providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

teateawhy · 2015-04-16 23:23:02

Providing an archlinux ISO with Xorg and a simple DE would be a good addition to the current cli-only ISO. Having the option to view a web browser and multiple terminals next to each other would be appreciated by most. This improves the usability of archiso while installing or reparing, especially when you need to read the wiki.
This is not a suggestion to add any kind of installer.
To keep the old behaviour at startup, i suggest that Xorg is not started by default, and can be started with startx.
To make this ISO all that is needed is adding a few packages to a new profile based on releng, for example

xf86-video-vesa
xf86-video-ati
xf86-video-intel
xf86-video-nouveau
xf86-video-nv
xorg-server
xfce4
gparted
xf86-input-synaptics
mesa
midori

and to add the .xinitrc file

exec startxfce4

The size of this ISO is 900MB but can probably trimmed down by not including the whole xfce4 group. The old minimal archiso should be kept as an option for people how would rather download 600MB than 900MB.
Of course you can build this for yourself, but the point of this suggestion is to make it available on the arch website for everyone.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-04-16 23:28:21

teateawhy wrote:

Having the option to view a web browser and multiple terminals next to each other would be appreciated by most.

The ISO already includes elinks and I think it might have tmux/screen as well (plus ttys 1-6).

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2015-04-16 23:28:36)

teateawhy · 2015-04-16 23:38:23

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

teateawhy wrote:
Having the option to view a web browser and multiple terminals next to each other would be appreciated by most.
The ISO already includes elinks and I think it might have tmux/screen as well (plus ttys 1-6).

The ISO doesn't have tmux or screen. Elinks can't properly display the wiki, nor can ttys replace side-by-side view of xterms with browser and copy-paste. Anyway if you prefer the oldschool way and the size difference matters to you, i suggested to keep the old iso available.

Last edited by teateawhy (2015-04-16 23:38:35)

parazyd · 2015-04-16 23:52:13

If I'm not mistaken, w3m is included and it shows the Wiki pretty well.

jasonwryan · 2015-04-16 23:58:45

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

teateawhy wrote:
Having the option to view a web browser and multiple terminals next to each other would be appreciated by most.
The ISO already includes elinks and I think it might have tmux/screen as well (plus ttys 1-6).

There is an installer with tmux: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=161347

Oh, wait...

teateawhy · 2015-04-17 00:05:32

jasonwryan wrote:

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
teateawhy wrote:
Having the option to view a web browser and multiple terminals next to each other would be appreciated by most.
The ISO already includes elinks and I think it might have tmux/screen as well (plus ttys 1-6).
There is an installer with tmux: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=161347
Oh, wait... :)

:) Yes it's discontinued, because it would be outdated too fast. Think of the new suggestion as an improvement of that concept, which doesn't require maintenance.

teateawhy · 2015-04-17 00:07:33

parazyd wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, w3m is included and it shows the Wiki pretty well.

You're mistaken.

fsckd · 2015-04-17 00:13:07

teateawhy wrote:

jasonwryan wrote:
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
The ISO already includes elinks and I think it might have tmux/screen as well (plus ttys 1-6).
There is an installer with tmux: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=161347
Oh, wait...
Yes it's discontinued, because it would be outdated too fast. Think of the new suggestion as an improvement of that concept, which doesn't require maintenance.

You should have left the GitHub page at least. I want to know what great thing everyone in that thread is talking about.

teateawhy · 2015-04-17 00:21:01

You should have left the GitHub page at least. I want to know what great thing everyone in that thread is talking about.

You're right. HalosGhost saves the day.
https://github.com/HalosGhost/tmxgta

karol · 2015-04-17 00:28:49

teateawhy wrote:

Elinks can't properly display the wiki

What's wrong?
elinks + xterm should be enough for navigation with a mouse and copy-pasting.
Does xf86-video-vesa provide native resolution for 16:9 displays?

teateawhy · 2015-04-17 00:54:36

karol wrote:

elinks + xterm should be enough for navigation with a mouse and copy-pasting.

Indeed. That's a good option, too. I wonder what size difference midori makes, or if there is a smaller browser similar too midori.

karol wrote:

teateawhy wrote:
Elinks can't properly display the wiki
What's wrong?

It doesn't display the design details like color, code boxes, bold text and the indentation is weird. If you like this oversimplification of design or not is entirely subjective though. Personally, i wouldn't use elinks, also because i don't want to learn the keyboard shortcuts and behaviour of an application i rarely use.

karol wrote:

Does xf86-video-vesa provide native resolution for 16:9 displays?

I don't know.

Last edited by teateawhy (2015-04-17 00:56:34)

bleach · 2015-04-17 01:15:32

elinks is probably one of the best txt based. it has color and limited css and such if you need that it has masive configurability within the aplication itself insert and delete scroll single lines and it draws html just fine and shift plus curser(gpm) can select text.

Trilby · 2015-04-17 01:24:42

teateawhy wrote:

I wonder what size difference midori makes, or if there is a smaller browser similar too midori.

Netsurf is a very small fraction the size of midori and is a fully functional gui browser. But size of the browser is not the biggest issue when you are talking about installing all of xfce4 just to get a X session: the browsers in question are about 6 and 98MB while XFCE4 would be over 200MB.

Why not just X and a simple WM, even openbox is in the range of 10MB.

EDIT: editted for accuracy, I was looking at package sizes rather than including the needed dependencies.

teateawhy · 2015-04-17 16:29:44

Trilby wrote:

teateawhy wrote:
I wonder what size difference midori makes, or if there is a smaller browser similar too midori.
Netsurf is a very small fraction the size of midori and is a fully functional gui browser. But size of the browser is not the biggest issue when you are talking about installing all of xfce4 just to get a X session: the browsers in question are about 6 and 98MB while XFCE4 would be over 200MB.
Why not just X and a simple WM, even openbox is in the range of 10MB.
EDIT: editted for accuracy, I was looking at package sizes rather than including the needed dependencies.

I adapted your selection. New package list:

...video drivers
openbox
xorg-xinit
lilyterm
netsurf
gparted

This results in an ISO size of 732MB. Pacman says that removing gparted could free 24MB, so i keep it. I also added an openbox menu and netsurf config.
https://github.com/vitamins/archiso
The config is called "releng-openbox".
EDIT: Added tint2, numix-themes, ttf-dejavu, and configs. Replaced lilyterm with lxterminal. New size 757M.

Last edited by teateawhy (2015-04-18 00:45:00)

chickenPie4tea · 2015-05-03 11:58:15

Thanks teateawhy, Glad you did this, will checkout your github page.

Last edited by chickenPie4tea (2015-05-03 12:00:24)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-04-16 23:23:02

providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#2 2015-04-16 23:28:21

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#3 2015-04-16 23:38:23

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#4 2015-04-16 23:52:13

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#5 2015-04-16 23:58:45

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#6 2015-04-17 00:05:32

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#7 2015-04-17 00:07:33

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#8 2015-04-17 00:13:07

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#9 2015-04-17 00:21:01

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#10 2015-04-17 00:28:49

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#11 2015-04-17 00:54:36

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#12 2015-04-17 01:15:32

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#13 2015-04-17 01:24:42

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#14 2015-04-17 16:29:44

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

#15 2015-05-03 11:58:15

Re: providing archlinux ISO with Xorg in Download section

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