 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 934, 13 September 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 36th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Arch Linux distribution is a popular, rolling release project that is well known for its detailed documentation and cutting edge software. Installing Arch Linux is usually approached as a manual process and, as a result, setting up the distribution is less convenient than installing other Linux distributions. This has led to the creation of several projects which present themselves as being Arch Linux, but with a graphical installer and pre-configured desktop environment. We begin this week with a look at one such project called Archcraft. The Archcraft distribution combines the Calamares installer with Arch and a lightweight graphical interface. Calamares has been showing up in more and more projects in recent years. What do you think of the Calamares system installer? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about a notebook which ships with the KDE neon distribution pre-installed and link to a review of this device. Plus we talk about a lingering bug that has been found in openSUSE's version of the unzip utility and link to an interview with Linux pioneer Pete Zaitcev. Then, in our Questions and Answers column we discuss Btrfs snapshots and how they work to revert the state of the operating system in case of problems. We are also pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Archcraft 2021.06.06
- News: KDE neon running on a SlimBook, openSUSE addressing unzip issue, Red Hat looks back on early Linux development
- Questions and answers: Dealing with Btrfs snapshots
- Released last week: Tails 4.22, Lakka 3.4, Finnix 123
- Torrent corner: ArcoLinux, BunsenLabs, CloudReady, Finnix, GhostBSD, KDE neon, Kodachi, Lakka, Live Raizo, Mabox, Tails, Thinstation
- Opinion poll: What do you think of Calamares?
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Archcraft 2021.06.06
One of the young distributions I have been asked most often to review this year is Archcraft. Archcraft describes itself as a "pure" Arch distribution, meaning it only ships with software available through the Arch Linux software collection. Archcraft includes no desktop environment, shipping with lightweight window managers instead such as Openbox. The Archcraft distribution also includes the handy yay package management tool for easily adding software from the Arch User Repository (AUR). The project reportedly runs with a memory footprint of less than 300MB and includes a small collection of default software.
In short, Archcraft aims to be small, light on resources, compatible with Arch Linux, and is intended to be built up from a relatively small foundation. The project's single edition is available as a 1.6GB download. After downloading the ISO I performed a check of its hash, which passed, but when I followed the distribution's instructions for verifying the ISO's digital signature the project's verification key was nowhere to be found and the provided import instructions failed with a GPG error of "no data" from the key server.
Live environment
Archcraft's media boots to a graphical environment. A colourful panel is placed across the top of the display. This panel includes an application menu, virtual desktop switcher, system monitor, a media player widget, and a volume control. There are also buttons for signing out of the session and connecting to wireless networks.
Archcraft 2021.06.06 -- Checking memory statistics
(full image size: 145kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Shortly after the graphical environment loads a welcome window appears. This window offers a little background on what Archcraft is - a small, Arch-based distribution. The welcome window explains different ways to launch applications and there are several. We can right-click on the desktop to bring up a settings and applications menu. We can press Ctrl+Alt+Space to get another application menu or Super+Space to get an application menu. We can also click the launcher on the panel to bring up another free-floating menu with a list of applications in the middle of the screen. The welcome window can also show us a collection of screenshots to show us what the operating system can look like.
Apart from the initial welcome window, the live desktop is a curious combination of minimal and flashy. There aren't any other windows or pop-ups. The majority of the screen is fairly empty with understated wallpaper. However, the panel at the top of the display features bright colours and regular updates every second which constantly drew my eye.
Installing
The distribution uses the Calamares system installer which can be launched from any of the many application menus. Calamares is a streamlined, graphical installer which is similar in visual style to Ubuntu's Ubiquity or the Solus installer. On the first page of the installer we are offered buttons which will connect us to various on-line resources. The "Known issues" button opens the Midori web browser to show the project's GitHub issues page. The Support button opens a browser and displays an error page on the Discord website which indicates our "invitation has expired". A button labelled "Release notes" opens a document which lists a point-form collection of recent changes.
Calamares does a nice job of quickly walking us through choosing our language, keyboard layout, and time zone. The partitioning section of the installer offers both guided and manual options. The manual options are quite easy to navigate and are clearly displayed. The guided option defaults to setting up a single ext4 filesystem and we are given the option of enabling a swap partition or swap file. The final screen asks us to make up a username and password. Our user can be assigned administrative rights and is, by default, set to automatically login. Both of these settings can be toggled on or off.
Early impressions
My fresh copy of Archcraft booted to a graphical login screen. The login page offers us the option of signing into a bspwm or Openbox session. I chose to stick with Openbox for the purposes of this review.
While Openbox provided a fairly pleasant experience there are a few unusual aspects to using the window manager, along with the default panel and menus, and it took a while for me to adjust. For example, some of the items on the panel required that I double-click on them to access them. The logout and poweroff options, for instance, seem to always require a double-click. Sometimes the application menu button would open right away with one click, but other times seemed to need a double-click (or more) before it would open.
Openbox and its associated tools do not appear to have a single central settings panel. There is a panel, but it only gives us access to a handful of Openbox settings. There are independent settings modules for adjusting some aspects of the graphical environment, but some items need to be adjusted by editing text files. The Polybar panel, for instance, is configured using text files and I could not find a way to edit its widgets through the panel directly or through a graphical tool.
Archcraft 2021.06.06 -- Accessing mouse pointer settings
(full image size: 155kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Hardware
I began my trial with Archcraft in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The distribution ran well in the virtual environment. I encountered no issues, the user interface's performance was quite good most of the time, and the window manager resized dynamically to match to the VirtualBox window.
When I switched to trying Archcraft on my laptop, things got off to a good start. The distribution was able to boot in both UEFI mode and Legacy BIOS mode. Performance on my physical hardware was good, perhaps a little better than average, though the Polybar panel was sometimes unresponsive.
When run in live mode Archcraft consumed about 430MB of memory and when run from the hard drive the installed operating system required 285MB of RAM to sign into Openbox. As promised by the project's website, this places it under the 300MB line. A fresh install of the operating system consumed 5.1GB of disk space.
Applications
Despite having an application menu which is quite full of various shortcuts and configuration tools, Archcraft does not ship with many desktop applications. The lightweight Midori web browser is present along with the Lynx console browser. There is a launcher for an e-mail client though none is installed. The Atril document viewer is present along with the Thunar and PCManFM file managers. The Timeshift system backup software is included. There are a few text editors, an archive manager, and a simple image viewer installed. There are around a dozen configuration tools for dealing with the window manager's look and behaviour.
There are no media players and there is no office suite installed by default. These can be added later through the pacman package manager. The GNU Compiler Collection is installed for us. The systemd init software is used and version 5.12 of the Linux kernel runs in the background.
Archcraft 2021.06.06 -- Visiting the Archcraft website in Midori
(full image size: 171kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
There is a launcher in the application menus called About Developer which opens a large window that contains information about the leader developer. I couldn't find a way to close this window normally. I ended up killing its process which turns out to be a minimal instance of the Midori web browser.
Speaking of Midori, I ran into a curious bug where the web browser would not launch when run in the distribution's live mode. Any attempt to open the browser from the application menu or the command line resulted in the browser immediately terminating without an error. However, this issue only occurred when I was running Archcraft on my laptop. When the distribution was running in live mode inside VirtualBox the Midori web browser launched and ran as expected.
Software management
There isn't much to say about Archcraft's package management. The distribution does not appear to offer a graphical front-end for software management. The operating system relies on the fast and capable pacman command line package manager. While pacman has some of the most cryptic command line flags of any package manager I've used, it does work well and it presented me with no problems.
Archcraft 2021.06.06 -- Installing updates with pacman
(full image size: 254kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The Archcraft website mentions the yay utility is installed for us. This is a command line program which can fetch and install software from the AUR. The yay utility is quite convenient to use. We can simply pass it the name of a program we wish to install. It will confirm which item we want from a list of matching packages and automate any steps required to set up the package. This is quite a bit easier than manually running commands to browse and fetch software from the AUR and I quite like it.
Other observations
The resource monitor on the Polybar panel shows CPU usage, memory consumption, and the amount of free disk space. This all sounds useful, but there are some quirks to the way the information is presented. The CPU usage widget actually shows CPU usage + disk I/O wait times which means the statistics shown are typically higher than what top or another system monitor would show. The memory stat shows cached memory rather than used memory, again making the resource usage seem much higher than it is. The disk space figure shows free space left on the root partition which isn't particularly useful most of the time since I'm concerned with my home partition's size rather than the operating system partition. So information is provided but not the information I'd expect to see or find useful.
The information shown on the panel is configurable and can be adjusted by editing a configuration file. We can also adjust the rate information is updated which I found useful as the rapid pace at which new information was displayed was distracting to me.
Conclusions
I feel that I don't have a lot to say about Archcraft and I feel this is because the distribution doesn't, for better or worse, attempt to do much. The project's website is understated, claiming to offer a minimal distribution based on Arch Linux with a lightweight window manager and yay for acquiring software from the AUR. This is what we get, along with the friendly Calamares system installer. There isn't much else to look at, out of the box.
This seems to be the point, really, of Archcraft - it delivers a fairly minimum base, low RAM consumption, and offers better than average performance. It isn't particularly flashy, convenient, or full of features. The idea appears to be that users can build their system from a small foundation and add the pieces they need. There isn't a lot of documentation and I suspect we are expected to seek out the Arch Linux wiki if we need help.
Most of the time Archcraft takes on this role fairly well. I did have a few complaints though. Personally, I'm not a fan of system monitors built into the panel or desktop. I find them distracting and the ones used by default don't provide information I find all that useful. There are a lot of little configuration tools and, oddly enough, some duplication in functionality in the application menu. I'm not sure why we need three application menus, two file managers, and a couple of text editors in what is otherwise a very minimal platform.
In short, Archcraft does what it sets out to do. It's basically Arch Linux with a window manager and yay pre-installed for us. This works and yet I don't feel the distribution distinguishes itself from the many other minimal Arch-installed-via-Calamares distributions currently available.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Archcraft has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.6/10 from 51 review(s).
Have you used Archcraft? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
KDE neon running on a SlimBook, openSUSE addressing unzip issue, Red Hat looks back on early Linux development
While it is still relatively rare to see computers pre-installed with Linux distributions in retail stores, several companies have started providing computers bundled with Linux as an option. SlimBook is one such company which offers notebook computers with Linux pre-installed. One of their products is called the KDE Slimbook which ships with KDE neon installed on its hard drive. OSNews has published a review of the KDE Slimbook and notes that a portion of sales of the device are donated to the KDE project. "This is an excellent laptop. I have so few complaints, and the ones I do have are so minimal, I have no qualms about recommending the KDE Slimbook as an outstanding choice for both existing and new Linux users. The hardware is solid, fast, and attractive, the keyboard is great to type on, the touchpad is smooth and pleasant, and KDE Neon is an excellent Linux distribution for Linux users of all experience levels. If you are a KDE user looking for a new laptop, the KDE Slimbook is a massive no-brainer: it should be the yardstick all other laptops you might be considering should be measured against."
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Kira Backes has raised concern about the unzip package which ships in openSUSE, reporting that it consistently corrupts data during the unpacking process. Curiously, this bug appears to affect openSUSE versions of the unzip package, but may not affect unzip on other distributions. "Summary for the bug: When you extract a zip archive where the files do not have explicit permissions set, around one in 10,000 files gets (reproducibly) converted into a symlink! The former content of the file then gets converted into the link target. This bug is fixed in the Debian/Ubuntu version of unzip so my guess is that it's fixed by one of the missing CVE patches. Usually I wouldn't be this alarmist but the basic and standard unzip program reproducibly and consistently breaking files on all Tumbleweed as well all Leap installations is pretty important I guess."
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The Linux kernel recently turned 30 years old and it has caused a lot of people to reflect on how software evolves and how they became involved in Linux. Red Hat is a company that has profited from Linux more than most and celebrated Linux's 30th birthday by interviewing early contributor Pete Zaitcev. "I do not remember what my first proper contribution was. I think it must have been a patch to fix pseudo-DMA in floppy.c in August 1995. Nobody cared who you were as long as the code was good." Zaitcev talks more about his early days with Linux in Red Hat's blog post.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Dealing with Btrfs snapshots
Travelling-back-in-time asks: I see you've been a big fan of Btrfs and the snapshots and boot environments that it provides for quick and easy system rollback. Just curious if you have any experience using them in systems with multiple hard drives? Does it rollback all drives to previous state? Or just the boot loader?
DistroWatch answers: I am a big fan of what advanced filesystems such as Btrfs and ZFS can do. Among the more powerful features these filesystems offer are snapshots. A snapshot is basically a copy or an image of the contents of the filesystem taken at a given moment. Having a snapshot means that if something goes wrong with a file or a package on your system you can then access the snapshot and restore a file (or the entire operating system) back to the state it was in when you took the snapshot.
Sometimes you might want to access a snapshot when you realize you've deleted a file. In this case you can browse an existing snapshot, just like you would a directory, and copy that one file back to its original location, restoring it. Other times you might realize upgrading your operating system failed and you may want to revert the whole filesystem back to its previous state. This latter scenario is commonly achieved using boot environments. A boot environment is a snapshot of your operating system you can access from your computer's boot loader. Older copies (snapshots) of your operating system can be accessed from the boot loader menu, allowing us to load an older version of the system. The openSUSE project has detailed documentation on restoring files from snapshots and booting from old snapshots to restore the system to a working state.
As to what gets restored when you access a snapshot, that depends on how the filesystem was set up. Another cool feature of advanced filesystems is they can use one or more disk drives, partitions, or even files as their underlying storage blocks. This means I can have a Btrfs or ZFS filesystem which is made up of a partition on one disk, an entire second disk that doesn't have any partitions, and maybe a partition or two on a third drive. Advanced filesystems (in a practical sense) do not care where the data is located. As far as the filesystem is concerned all these storage devices are treated as one big pool where you can put stuff. When you take a snapshot the filesystem takes an image of the files in it, regardless of where those files are stored physically.
This means if your Btrfs volume is on a single partition of one disk, the snapshot will be of that one partition. If your Btrfs volume spans one partition on one disk and then two more entire disks, the snapshot will include the files spread across all three devices.
Often times the boot loader will be stored on its own partition, rather than on the Btrfs or ZFS volume, and therefore it will be unaffected. However, if the boot loader is installed in the same filesystem it will become part of the snapshot and will be rolled back to an earlier state if you boot from an older boot environment.
Additional information on Btrfs and snapshots can be found in the Btrfs wiki which includes practical examples.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Lakka 3.4
Lakka is a lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown game console. The project's latest release is Lakka 3.4 and it updates RetroArch support, the Mesa package, DOS support, and popular console support. "New version of Lakka has been released! We are happy to announce new and updated version of Lakka. Changes since version 3.3: RetroArch updated from 1.9.7 to 1.9.9; added core option categories; updated translations; general stability improvements to enhance the user experience. Cores updated to their most recent versions: new core: upstream Duckstation core (Sony Playstation); new core: PCSX2 (Sony Playstation 2), available only on 64-bit PC; new core: DOSBOX-pure (DOS); fixed Play! (Sony Playstation 2) and available on more platforms; fixed Vulkan support in PPSSPP (Sony Playstation Portable); Mesa updated to 21.2.1; Fixed display of CJK characters." Further information can be found through the project's release announcement. Lakka supports multiple hardware platforms, including many ARM boards, generic x86 computers, and the Nintendo Switch.
Finnix 123
Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian. The project's latest release is Finnix 123 which is based on Debian 11. The new release provides the option of setting OpenSSH credentials at boot time, FTP client packages have been removed, the jove package has been installed, and the command line will now try to suggest available packages the user can install when a command is not found. "Today marks the release of Finnix 123, the LiveCD for system administrators. Expanding on Finnix 122 from six months ago, this release includes a number of fixes, new packages and new features. From the Finnix 123 release notes: Added kernel command line 'sshd' and 'passwd' options, example: 'sshd passwd=foo', 'sshd passwd=root:foo passwd=finnix:bar'. The machine ID is now, when possible, stable across reboots and being generated from the DMI. This is used for e.g. the DHCP client ID, so multiple reboots should no longer cycle through dynamic IPs on a network. The finnix command now has instructions for how to enable ZFS support. Added a basic command-not-found handler; e.g. trying ftp will point out lftp, and will provide instructions for installing if desired explicitly. Added manpages for Finnix-specific commands (wifi-connect, locale-config, etc). Added packages: jove. Removed packages: ftp, ftp-ssl, zile." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Tails 4.22
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The project's latest release introduces a number of polishing touches to the user interface. In particular, the system does a better job of checking to see if a Tor connection is possible and is more forgiving of slow network connections. "Reduce the timeout that determines whether we can connect to Tor at all from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Increase the timeout to start Tor entirely from 120 seconds to 600 seconds. Tor Connection now fails quicker when it's impossible to connect to Tor, while being more robust on slow Internet connections. Allow trying again to connect to Tor from the error screen. Unsafe Browser: Stop restarting Tor when exiting the Unsafe Browser. Only mention the Persistent Storage in the Unsafe Browser warning when there is already a Persistent Storage. Others: Make sure that automatic upgrades are downloaded from a working mirror." Additional information can be found in the release announcement for Tails 4.22.
GhostBSD 21.09.06
GhostBSD is a user-friendly desktop operating system based on FreeBSD. The project has published a new version, GhostBSD 21.09.06 which migrates service management from OpenRC to FreeBSD's rc.d approach. "What is new in 21.09.06? GhostBSD moved back to FreeBSD rc.d to start services. Github ticket completed: Disable access to home directories. ghostbsd-src opened by ghost. Leaving some fractured pastes about Update-Station and sudo pkg update update-station#21 opened by wb7odyfred. (GhostBSD-21.04.27.iso) package configuration file anomalies at /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/ ghostbsd-pkg-conf opened by grahamperrin. Empty list of packages software-station opened by simonsaman. Inappropriate connections to open Wi-Fi networks with 5.5 on FreeBSD networkmgr opened by grahamperrin. For Open Networks, /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file gets written without double quotes around SSID name. networkmgr opened by wb7odyfred. Automatic switchover networkmgr opened by Crushless. Minor cosmetic - authentication is spelled wrong networkmgr, opened by technics. Wired: DHCP: not gaining an address networkmgr opened by grahamperrin." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Whonix 16
Patrick Schleizer has announced the release of Whonix 16, a major update of the project's Debian-based distribution designed for advanced security and privacy via fail-safe, automatic and desktop-wide use of the Tor network. The new release is based on the recently-released Debian 11: "After approximately two years of development, the Whonix project is proud to announce the release of Whonix 16. Whonix 16 is based on the Debian 'Bullseye' (Debian 11) distribution. This means that users have access to many new software packages in concert with existing packages. In addition, this release will serve as a development foundation for many exciting upcoming security enhancements, such as Hardened Malloc Kicksecure (HMK), Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) and other items on the Whonix Security Roadmap. Major changes: switched back from deb.torproject.org tor package to packages.debian.org stable tor package; binaries-freedom package is deprecated; enable Debian fasttrack repository by default...." See the release announcement for further information, upgrade instructions and known issues.
Whinix 16 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 61kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,592
- Total data uploaded: 39.9TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What do you think of Calamares?
More and more distributions are turning to the independent Calamares system installer these days as a way to get the operating system installed without the requirement of developing a new installer from scratch. Calamares is especially popular in the Arch Linux community as a way to get Arch spins installed. What do you think of the Calamares graphical installer? Would you like to see it more widely adopted or do you prefer that most distributions still maintain their own, custom system installers?
You can see the results of our previous poll on how long our readers have been using Linux in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What do you think of Calamares?
| I like it and want to see it used more: | 486 (31%) |
| I like it and also like the diversity of installers: | 501 (32%) |
| I do not like it but want to see a common installer: | 77 (5%) |
| I do not like it and do not want to see it used more: | 81 (5%) |
| I have not used it: | 425 (27%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 20 September 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Linux Foundation Training |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • What do I think of Calamares? (by Jules on 2021-09-13 00:58:35 GMT from Australia)
As long as an installer works well, I use anything...
2 • Calamares (by 8bit on 2021-09-13 01:26:54 GMT from United States)
Calamares is quite versatile. I've seen it used with just a few options to many, many options.
3 • Calamares (by Romane on 2021-09-13 02:09:13 GMT from Australia)
I like that it (almost) standardises the install process. I say "almost", because each distro has its own ideas (often assumptions) as to how to configure it. That said, am pleased to notice that more and more often, the way it has been set up is more consistent with each other and that the assumptions used are being abandoned (for example, the erroneous assumption that everyone want to install a boot-loader - I never want to install one, as my primary system takes care of the Grub menu for booting).
I have a personal hope that eventually all the distros will take up Calamares, removing thus the difficulties caused by inconsistencies and differences between installers (for example, I will not install *any* Red Hat, based/derived distro, simply because of its/their installers)
Having said that, I very much like the Debian installer, regardless any criticisms which others may have regarding it, but can still see how the adoption of an installer common to everyone else would benefit.
R.
4 • Calamares is good, but... (by Torsten on 2021-09-13 04:52:51 GMT from Germany)
At the beginning, Calamares was not so great - but today, it's really, really good. But, I wish more options for the installation (ie to enable or disable the swap partition, etc.).
5 • Calamares (by Дмитрий on 2021-09-13 05:31:59 GMT from Russia)
If it still doesn't support keyboard layout switching (which ubiquity supported from the dawn of time), then no, I don't want to see it anywhere.
6 • Calamares (by Mike on 2021-09-13 06:06:23 GMT from United Kingdom)
I like it having used it with a few distributions now. @4 - That can be included as an option for end users already so it's really down to the distribution developers that you have not seen swap partition options. Also the alternative is to manually partition which gives you full control of /boot/efi (which seems to vary across distributions for size and position), partition formats etc.
Calamares can seemingly be much more granular than Ubiquity installer with regards package options too. Take Manjaro's usage of it which asks you what Office suite you want installed or to exclude it if you want to do your own thing.
7 • KDE Slimbook (by Mike on 2021-09-13 06:24:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
I seriously considered that as a purchase but when I tried ordering they were out of stock and not expecting a delivery any time soon due to COVID and the chip shortage. Also post Brexit:
"International Shipping outside Europe: 120 €
** You must take into account that customs tariffs and expenses at destination, must be paid by the recipient at the time of delivery. The amount of the same, we can not detail it, it depends on the type of merchandise and trade agreements between the countries of origin and destination. This consultation can be done at the embassy / consulate of the country."
So no thanks...
8 • Calamares sucks (by me on 2021-09-13 06:32:51 GMT from Canada)
By Calmares making the installation easy, it makes the installation between difficult to unusable for advanced setups, multiboot setups.
The very best installer is:
#1) OpenBSD installer, superior to everything on Linux
#2) Debian text installer.
Every other Linux installation dictates to user how installation is to be done.
I wonder how much easier it would be to install Arch if they ported over the OpenBSD sensible installer.
9 • RE: 7 • KDE Slimbook (by ladislav on 2021-09-13 06:35:46 GMT from Taiwan)
My problem wasn't the cost of shipping. When I tried to order a Slimbook laptop to be shipped to an address in Slovakia (a valid address within the EU), their system simply refuses to process the order. Very likely, the problem was with the company's payment processor rather than the company itself, but the result was the same - I could not complete the order. So I did not buy. I find it unusual that some companies would refuse to ship to certain addresses, even if they are valid EU addresses...
10 • Calamares & Debian installers (by Alexandru on 2021-09-13 06:49:57 GMT from Austria)
I only used Calamares once when installed Debian from live DVD. My opinion is that one standard easy to recognize system installer, which is common across Linux distribution, is a good starting point with Linux.
@3, @8: Glad I am not the only who find Debian text installer really useful for those who prefer options over simplicity.
11 • calamares ftw (by fonz on 2021-09-13 07:48:15 GMT from Indonesia)
glad to see it grew up so well and causing the big boys to see it as a threat to improve their installers (or adding 1). i do prefer calamares being lengthy to fine tune some of the more advanced options but yeah, thats the distros choice.
the boring debian text installer is what id call perfect. it has enough boring pages to fine tune some stuff, and literally forces us to read through the choices to make sure we dont derp. something modern milenialist see as krypton: reading/learning. yep, give a man a fish vs teach em to fish. luckily my kids are growing up like me, a jack of all trade && master of none. thirsty for knowledge = power...
12 • Lightweight arch distro (by Hank on 2021-09-13 09:00:33 GMT from Austria)
If a lightweight Arch based distro wiothout system death came out I would give it a try.
As is only antiX and Puppy for me.
Mostly I use antiX, lightweight, stable, fast, great forum.
13 • @12 - Arch without systemD (by Uncle Slacky on 2021-09-13 09:33:13 GMT from France)
Artix should fit the bill: https://artixlinux.org/
14 • Calamares: Never used it (by DaveT on 2021-09-13 10:15:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
I dislike graphical install systems. Keep it simple and console based because it is a pain if things go wrong while using a graphical installer.
I always choose 'expert non-graphical' for debian and devuan, very sensibly OpenBSD don't give the choice!
15 • Calamares: YaST is better. (by Operius on 2021-09-13 10:23:04 GMT from Netherlands)
The best installer to me is YaST from opensuse.
For easy install just click OK a few times and if you want something else it has all the tools you'll ever need in a nice GUI.
16 • kde slimbook (by papapito on 2021-09-13 11:32:04 GMT from Australia)
im in australia so the pricing is prohibitive when a lenovo/dell/hp/acer/asus with higher specs and a local warranty can be had cheaper. each time i buy a new device, it has the latest arch running within a few hours of unboxing.
17 • it's ok (by Tad Strange on 2021-09-13 12:45:43 GMT from Canada)
No issues with Calamares. I was introduced to it in Manjaro, and most everything that I really wanted to configure was there.
I've gone through a few text based ones, and having a second computer standing by in order to look up what one or another arcane option means. I suppose it's fine if you're trying to lean and mean some old bit of hardware, but that's not my use case.
Complex installations are a barrier to entry. Though my impression is that this is a desirable trait to some.
Archcraft.. I've never liked window managers for some of the very points that you bring up - needing to edit text files to change display options or behaviour is tedious. I don't spend a whole lot of time configuring desktop options to begin with, and I think that's my point.
18 • KDE Slimbook (by Dave Postles on 2021-09-13 13:16:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
I simply wouldn't be prepared to pay the retail price (regardless of any on-costs). I have bought a Starlab 11" and I am completely satisfied with it. I did have to wait for the shipping, but it was worth it.
19 • Calamares (by dragonmouth on 2021-09-13 13:38:17 GMT from United States)
I'm with @1 Jules. I'll use any installer as long as it is straight forward. Having said that, I could see the advantages of a universal installer as long it does not become an all-devouring cancer like systemd.
20 • installers (by VE on 2021-09-13 14:29:56 GMT from United States)
I've never used a GUI installer that didn't feel bloated while somehow being less functional than a simple text installer.
21 • Calamares - what is it, why would I need it? (by Andy Prough on 2021-09-13 15:00:56 GMT from Switzerland)
It's an odd poll question - how would I know if I used Calamares? Does the installer announce itself with bold letters somehow?
Also, even if I did unknowingly use it when trying some distro, why would I "want to see it used more"? Most high quality distros have their own customized installation scripts. Why would a universal graphics installer be a good thing? Text-based installers that are specifically written for that distro tend to give the best control over most aspects of installation.
Recently I've installed Void, Devuan, and antiX. They all have their own specialized installers, mostly text-based. They work really well - and of course they do -- they were designed that way by their distro developers. Why would any of those distros want to stop using a successful script for a "Universal graphics installer"? Seems like that would just create more problems than it would solve.
22 • Calamares (by Robert on 2021-09-13 15:57:08 GMT from United States)
The existence of Calamities is definitely a good thing. Something common and familiar that works for users and can free up dev resources for distros to focus on other things. Like GRUB is the defacto standard bootloader, but you can swap it out for something else if desired.
23 • Installers. (by nooneatall on 2021-09-13 16:23:58 GMT from United States)
Confucious say: He who who notices installer is seeing one too often.
Either have trouble or trying many distros because none suit.
I was impressed in 2007 with PCLinux because could surf the net WHILE it was installing. That's the standard to meet.
Installation is only expanding / copying some files, then figuring out what hardware exists and selecting drivers. It's usually given bells and whistles when should be utilitarian.
One area where I think all Linux and BSD make it easy on themselves is to use the kitchen sink approach with very little choice about what all is installed. Usually only get to choose low-level details that are of no interest to noobs, if not frightening.
Related note: I don't understand why Archcraft gets so little praise from Jesse. "This works [without trouble!] and yet I don't feel the distribution distinguishes itself". -- You may be burned out. WORKING is far better than you've reported for some dozens of distros.
24 • Calamares is fine (by Jyrki on 2021-09-13 17:21:52 GMT from Czechia)
but OpenBSD installer rocks.
25 • Calamares (by cor on 2021-09-13 19:27:35 GMT from United States)
I've never had any issues with Calamares, it just works. I don't use BSD anything.
26 • KDE Slimbook (by Mike on 2021-09-14 08:52:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
@16 - I agree entirely with your sentiment about getting much better hardware for the same price (after shipping and taxes applied).
I eventually ended up going with a Lenovo Legion 7 Gen 2 (AMD 5800H, NVIDIA RTX3060, 16" WQXGA panel) which arrived yesterday actually. That does all the essentials out of the box with the current Neon ISO containing the HWE kernel, so the same should ring true with any ISO based on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS or the latest non-LTS ISOs too.
Of course the RTX3060 isn't detected properly by nouveau (it comes up with an unrecognised chip message during boot), however as long as the laptop is in Hybrid mode the AMD Renoir Graphics component of the 5800H is available anyway to boot it and get nvidia's proprietary blobs are installed too if desired.
The Killer Network WiFi 6 and bluetooth adaptor works with Intel modules and the gigabit LAN is realtek. The display scales nicely too at 125% or 150%.
It's stupidly quick of course but I have no idea about battery life yet, I didn't run it long enough to assess that much. I still need to backup the system before I start messing with partitioning so I can restore it to Factory State should it be necessary.
27 • KDE Slimbook (by Martin on 2021-09-14 14:22:37 GMT from Austria)
I just bought a new Laptop I'm quite unhappy with so I would love to switch over to the KDE Slimbook. However I'm against building up waste on landfills just because of dislike and my last laptop lasted about 8 years.
28 • KDE Slimbook (by Friar Tux on 2021-09-14 21:41:59 GMT from Canada)
While the Slimbook may be a great bargain in Spain, shipping it in to (in my case) Canada would not be worth it. Here, I just buy a reasonably priced laptop and load my favourite distro on it and simply carry on. By 'reasonably priced' I mean a balance between what I'll do, the installed hardware, and the price. So far, I have never spent over $600.00 Canadian on any of my five laptops and I'm more than happy with the computing power. (I'm on my machine almost 16 hours on most days (I'm retired).
As for the installer question, I'm comfortable using whatever comes with the distro, considering you only use it to install the OS and then move on.
29 • Calamares for Arch-based distros (by Cuvtixo on 2021-09-15 01:31:41 GMT from United States)
Calamares is great I think for Arch-based distros like Manjaro. If it strengthened as a standard in that space I'd be happy (although Arch itself, and derivatives like Archcraft have such a roll-your-own type ethos, IDK)
As far as the idea of becoming widely popular across distros, You might as well champion Esperanto as a standard language for Europe. It's just so unrealistic a premise as is not to be worth thinking about.
30 • Archcraft - @23 (by papapito on 2021-09-15 01:18:46 GMT from Australia)
@23
I feel archcraft is also a non-distro but has nice themes for openbox, this is not an insult.
the archcraft dev states on his landing page "Just another Linux distribution, made on top of Arch Linux with pre-configured settings and lightweight applications." and further down the page "People who use lightweight applications, people who like to customize their desktop or care more about their system's aesthetics."
I am still unsure at which point an install script becomes a distro and vice versa
31 • Archcraft (by Devlin7 on 2021-09-15 04:40:30 GMT from New Zealand)
I regularly download and trial distros. Archcraft was one of the first distros out of the box to tick all the items on my requirement list so I emailed the owner to congratulate him. I spent a lot of time configuring the polybar and the look and feel of my desktop. When I finally got what I wanted, I realised that my desktop is not normal. I don't need an application menu when the whole desktop is a menu. My system tray icons are basic network, sound, bluetooth and power. I discovered at the end of my tinkering that openbox and my polybar actually used more ram than the same setup using Enlightenment. The enlightenment menus were prettier than openbox and much easier to maintain,. I am now using enlightenment with pieces of archcraft scripted rofi menus. Aditya of Archcraft has done a wonderful job making Openbox look relevant. Whether you use Archcraft as it was intended or not, it is an easy way to install Arch. Regardless of what distro or desktop environment you use, kudos to all the hardworking people in the background giving us an alternative to the commercial products.
32 • Calamares (by drtom on 2021-09-15 18:33:27 GMT from United States)
Preparatory to building an OS using Linux From Scratch, I wanted to do some testing, some comparing.
So, I have a quad-boot system: Debian11, Linux Mint Debian, Ubuntu, & Linux Mint, that boots into a common home directory partition. I am replacing LM Debian because the repositories have changed under Debian11 and LM Debian has not kept up.
I used Calamares to install EndeavourOS in the Linux Mint Debian partition. Everything went smoothly. Best install ever! After the install, there were some 'key-bounce'-like problems with EndeavorOS.
So, I then tried to install MX Linux. I want to keep the multi-OS-boot into a common home directory partition, so I do not want to format the home directory partition. But the MX Linux installer did NOT give me the option to NOT format the home directory partition, so I quit the install.
There are several installers in-the-wild. Each installer is built by individuals, often in isolation.
In my opinion, it is a good idea to have a separate, stand-alone installer, like Calamares, that is well-designed, well-thought-out, well-tested, well-supported, and can be customized to a distribution.
I appreciate the diversity provided by GNU-GPL licensed forks of GNU and Linux.
33 • Yes, a "common" Open Source OS Istaller ... and applications too is a great idea (by Andre Gompel on 2021-09-16 13:46:33 GMT from Poland)
Yes, a "common" Open Source OS Installer ... and applications too is a great idea.
* I admit Fedora-Anaconda could be replaced by something better ! It works, but is full of ... missing features !
* GPARTED : I also would like the storage partitioning to be optionally done using GPARTED, which is very good, as it is, may use a bit more support for BTRFS.
* GPARTED ideally could generate the fstab file, for a given distro install, ideally update it, like adding an entry for a new partition or sub-volume etc...
* The installer to allow keeping existing BTRFS sub-volumes, already there (like for /home /boot etc...) allowing to reinstall the OS, without losing what is already there (usually /home etc...)
* Applications : I found some applications like mediawiki very difficult to install, because it requires several other apps packages to be installed, configured, knowing each of them !
Suse had the YAST "one click install" for quite a while....a good concept.
* Default Desktop, for the initial Install : GNOME 3 and above has never been good, why not rather use MATE, which is simple, clean, complete ?
34 • @32 MX Linux installer (by Hoos on 2021-09-16 13:56:49 GMT from Singapore)
"...I then tried to install MX Linux. I want to keep the multi-OS-boot into a common home directory partition, so I do not want to format the home directory partition. But the MX Linux installer did NOT give me the option to NOT format the home directory partition, so I quit the install. "
MX installer has always had the ability to preserve /home partition.
35 • Question; who drools or daydreams over installers? (by tom Joad on 2021-09-16 15:21:28 GMT from Germany)
Question; who drools or daydreams over installers? I am with @1. If the installer works and the OS pops up on reboot and is usable I am good.
Kind of an odd poll question though.
36 • Installers (by Mike on 2021-09-16 22:23:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fedora/RHEL Anaconda currently uses blivet for custom partitioning during install. From what I've read they have also been developing a standalone blivet-gui partition manager which will either be a supplemental option to GParted and KDE Partition Manager or replace one or both as the Partition Manager in the booted Live ISO environment. The standalone looks like the end result will be much more feature rich (possibly as good as GParted). So if they can then backport those advanced features back into the anaconda plugin, happy days.
I tend to boot into Live mode and partition a drive before running an OS installer because I prefer to use either GParted or KDE Partition Manager too. That applies for any installation I try because all the current linux distributions custom partition layout tools inside installers are hobbled in some way.
Number of Comments: 36
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