers.

2002: Establishment of Sisyphus Free Programs Bank

The Sisyphus Free Software Bank was created in December 2000 at the initiative of the founders of ALT Linux.