A new version of the Arch based ArcoLinux 21.01 has been released.

ArcoLinux -D -B 21.01

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.

COLOR THE ARC FOLDERS ANYWAY YOU WANT

Horst3180 did a great job creating the folders for any filemanager on Linux. We are reusing the scripts from Linux Mint to be able to color the Arc folder and add our own icon expertise to make them nice on any of our 21 desktops.

NVIDIA TUTORIALS

We have added many video tutorials on how to install the Nvidia drivers for your computer and explain in several videos how to overcome the message “Failed to start light display manager”.

Here is the playlist on Youtube.

NEW CONKY

Since we were making so many tutorials about Nvidia we wanted to display some information about our graphical card.

Creation of AUR-Nvidia

ARCOLINUXD – RIGHT MOUSE CLICK OPEN TERMINAL

Our ArcoLinuxD iso is the most ‘bare’ iso we can give – only 7 ArcoLinux packages are on there.

We had to add xfce4-settings to be able to right mouse click and open a terminal on the live usb. Xfce4 provided us a major update and we adapted. It is removed thereafter by Calamares.

EXTRA EFI LINE FOR NOMODESET

After creating the video how users can add nomodeset behind the UEFI lines to boot up, we added an extra line to our iso for convenience sake.

You can see the text ‘nomodeset’ in the image below.

AUTOMATIC UPDATE-GRUB

If the user installs one of the Arch Linux kernels on ArcoLinux Grub will be automatically updated. See image line (5/5). If you are on Arch Linux you will have to remember to update your Grub.

linux

linux-zen

linux-hardened

linux-lts

CARLI PROJECT – CALAMARES DESIGN

We created a new design for Calamares on ArcoLinux. Time to create one for Carli.

CARLI PROJECT – CALAMARES DESIGN

Archiso is the package to build your very own Arch Linux based system. We need Carli to be able to use version 50.1-1.

CALAMARES ADDED EXTRA INSTALLATION OPTIONS

We added software you may need later for your Nvidia drivers. You can now select them during setup. It is recommended to read the ArchWiki to see what needs to be done for your hardware. We have added the choice to download the headers as well as extra Nvidia related software.

NEW CALAMARES CONFIGURATION

You can style Calamares in many ways.  There is currently little documentation on its possibilities. After looking at the code of our friends at EndeavourOS I was able to do the following changes:

fonts are bigger everywhere

images are now resized to the size of your display – ideal for Tiling Window Managers

color accents in buttons, sliders and selections

last but not least – new images and text

NEW SARDI AND SURFN ICONS

30+ icons created mainly because of a major update from Xfce.

2 NEW ICON THEMES ADDED

ARCHISO

All our scripts are adapted to the latest archiso version (50.1-1).

UKUI TUTORIALS

We have created two videos containing all the info you need to start using Ukui.

SPECTRWM TUTORIALS

We have created several spectrwm tutorials to get you started on that tiling window manager.

DWM TUTORIALS

We have created 15 videos for you to get started on DWM.

ARCOLINUX SPECTRWM

When maximizing your window the standard spectrwm bar is now gone. You will have to press Super + Y to remove the polybar.

As a result, your application will now run full screen.

ARCOLINUX MIMEAPPS.LIST

We would like to have one mimeapps.list for all desktops we have.

We would like to minimize maintenance for this file in ~/.config. Now every iso has a separate file.

No frustrations like jpg being opened with Gimp because Nomacs changed their .desktop file.

Atom loading takes longer than Sublime-text so we have set sublime-text as the first choice to open files.

We have tested this on our flagship ArcoLinux iso,  and for this we have created a separate package to test it out.

arcolinux-config-all-desktops-git

At the moment only the mimeapps.list is in there. There are candidates to be included in this package as they apply to all desktops.

That is for next release.

ARCOLINUX DEFAULT WALLPAPER

A new year, a new wallpaper as default wallpaper was our thought.

All credits to Jan Styblo.

ARCOLINUX TWEAK TOOL

Peter has no longer time to maintain or support his spinoff.

We have changed our ATT accordingly.

ARCOLINUX FLAGSHIP

We have added our applications to communicate with our users :

discord

telegram

We have added more support for Vivaldi to the flagship iso.

vivaldi-widevine (netflix)

vivaldi-ffmpeg-codecs (youtube)

CALAMARES 3.2.35.1

Calamares released a new version. More info here.

We have added emacs to the development list.

REFLECTOR – 2 EXTRA SCRIPTS

Beginning December 2020 reflector gave us issues with the long waiting time.

We created one script to have osbeck as the default server and one script to experiment with the settings.

But downgrading was essential in order to get a fast response.

NEW STRUCTURE + CLEANUP

Scripts that are no longer needed have been removed and scripts that are left go in a directory.

Fun script has been replaced with a package

sudo pacman -S arcolinux-meta-fun

Using all cores is handled in Calamares.

This is done via the arcolinux-bin-git package.

INTEL-UCODE AND AMD-UCODE

When removing and installing these two packages we have to remember to update Grub with this alias

update-grub

We have created a pacman hook to ensure that Grub will be updated automatically.

In this video we discovered this issue and now a simple solution has been implemented.

I had removed intel-ucode and forgot to update Grub.

Then booting up gave this nice message:

error: file /boot/intel-ucode.img is not found

and I was stuck. The video shows you how to solve that issue.

IMPROVING /ETC/PACMAN.CONF

Arch Linux is quite fast in updating their packages. In 2 or 3 days the package will be updated when it has been flagged out of date by its users.

However sometimes a package is essential for a distribution. Discord is such a package for ArcoLinux.

By changing the sequence of the repositories in /etc/pacman.conf we made sure our ArcoLinux repositories are at the top (see image).

That is how we can have the latest build of Discord and Variety before the users of Arch Linux.

In your hidden folder .bin in your home directory you will find a script to stay rolling and get the last pacman.conf in.

ArcoLinuxD and Arch Linux users install arcolinux-bin-git.

HBLOCK

Hblock released a new version. 

CALAMARES 3.2.35

Calamares released a new version. More info here.

PAMAC-ALL

We can install pamac-aur or we can install pamac-all.

Pamac-all gives support for flatpak and snap applications.

ARCOLINUX SPICES APPLICATION

Improvement in layout and more information to the user.

AWESOME

We have removed mpd from the menu bar in all themes. The code is still in there but hashtagged out.

CUPS OR PRINTING

Arch Linux changed the names of some services. Follow this tutorial to be able to print again.

BSPWM AND GAPS

Thanks to a tip from a user on Telegram we can now make the gaps bigger and smaller with the scroll of the mouse.

Press Super or Super + Ctrl and scroll the mouse.

CALAMARES AND THE USE OF A SWAPFILE

In the current version of Calamares you can also decide to use a swap file instead of a swap partition.

While the Calamares team is now thinking how to make a GUI for the size of that swapfile, we have created a script to increase that swapfile from the standard 512MB to anything between 1 and 32 GB.

The script will be in your .bin folder if you have the arcolinux-bin-git package installed.

CALAMARES INSTALLATION OF EXTRA PACKAGES

After testing out snapd and flatpak on ArcoLinux it made sense to also add them to Calamares.

If users want to install it, they select it during the Calamares installation.

Underneath you can find the playlists about the packages.

CALAMARES INSTALLATION OF EXTRA PACKAGES

After input from users we have added ‘htop‘ to the ArcoLinuxD Calamares choices.

Htop is installed by default on ArcoLinux and all ArcoLinuxB isos.

We also got a tip to add Gimp and Inkscape to the Calamares installer for ArcoLinuxD and all the ArcoLinuxB isos. It is installed by default on ArcoLinux iso.

We have removed riot-desktop from the Calamares installer.

ArcoLinux -D -B 21.01 | ArcoLinux.info