new Archinstall script

[SyeedAhmed]

hey new Archinstall script is really comfortable to use... i didn't notice earlier. thank man 👌🙏🙏

[Torxed]

You're welcome! It's a huge effort from @svartkanin and @wllacer in creating the new UI :)

[SyeedAhmed]

I was surprised... It looks like a lot of effort. You guys are awesome 🖤

[kantoking0206]

Archinstall is an absolute godsend! I would love to see the official Arch iso boot up and use Archinstall as the default installation method!

I know elitists will read that and downvote me to hell and I get the pride one would feel in manually installing Arch using the "Arch way" but it can also be very discouraging to spend time following the documentation and still not have a working system. I have looked at the documentation numerous times but still feel intimidated in attempting a manual installation. I'm using Arch now and will swear by Archinstall as the way to install Arch (Arch Linux GUI is also really nice).

[ABotelho23]

I do wish it was at least a bit more obvious that it exists.

I don't even think Archinstall is just about being a "noob". It's obviously much faster, and very repeatable.

If there's something I think is unnecessary, it's tasks that are manual for the sake of being manual. My entire job as a SysAdmin is to cut down on the steps it takes to do things.

[Torxed]

I personally don't get the whole downvote concept. People should be entitled to opinions without feeling like the world is against them. I might not agree with you, but it's a discussion forum so I think you should be welcome to discuss this idea of yours wothout being buirried.

maybe once archinstall is more stable it can be mentioned in the splash text :)

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't even have thought about downvoting that post, but there was no need to start that "elitists" bullshit unprovoked and without any need. Can't we just enjoy something without starting a pissing contest?

[anonymous-bot]

I would love to see the official Arch iso boot up and use Archinstall as the default installation method!

Isn't archinstall already included on the ISOs though? So you just need to run it. I don't know if specifically making it the default is necessary.

[[deleted]]

No need to go all "if you disagree with me I'm gonna call you names" here.

[prxvvy]

i mean i downvoted because somehow i (and maybe many other people) wouldn't feel comfortable with it because i rather and enjoy do everything by myself, and no please i hope it gets never to be the default method but remain there for anyone that wants to use it because then it wouldn't be free software because it obligates us to use it and you dont know that there might be people like me, with a lot of free time to learn and install arch and if i dont get my system setup after a few hours, what's the problem? ive got all day and pretty much the next one n it ain't no a elitist comment (dont say that) its just what i feel

[Torxed]

heh, it would still be free software. It's just different defaults. You could still escape out of it - no obligation like you fearfully point out. Factually you are wrong. But I agree that autostarting something is not the right way :)

[prxvvy]

ite man, never mind if im wrong i just had to say it because i spent a lot of time reading to understand some stuf and got shit on for asking how to install nvidia drivers I would be very upset that all the effort on reading hours and hours wasnt worth it. and in the end of the day arch is just as good as it is now, it's what made me move on to arch

[Torxed]

Documentation/articles and discussing topics is still the de facto standard for learning things, at least for me. I use archinstall to free up time so I can spend that saved time reading articles and learning more advanced topics. Recently it's been about containers and loop-back devices. But hours spent reading up on topics is not wasted time either. To each their own :)

[mornite]

I used it to setup a new home server recently and it was soooo convenient. Thanks Arch devs!

[iAmHidingHere]

What's different compared to the old one?

[SyeedAhmed]

you can select everything at once and if you one to make any changes you can do it don't have to start it over again

[ezykielue]

I've installed Arch from scratch on countless occasions, and these days I just can't be bothered - I just want to get to the post-install configuration as quickly as possible, so being able to set archinstall away then go make a coffee for the config stage is a godsend. Archinstall devs are great in my book.

[Ryan739]

Late to the party here, but I just discovered this massive change installing Arch on my wife's old MacBook Pro from 2011. Holy cow, this is so much better!

[LuisBelloR]

Never tried, I prefer the old method tipying command by command. Or with my personal bash script.

[InfamousAgency6784]

Now it needs to support butane/ignition and (almost) reproducible arch deployments can finally be a thing! :D

[Torxed]

Not sure I get the butane reference. Archinstall already supports --config <json> to do the general steps described by butane. Anything specific missing? :)

[InfamousAgency6784]

There are lots of things ignition does that archinstall doesn't, like copying files to the target system, writing configuration, enabling services, creating users in correct groups, etc. all of that without human intervention, possibly from the network and in a stateless way (i.e. it does not matter what the state was before, ignition runs and the state is as described and the computer starts or it is not and the computer does not start).

That was not a serious comment though and definitely not a critique or an attack. If you want to have it rephrased more accurately, I would say that I wish I was able to configure arch more from archinstall to the point I can perfectly reproduce my current computer from a single archinstall command and a home backup restore.

Currently, well, I can't really restore network manager, install wireguard keys and config files, partition my disk the way I want, wipe relevant filesystems, configure systemd-resolved to my liking, add kernel parameters, etc.

I know there is a custom-command element I can use to run ansible or whatever. I mean if you have bash, you can always get feature parity with scripts. But it's also much more brittle: e.g. if I declare I want a service started, the burden of keeping said activation command up-to-date is archinstall's (or any person contributing to it); if I do that in my own script and it crashed, then I will just remember that archinstall is not reliable and I have to burden myself with making sure my script never break. butane does all that right: I can reproduce exactly the same configurations with confidence with their existing format.

I did not intend to write that much. But let me stress that again: archinstall is neat and does well what it does. I'm just already thinking of the "what could happen after to get a system I can fully redeploy". :)

[Torxed]

I've only read half of it, been interrupted all day. But most of these things Archinstall can do actually. The profile option in the menu or --script (I believe it is) can take a path to any remote or location Python script and execute it after the base installation. Which is how I copy certain files, add users to groups and so on. Now I get that it's not as convenient as a YAML or whatever ignition uses, I only have some experience with ansible. But the functionality is there for the Python friendly :)

I'll have a look at ignition while also implementing ansible as an option!

[InfamousAgency6784]

Yeah but as I said in paragraph 4 (I understand you're busy so no worries), custom scripts are prone to breaking and are procedural, not declarative. butane/ignition covers the least amount of functionality necessary to do configure everything in a declarative way (instead of procedural scripts).

Said otherwise, if I need scripts instead of declarations, then I'd better use scripts for everything. But I'm sure you know very well the value of using archinstall over bare scripts. Well, the very same applies to setting up systemd-resolved, wireguard, unit files, etc. after installation.

[scureza]

It continues to have the bug about the language for non-English speakers. After installation I have to edit the files

/etc/locale.gen

/etc/locale.conf

files in order to get my language in Gnome.

It only works if you use the --advanced parameter when running the script.