Arch Linux

kraileth

Member

Registered: 2012-08-09

Posts: 14

Arch:E5 (Using eglibc, linux-libre, runit/ignite - built with Clang)

Just wanted to share my latest project with anybody who cares. In my quest to get to know Linux a bit better I have been playing around with a lot of things and tried to put something together from it lately. The result is what I call "Arch:E5".

It is basically a bunch of repositories which provide packages for an experimental Arch-like system. It's also a playground that I'd like to invite anybody to who is interested in it and has a bit of time on his hands.

E5 is built mostly from PKGBUILDs taken directly from Arch with only a few modifications. Thus it's meant be compatible with mainline Arch in the manner that mixing packages from both systems should be possible in most cases.

Here's Arch:E5 in a few sentences (describing the differences from Arch):

- LLVM/Clang is the primary compiler used for package building. Why? Because Clang is cool and I've been asking myself how much of Arch could be built with it. Now I'm starting to get an idea.
- Uses the Linux-libre kernel which has all binary blobs removed (yes, like Parabola GNU/Linux). I'm not an FSF zealot; made the change because I wanted to try it out. Wouldn't mind to provide the standard kernel as well.
- Provides eglibc (the binary compatible embedded variant) instead of glibc as standard libc. It's optimized for embedded devices - but being frugal is never a bad thing. And since it's binary compatible I don't see any reason NOT to use it. Debian for example uses it as its main libc as well.
- Whenever possible libc++ together with libc++abi are used instead of stdlibc++. Pretty much the same thing as with Clang. I'm interested in new technology.
- Comes with the Runit init system instead of systemd. I'm an happy Archer both at home and at work. I use systemd and I don't hate it. However I'm not really sure that I like the way it's going. But even if everything is fine, it's also nice to get to know the alternatives.
- Replaces some core components with light-weight alternatives (like pkgconf instead of pkg-config). Unbloat whenever possible!
- Uncouples its packages from Arch’s rolling release process so that they won’t be overwritten automatically on mixed systems. The E5 packages use an epoch value of 5 (hence the name "Arch:E5"!) so pacman considers its packages to be "newer" even if Arch releases one that is actually newer.
- Slight preference of more liberal licenses than GPL. If something is for example BSD and it's not severely crippled compared to the GPL alternative, I'd rather use that.

I've split up the familiar "core" repository into two seperate ones: "skel" and "default". The former provides everything needed for a really minimal bootable system (no dhcp, no pacman, not even an editor). The later contains the standard utilities needed for an actually useful system that are missing from e5-skel. Alternatives to that these standard applications would be available in "extra" (e.g. "nano", "emacs" or even "vi" instead of the standard "vim").

The repository e5-devel is also a separate one (and it's pretty obvious what it contains).

If anybody wants to try it out, it can easily be pacstrapped in a virtual machine using a standard Arch boot cd. Just disable the three Arch repositories in the pacman.conf and add the following two to it:

[e5-skel]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://www.elderlinux.org/repos/e5-skel

[e5-default]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://www.elderlinux.org/repos/e5-default

Then do a pacstrap of base just as you'd normally do. When it's done, use the genfstab util. There's no need to chroot to the new system and install the bootloader. Currently syslinux gets installed automatically.

If you'd like to know more about it (like the known issues), please see this entry on my Linux blog.

I appreciate feedback or comments of course. Have fun!

Last edited by kraileth (2014-02-17 17:07:02)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: Arch:E5 (Using eglibc, linux-libre, runit/ignite - built with Clang)

Moving to Community Contributions...

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Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

kraileth

Member

Registered: 2012-08-09

Posts: 14

Re: Arch:E5 (Using eglibc, linux-libre, runit/ignite - built with Clang)

Arch:E5 has been updated and new repositores have been published.

Quite some packages were updated but the major news is that packages with graphical programs are now available. You can choose between pure X11, a light-weight desktop (Equinox Desktop Environment, based upon FLTK) or a full-blown one (MATE 1.8, the project which continues where the old GNOME 2 left off).

The complete MATE group (just as most of E5's packages in general) was compiled successfully with clang.

If you'd like to read more, here's the new blog post that I wrote about it. Any feedback about the project is welcome.

Here's a picture of the desktop: