TacOS: A Lua repository from c0rnch1p

TacOS [v1.5.0 ISOs Available, Etcher USB Formatter, HowTo]

Details

Arch: Linux x86_64
Disk Size: 48GB
ISO Size: 6G (Squashfs)
Vers: v1.5

Weblinks

Arch Linux: https://archlinux.org
Archiso: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Archiso
Arco Linux: https://arcolinux.com
Awesome: https://awesomewm.org
Pacman: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman
X.org: https://www.x.org/wiki

General

TacOS is a custom Linux build based on Arch and Arco Linux, it features a streamlined installation process using Calamares and multiple bootloader configurations. Users can build an ISO using the provided script, run it in a virtual machine, or flash it to a USB drive to use live. Building TacOS on a distro based on something other than Arch will be problematic, because build_iso.sh depends on Pacman. Special thanks to the developers of the software that made this project possible by making their code open source.

Installation

Installing Arch

Arch Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide
Phoenixnap: https://phoenixnap.com/kb/arch-linux-install

Depends

archiso: Tools for creating arch Linux ISO images
pacman: Library based package manager with dependency support
reflector: Python script to retrieve and filter pacman mirror lists

Building TacOS

Open a terminal or TTY and clone this repo:

git clone 'https://github.com/c0rNCh1p/tacOS.git' ||
git clone 'https://gitlab.com/c0rNCh1p/tacOS.git'

Change to the build directory, make sure the script is executable and run it:

cd 'TacOS' && chmod 764 'build_iso.sh' && ./'build_iso.sh'

Flashing

A script to make the flashing process easier is included in the scripts folder:

cd 'TacOS' && chmod 764 'flash_iso.sh' && ./'flash_iso.sh'

Be sure to unplug and reinsert the USB otherwise it wont be detected in the BIOS after its ejected.

Booting

Reboot the machine.
Access the boot menu (UEFI, BIOS etc), requires pressing a specific key on powerup (usually F12, F11, Esc, or Del), before anything else starts loading.
Go to the boot options tab, a list of available boot devices will be displayed.
Choose the one that corresponds to the live media (e.g. somebrand-USB or liveiso-DVD).
Go to the final tab, save the changes and reboot again.

Notes

No Login Manager

There is no login manager installed to the ISOs by default, nor is any extra support for login managers included in the base filesystem. Upon booting into the live environment, the user is dropped into TTY1 and a welcome message is displayed. The message advises users to run the setup scripts with 01_run_all. Some of the scripts require an active internet connection, so if the machine isnt connected via Ethernet, just run nmtui.

No Netinstall

The Calamares configuration settings and modules included in the ISO are not intended for installing the system over a connection and instead are optimized for offline usage. Sometimes a completely offline installation is impossible, but being less dependent on the network while using Calamares results in fewer errors overall when installing TacOS.

No Symlinks

There are no symlinks in this repo, everything that would usually use a symlink during the boot process of an operating system is done using a script or configured manually. As a result, when booting into the live environment there is a point where the kernel may ask for an input variable. This is just the timezone which is entered in Region/Zone format (where region is the country and zone is the city or town) or skipped with nter.

No LTS

The Linux long-term-support packages arent included in the builds by default or supported in any of the bootloader configs (GRUB, systemd-boot and syslinux). If the LTS package is required, it can be added to the package lists and whatever bootloader config is in use. It could also be installed on the existing system, eg. for grub GRUB on Arch:

sudo pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers && sudo grub-mkconfig -o '/boot/grub/grub.cfg'

No Nouveau

The nvidia-nouveau package is not included in TacOS by default due to compatibility and stability issues with certain Nvidia graphics cards. Users who need Nvidia support should install the external Nvidia drivers post-installation:

sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings

Followed by updating the GRUB configuration and rebooting the system:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o '/boot/grub/grub.cfg' && systemctl reboot

First Login

After installing TacOS, please note that the autologin will no longer match the liveuser account because it wont exist. This means the shell is manually logged into at startup and should be reloaded before running startx to launch the graphical environment or before continuing with server configuration. This is done using the bash command or the builtin reload alias. Startup errors such as fonts and wallpapers not loading properly can be mitigated using this method of starting the desktop.

Sudoers File

Like any fresh install the first thing a new user would do is add their username into the /etc/sudoers file and reboot. This isnt necessarilly done with visudo, its just as easy if not easier to do it by logging straight into the root shell and running:

nano /etc/sudoers

Nano has a builtin system config on TacOS, once open the find and replace option can simply be triggered with Ctrl+r and the string liveuser can be changed.

c0rnch1p/TacOS