Discussion:
Devmode Ubuntu Core? snap?
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v***@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com
2024-03-11 18:21:07 UTC
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I am trying to install mincom-snap and it requires devmode in ubuntu core.

WTFIT?

What is snap? Kermit also uses SNAP. SOmw kind of library?
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Vasos Panagiotopoulos panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
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Paul
2024-03-11 18:55:53 UTC
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Post by v***@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com
I am trying to install mincom-snap and it requires devmode in ubuntu core.
WTFIT?
What is snap? Kermit also uses SNAP. SOmw kind of library?
Originally, Debian had .deb files and apt/Synaptic for package management.

But later, other people insisted on making yet more packaging schemes.
Snap/SnapStore, FlatPak, AppImage. These are competitors for Synaptic.
Canonical invented Snap, to further their business model and future IPO
stock offering. Ubuntu may offer some softwares, only in Snap mode
and not as a .deb file.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_%28software%29

*******

https://snapcraft.io/minicom-snap

"Minicom Serial Terminal utility, please install with devmode
on Ubuntu Core devices, should access to serial ports be required.
"

https://askubuntu.com/questions/783945/what-is-devmode-for-snaps

"Developer mode, or devmode in short, enables developers and users
to install snaps without enforcing security policies, regardless
of what is defined in the snapcraft.yaml. E.g.

sudo snap install notes --devmode

When installed this way, snaps behave in a similar way to traditional
.deb packages in terms of accessing system resources. That is, snaps
have access to the system without being restricted by app isolation
and interfaces.

Developer mode is useful when:

Testing a snap in the first stages of development to ensure it runs as expected

Temporarily bypassing security enforcement if there is not yet an interface
available that controls a particular system access required by the snap
(for example for a snap that defines in it's snapcraft.yaml that it can
only work in devmode, see below)

As a developer, you can also declare that the snap needs relaxed security
requirements at the snapcraft.yaml level by declaring devmode confinement
instead of strict

confinement: devmode

You'll be then flagging users that this app specifically needs to be
installed with --devmode to work. Not specifying the command line switch
when installing will result in failure to install.

That is, users will have to specifically acknowledge that they will install
your snap in developer mode.
"

*******

It's possible this is related to minicom access to /dev serial ports.

Snaps have "slots" for containment in situations like this, but I don't know
what that means, exactly.

A user is never supposed to have direct access to hardware, and the
kernel ring is isolated from the user ring, at execution time.
The kernel and its drivers, access hardware, and the kernel provides
an API for userland to indirectly influence the function of the computer.
This prevents abuses occurring directly on silicon chip hardware registers.

Paul
v***@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com
2024-03-12 03:58:44 UTC
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Very many thanks. The Kermit for my machine also requires snap.

In <usnk3q$3p8v4$***@dont-email.me> by Paul <***@needed.invalid> on Mon, 11 Mar 2024 14:55:53 we perused:


*+- sudo snap install notes --devmode
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Vasos Panagiotopoulos panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
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