Eydos

Architecture

Application distribution

Status. The app store installs Flatpaks from Flathub today. The Eydos Flatpak remote is being set up, with the first app published through it. The aggregated repository, the APK repository and APK installation from the store are designed, not built.

Two channels

Software reaches an Eydos device through two channels that never mix:

  • The system is Debian packages, installed and updated with apt. This covers the base, the stack and first-party apps. See system image for how updates are applied.
  • Applications are Flatpaks and Android packages, installed and updated by the app store without touching the system and without a reboot.

Eydos does not offer third parties a way to ship .deb packages. Third-party native apps ship as Flatpaks.

The Eydos repository

The default source of applications is a single Eydos repository that aggregates the two large upstream catalogues, Flathub for Linux applications and F-Droid for Android ones, and adds Eydos’ own Flatpak and APK repositories. The device is configured with the Eydos remote at a higher priority than Flathub, which still supplies the runtimes.

Aggregating rather than pointing devices straight at upstream serves three purposes:

  • One catalogue for the store to search, with both application classes side by side.
  • One place to curate what Eydos recommends and to publish first-party apps.
  • One place to sign what devices run. The repository is where code provenance can be established for third-party apps, as described under code provenance: what the repository serves is what the device executes.

Flathub and F-Droid remain reachable as sources in their own right; a user can add remotes.

Signing

Flatpaks published by Eydos are built on Eydos infrastructure and signed with a key that never lives on the build or publishing machines. Devices ship with the public key preconfigured. Flathub packages keep Flathub’s signatures.

The app store

The app store is one client for both classes. It searches the Eydos catalogue, shows Flatpak and Android apps the same way and installs either. Under the hood it drives Flatpak for the first and rustdroid’s installer for the second, and reads updates from both. Permissions granted to an app are visible from its store page and managed in Settings.

Rooting

A user who takes root can install anything, .deb packages included. Eydos does not prevent it. Such a system is outside the supported configuration, and the scope of support for it is still to be defined.