Arch linux articles through the ages.

[abarbarian]

Mabox Linux – Beautiful Arch Linux with Openbox [Review]

 

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Mabox Linux is a Manjaro Linux re-spin with a lightweight Openbox window manager, ready to use with pre-configured themes and utilities. We review the distribution in this post.

 

 

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Thanks to the Openbox, this Linux distribution is super-lightweight in resource consumption while being a beautiful desktop for everyone to use. The Mabox Linux tools adapted from BunsenLabs and inspired by Crunchbang brings some of their applications.

 

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The LIVE desktop lets you install Mabox via the Calamares installer. The installation takes around 3 to 4 minutes on standard hardware, and it is error-free in my test.

 

Why anyone would want to make a fork of Manjaro beats me, why not just fork Arch ?

 

Doing an install in 3 to 4 minutes is a bold claim, I wonder if it is true ?

 

You just got to love the variety in the penguin world.

[securitybreach]

Yeah, no doubt

[abarbarian]

Archcraft OS – Minimal Arch Linux with Openbox WM

 

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Archcraft OS is a free and open-source operating system (OS) based on Arch Linux. Developed by a single person, this Linux distribution promises to be “pure” Arch as in – it is exact same as vanilla Arch Linux install.

 

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The installer is a window-driven step-by-step process which typically you do via commands while installing Arch Linux. However, it gives you sufficient options to go back and forth before the actual installation starts.

The installation process went smooth, although it took some time in my test system (BIOS-based). The distro successfully detected all the operating systems in the multi-boot test device. And did not mess my grub. Overall installation time on average is ~15 minutes.

 

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The major advantage of using a window manager instead of a traditional desktop environment is the better resource usage by the underlying distribution. Hence, Archcraft is also doing the same. This distro uses around ~390 MB of RAM in an idle state in a physical installation. Most of the memory is used by Xorg only at idle state, followed by Plank.CPU usage is very minimal at idle of course unless you do any operation.

 

This sounds like a very neat effort shame I do not have the time to try it out at the moment.

[abarbarian]

Archcraft Yet another minimal Linux distribution, based on Arch Linux.

 

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Archcraft is just another Linux distribution, made on top of Arch Linux. It uses window managers and lightweight applications, which makes it super fast. With pre-configured settings, Archcraft provides you the best out of the box window manager experience.

 

This looked to be a promising Arch based distro sadly there has been no new release since Nov 2021.

 

They do have a good step by step guide to installing with Calamares and ABIF. The Gallery is worth a look as it has some good screenshots of a variety of  Window Managers.

Of interest there included two wayland configured Window Managers,

 

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Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3's features, plus a few extras.

 

and

 

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Wayfire is a wayland compositor based on wlroots. It aims to create a customizable, extendable and lightweight environment without sacrificing its appearance.

 

I rather like the Archcraft Lite version.

 

 

[securitybreach]

The mention of Wayland is a no go for anyone who uses nvidia https://blog.devgenius.io/wayland-and-nvidia-in-2022-2f0407fb34f4

 

Until performance is on par with Wayland and Nvidia, I will stick to Xorg which works fine.

[securitybreach]

And as of 2 months ago https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/tlyyk4/how_has_your_nvidia_wayland_experience_been/

[abarbarian]

KaOS 2022.10 Released, Dracut Replaces Mkinitcpio

 

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KaOS 2022.10 comes with an improved Calamares installer and has moved to Dracut as the new initramfs infrastructure.

KaOS is an independent rolling-release distribution inspired by Arch Linux and entirely focused on the KDE Plasma Desktop and related Qt Toolkit-based software.

It uses Pacman as its package manager but does not rely on software repositories developed and maintained by Arch Linux. Instead, the software is available from in-house repositories and is built exclusively for 64-bit machines.

KaOS 2022.10 is the sixth update in this year’s 2022 series for this Linux distro. So, let’s have a look at what’s new.

 

[abarbarian]

Looks like at least one Arch user appreciates excellent software.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3YoAxqasHk

[securitybreach]

Nice another video

[abarbarian]

16 hours ago, securitybreach said:

Nice another video

 

OK here you go

 

https://youtu.be/tQfWkztg73U

[securitybreach]

4 hours ago, abarbarian said:

 

OK here you go

 

https://youtu.be/tQfWkztg73U

 

You can't compare the two. One is stable and the other one isn't

[abarbarian]

This is not strictly a Arch article but it is very interesting.

 

The Performance Of Six Linux Distributions On The HP Dev One

The Arch results are a mixed bag. Michael does state that all the os's were installed in a stock standard way. So with a bit of tweaking I guess all the os's would show up differently.

Arch , Clear Linux and openSUSE Tumbleweed seemed to come out tops in quite a lot of the runs. So it was a surprise that Arch came out last by quite a way in the overall comparison.

 

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Lastly is a look at the geometric mean of all the benchmarks carried out where they successfully completed on all operating systems under test. Obviously just the raw performance is being looked at and not the power/thermal results here. Pop!_OS 22.04 was right inline with the performance provided by openSUSE, Fedora Workstation, and Ubuntu 22.04 on the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U powered HP Dev One. Arch Linux in its default configuration from Archinstall was noticeably slower than the rest. Intel's Clear Linux meanwhile offered around 13% better performance overall than the other Linux distributions thanks to its aggressive default performance tuning, extra patches, and other optimizations.

 

As I stated earlier with a tiny bit of tweaking results would be different.

 

[abarbarian]

The Performance Impact From Different Arch Linux Kernel Flavors

 

Interesting test results on different kernels used with Arch.. I had a play once with the zen kernel but fried my old grey cell getting it to work properly and so went back to the good old standard Arch kernel.

Surprisingly enough the standard Arch kernel is probably the best of the bunch for most use cases. Of course if you are a fanatic gamer or an audio buff or graphics professional or develpoper then some of the specialised kernels offer more ummph in that particular use case.

 

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Out of nearly 100 benchmarks run on this AMD Ryzen 9 7950X desktop with the five official Arch Linux kernel flavors, coming in first place most often was Linux 6.1.7-arch1-1 as the default "stable" kernel used on Arch Linux and others like Endeavour OS. The default kernel was in best shape overall followed by the Zen kernel performing well in gaming benchmarks and other select scenarios.

 

[abarbarian]

Another day another forked Arch distro. This one sounds quite nice but not quite as fast as advertised. Their google search result claims,

 

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CachyOS — Blazingly Fast OS based on Arch Linux

 

https://cachyos.org/

 

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CachyOS is a distribution based on Arch Linux, that offers an easy installation, several customization options to suit every user, and special optimizations for improved performance while remaining simple.

 

I had a quick look through their documentation and Cachyos looks very neat and well worth a look at.

 

https://wiki.cachyos.org/

 

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We offer two different installers: a graphical installer and a command-line interface (CLI) installer.

Graphical Installer

The graphical installer is based on Calamares and allows for both offline and online personalized installations with package selection. In the next release, you will also be able to select between two different bootloaders during an online installation.

The installer also automatically optimizes the filesystem options for SSDs if one is detected. The following filesystems are available: XFS, Btrfs, F2FS, Ext4, and ZFS.

Command-Line Interface Installer

The CLI installer, written in C++, provides the same functions as the graphical installer but is more customizable and offers additional features. It is generally recommended for advanced users, but the installation process is kept simple and fast. It also supports configuration, allowing you to set options before the installation begins and then completing the installation automatically.

CachyOS Desktop environments

You can select from the following desktop environments (DEs) during online installation:

• CuteFish – An Elegant, Beautiful and Easy-to-Use Linux Desktop
• i3 tiling window manager, primarily targeted at developers and advanced users
• KDE-Plasma Desktop - Simple by default, powerful when needed
• GNOME Desktop - designed to put you in control and get things done
• Openbox is a highly configurable, floating window manager with extensive standards support
• Wayfire is a wayland compositor based on wlroots. It aims to create a customizable, extendable and lightweight environment without sacrificing its appearance
• LXQT - The Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment.
• bspwm is a tiling window manager that represents windows as the leaves of a full binary tree. bspwm supports multiple monitors and is configured and controlled through messages
• Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly
• Hyprland is a dynamic tiling Wayland compositor that doesn't sacrifice on its looks.

 

 

Meanwhile over at Phoronix,

 

The Performance Of Arch Linux Powered CachyOS

 

Whilst Cachyos did quite well in the testing as did EndeavourOS neither stood out from the crowd as a clear super fast os. That claim fell to Clear Linux.

 

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Intel's Clear Linux distribution was easily still the front-runner of the tested Linux distributions on this Raptor Lake desktop.

Of nearly 100 different tests executed (see this result file), Clear Linux was the fastest 54% of the time followed by CachyOS with wins 30% of the time.

But if taking the geometric mean of all those benchmarks, CachyOS performance overall was similar to that of Fedora / EndeavourOS / Ubuntu while Clear Linux maintained a ~6.5% advantage overall compared to those other Linux distributions.

Intel obviously has far more resources to invest in optimizing their contained Linux software compared to this new hobbyist Linux distribution, which performed similar to Arch-based EndeavourOS in many of the benchmarks.

 

If I can find the time I may just give Cachyos a go.

 

[securitybreach]

Cool

[abarbarian]

How to Install Arch Linux Dual Boot

I read through the above article and it seems pretty accurate and up to date. The wikiHow site also has a variety of linux guides and as usual some are very good and some are badly copied and pasted from out of date sources.

 

                                                   $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

 

What caught my eye was the mention of

 

Calam-Arch-Installer

 

which I had never heard of. The project is hosted on SourceForge and looks to have been there since 2020.

There are no links or information on the source code apart from this,

 

https://sourceforge.net/p/blue-arch-installer/code/ref/master/

 

A bit more digging finds this,

 

https://github.com/kyknos123/Blue-Arch-Installer

 

Follow the above link and you find that the last update was made in April 2021.

 

There is a reddit post on this project and the very first reply to the post is of interest,

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/encei0/arch_linux_on_line_installer/

 

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jvdwaa

· 3 yr. ago

 

Arch Linux Team

As part of the Arch team I'm not opposed to having a live installer, someone simply has to put in the effort and provide something worthwhile and maintainable. The whole reason the previous installer was dropped was due to it being a set of unmaintainable bash scripts. Calamaras the installer framework used here seems to be a good fit since it oursources (hopefuly) all the disk setup pain.

Why a lot of third party installers get a lot of critique is that they include third party content which is not supported such as this installer does. Pamac, the AUR is enabled by default? That's not something we endorse since it gives users the wrong impression. We have a similar issue with Manjaro users asking for support on our bug tracker, forums etc. while the users do not realize it's a complete fork.

It's funny to see my presentation while installing

 

The comments that follow this do seem mainly favourable though. I personally would not use the program simply because of the inclusion of Pamac especially as it is enabled by default.

 

                                          ££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

 

This led me to,

 

Homo Ludditus ---  Looking for purity in Arch Linux

The article shows the author has some very strong views. Some of which I agree with and some not. He does however show support for Calam-Arch-Installer.

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8. ERRR… WHAT NOW?

From the above choices, I’d recommend Calam-Arch-Installer. The live session is a bit ugly, but it’s only meant as a tool to make the installation smoother. Unlike e.g. Garuda, ArcoLinux, Salient OS, RebornOS, it’s not following the model “Here’s a Live ISO with your preferred desktop and our preferred customizations, and let’s install it,” but the one that says “Here’s a Live ISO meant to test your hardware and to allow you to connect to the internet, then use Calamares to download and install the package selection of your choice“!

He has some very interesting information regarding Arch derivatives that include Pamac in their packages. The whole article is well worth a read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by abarbarian

[raymac46]

Interesting article. Too bad he didn't try archfi and archdi scripts as they give you a decent installation experience the Arch way while making sure you don't forget anything.

 

https://github.com/MatMoul/archfi

 

Considering that half the fun of Arch is learning how the system works and mastering its install procedure, I wonder what all the fuss is about with these derivative distros. I didn't use archfi until I was confident I could install Arch from the ground up. And of course when installed you are set to go forever and never have to do it again except on another machine. I agree that I wouldn't want to keep installing Arch in virtual machines.

[abarbarian]

6 hours ago, raymac46 said:

I agree that I wouldn't want to keep installing Arch in virtual machines.

 

If all article writers tried out distros on hardware instead of vm's we might get more decent articles. Also it would be very helpful if article writers told you at the start of an article what os/distro they were using for their try out.

I found it really confusing way back when I started my penguin research as I would read an article. Get totally confused as to why certain commands or instructions would not work for me. Then find out that the article was for some os/distro that did things differently to the one I was using.

[raymac46]

That is why I like getting my info here or from somerhing authoritative like the ArchWiki. This forum has members who have tried out just about all the mainstream distros on the rails, and we have a few who are very experienced indeed with Slackware, Debian, Arch, SUSE, Mint, Ubuntu, MX. The only place where I had trouble with Arch stability was in a VM and I think that was more a problem with VirtualBox Guest Additions than it was with Arch.

[securitybreach]

22 hours ago, raymac46 said:

Considering that half the fun of Arch is learning how the system works and mastering its install procedure, I wonder what all the fuss is about with these derivative distros. I didn't use archfi until I was confident I could install Arch from the ground up.

 

People are daunted by the long install process and think that they can just use this or that derivative/installer and still have Archlinux, not realizing they are missing the important part of even using Arch. It is long but it is not difficult as the wiki literally walks you through 99% of things. People are just lazy... If it isn't for you, use one of the other hundreds of distros available.

[abarbarian]

Arch Linux vs. Manjaro: Differences Between Them Explained

 

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This article delves deeply into the Arch vs. Manjaro topic and helps you choose which one is the best option for you.

 

Very neat article, well balanced.

[securitybreach]

They barely mention why holding back packages is a big issue on Manjaro. It's why Archlinux doesnt support partial upgrades.

[abarbarian]

12 hours ago, securitybreach said:

They barely mention why holding back packages is a big issue on Manjaro. It's why Archlinux doesnt support partial upgrades.

 

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Therefore, in theory, all of this additional testing should result in a more stable operating system than Arch. In practice, however, such a claim is untrue.

 

No decent explanation but he does put the boot in slightly.

[abarbarian]

blendOS: Not Just Another Linux Distribution blendOS

 

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blendOS is an Arch-based distro which supports every type of app package.

 

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blendOS is an Arch-based distro which supports every type of app package.

 

What's coming next in blendOS?

 

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Our goal at blendOS is to continuously evolve and enhance the user experience through feedback and testing. Your input is crucial to helping us shape the future of blendOS.

 

 

Finally someone is trying to do an os which can install programs from anywhere. Not just Flatpak or Snap but from everywhere.

[securitybreach]

11 minutes ago, abarbarian said:

blendOS: Not Just Another Linux Distribution blendOS

 

 

 

What's coming next in blendOS?

 

 

 

Finally someone is trying to do an os which can install programs from anywhere. Not just Flatpak or Snap but from everywhere.

 

That's neat but I wonder how stable it is.

[abarbarian]

 

 

 

Posting a screenshot of CachyOS running from Ventoy on an old 8 GB usb.

I am quite impressed with the way it runs, nice and smooth an pretty slick considering it is running from a usb. With no input from me it set up an internet connection and set the right time zone so from the get go I was able to surf the net.

Some of the program choices are not to my taste but after a quick looksee all the ones I tried work with no glitches so far. Not impressed with the way you access applications but I suppose that could be tweaked. Just realised this is the Gnome version, not my favorite desktop environment. To be fair I have found some very neat programs like the System Monitor shown in the screenshot which looks much neater than htop, a little less cluttered and simpler for my usage.  The Cachy Browser is neat and I think I will investigate it further.

So if you fancy trying out a slick Arch based os then give it a whirl. Easy peasy to do from a Ventoy usb.

 

Blazingly Fast & Customizable Linux Distribution

 

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by abarbarian

[abarbarian]

Arch Linux Installer Archinstall 2.7 Adds Support for Unified Kernel Image

 

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Arch Linux’s menu-based installer archinstall has been updated today to version 2.7, a major release that adds some new features and fixes many bugs.

Archinstall 2.7 introduces two important features, namely support for unified kernel image (UKI), which is a single executable that can be booted directly from the UEFI firmware, and the ability to check for new versions of archinstall when initiating the Arch Linux installer.

 

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Archinstall 2.7 will also be the default installer in the upcoming Arch Linux ISO snapshot for December 2023.

 

[abarbarian]

Top Arch-based User Friendly Linux Distributions That are Easier to Install and Use Than Arch Linux Itself

 

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Want to experience Arch Linux without the hassle of the complicated installation and setup? Here are a few user-friendly Arch-based Linux distributions.

 

Yet another poor article on Arch linux distros. The only  thing going for it is it lists ten Arch distros which is handy for folk who do not want to do a pure install.

 

The closing section of the article,

 

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Want Real Arch Linux? Try The Installer Tool

 

Gives a link to an guide for installing a VM and then using the "archinstall" tool and a link to a gui installer that last saw an update in 2020 and is possibly no longer a working solution.

 

Do these article writers ever try out the distros they write about do they even do any real research on the tools they write about  ?

 

[abarbarian]

Why People Are Crazy About Arch Linux? What's so Special About it?

 

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BTW, I use Arch!

You may have come across this term in Linux forums, discussions or memes.

You might wonder why Arch Linux is so popular. Why do people like it so much when there are easier-to-use, if not better, Arch-based distributions available.

In this article, I’ll list some reasons why Linux users like to use Arch Linux.

Now, this is my perception. There is no set rule, of course, why you should be using Arch Linux. It’s what I have observed in my over a decade of experience with Linux users and communities.

Let’s see why Arch Linux is so popular.

 

I think this is a very nice article on Arch linux.

 

Edited January 14, 2024 by abarbarian

[securitybreach]

1 hour ago, abarbarian said:

Why People Are Crazy About Arch Linux? What's so Special About it?

 

Well it was ok but there are some things I disagree about:

 

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2. With Arch Linux, you get a better understanding of how Linux works

 

Well that should say "you get a better understanding of how lnux distros are put together". You do not learn anything about linux by simply installing or using Archlinux. You might learn how a linux distro is put together by setting up and choosing various applications for things like networking, bootloader, bluetooth, environment, etc. You may learn systemd through setting up services but that isn't learning linux per se. Mainly what you are doing is manually setting up your environment and default applications. If you can read and follow instructions, any one can install Archlinux. It just takes some time the first time around.
 

That said, you may have to learn how to create partitions but you can boot up any live distro and use a graphical application like gparted to automatically do so. Some of us would rather setup a distro from the bottom up instead of removing and changing the defaults later on. I use archlinux because it just works for me once everything is set. It's not made for everyone and I wouldn't suggest it to most new linux users as you may have to manually intervene once in a while and change a config. Even then, the Latest News will tell you that on the homepage. Personally I have subscribed to the mailing list for years now so that I get an email when any News is posted on the homepage.

 

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4. Arch User Repository aka AUR

 

"AUR is a community-driven approach to providing newer applications."

 

I do not think he understands the function of the AUR. While there may be a git version of an application in the repos available in the AUR, the main function of the AUR is to provide applications that are not in the normal arch repos yet. These are user submitted packages and if they get enough votes, they usually get moved to the Extra repo on Archlinux:

 

The AUR was created to organize and share new packages from the community and to help expedite popular packages' inclusion into the extra repository.

 

Archlinux already gives you the latest stable versions of applications in the normal repos taken from the original developers. There is no way to get a newer version of application unless it is a git or beta version from the AUR as you already have the latest if you update pacman.

 

Sorry, gotta nitpick sometimes...