ArcoLinux Beta 21.09

21.09.11

Calamares

 

During the advanced Calamares installation you can choose many packages.

We have added these new packages:

  • android-nativefier
  • android-tools
  • android-file-transfer
  • android-sdk-platform-tools
  • appimagelauncher
  • blender-benchmark
  • bpytop (replacement for bashtop)
  • droidcam
  • element-desktop
  • filebot
  • geekbench
  • google-chat-linux-bin
  • gputest
  • ifuse
  • makemkv
  • neochat
  • phoronix-test-suite
  • powerpill
  • protonup-git
  • qtscrcpy
  • rollback-git
  • scrcpy
  • shareport-sync
  • simplicity-sddm-theme-git
  • snapper
  • snap-sync
  • snap-pac
  • tweetdeck-desktop
  • ulauncher
  • vmware-workstation
  • xdman

TLP

It has been on our systems in the past. We will add it to the list of packages again and enable its service.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/TLP

21.09.10

Betterlockscreen – arcolinux-betterlockscreen updated to latest version

When betterlockscreen or i3-lock change their switches then we must update our ArcoLinux Betterlockscreen and ArcoLinux Logout because they rely on these packages.

The sweet icons are now part of the official package arcolinux-logout-git.

The other themes are in arcolinux-logout-themes-git.

Ayu theme – 6 variants

The Ayu theme was a good find. Not on the AUR but on ArcoLinux.

A theme very close to the Arc theme but darker.

Calamares packages

We have added more packages to install in Calamares:

  1. arcolinux-meta-log
  2. arcolinux-meta-sddm-themes
  3. arcolinux-meta-wine

More third party packages:

  1. s-tui
  2. freetube-bin
  3. youtube-dl-gui-git
  4. proton-comunity-updater
  5. proton-ge-custom-bin
  6. protonup
  7. gamehub-bin
  8. gamemode
  9. goverlay-bin
  10. heroic-games-launcher-bin
  11. itch
  12. mangohud
  13. minigalaxy
  14. replay-sorcery
  15. vkbasalt
  16. ayu-theme

 

Switch the config of SDDM

Fix-sddm-config is the most important alias to remember in August/September 2021.

If your ArcoLinux Tweak Tools fails to launch, type fix-sddm-config in a terminal

We will switch between the configuration of SDDM using one file and using two files.

From

/etc/sddm.conf

to

/etc/sddm.conf

/etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf

Content is the same. The settings are divided over two files.

The ATT works with both choices.

ATT has Fixes as new tab

We have added buttons to easily run our most important ArcoLinux scripts.

Fix-sddm-config is the most important to remember in August/September 2021.

We will switch between the configuration of SDDM using one file and using two files.

From

/etc/sddm.conf

to

/etc/sddm.conf

/etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf

ATT has Mirrors as new tab

We have learned in August that we can use up 20TB of bandwidth in one month.

If we do not enable the seedhost server we will use the free Belnet server and  we can save some bandwidth.

ATT has SDDM as new tab

We abandon the app sddm-config-editor-git. One of the fields was not correct. We posted an issue on the github months ago. No new release yet.

We created our own way to change the desktop session to autologin and more.

ATT has USER as new tab

Not every desktop has a way to add a user to the system. It can be done via the terminal.

Now we can do it via the ArcoLinux Tweak Tool.

Extra packages only for ArcoLinuxL iso

We like our terminals to be themeable.

208 alcritty themes

80 xfce4 terminal themes

have been added

ATT has an improved Terminals tab

Only the ArcoLinuxL will have the possibility to change between themes.

The other isos are meant to be minimal.

They can install more themes with the click of a button.

21.09.9

XS-LTS

New version to remove nvidia-lts if a user chooses one of the first two lines in BIOS or UEFI.

21.09.8

BIOS / UEFI

Thanks to a Bukii on the forum we were able to investigate how the ArcoLinux iso behaved on his hardware.

We concluded that the nouveau driver (xf86-video-nouveau) and the nvidia driver can not be on the same system.

We created two new choices to avoid the nouveau driver.

21.09.7

Nvidia

We have added a pacman hook to automatically run mkinitcpio -P for nvidia, nvidia-lts and nvidia-dkms.
More info here.

Calamares

Calamares 3.2.41.1  is used for this version.
More info on https://calamares.io.

Virtualbox

One of our betatesters aka Surfie had an issue with the virtualbox-guest-utils-nox used in the archiso releng – we switch back to virtualbox-guest-utils.

21.09.6

Beginner and Advanced

With all the freedom and choices we have given in the last releases there will be users that are overwhelmed by all the choices.

For those just starting to explore the Linux world we have added an easier way to install ArcoLinux.

We have now the beginner installation and the advanced installation.

Adding a Base installation to the ArcoLinuxD isos will bring back why we created the ArcoLinuxD iso in the first place.

For those who remember the Antergos days – this was the Antergos base installation.

You end up in TTY and you install the rest of the packages yourself.

  1. sddm
  2. mate
  3. sound
  4. bluetooth
  5. …

Qemu and Vmware

Qemu and Vmware are not activated by default anymore because of error message users see from Vmware.
VirtualBox has been and will be our default supported virtual machine to test out ArcoLinux.

Vmware users only need to activate the service. The package open-vm-tools is installed.

Go from a very small screen to the maximum resolution.

sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd.service --now

Now press Ctrl + Alt + Enter twice to have the correct resolution.

21.09.5

Pacman init service failed

On the morning of 02/08/2021 our pacman-init.service failed. We have solved the issue by changing the service file and making videos to fix the keys. Haveged has been removed as service and application in the process.

We created a new alias called “keyfix” to fix issues with pacman and its keys.

21.09.4

Archiso 57-1

We have changed 3 files regarding network configurations.

21.09.3

New Calamares option

Calamares lets you now choose the filesystem when you erase your disk:

  • ext4
  • btrfs
  • jfs
  • f2fs
  • reiser
  • xfs

21.09.2

ArcoLinux Desktop Trasher

We give you a means to remove any desktop on your system.

The application contains a list of applications for every desktop. It uses groups as well as single packages.

Over time Arch Linux will change the content of groups or may remove packages.

The ArcoLinux Desktop Trasher is therefore over time an “attempt” to remove desktops.

You may have to remove single packages that are part of the desktop yourself.
We can not remove packages you installed extra.

 

Two options to remove a desktop

  1. The ArcoLinux Desktop Trasher will look at the content of /usr/share/xsessions and provide a list
  2. The ArcoLinux Desktop Trasher has a static list to select from

Calamares 3.2.40

Standard size for swapfile has changed from 512MB to 2GB.

New Calamares software catalogue

We have been steadily adding applications to our repos.

All the applications that are new can now be selected in Calamares.

50 new packages added

21.09.1

ArcoLinux Candy Beauty

Building upon the Beautyline and Candy icons we have completed them for use on ArcoLinux.

All icons (on Xfce4) should be there.

ArcoLinux Logout theme sweet

We have created a matching logout theme called sweet.

ArcoLinuxS Lts

Because of tutorials on ALCI we decided to build an iso with linux-lts on board.
We keep the linux kernel as fail-safe. In ALCI we get rid of the linux kernel.

GRUB and UEFI

Nomodeset lines got extra parameters:

  • noapic
  • noacpi
  • nosplash
  • irqpoll

/personal folder

We have added the folder /personal to your iso. You can use it to add personal configs, setttings, packages, databases to your iso that you will build yourself via https://arcolinuxb.com tutorials.