Found while testing both installers end-to-end in VMs:
- Wait for archiso's pacman-init.service instead of racing it. The installer
autostarts at login while the live keyring is still being populated
asynchronously, so every package failed with "signature is unknown trust" /
"invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)". Do not run pacman-key --init
ourselves (corrupts the half-built keyring); wait, then refresh
archlinux-keyring so an ISO built weeks ago still trusts current keys.
- archbaseos-guided-install.sh: honor the answerfile's password/luks_password
fields; previously it always prompted interactively, so a documented
"zero-interaction" netboot/WDS install hung forever with no console.
- Install GRUB to the UEFI removable-media fallback (/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI) in
addition to the NVRAM entry. Without it, an installed disk with empty/cleared
NVRAM (fresh board, CMOS reset, or a cloned/redeployed image — the whole point
of this installer) shows "No bootable device". Verified: the disk now boots to
the login manager with fresh NVRAM.
- build.sh: sudo rm -rf the work dir. mkarchiso runs as root and leaves
root-owned files if interrupted, so the next plain rm -rf aborted the script
under set -e before mkarchiso could run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01MUhrcFU8J1Hnf7vNqNxZNi
Without oflag=direct, dd copies the ISO into the page cache at high speed, the
status=progress counter races to ~100%, then appears to hang at the end while
the slow USB drains and conv=fsync flushes — looking frozen when it is still
writing. write-usb.sh now writes with oflag=direct (honest device-level
progress) and falls back to a cached write if the bridge rejects O_DIRECT;
build.sh's dd hint and explanation are updated to match.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
"failed to load ldlinux.c32" when booting from USB is caused by writing the
isohybrid ISO at file level (drag-and-drop, Rufus "ISO" mode, UNetbootin), which
destroys the MBR/isolinux layout. The ISO build itself is correct — archiso's
bios.syslinux mode installs isolinux.bin + isohdpfx.bin + the c32 modules and
applies the isohybrid MBR, and the profile's bootmodes match upstream releng.
Add archiso/write-usb.sh: a safe block-level (dd) writer that lists removable
disks, refuses partitions and the system/root disk, requires an all-caps YES,
unmounts the target, then writes with conv=fsync. build.sh's completion output
now points at it and warns that file-level copies cause exactly this error.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Move the splash logo into resources/bg-skull.svg so it's tracked in git
and always available alongside the dotfiles. build.sh now copies
resources/ into /root/installer/resources/ on the ISO. The Plymouth
module resolves the SVG from the repo copy first, ISO copy second —
no user intervention or ~/Pictures setup required.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SyBNiWy3wpawrWb9ryVk7p
Enable the netboot buildmode in profiledef.sh so mkarchiso produces a
netboot tarball (kernel + initrd + squashfs) alongside the ISO. Add
--netboot-url flag to build.sh which generates a ready-to-chainload
m-archy-netboot.ipxe script. Document the full netboot.xyz deployment
workflow in docs/md/archiso.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a post-keymap action selection to launch.sh (Install vs Reset).
The reset routine (reset-arch.sh) unlocks LUKS via FIDO2 token and/or
passphrase, snapshots /etc credentials and config, wipes and recreates
the @ btrfs subvolume, reinstalls base packages via pacstrap, restores
auth files (passwd/shadow/pam.d/sudoers) and system config, then
regenerates the initramfs and GRUB menu from chroot. User home data is
preserved; ~/.config is cleared except Yubico/ auth keys so FIDO2 PAM
login continues to work. libfido2 added to packages.extra for live-env
token unlock support.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
.zlogin execs .automated_script.sh on login, which checks for /answerfile.json;
if present it runs the auto installer (passing the path), otherwise launches the
guided installer directly — no manual invocation needed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
tui-install.sh:
- Reads /answerfile.json if present (ANSWERFILE_MODE)
- All dialog selections (components, DE, apps) sourced from file
- Hostname from answerfile gets MAC address suffix appended to
prevent conflicts when deploying one image to multiple machines
- Interactive hostname inputbox added to the normal TUI flow
- Colorway dialog added as final step; skipped if no colors differ
from defaults and no answerfile colors are set
- Answerfile mode: runs non-interactively, logs warnings on failure
generate-answerfile.sh (new):
- Dry-runs the full installer dialog flow (OS + dotfiles)
- Writes selections to ~/answerfile.json (or a given path)
- No software is installed; passwords are never written to the file
build.sh:
- New --preconf [FILE] flag embeds an answerfile into the ISO at
/answerfile.json; omitting the flag leaves the ISO clean
- Validates JSON with jq if available before embedding
- Reworked arg parsing to handle the new flag alongside OUT_DIR
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
/tmp in WSL is a RAM-backed tmpfs that fills up during the build,
leaving xorriso with no room to write the ISO.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
/tmp fills up during large builds; allow redirecting both dirs without
editing the script (WORK_DIR=~/iso-work ./build.sh ~/iso-out).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add setup/archiso/ with build.sh, releng overlay, motd, and
install-arch launcher command for the live ISO
- Fix cryptroot mapper name in arch-autoinstall.sh (was 'root',
breaking all subsequent mounts)
- Add base-devel to pacstrap in both installers (required for yay/makepkg)
- Clone dotfiles inside chroot so tui-install.sh is available immediately
- After base install, offer to run tui-install.sh as the regular user
inside the chroot via runuser, with a temporary NOPASSWD sudoers rule;
skip option available for base-only installs
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Amir Alexander Abdelbaki