calamares and lightdm working closer together on ArcoLinux and ArcoLinuxD

Same displaymanager.conf as on the ArcoLinuxB isos is now used on ArcoLinux and ArcoLinuxD iso.

numlockx

Numlockx is installed on all isos. It is an easy way to set your numlock key to on or off.

We leave it up to the desktops to set it right. Tiling window managers have startup files. They can add the line “numlockx on” in there.

This code will no longer be present in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.

With 14 desktops  it does not make sense to have it there.
Responding to a user’ post on the forum.

New aliases in .bashrc

We added a few new aliases to the .bashrc

Easy to edit important files

alias nlightdm="sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf"
alias npacman="sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf"
alias ngrub="sudo nano /etc/default/grub"
alias nmkinitcpio="sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
alias nslim="sudo nano /etc/slim.conf"
alias noblogout="sudo nano /etc/oblogout.conf"

Easy to update

# yay as aur helper - updates everything
alias pksyua="yay -Syu --noconfirm"
alias upall="yay -Syu --noconfirm"

One more fix for typos

alias upate='sudo pacman -Syyu'

calamares and lightdm working closer together

Lightdm.conf has been revised.

Checking what is absolutely necessary.

Numlockx on  is out of lightdm.conf. Issue on forum. Does not need to be in lightdm.conf. Num lock can be set in desktop or via numlockx on in .bashrc or desktop files.

Changing settings in Calamares so that you actually login to Plasma, Openbox, etc… if you select autologin in calamares.

Calamares autologin out of the box for

• budgie
• gnome
• plasma
• xfce

Unresolved – no autologin out of the box for

• awesome
• bspwm
• cinnamon
• deepin
• i3
• lxqt
• mate
• openbox
• qtile
• xmonad

Improved build scripts

Goals

1. better maintenance
2. more color
3. educational value for arcolinuxiso.com tutorials lateron

Used the opportunity to improve back-end scripting and updated linux-lts kernel to 3.19.60.

improvement on Archiso – buildprocess

1. building scripts look awesome with some coloring – you know in what stage your are
2. liveuser has no password anymore – possible to login in TTY on livedvd if needed
3. more space on dvd to install packages to experiment with settings and applications
4. mkinitcpio.conf – no modules i915 and nouveau

New fun script : rally

Follow the new grub.conf from developers

The developers of grub have a new way to format their grub file. We followed the new config.

Nothing changes for the end-user.

renaming of hblock-git to arcolinux-hblock-git

In the meantime there is a package on AUR called hblock. To avoid confusion we renamed our package.

Our package contains much more settings and will be always up-to-date.

The blue line in Vimix grub theme was hiding the grub lines in multiple boots grub

The blue line that went across the screen was obtrusive IF you had 4 Operating Systems on your computer.
That is why we changed the standard boot wallpaper and created a few extra just for fun.

Vimix grub theme is improved for multiple boot systems

Calamares is our installer and it is a super tool to install any linux distributions with a graphical interface.

During tests we created 4 partitions on one harddisk. We noticed not all the icons were looking the way we expected them to look.
We were missing an ArcoLinux icon.

We have adapted the official theme from vinceliuice to what we need.

Calamares Series on Youtube

Calamares is our installer and it is a super tool to install any linux distributions with a graphical interface.

Calamares is so essential to our distribution that we started making a Calamares series giving you

• golden tips
• examples of auto installation
• examples of manual installation
• how to encrypt your harddisk
• how to install with mbr
• how to install with EFI
• ways to improve calamares for the future

We are at 23 videos already just about calamares

Improving the calamares config

Via pkexec calamares -d you can always launch calamares via the terminal. We analyzed the messages and improved the calamares config.
Then after a comparative test we decided on the setttings.

The goal is a fast booting system with no need for internet. 

Packages removed

oh-my-zsh was removed as a package since it is far easier to install and maintain via the script on their website. More info about zsh and oh-my-zsh.

Zsh stays on the iso. Just not this package.

Packages added

We added the package xf86-video-nouveau back to the list of graphical drivers. It was out because of conflicts with the kernel in the past. No issue today.

Packages updated

We updated

• hblock
• ufetch

Neofetch update

You can now also add the medallion logos to your terminal with neofetch.

Making it possible to use the LTS kernel or Long Term Support

Some of our computers will never work on the latest linux kernel version.
They require the linux-lts kernel.

That is now possible. After the installation and a reboot you will be working with the linux LTS kernel.

Calamares 3.2.10

Calamares has a new update.

https://github.com/calamares/calamares/releases

and

https://calamares.io/calamares-3.2.10-is-out/

New Conky – ZVER-medallion-xfce

A conky specific for this desktop.
Credits for the logo to Ivar Roode aka Zver43 on discord.

New Conky – ZVER-medallion-openbox

A conky specific for this desktop.
Credits for the logo to Ivar Roode aka Zver43 on discord.

New Conky – more logo choices – gold, silver, bronze, blue and white

A conky specific for this desktop.
Credits for the logo to Ivar Roode aka Zver43 on discord.

Calamares – set all cores to be used automatically

We have a script in ~/.bin to make sure you use all the cores of your hardware.
We tend to forget it and not run it.
Now Calamares will run it automatically for us.

New alias UAC

The alias is there to launch a script to Use All Cores that can be found in ~/.bin/main.

It will ensure that your computer uses all its cores when installing packages from AUR.

Bootup error Apply Kernel Variables

The tweaks, we applied to the previous kernels, no longer apply. So we had to delete the file.
Updating your system with the alias update, fixes the issue.

Conkies reworked/restyling

More info later.

Blueberry- bluetooth

In between updates something has changed in this package. A few days back we were no longer able to switch bluetooth on and off.
Solution is on the ArcoLinuxD githubs, in the .bin/stayrolling folder and the change is in the isos.
The user needs to be part of the group rfkill.

Read more here.

New conky : AK-Wiu

calamares can be started in debugging mode

It was always possible to start calamares in debugging mode with

calamares -d

but now we have actually added a menu to your system so you can just click.

The debugging link is hardly visible.

You will find it in the bottom left corner.

New choices to install ArcoLinux in MBR

On the forum we have supplied many solutions for booting up and changing the grub line. Those solutions are now in the standard startup.
If one line does not work, try another till it works on your hardware.

Calamares 3.2.9

Calamares has a new update.

https://github.com/calamares/calamares/releases

and

https://calamares.io/calamares-3.2.9-is-out/

Geany config

Inside geany you can use a terminal and you can set geany to follow the directory path. If you have different files open from different directories, your terminal will change directory immediately to the same directory.
See image. Tip from userx-bw from the forum.

Mimeapps.list

This file in ~/.config folder keeps track what appliciation is the default application for an extension or a particular file.

We made sublime-text more predominant than geany.

xfce no border in notifications

Thanks to the sharp eyes of m3lst4d we have omitted the border around the notification area in our system panel in xfce.
You can suggest improvements on Discord.
There is special channel for it.

Conky toggle

We have a keyboard shortcut on Xfce and Openbox that activates or deactivates a conky.

More info here : https://arcolinux.com/new-feature-called-conky-toggle/

We will gradually move through the desktops and add the keyboard shortcut.

• Deepin done
• Plasma done

Calamares

We are using the Calamares 3.2.8 release.
You can read about it here.

We have used this release to work on our configs (including ArcoLinuxB) as well.

Maintenance of repositories

Our 5 ArcoLinux repositories (see pacman.conf) need some cleaning up.

Git is an awesome tool. It keeps track of all the changes over time but with all these packages you easily have 2GB in your .git folder. There is no need for that.

We used the time to make a tutorial for ArcoLinux.iso website.

If you are planning to make your own iso, you will need to maintain your repositories.

https://arcolinuxiso.com/monthly-clean-up-of-our-arcolinux-repositories/

Monthly Fun script – colorwheel

lsb-release

Lsb_release will change to the latest version e.g. 19.06.1 when you run the stay rolling script.

ArcoLinux System Config

Redundant file in this package was deleted. The settings are now in the kernel build from Arch Linux.

Sardi

Major update from 9.6.22 to 9.7.1 – 800+ changes partially in changelog

Surfn

Major update from 9.6.22 to 9.7.1 – 1000+ changes partially in changelog

Redshift

Redshift and geoclue keeps giving us problems. Not everyone has a working application. NO frustrating applications on the iso.

AUR-Slate

We have created a new ArcoLinux conky on the basis of the work of Debianmain1 and reworked it to our own liking and made it suitable for Arch Linux.

New Calamares version 3.2.7

https://github.com/calamares/calamares/releases

OBLOGOUT HAS NEW THEME

From Zver43 on discord we got a great theme that we immediately liked so… it has been added to the collection i.e. solarized-squares64

Add this line to your current /etc/oblogout.conf to try it out

buttontheme = solarized-squares64

super + Q

From the development of Qtile we have learned to use the keyboard shortcut super + q to close a window.

We were so used to this shortcut that we have implemented it also in :

xfce, openbox, i3, awesome, bspwm, qtile, xmonad.

alias cb

Our bashrc is one of the most important files on any linux system. It contains our aliases for one. We assume and advise that you add your own aliases to your personal bashrc as explained in this article.

When an update comes in for your bashrc, we always need to copy/paste its content from bashrc-latest to bashrc and if we want to make sure that a skel later will not undo your work, you need to copy/paste the content also in /etc/skel/.bashrc.

The alias “cb”  will do that job for you and will load (source) the new bashrc for you.

Two letters and the job is done.

alias cb=”cp ~/.bashrc-latest ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc && sudo cp /etc/skel/.bashrc-latest /etc/skel/.bashrc“

Mirrorlist

We are now relying on seedhost and github and no longer on driesdubois.be.

arc themes based on Nico Hood  are implemented everywhere

We have created all our Arc themes plus Aqua and Pink on the basis of the github of Nico Hood.

The result can be installed on your system with

sudo pacman -S arcolinux-arc-themes-nico-git

and replaces arcolinux-arc-themes.

Read more here.

Compton 6.2.2 and its new configuration file

• Awesome
• Bspwm
• i3
• Openbox
• Qtile
• Xmonad

got  a new compton.conf file. Compton is in full development. In a short period of time we have seen major updates from 4 to 5 to currently 6.2.2.

Features have been changed, variables do not work anymore – our config needs to follow the development.

Tip: run compton with its configuration file from the terminal to see the WARN messages.

Hblock and redshift

New update of Hblock is in –  remember if you are using Redshift then you can lock the url where Redshift will find out in what part of the globe you live.

/etc/hblock.d/whitelist.list

Make sure you delete the # in front of this line

location.services.mozilla.com 

analytics.google.com – This line is for webmasters that are using google analytics.

Openbox menu

All google+ community links have been removed.

oomox is out

Oomox is an application to create themes. The PGKBUILD has been changed by the maintainer. As from now it will take very long to build it and it will use a lot more MB just to be able to build it.
Those users, that do want it, will not see the cpu time and harddisk space as disadvantages and can install it themselves after a clean installation of ArcoLinux.

general

• qt5-styleplugins is back in community repositories and back on iso

fun script square

Conky – ja smooth-information

general

• Getting rid of the two xfce related wallpapers in /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce after installation
• more screens for wallpaper in xfce
• qt5-styleplugins is no longer in package list – moved from community to AUR – evaluation time
• bluez-firmware is orphaned – out of packages list – evaluation time

New arc themes based on Nico Hood github

We have created all our Arc themes plus Aqua and Pink on the basis of the github of Nico Hood.

The result can be installed on your system with

sudo pacman -S arcolinux-arc-themes-nico-git

and replaces arcolinux-arc-themes.

Read more here.

Fun script of the month – bonsai

The bonsai script comes from John Allbritten at https://gitlab.com/jallbrit/bonsai.sh and as such the copyright is his but also all the questions.

To learn more about the script type bonsai –help in your terminal.

Update your system and type skel in your terminal.

bashrc

pksyua — alias in bashrc to update your system

We have added –noconfirm back after the command.

We had deleted it so the user needs to take an action to install the updates. The updates from AUR are frustrating as they need several enters before they are installed.

No frustrations allowed.

Updating is as always

first update then pksyua

Released to betatesters

We are testing this version with the beta-testers – screenshots on Discord.

Xfce has again 4 workspaces on the panel. That is a personal workflow preference.

Calamares new version – rebranding – iso improvement

Since we have a new calamares version (3.2.4) we took a look at improving the iso and the packages of Calamares.

The most important change for the end-user is the the possibility NOT TO USE SWAP.

Or to use a

• tiny amount of swap (no hibernate) or
• use the swap as we were used to (with hibernate)

(see images)

You will also notice that the live-iso boots up faster that its predecessors.

Under the hood there are many changes in the iso and in calamares.

This calls for a rebranding of

• calamares theming
• lightdm login screen
• wallpapers
• grub vimix theme
• lock theme

Sardi-arc as standard icon theme

Since we rebranded the

• lightdm login screen
• wallpapers
• calamares theming
• grub theme

we thought a more colorful icon theme will be better suitable to go with the new theming.

 As always you can change it at will.

Changed the lock theme

In the spirit of restyling we also changed the lock screen to one of the 19 choices that we have always provided on ArcoLinux. Good to know that there are many other choices.

Added our grub arcolinux vimix theme to the iso

In the spirit of restyling we also added a grub theme that we were developing together with the developer of vimix. See article for more info.

plank has lesser icons

We decided to show less icons and show you icons that most people are likely to use.

All the other great applications you will have to explore them in the menu meld, inkscape, gimp, …

Arcolinuxd follows the same developments

Iso developments often start on ArcoLinuxD and then migrate to ArcoLinux or vice-versa.

Same iso improvements and Calamares enhancements will be applied here.

super +t = urxvt

Since we have Seedhost I have noticed that communicating with a server is best done in the terminal urxvt. Therefor we changed the keyboard shortcut Super + T to be a fixed shortcut for urxvt.

We start by changing this in Xfce and will gradually move through all desktops.

CTRL + ALT + T = termite

SUPER + RETURN = termite

CTRL + ALT + RETURN = termite

PKGBUILD UNIFORM SIMPLE EFFICIENT

That is why you have so many updates coming in. The contents often do NOT change. But the corresponding github and pkgbuild does change.

Applications removed

hplip has been removed from the iso.

Every single time the package updated, we had/have to run the hardcode-fixer to change the icon.

We hope users can install this package with “sudo pacman -S hplip”

Applications ADDED

the platinum searcher bin  is a great tool to search within the content of your files. It became useful once catfish could no longer give me this functionality.

Sardi and surfn are mixed with the mint-y icons

Following a what-if I have created 7 new packages you can install via AUR.

It combines the Mint-Y icon theme from Linux Mint aka horst3180 (Arc theme and icons) with the core Sardi icons and Surfn. More info here.

Xmonad gets an alternative menu called xmobar

Thanks to Nick (ArcoLinux team) and krive001(on Discord) we were able to quickly develop a xmobar version for ArcoLinux. The intention is never to include the system icons in this one. The polybar version of Xmonad has the system icons. This is mainly done for stability reasons and for the design.

Since we now have two distinct possibilities and also two distinct xmonad configurations, we created three new packages

• arcolinux-config-xmobar-git
• arcolinux-xmonad-polybar-git
• arcolinux-xmonad-xmobar-git

The package arcolinux-xmonad-git will disappear over time and is replaced by arcolinux-xmonad-polybar-git.

If you switch between menu’s polybar or xmobar, pacman will remove the other menu since both use the same folder and files. It will install the packages it needs.

Then you do a skel and logout and login and the menu has changed.

If on ArcoLinuxD or ArcoLinuxB you will see that there are more packages required now in order for the menu of Xmobar to work. Install also

yay checkupdates-aur

sudo pacman -S xmobar

sudo pacman -S gsimplecal

Video about Numixx plank themes results in 17 extra plank themes

We have added 17 new themes to the plank themes package after creating a new version of the numixx plank theme.

We have 101 plank themes to choose from.

New fun scripts added to your .bin

New fun scripts called thebat and thebats2 have been added

New conky Mowgli-qclocktwo

The conky in the middle of the screen will tell you the time in text form. All credits to Mowgli on deviantart.

Compton update from 4 to 5

There is a new compton.conf introduced after the update from 4 to 5.

Awesome, Bspwm, i3, Openbox and Xnomad share the same compton.conf now.
Fix for virtualbox becoming darker included.

polybar extra bar at bottom

All desktops, that use polybar, can now have an extra bar at the bottom of the screen as well.

openbox keyboard shortcut

Super + Shift + r will reconfigure your openbox (coming from Bspwm, Xmonad)

kvantum-manager

Vlc and Flameshot will use Arc-dark from now on.

Avahi is enabled by default at boot again

 It is needed for wireless printer support and other devices on your network like NAS.

The script ~/bin/main/150-install-network-discovery-v4.sh takes care of that in the meantime.

Added nss-mdns back in for support to NAS servers for example.

Added gvfs-smb to be able to connect to a SAMBA server.

new calamares for Arcolinux

New version for calamares 3.2.3 – more info

transmission is out and qbittorrent is in

We are using the settings in arcolinux-kvantum-git to give qbittorrent an Arc Theme look.

The first image is qbittorrent with the kvantum default theme. 

/home/$USER/.bin/stay-rolling/18.12-to-19.1/stay-rolling-v1.sh

Calamares config update

Changed the images of the Calamares installer of ArcoLinux.

Images now show that Arcolinux contains

• xfce
• openbox
• i3

Too many people looking at this distro do not know it contains 3 desktops in one.

hblock update

Hblock is there for you protection. You decide if you install it.
Read more here.

boxes has been added to the fun script now version 4

Boxes can draw some decorations around the text you want to display in a terminal.
You give it a .txt file with content in it.

Choose a design and center it like in these examples.
Code is provided in the examples.

Type boxes -l to see all the possible design – at least 10 more choices

More examples here.

Colortest fun script

Every month we include a fun script in our ~/.bin folder.

This time it is colortest and colortest-slim.

Stargate conky

New conky of the month is in theme with Stargate films

All conkys have been revised – no conkies are using fonts that might have copyright restrictions on them. You can make conkies nicer at any time with fonts from freefonts.com, dafonts.com or fontsquirrel.com and many other.

Conky lazuli will show you monthly usage of bandwidth

Vnstat, if installed and started, can track your bandwith on your system. The script that measures the monthly usage has now been corrected. See image

Kvantum, kvantum for plasma and qt5

For usability and flexibility split qt5 settings from the kvantum settings in different desktop environments.

Calamares 3.2

We are using version calamares 3.2 as of now.
Packages for calamares have been changed for it.

general changes for Arcolinux packages

arcolinux-bin-git : renaming of scripts for microcode

kvantum settings and qt5 settings

We created a new package called

arcolinux-qt5-git

It contains the settings for kvantummanager in ~/.config/Kvantum

We migrated the ~/.config/qt5ct folder from arcolinux-config-git to this one since they are related. 

Virtualbox

Top : the look after the update to version 6 – unreadable text – white on light blue

Down : after configuration and installation of kvantum-qt5

Simplescreenrecorder

Top : the look after the installation of kvantum-qt5

Down : after configuration and installation of kvantum-theme-arc

Virtualbox 6.0 has been released

31 December 2018 Virtualbox 6.0 release.

Our dark theme was broken after the update.

We added two packages to the list to have our dark theme back.

• kvantum-qt5
• kvantum-theme-arc

More info here.

Ufetch-arco has the correct Arcolinux blue now

sudo pacman -S ufetch-arco-git to install this package.

NOmacs is beautiful now

Nomacs is standard installed but the theme was changed overtime so we could hardly see the icons in the panel on top. We have set it standard to a dark theme.

Arcolinux-config-git has been updated.

Updated AUR packages

• conky-lua-archers
• i3-gaps-next
• inxi
• oomox
• pamac-aur
• perl-linux-desktopfiles
• vivaldi
• vivaldi-codecs-ffmpeg-extra-bin
• yay-bin
• zafiro

Rebuild of Calamares (qt version to 5.12) + added package qt5-xmlpatterns