ArcoLinux -D -B 20.6

Release June 2020

carli

Carli 6

The Carli project continues with big leaps.

10 more articles with 13 YouTube videos to boost your knowledge.

We have created the following desktops:

Plasma
Cinnamon
Mate
Xfce4
Gnome

We have learned to build in a chroot environment and learned to work with a variety of modules from Calamares.
The image below is the netinstall module from Calamares. We also use the shellprocess module.

Archiso has received an update and we made videos about it.

You can bingewatch all the steps we take to develop Carli via the playlist on YouTube.

deepin renewed

Deepin

Deepin feels like it is still in beta. We see this in some details like setting the theme (not possible yet). But it improves after every update.

At the moment it lacks some finishing touches.

We have rewritten our three configs for the new Deepin.

We stay much closer to the original Arch Linux look.

We have tweaked the drop down terminal, we have our keyboard shortcuts and we have a new wallpaper.

No more galculater config. No more htop config. No more nomacs config. No sound effects.

There were issues with setting the wallpaper in the past. That seems to be solved with the latest updates.

bluetooth fix

Fixing bluetooth icon not appearing in systembar

Blueberry is working just fine. There was an update that sets a new development as standard. Use symbolic icons is set as standard.

These icons are black. Since we use often a black toolbar the icons do not appear.

We can only use the dconf-editor to change the setting. Tell blueberry to NOT use symbolic icons.

SAMBA EASY TO USE – REAL METAL

Samba – user can share folder with right mouse click

Samba is a way to share folders (and their content) between computers in your own network.

Samba can be quite technical to set up. Not on ArcoLinux.

In ArcoLinux or Arch Linux we run several scripts to ensure that Samba simply works.

The package arcolinux-bin-git provides you the scripts in ~/.bin/main.

140 to install Samba.

150 to install network discovery.

install-samba-user-shares for ease of use – right mouse click on folder and share.

right mouse click and share

SAMBA EASY TO USE – VIRTUALBOX SHARE

VirtualBox support to share a folder between host and guest

We have added a script to easily and quickly share a folder between the host computer and the guest computer.

We have created an alias for it – vbm – which stands for virtual box mount.

It will launch a script called arcolinux-vbox-share.

Only to be used in a virtual box.

Host computer

On the host computer you need to go into the virtual machine settings to be able to share a folder and to AUTOMOUNT it.

guest computer

When you have booted up in VirtualBox there are just two things to remember.

1. Type this in the terminal:

vbm

2. Log out and log back in.

If you have set the folder to automount it will be present in the file manager.

JWM tutorial

JWM tutorial created

One long comprehensive tutorial about JWM.

SDDM

SDDM theme for ArcoLinux

This great looking theme is based on the work of fralonra, which in turn is based on the work of Match-Yang.

We have changed the elements to our liking.

creation of new logout themes

6 ArcoLinux logout themes

We created 3 new ArcoLinux Logout themes.

sudo pacman -S arcolinux-logout-themes-git

surfn
breeze
breeze-blur
candy
runes
handy

Vimix theme updated

ArcoLinux Grub Vimix theme

Using the latest code from the developer, we added wallpapers and changed the settings to our preference.

Multiple boots can always be done, e.g. ArcoLinux, ArcoLinuxD and ArcoLinuxB on one ssd.

ArcoLinux Tweak Tool

Deepin’s new release is considerably different.

There are no longer any conflicting packages with the other 15 desktops.

The text has changed to reflect that.

pamac

Pamac-aur not showing icons

We have waited a long time for the fix to come from Arch Linux.

The script that will show icons in your pamac-aur is in~/.bin/stay-rolling/2020/20.05-to-20.06/fix-pamac-aur-no-icons.sh

CAlamares

Calamares

We are using Calamares 3.2.24. More info can be found here.

We are hoping that we do not see the umount error anymore at the end of the installation.

Knowing full well that the installation was successful and that the message is bogus.

Config of Calamares had to be changed.

kdeadmin-meta and kdebase-meta do not exist anymore – kde-system-meta is the new package that replaces both.

As a result we had to update ArcoLinux Tweak Tool

Deepin

We have changed the calamares.desktop files in order for Deepin to show the actual checkboxes. Thanks to the tip from FerenOs.

We needed to adjust our ArcoLinux Welcome Application accordingly.

Calamares – browsers

We added more browsers to the Calamares installer. We discovered a few new browsers while creating Carli 6.

Image from Carli project

We will add

midori
min
netsurf
torbrowser-launcher

update-mirrors

ArcoLinux update mirrors

Most of of our packages come from Arch Linux. There are many Arch Linux servers around the globe. We need to know which of them are fully synced and are the fastest.

We have aliases like mirror, mirrors, mirrord and mirrora. But you have to remember to type it in manually.

Then we created a cron job that will update the Arch Linux mirrors sometime during the day. That is still in place.

As a response to the users, who wanted the fastest server during installation, we created a service.

Either arcolinux-system-config-git or arcolinuxd-system-config-git will update your /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist during boot time. It does not matter if it is a live usb or an ssd.

This service was working just fine on many computers. However some users have reported an error in the update-mirror.service.

We believe it can be due to a slow communication between computer and router in the user’s network.

We have changed the service to wait till your computer is online.

When you have NO internet connection at boot time, you will see the error when you shut down. The application reflector tried to connect to the internet and fails. Hence the error message. Once you have set up your wireless connection, reflector can get the fastest servers and no error message will be displayed when you shut down.

Bottom line

arcolinux-systemd-services-git is now updating your /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist at boot time

If you do not want the package or you want to get rid of the error message of this service, remove the package with

sudo pacman -R arcolinux-systemd-services-git

and update your mirrorlist manually with mirror or sudo update-mirrors.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

More packages on ArcoLinux iso

We have added hunspell-en_US and hyphen-en to the package list. The applications hunspell and hyphen were already present.

ArcoLinuxB – oblogout and slim out

None of our ArcoLinuxB isos now have the packages onboard. Last month we made the switch to ArcoLinux Logout.

ArcoLinuxB Lxqt

We use only one package on all our isos : arcolinux-kvantum-git. We stopped using arcolinux-kvantum-lxqt-git.

This follows the rule to downsize the number of packages if possible.

Removed from iso

We have removed the following package from the isos

aurvote-git (orphaned – no github updates in years)

bashrc

2 new aliases can be used in order to remove lock files.

One for pacman and one for ArcoLinux Logout.

We type rm and press twice on TAB.

alias rmlogoutlock='sudo rm /tmp/arcologout.lock'
alias rmpacmanlock='sudo rm /var/lib/pacman/db.lck'

ArcoLinux Logout on dual screen – i3

After updates we see that ArcoLinux Logout crashes if you have a dual screen. We will resolve the issue. But in the meantime it is a good idea to have a backup to lock, logout, suspend, shutdown or restart i3wm.

We have put the code back from a few months ago with this keyboard shortcut

CTRL + ALT + X

We have updated arcolinux-logout. It will behave differently and will follow the rules of each desktop.

For example, in qtile with dual screens the icons will be in the middle of the two screens.

Xmonad’s config changed to ensure that arcolinux-logout is not floating anymore.
Run update and skel to get the new config.

Use all cores during building and compressing (zst)

The script has been updated. /etc/makepkg.conf is changed in order to use all cores available from building and compressing packages.

Standard package extension is zst and not xz.

All ArcoLinux isos take care of this during installation.

If you are on Arch Linux, you can download arcolinux-bin-git and use our script.

The script ~/.bin/main/000-use-all-cores-makepkg-conf-v5.sh ensures you use the full potential of your computer.

ArchIso

Archiso is the package we use to build our isos.

When there is a new package from Arch Linux all scripts need to be checked.

We removed the following package from the isos:

libatomic_ops

ArcoLinux Logout

On Xfce the session would be saved if you logout. One more switch added so the current session is NOT saved.

ArcoLinux Welcome

There is one extra warning for the application midori. It will always conflict with zeitgeist – catfish.

Xfce hide application in menu

We have hidden hardware locality lstopo from the Xfce menu with arcolinux-local-applications-git.

ArcoLinux, Sardi and Surfn updates

We built a new iso to include the latest changes.

Qt5-styleplugins is no longer on any of our isos.

Calamares config

We removed the following packages from Calamares.

pinta
adapta-kde (orphaned)

They have moved from Arch to AUR or have been orphaned.

Time for a new default wallpaper

Fun script – alpha

ArcoLinuxB isos

In the transition from slimlock/oblogout to ArcoLinux Logout we kept the old configs in our TWMs and others.
They have now been deleted.

We have also removed the double use of the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + W. It should only start ArcoLinux Welcome on Awesome, Bspwm, Herbstluftwm, Jwm, Qtile and Xmonad.