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How to package the Starling desktop as a Debian package with Starling

Stage the desktop and build a .deb that adds a Starling session to the login screen.

Who it is forA Debian or Ubuntu packager who needs an installable build of the Starling desktop for testing on other machines.

The problemTurning the built shell and apps into an installable package means assembling the layout, adding control metadata, and wiring the session entry.

The outcomeA starling-desktop .deb is produced that installs the desktop under /usr/lib/starling and /usr/share/starling and adds a Starling login session.

What you need first

  • A Linux machine, ideally Ubuntu, since the desktop is developed and tested on Ubuntu and docs/BUILDING.md covers its setup
  • A Swift toolchain, needed for the swift build commands
  • A built starling-engine checkout placed next to this repo
  • A free GPU with no display manager or compositor running, for the desktop run step

Steps

  1. Read docs/BUILDING.md for toolchain setup and the Ubuntu 26.04 workarounds
  2. Run cd shell && swift build -c release and build the apps with swift build -c release in each app directory
  3. Run build/stage.sh to assemble the layout into .stage/
  4. Run build/package-desktop.sh to produce the starling-desktop .deb

Prompt for your agent

In the starling repo, build the shell and apps with swift build -c release, then run build/stage.sh and build/package-desktop.sh. Expected output: a starling-desktop_ _amd64.deb file in the output directory. Verify that the package installs files under /usr/lib/starling and /usr/share/starling before reporting success.

Caveat. The README says the engine host_release build must exist before packaging, so the engine checkout has to be built first.

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