First post, hello everybody
And thanks ptr and all the others for creating and maintaining CachyOS!
Sooo. I really like CachyOS and its packages.
However, I think it is pretty opinionated in its default package selection and I am opinionated, too, and now we have a kind of argument.
For example:
instead of “fish” I’d rather use “bash”
instead of “networkmanager” I’d rather use “systemd-networkd”
instead of “dhclient” I’d rather use “systemd-resolved”
instead of “wpa_supplicant” I’d rather use “iwd”
I don’t need nor want “plymouth”
the CachyOS themeing is pretty overboard and I remove all of it
and so on…
What I currently do is I have a shell script, which I run after installing through the Live CD, which uninstalls a bunch of packages and installs a bunch of other packages; stops/enables/starts a bunch of services, creates/changes some configuration files, etc.
Isn’t there a better way? I thought about patching the calamares modules while the Live CD is running before an install but it looks pretty intricate at first sight and might break after a while when patching. Fork it? Calamares modules seem to be compiled, so it’s extra cumbersome just to change some packages and settings.
So that looks like a no-starter.
I’d be happy with a chroot on an already partitioned disk but then I’d be missing out on the autodetection stuff of v3/v4, nvidia, etc.
I’d overall prefer a low-level approach instead of a complicated and indirect way like when using calamares or retroactively changing the installed system.
I need package-detailed control, not just a “KDE” checkbox.
Aside from the “iwd” checkbox everything is un-ticked to keep the post-install work low and build up from this with a network connection.
I don’t use one of the mainstream desktops so I piece everything (audio stack, notifications, bar, drunner, theme, light/dark manager, wallpaper service, idle detection, lockscreen, terminal emulator, etc.) together.
That was already a thought and the docs have a paragraph about how to do this but ideally I’d avoid a frankenarch and then I’d have to figure out how chwd and other CachyOS-specific tools work, what the CachyOS install medium covers for me; or just hard-code all packages or implement home-grown hardware detection parsing PCI bus etc.
It’s my favorite way to use the great packages of CachyOS. I start by installing Arch Linux the Arch way. I setup everything the way I like it until it is perfect to my taste, and when it is, I switch my repos using this guide.
Those that are in the optimised repos yes, but isn’t that kind of the point to take use of the cpu etc optimisations for the packages. Of course every package wont be updated as not every package is in the optimised repos.
The optimized packages should be used when available, agreed.
But my point was wouldn’t it be better to install the optimized packages in the first place and not switch over.
As in not:
boot arch
partition
install kernel and ultra most essentials
install the other desired packages
switch over to optimized repos
overwrite packages with optimized variants (many)
But:
boot arch
partition
install kernel and ultra most essentials
switch over to optimized repos
install the other desired packages
overwrite packages with optimized variants (kernel and the essentials)
Sure, but you pretty easily install a base arch base (with like archinstall script on the arch ISO - if you don’t want to do it the full arch way). At the end of the script you can chroot → switch the repos (there is an automated script).
Then you can start build your own desired desktop + packages.
Cachy is doing a new installer to replace calamares, but still don’t think they will go overboard with the options to customize the installer. @ptr1337 can surely shed more light on this and the plans.
What work best for you is what you should go with! In the end, you switch your packages when you are ready! Me for instance, I like to run on Arch packages for some weeks before I switch. I like to make sure everything is stable and optimized before.
If i’m not mistaken, one could also boot CachyOS iso, switch to a tty or use the virtual console and install the same way you would using Arch iso.
It would be nice to have a boot entry that lead to the terminal allowing people to install cachyos the arch way using cachy iso. I think archinstall could even work since I’m pretty sure it copy configs from the iso. I could see myself start my install using cachy iso instead of arch iso.
Currently it looks like this might be my way forward:
boot CachyOS’ Live CD
partitioning
chroot
pacstrap with base and cachyos-kernel
(are the Live CD mirrors already chosen well?)
setup some stuff
(run separate script that manages packages, configs, services and all that stuff)
exit
reboot
profit?
That script mentioned is already in the works and done for the most part.
It’s designed to be run from an already existing system, just depending on base and yay (because of my use of packages from AUR, pacman could be used if no need for AUR), be it just pacstrap’ped or your everyday setup with several months worth of tinkering.
It detects packages missing and also superfluous packages, which then are demoted to asdeps and later culled if really no dependency and orphaned.
It can handle the several ways of network setup (see posts above). It automatically chooses how to configure the services interacting with each other to get the network up, dynamically defined by the packages installed.
Maybe I can find sone time in the next days to expand on the pacstrap part to get the groundworks done myself and having a leaner system to start from.
