20.4 – April RELEASE
Live usb boots into DESKTOP of CHOICE
CALAMARES software choices
start with any iso and install any desktop
switch from Breeze cursor to bibata cursor
ArcoLinux tweak tool
JWM – new desktop
Awesome update
glava
PLASMA ENHANCEMENT
NEW TERMITE THEMES
i3wm themes
Zsh themes
arcolinux-logout
LXQT TUTORIALS
FUN SCRIPT
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS
TO DO NEXT MONTH(S)
STAY ROLLING
WHAT IS NEW
GOOD TO KNOW
LIVE USB BOOTS INTO DESKTOP OF CHOICE
Arcolinuxb isos
All ArcoLinuxB isos will boot into the desktop of choice.
Xfce is no longer used as the transfer mechanism.
i3wm will have an error message in the panel on a live usb – after installation the panel will work.
Deepin will give a nice warning icon you can disregard.
You will also now boot into a tiling window manager.
Learning keybindings beforehand is highly recommended.
We created a video “how to install ArcoLinuxB” for every desktop. You can find the installation videos on https://arcolinuxb.com in the BYOI article of each desktop at the bottom of the article.
Calamares is our graphical installer. We now use version 3.2.22. You can read more about this version on the github of Calamares. We used this brand new Calamares on ArcoLinux, ArcoLinuxB and several ArcoLinuxB isos. Others use version 3.2.20.
We are trying out an extra safety measure in order to avoid the umount error that occurs sometimes at the end of our installation.
We also have more support for the Japanese language. We rebuild ArcoLinux and ArcoLinuxD to have Japanese support on Calamares.
Branding is brought to a minimum. Images for all the desktops have been deleted.
CALAMARES SOFTWARE CHOICES
Choose your applications in Calamares
What you see is what you get
You can not uninstall
You can only install more
Choose your applications in a structured fashion.
The packages are organized logically and alphabetically.
Packages that are already on the iso will not be shown in Calamares.
- hardware related
- communication software
- development software
- office software
- multimedia software
- internet software
- theming software
- games software
- utilities software
- multiple categories
- software for ArcoLinux developers and betatesters
You will find similar screens on ArcoLinux, ArcoLinuxD and ArcoLinuxB.
Linux provides so many great applications
Arcolinux-teamviewer
Teamviewer is a great way to remotely take over the computer. You can assist anyone and take control over the computer if they have teamviewer installed as well. Teamviewer is available on Windows, Mac or Linux.
We created our own package as the setup is quite technical and we do not want any frustrations for our users.
arcolinux-teamviewer works out of the box
Getting to know linux software
Because Calamares offers a great variety of applications, we recommend investigating the options.
All the packages are now coming from the ArcoLinux repos which were previously only in the AUR.
Communication software
Because of the corona crisis we focused first on communication applications.
How can we keep in touch with colleagues, friends and family?
We came up with this shortlist of applications to choose from :
Start with any iso and install any desktop
Start with any iso and install any desktop
The desktop installer has been improved so you can install our 15 desktops on your system. Deepin has conflicting packages and has to be treated manually only if there are conflicts in packages. It all depends on the choices of the desktops.
ArcoLinux Tweak Tool
Arcolinux-tweak-tool
We have further improved our ArcoLinux Tweak Tool.
Autostart has improved in usability.
Desktop installer will install a more complete list of packages needed for a great experience in every desktop.
Since this tool is started up as ‘root’ we had to create all kinds of workarounds to perform actions as ‘user’.
Switch from breeze to bibata cursor
Switch from breeze to bibata cursor
We had changed our package from xcursor-breeze to breeze. With breeze came a lot of dependencies in our 15 desktops. To make things worse there were several large updates in the month of March.
Hence we have decided to abandon the package breeze (not on Plasma) and we will have bibata ice cursor as the default cursor now.
During Calamares you can decide whether you want to install xcursor-breeze or breeze as package. We believe in freedom of choice.
xcursor-breeze and breeze will always conflict
The reason for the conflict lies in pacman and how Arch Linux makes the packages.
JWM
New Desktop : Joe’s Window manager or JWM
We added Jwm to the list of possible desktops to try out.
This is our 16th desktop
More information to follow in the coming weeks.
AWESOME UPDATE
Awesome update code + new Blackburn theme
We updated the plasma code and added a new theme called Blackburn. You will notice it has only 5 workspaces. That is intentional.
You can change the themes with the ArcoLinux Tweak Tool.
GLAVA
New Glava config package
Glava makes it possible to visualize music on top of your desktop with bars , circles, waves etc.
We created this config package for it. So use skel to get the config in your home directory.
sudo pacman -S arcolinux-glava-config-git
Type glava in the terminal to launch it.
Depending on the desktop you are on it will show in a window or in bars on your desktop IF you play some music. Turn the volume up.
Plasma enhancement
New plasma login wallpaper
Chose a new wallpaper so the login to the left would blend in more with the background.
NEw termite themes
69 transparent termite themes
We have created 69 termite themes – they are all transparent.
You can select them with our ArcoLinux Tweak Tool.
i3wm has many themes now
i3wm has now 20 themes
You can change the i3 themes from ArcoLinux Tweak Tool.
We have created a tutorial how to create your own theme.
ZSH themes
ArcoLinux Tweak Tool – Zsh
Work in progress – we are working on an easy way to set your zshrc to a specific theme from oh-my-zsh or we choose to set it to random themes.
This is the jonathan theme.
The Zsh tab will show up IF you are on zsh.
We have 2 aliases to switch our shell.
tozsh
tobash
New APP : arcolinux-logout
Switch from oblogout and slimlock to arcolinux-logout
The inability to build oblogout a few weeks ago, due to pygtk dependency we were not able to fulfill, made us dream about our own solution to be able to logout, lock, reboot, suspend, hibernate and shutdown.
Brad took it upon himself to write arcolinux-logout.
We will use this already on the following desktops:
- awesome
- bspwm
- jwm
- i3wm
- herbstlufwm
- openbox
- qtile
- xfce
- xmonad
The app is in full development. The packages of all these desktops are still in the test repo. We will communicate about it after the launch when everything is ready to make the switch.
You will need to install the new app arcolinux-logout-git.
You will be able to change transparency, change color of icons, change lock screen and much more. That is for a later article.
Because of this switch we are adapting our desktops to follow. Some of the keyboard shortcuts had to go. Now we have a more uniform coding over 16 desktops.
LXQT tutorials
Lxqt tutorials
We have written 8 LXQt articles on arcolinuxd.com.
The following topics were covered:
- how to theme LXQt
- changing the look of the panel
- changing desktop preferences
- how to autostart applications
- how to set our dualscreen
- adding compton to LXQt
- using conkies
NEW FUN SCRIPT
fun script – ghosts
We added a new fun script to your ~/.bin folder.
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS
Arcolinux iso – changes in the package list
We have removed the following packages from the ArcoLinux iso
- glances
- powertop
- vnstat
- breeze and its dependencies
- breeze-icons
- xfce4-screensaver
- glxinfo
- python-qt
You can install those packages again from Calamares.
Arcolinuxb LXQt
Only LXQt will have the new Calamares installer that released on 08/04/2020.
After creating many tutorials for LXQt on arcolinuxd.com I saw opportunities to improve this desktop even more.
Compton has changed to Picom and all files have been changed accordingly.
The following keyboard shortcuts have been added:
- music keyboard keys – stop, previous, play-pause, next
- Ctrl + Alt + m – configuration of LXQt
- Super + P – screen display
Removed screengrab and lximage-qt and replaced them with xfce4-screenshooter, gnome-screenshot and nomacs. They proved to be better screenshot tools.
ArcoLinuxB – changes in the package list
We have removed the following package from all ArcoLinuxB isos:
- arcolinux-arc-themes-nico-git
- sublime-text-dev
- meld
- the_platinum_searcher-bin
We have added the following package on the ArcoLinuxB Plasma iso:
- cryfs – needed for vault
We have removed the following packages on the ArcoLinuxB Xfce iso:
- xfburn
- xfce4-screensaver
Qtile update to 0.15.0-1
The new version of Qtile made our Qtile desktop crash. Thanks to Marco it was fixed on the same day.
Warnings and communication usually go out on the two main social media platforms:
- discord
It is important to join us there and avoid frustrations.
Xfce4-screensaver out
ArcoLinux has worked without xfce-screensaver for years. After adding this package to our package list we experienced screens turning black without any reason at the most ackward moments. When moving the mouse the screen would wake up again. It was annoying. Removing this package was the sensible thing to do.
hiding electron on xfce
On Xfce you can hide applications that are not suitable for this desktop. The flagship has Openbox and i3 onboard. We hide applications that do not concern Xfce. Electron is an application that has many versions (so many icons in our menus). It is a back-end to other applications. We do not need to see it in our menus.
Arcolinux-kvantum
We have added octopi, octopi-notifier, imagewriter, keepassxc applications to look nice with the kvantum theme manager.
Gnome and Budgie keyboard fix
Gnome and Budgie work with dconf as a central database to save all their settings. In the settings you will only see the keyboard you selected in Calamares.
ArcoLinux -welcome-app
Arch Linux creates their packages on the basis of pkgbuilds. Some of these packages will conflict with others because they provide the same files and folders under a different package name. We have created an extra icon to remind us of the possible conflicts.
Sardi and Surfn icons
With all the extra software we now host on our own ArcoLinux repos we needed to create the missing icons.
to do next month(s)
Tutorials for JWM
development of dwm
development of spectrwm
Continue the carli project
Let us try to get a new article/video/step out every month.
In a few months time we will have made progress.
how to stay rolling
what is new
good to know
staying up-to-date
We have dedicated an article to this particular topic since it is probably FAQ number 1.
Re-use our nemesis script – post installation script
After a clean installation we will install more software like Spotify, Dropbox, Insync, etc…
Up and running under 15 minutes
after clean install
arcogetstarted
After a clean installation we will install more software like Spotify, Dropbox, Insync, etc…
Re-use our arcogetstarted script.
The url to this script is ALWAYS pinned on discord in the official channel at the top in discord.
#official-news
Learn the most important aliases
Aliases are created for improved functionality and for convenience.
geoip service is once again working
Future will tell us for how long
Full package list
The full package list of the latest isos can always be found on Github at this address :
ArcoLinux : https://github.com/arcolinux/arcolinux-iso/blob/master/archiso/packages.x86_64
ArcoLinuxD : https://github.com/arcolinux/arcolinuxd-iso/blob/master/archiso/packages.x86_64
More detailed information can be found in the
beta links in the arcolinux.info menu
and of course in the commits
On github.
USE OUR CALAMARES KNOWLEDGE BASE
Overcome any and all installation issues
with our
“all you need to know article”
about
calamares