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README.md

WeKan Debian base snap (i386, and other Ubuntu-dropped arches)

This directory is a starting scaffold, not a finished, tested artefact. It exists so WeKan can ship a snap for i386 (and later the other exotic arches) even though Ubuntu's core24 has no i386 port. The idea, why it can work, and the exact steps to prove and publish it are below.

Why Debian, and why this can work

  • core24 has no i386. Ubuntu dropped i386 as a release architecture after 18.04, so base: core24 + build-on: i386 is a snapcraft parse error that broke every snap build (fixed separately by removing i386 from the core24 snapcraft.yaml).
  • Debian still ships i386 (and armel/armhf/ppc64el/s390x/riscv64) as full release architectures, and — unlike Alpine — Debian is glibc. So WeKan's existing glibc binaries (the wekan/node fork's Node.js, FerretDB, mongo-tools, caddy, native modules) run unchanged in a Debian base. An Alpine/musl base would require re-porting all of that to musl; Debian requires none of it.
  • The WeKan snap only assembles a prebuilt wekan-<arch>.zip (see the wekan part in the root snapcraft.yaml), and wekan-i386.zip already exists (built by build-extra-arches + the wekan/node fork). So the only missing piece for an i386 snap is an i386-capable base — which is this.
  • i386 builds natively on amd64. An amd64 CPU runs i386 directly, so this base and the i386 WeKan snap build on a plain ubuntu-24.04 runner with no qemu and no Launchpad — the thing that makes i386 the tractable first arch.

The three pieces

  1. This base snap — snap-base-debian/snapcraft.yaml (type: base, wekan-base-debian13), a trimmed Debian trixie rootfs.
  2. An i386 WeKan snap — a separate snapcraft-i386.yaml (see below), a copy of the root snapcraft.yaml with base: wekan-base-debian13 and only the i386 platform. Kept SEPARATE so it can never break the mainstream core24 build.
  3. A CI job — build+publish the base once, then build+publish the i386 WeKan snap, both on ubuntu-24.04 (native i386, no Launchpad).

Local test loop (do this before any CI or store work)

# 1. Register the base name once (globally unique; needs a store login).
snapcraft register wekan-base-debian13

# 2. Build the base for i386 on an amd64 machine (native, no emulation).
cd snap-base-debian
snapcraft pack --build-for i386      # -> wekan-base-debian13_13_i386.snap

# 3. Install it locally to test WITHOUT store review.
sudo snap install --dangerous ./wekan-base-debian13_13_i386.snap

# 4. Build an i386 WeKan snap on top of it (see snapcraft-i386.yaml below), then
#    install and smoke-test it:
sudo snap install --dangerous ./wekan_10.60_i386.snap
snap run wekan            # or the app command; check it starts and serves 8080

If the WeKan snap starts and serves on i386 locally, the base works. Only then is it worth the store-review round trip.

Publishing to the Snap Store

  • Custom base snaps require MANUAL review. After snapcraft upload, request review (the store forum / a review-queue request). Approval is per-snap and can take time; this is the main non-technical cost.

  • Reuse the existing credential (SNAP_AUTH = snapcraft export-login), but the ACL must include wekan-base-debian13 as well as wekan:

    snapcraft export-login \
  --snaps wekan,wekan-base-debian13 \
  --acls package_access,package_push,package_release,package_update \
  snap-auth.txt
gh secret set SNAP_AUTH --repo wekan/wekan < snap-auth.txt

  • Release order matters: the base must be published (and reviewed) first, or the WeKan i386 snap cannot resolve base: wekan-base-debian13 at install time.

The i386 WeKan snap (snapcraft-i386.yaml) — not generated yet

Deliberately not auto-generated here, because it must be derived from the current root snapcraft.yaml and then tested, not guessed. To create it:

  1. Copy the root snapcraft.yaml to snapcraft-i386.yaml.
  2. Change base: core24 → base: wekan-base-debian13.
  3. Replace the whole platforms: block with only: 
    platforms:
  i386:
    build-on: [amd64]
    build-for: [i386]
  4. Leave the wekan part as-is — it already maps i386 -> wekan-i386.zip.
  5. Check every build-packages: name resolves on Debian (not just Ubuntu); Debian package names are almost always identical, but verify at build time.

Known pitfalls (why this is a project, not a config switch)

  • snapd base compatibility. A base must present a working glibc rootfs with the mount points snapd expects; the scaffold trims and creates those, but the exact set can need tuning until a snap actually runs on the base.
  • Store review of a custom base is a real gate.
  • Only i386 is native-on-amd64. armhf/ppc64el/s390x/riscv64 bases need their own (emulated or native-arm) builders — add them to platforms: one at a time, each proven the same way.
  • Debian i386 is itself a shrinking target. trixie has it; long-term it is uncertain. This buys i386 snaps for the trixie era, not forever.
  • The .deb and AppImage already serve i386 — so weigh this base's ongoing maintenance (rebuilds on Debian updates, review) against how many users need the snap specifically.

Status

  • Base snapcraft.yaml scaffold (i386), documented and isolated.
  • snapcraft pack --build-for i386 proven locally.
  • i386 WeKan snap (snapcraft-i386.yaml) built and smoke-tested on the base.
  • Base + WeKan i386 snap registered, uploaded, review requested, published.
  • CI job wired (build+publish base, then i386 WeKan snap, on ubuntu-24.04).
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