IMPLEMENTED PARTIALLY BY archinstall. ARCHIVED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

arch-installer

An installer for Arch Linux

Create an awesome interactive installer for Arch Linux and package it into a comfortably sized live CD *.iso image.

Requirements

• Use Archiso to produce an new type of live CD image containing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) interactive installer for Arch Linux
• Produce a minimal install by default, mimicking the current Arch Linux ISO philosophy, that can be customized by the user
• Support both mkinitcpio and dracut initramfs tools
• Support a variety of bootloaders (systemd-boot and GRUB2 at a minimum)
• Should not be much larger that a current Arch Linux ISO, ideally <1GB
• Anyone should be able to recreate/customize the ISO
• Automated build (e.g. Travis CI)

Bonus Achivements (refer to section Side Effects):

• Improve upon the available Arch Linux installation processes in terms of accessibility
• Unattended (automated) installs
• to-be-determined

Considerations

• These are a few of the major currently available frameworks to do this(*):
  • Anaconda
    • more heavy, but feature-rich framework
    • enables fully automated installations natively
    • needs to be fully packaged for Arch Linux
    • relies on python stack
    • accessible install using Orca
  • Calamares
    • most of the work is there
    • can be made lightweight with reducing Qt extensions
    • does not currently support error handling/recovery
    • accessible install using Orca
  • ncurses
    • much more customizable
    • has to be mostly done from scratch
    • more work for accessibility

(*) This is by no means an exhaustive list and should only encourage rather than discourage.

Footnotes

Side Effects

By simplifying the installation procedure the project will also inadvertently lower the skill requirement for entry into the Arch Linux ecosystem. For a distribution with a strong set of principles, reflecting "an explicit expectation of self-sufficiency and willingness to learn" from its community, that development might seem undesirable at first glance. However, Arch Linux has also become a major Linux distribution and one of the most popular choices for Linux newcomers, because of its simplicity, modernity and versatility. As such the resultant installer must aim to preserve these principles and educate new users. Moreover, a successful project must strive to improve the current state by giving the skilled and knowledgeable user the ability and choice, all the while removing the overhead.

Furthermore, depending on the exact implementation, several, if not all, points of the following might be fulfilled:

• provide simplified accessibility installs:
  • add further choice to options already provided in Arch Linux Accessibility
  • alternative to Arch Linux for the blind
• unattended (automated) installs with hassle-free configuration, minimal hardware and software overhead
  • treat a system install as code, tweak/test until satisfied Ansible style
• to-be-determined

DISCLAIMER: This project is not meant to encourage, enable or otherwise proliferate ignorance about ones system, its configuration and usage. A good solutions to the problem will make sure a user does understand each and every part of installation procedure.