Debian 12 default image - Why is Open vSwitch there?

Software
,
1

I just got in an AML-S905X-CC v2 and I flashed the Debian 12 image from here - specifically debian-12-base-arm64+aml-s905x-cc.img.xz - to a 32GB uSD card. After getting it set up with a new user, I took a look at what processes were running, and I noticed that Open vSwitch was installed and configured.

This is a tool I normally think of in the context of bare metal hypervisors virtualized servers, not a low power ARM SBC with 2GB RAM. Is there a reason this is configured and in place? Similarly, I noticed that exim4, a mail transfer agent, was installed and running - but I’m not sure how it was configured.

This is not software that is present in a vanilla Debian 12 install, so whomever made the image put them there, intentionally or otherwise. I’m just trying to find out if it was intentional, why was it done? And if not, I would like to request that the images be rebuilt with unnecessary software removed.

Thanks!
John

2

When did you download the image? It should have been removed already.

3

I downloaded it on Saturday (2023-10-28) when I got the board. I only just now had time to set it up. I can re-download it if it has been updated.

4

Please re-download it. We released Gnome version as well yesterday and removed those packages from base. Also see Libre Computer Board Firmware Update Images

5

Okay, I will re-download now and try it out. I did run the firmware update earlier today as well. Is there a changelog or any documentation associated with the new firmware?

6

All firmwares are built from GitHub sources. The exact changes are there.

7

The updated debian 12 image does not have open vswitch, thank you for letting me know that it fixed! I’ll take a look through the github sources.

8

Same artifact on Ubuntu 22.04.3, not sure why vswitch is there either…

Tested 01/21/2024.