Cockpit the easy way - Be happy without YaST

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41

The desktop machine is the latest tumbleweed, and until I started playing with cockpit yesterday morning, there was not a linuxbrew folder in home. I followed the notes at the start of this thread, but cockpit-client-launcher would not open, so I tried flatpak as was also suggested, but that gives the blank window.

Since I had not been aware of cockpit at all, as a possible alternative to yast I did not have it on either server, but that side of things is now working nicely and does not seem to have installed any unnecessary extras, it is just the desktop machine which has a problem, but as indicated, I do not seen the need for a separate client unless it adds something that cockpit does not cover?

Real question is how do I kill off ‘brew’ and get back to the stock python I had 2 days ago?

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For a technical question you better start a topic in the appropriate section to get the exposure you need and not hang at the end of an Chat topic. :wink:

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43

Hi, you mean the flatpak org.cockpit_project.CockpitClient? I’ve been using it for sometime, there was another thread about the blank screen…

In my user install notes I have;

## NOTE: Via Flatseal, add WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 to Cockpit Client to avoid;
## Error 71 (Protocol error) dispatching to Wayland display.
## Ref: <https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/issues/21218#issuecomment-2556163280issuecomment-2556163280>
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So while “the forum police” would totally object to my post (since this is “off topic”), I thoroughly loved the back and forth and discussion on this thread. Hopeful better days. Discussion is better than “the offtopic hammer”.

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45

Very much so for better days, almost nine months in and still…

At least I’ve learnt some new things, like targetcli for iSCSI after being spoilt by YaST…

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Although I’m not exactly a fan of Cockpit, there is a way for “newbies” to use it if they want to and think it through properly.
That’s why, two or three months ago, I put together a package that installs everything. It even includes a desktop menu entry, just like any other desktop application.

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47

This topic is about the fact that they have a launcher for it, not whether individuals like Cockpit or consider it the best tool for their workflow. I created my own after first installing it on both my Slowroll and Leap 16 systems.

As already mentioned by @hendersj earlier in the thread, opinions about Cockpit or Agama aren’t really the focus here.

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48

I still liked the thread. One of the better ones IMHO. I prefer opinions over “the hammer”.

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49

Just chiming in to say that I had been dragging my feet on Cockpit. I knew it existed and I knew it was the future, but it was always sitting on my “list of things to do when I have more time,” which as we all know might as well be “list of things I’m never going to get around to.”

This topic finally piqued my curiosity enough to get me to install and try it out (which was a lot easier than I anticipated!). I’m impressed. The podman container manager is a welcome addition! It’s also nice being able to access it remotely.

Thank you @knurpht for the thread!

Just a couple questions:

First, in your instructions you mention adding the systemmanagement-cockpit repo, but I don’t see how the packages in it differ from those already provided by the main repository. I even see cockpit-client-launcher already in there. Is this step necessary? Are the packages different?

Second, regarding cockpit-client-launcher specifically, while I haven’t tried it yet, I’m curious if there is any benefit to installing this package over just making a desktop file with Exec=/usr/lib64/chromium/chrome-wrapper '--app=http://localhost:9090'? I’m already pretty used to doing things like this for adding PWAs to my desktop.

I suppose one benefit would be avoiding Chromium, but at least in my case I have a messenger client that I unfortunately need and unfortunately only works under Chromium.

Is it just a more convenient way of doing the same thing, but with webkit? Or is there some other benefit I’m missing out on by not using it?

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50

Checking https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/openSUSE:Factory/cockpit-client-launcher it looks to me cockpit-client-launcher has been recently added to Factory so that it is no longer to add the systemsmanagement repo.

@knurpht, would be good to update the opening post on this think.

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think → thread :wink:

I have to admit that I am already benefiting from cockpit as it’s highlighted a problem with logrotate on one of the servers. There has been some useful stuff in this thread, but also errors that would benefit from a rework as a new thread.

As others have said, access to cockpit on remote machines is not the problem here, but things like installing brew just to get the client working is questionable, and the mention of ‘wayland’ perhaps being a factor also matters. I’m still on X11 which works better for me than wayland but that is another hot potato :wink:

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52

I’ve been wondering that for ages too.
I don’t think so.

But it would be better if you use:

Exec=xdg-open https://localhost:9090/

Then it’ll open in the default browser.
Unless you really want it that way. :slight_smile:

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53

Thanks :slight_smile:

I use xdg-open when I want something opening in the browser, but I don’t want Cockpit opening in a regular browser window where it will get lost in tabs and hide inside the browser’s icon on the task manager.

chrome-wrapper is nice because it gives me a nice, clean window with no location bar, no bookmarks or other browser guff and it gets its own icon on the task manager (which I can set to Cockpit’s icon using KDE Window Rules). Makes it look and feel more like a normal program, rather than a really fancy website:

Screenshot_20260314_190401
Screenshot_20260314_1904011131×920 113 KB

I think it looks nicer, at least.

I don’t think I would install chromium just for this feature, but I already have it installed because I need it for LINE Messenger, so I make the most of it. :sweat_smile:

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OK, @all, I can no longer edit my OP, will write some snippet on the wiki page.

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I added strike through to the part, this is correct now?

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I added cockpit-client-launcher to the Cockpit wiki article.

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57

Thanks, the Leap line could stay, it will not land in Leap 16.0

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Thanks for taking care of that.

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cockpit-client-launcher is already available in the Leap 16.0 OSS standard repo.

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Today I decided to try cockpit for first time in my Tumbleweed machine, so followed this steps:

after install and setup I can login to cockpit via browser in localhost:9090
I thought that cockpit-launcher will open cockpit without need to remember that…

If I run cockpit-launcher in a terminal I get this message:

$ cockpit-client-launcher                                                                                                                                                          

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/libexec/cockpit-client", line 20, in <module>
    gi.require_version("Gtk", "4.0")
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 153, in require_version
    raise ValueError(f"Namespace {namespace} not available for version {version}")
ValueError: Namespace Gtk not available for version 4.0

That’s the expected behaviour, or I miss something?