Rocky Linux 9 with new build system has appeared

The Rocky Linux Project has released version 9 of the distro. The version called Blue Onyx is the first full version of a stable RHEL distro, which replaces CentOS. The makers recommend performing a fresh install.

The new distro is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, which was announced in May. Rocky Linux 9 is an alternative to CentOS. It took longer than expected to release the distribution, according to the makers, because a completely new build system was used. The makers use Peridot for this. That is a build system developed by The Rocky Linux Project. Peridot is open source available and works on x86_64, aarch64, s390x, and ppc64le architectures. The makers say they’ve moved away from Koji, which was still used in Rocky Linux 8.4. For RL 9, the makers would prefer to choose an architecture that is more cloud-oriented.

The Rocky Linux project was launched last year out of dissatisfaction with Red Hat’s direction. That stopped rebuilding Red Hat Enterprise Linux at the end of 2020 and focused only on CentOS Stream. Rocky Linux is an alternative to that. A first stable beta was released in May last year, followed a month later by the first stable final version, Rocky Linux 8.4. Now Rocky Linux 9 is the first major new version of the distro.

Besides the switch to Peridot, many other things have been changed in the distro. For example, security has been improved by implementing new versions of OpenSSL and OpenSSH and phasing out SHA-1. In the network area, iptables has been replaced by nftables and new virtualization options have been added. For example, files can be exchanged more easily between the host and the VM via virtiofs and there is support for virtual trusted platform modules. The makers warn that upgrading from Rocky Linux 8.6 is technically possible, but not recommended.