[ACCEPTED] TrueNAS Branding: TrueNAS Scale is not exactly Debian

Feature Requests
1

Problem/Justification
When using tools like node_exporter or alike, that check for `/etc/os-release` trying to identify the OS of a system, TrueNAS Scale still reports itself as “Debian“.

The Debian Wiki provides a guideline on when and how to rebrand: https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Guidelines#De-.2FRe-branding (Sorry, first post)

Depending on the degree of divergence from the vanilla Debian, it might be necessary to introduce non-functional modifications in the deployed system to eliminate user confusion of the derivative distribution with vanilla Debian.

I would argue, that the modification TrueNAS does to Debian counts as significant enough to justify a rebranding.

Impact
After completing this process, Debian mirrors should be able to identify TrueNAS Scale systems better and their impact on the Debian infrastructure.

Monitoring tools such as node_exporter will be able to identify the Operating System running on TrueNAS Scale hosts correctly.

TrueNAS Scale will be better in line with the Debian Branding guidelines.

User Story
As a System Administrator I want to be able to identify what OS is running on my machines using systematic, standardised approaches such as reading /etc/os-release.

1 Like
2

Thanks for bringing this up. It’s never occurred to me that TrueNAS identifying itself as Debian might be a problem for tools like node_exporter, but now that youv’e got me thinking about it, it makes perfect sense.

3

uhm, there is no apt update in truenas. This doesn’t apply at all AFAIU.

This sounds always good

Could you test that against such a config?

VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
VERSION_ID="12"
DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=12.13
ID_LIKE="debian"
ID="truenas-scale"
NAME="TrueNAS"
PRETTY_NAME="TrueNAS-25.04.2.6 COMMUNITY_EDITION"  # e.g. `midclt call system.version` + `midclt call system.product_type`
VARIANT="truenas scale"
VARIANT_ID="scale"
VERSION="25.04.2.6"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://ixsystems.atlassian.net/jira"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://www.truenas.com/docs"
HOME_URL="https://www.truenas.com"
PRIVACY_POLICY="https://www.truenas.com/legal/privacy-policy"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.truenas.com"

EDIT: as a side-note. This should still make OS Detection for hypervisors (if you do such a thing) possible if i didn’t f00d up the terms.

4

apt has always there. It’s just disabled for non-developer users.

And TrueNAS really shouldn’t identify itself as Debian at this point because it really doesn’t behave like vanilla Debian at all.

Glad to see this. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

I opened a jira ticket here: Jira

Thank you for pointing this out.