ArcoLinux Beta 21.03

Filesystems and encryption

Thanks to the ArcoLinux Calamares Tool it is super easy to choose your initial filesystem before launching Calamares.

We adapted the iso so we can also encrypt your harddisk.

It all works

But there is a side-note – Btrfs seems to be working but we would like to say “watch out and use with care” if you encrypt or use swap to file. See the orange bits in the image below.

ArcoLinux Welcome App

We have a new version for the ArcoLinux Welcome app. We launch Calamares in a different way.

Shadow.service is now fixed.

One of the services had been failing since January without any repercussions. Nevertheless we do not want to release an iso like that.

That is one of the reasons we postponed the release date by two weeks.

ArcoLinux Calamares Tool

We had the idea to create a GUI to quickly change settings in Calamares during the live environment.

We can now change the standard filesystem formatting with a simple dropdown.

See choices in the image below.

There is NO NEED TO GO THROUGH the manual partitioning to choose the format

Only v20.3.8 our flagship ArcoLinux (Xfce, Openbox and i3) and ArcoLinuxD has the new ArcoLinux Calamares Tool on board.
Next time we will roll it out on all the ArcoLinuxB isos.

Get the ArcoLinux Calamares Tool on the ArcoLinuxB isos.

Do you want the ArcoLinux Calamares Tool on the ArcoLinuxB isos?

1. If you want it you can BUILD your own ArcoLinuxB iso with the help of our website https://arcolinuxb.com

2. You can follow this video to get the update in

BELNET

We have a new server where we make a backup from what is on Seedhost.

You can download our isos from that location now too and also our packages.

We have updated our arcolinux-mirrolist accordingly.

Calamares

New version of Calamares 3.2.37 is now in use.

ArcoLinux Tweak Tool

The ATT will now make a backup of your ~/.config folder before installing other desktops.

ATT needs to overwrite files to be able to boot into the newly installed desktop.

The backups name has the letters ATT in the folders name.

sddm-config-editor-git

We have aded the application sddm-config-editor-git to all isos but the Plasma iso.

We changed the look via kvantum settings.

arcolinux-sddm-futuristic

We have adapted the theme for ArcoLinux.

arcolinux-sddm-redrock

We have adapted the theme for ArcoLinux.

arcolinux-sddm-urbanstyle

We have adapted the theme for ArcoLinux.

arcolinux-sddm-slice

We have adapted the theme for ArcoLinux.

arcolinux-sddm-theme-git becomes arcolinux-sddm-fralonra-git

The original theme we used to try out SDDM has changed name. At the same time we have changed its background image.

All credits to Fralonra.

arcolinux-sddm-sugar-candy-git

Our standard theme will no longer display the characters when typing the password.

Old lightdm gtk greeter settings

We have added the old lightdm-gtk-greeter config to the iso. SDDM stays the standard display manager.

If people want to change back to lightdm they only have to type this in the terminal and reboot.

tolightdm

bibata cursor

Because of build failures we moved to the bibata-cursor-theme-bin packages rather than bibata-cursor-theme package.

DOSFSTOOLS

Dosfstools received an update v4.2-1. Because of that Calamares crashes when making an EFI partition. We will downgrade to the older version 4.1-3 untill the issue is resolved.

Fixes

Gufw and Timeshift were no longer opening.

Open as root for Thunar back to pkexec after fixing the polkit issue with Gufw and Timeshift.

Re-using an old package arcolinux-systemd-services for pacman-init.service

We want to be able to edit the pacman-init.service and add keys on the fly.

We are repurposing this old package that we were not using anymore for this.

ArcoLinux and Chaotic keys will be loaded that way.

alias tolightdm and alias tosddm

We created two new aliases called:

tolightdm
tosddm

Since we are making the switch from lightdm to sddm we provide you with an easy alias to quickly switch back and forth.

alias nsddm

We created a new alias called:

nsddm

It will launch nano and open up /etc/sddm.conf.

Here we can change our theme name and cursor name.

Current names are (if you install the packages):

• arcolinux-sugar-candy
• arcolinux-breeze (just on Plasma)
• arcolinux-chili

Sardi Surfn icon update

We keep updating our icons at least on a monthly cycle. Icons that are missing will be updated.

More sddm themes

We will surely add more themes over the coming months.

This is arcolinux-sddm-chili-git that we adapted to have our wallpaper.

Open as root in Thunar

After the updates of XFCE we were no longer able to open a folder as root.

We can again today.

Right mouse click – open as root

Calamares 3.2.36

We are using a new version of Calamares. Read more about it here.

CHECKING THE CALAMARES CONFIGURATION

We have gone over every Calamares configuration and double-checked if all packages we use to install our system are gone again if we do not need them afterwards.

SDDM is now set as the default display manager.

Jwm

We were no longer able to logout of JWM because Arch Linux changed the content of this variable DESKTOP_XSESSION.

ArcoLinux-Logout application has been changed. We are able to logout again.

ALCi or Arch Linux Calamares Installer

Put Calamares on the Arch Linux iso
and keep as close as possible
to the original Arch Linux iso.

That is basically the goal of ALCI.

Tweaktool

We have added the Chaotic Aur repo to the ATT.

Use it with care.

We added the keyring and the mirrorlist as a dependency to avoid issues when using the repository.

Because of this extra repo you will have access to packages from Garuda.

Again use with care.

See what packages are build on an hourly or daily basis.

• linux-xanmod kernel
• and so much more

Check the pages here.

Or use pamac to see what is in the repository.

LIGHTDM to SDDM

sddm does not crash if you install a wrong driver (xf86-video-intel)

Besides  the obvious package change we had to rewrite the script to build our iso.

Packages that are out:

• lightdm
• arcolinux-lightdm-gtk-greeter (will phase out of existence)
• arcolinux-lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings (will phase out of existence)

Packages that are in:

• sddm
• arcolinux-sddm-sugar-candy-git (default greeter)

By default SDDM is the display manager.

Getting back to lightdm is super easy.

sudo pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings

sudo systemctl enable lightdm -f

Then you are back on Lightdm as greeter.

all 21 desktops will be displayed in this theme

New archiso version

The build process depends on the ArchIso package.

We take what we like and leave out what we do not like.

mirrorx and mirrorxx

We have added an ‘experimental’ alias to your .bashrc. It just means we will be changing it over time.

Everyone wants a fast download from the Arch Linux servers. Our ArcoLinux Welcome app uses the same config at the moment.

alias mirrorx='sudo reflector --age 6 --latest 20 --fastest 20 --threads 5 --sort rate --protocol https --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist'

alias mirrorxx='sudo reflector --age 6 --latest 20  --fastest 20 --threads 20 --sort rate --protocol https --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist'

Someone reported on the forum that REMOVING xf86-video-intel made the system boot up again. We created therefor the next version for March to exclude that package. So far the results are promising. All installations were succesful  without the package. If you see the graphics are not perfect on your intel graphics card install the package and you will be fine.

In the same time we took a look at xfce and thunar packages. Some isos will no longer include them by default. You will have to select them during the installation process in Calamares.