[arch-announce] 2011.08.19 installation media

[Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Dieter Plaetinck]

Dieter Plaetinck wrote:

Hi,

time for a much needed update to the Arch installation media, as the last
release ([2010.05][1]) is not only quite outdated, but now yields broken
installations if you do a netinstall (because the old installer is not aware of
the [changed kernel/initramfs filename][2] in our new Linux 3.0 packages).

What has changed in this period of more than a year?

[AIF][3] (installation tool):

  * Experimental support for btrfs and nilfs2.

  * Support syslinux bootloader, as well as grub.

  * Changes to configuration formats to support new rc.conf and linux3.0

  * Make selecting source more flexible (multiple local and/or remote repos)

  * Show package descriptions when installing packages

  * Run with debugging and logging enabled by default, add /arch/report-issues
script

  * Make automatic profiles switch source depending on whether core or
netinstall system is running

  * Remove support for tcp_wrappers in accordance to Arch Linux policy

[libui.sh][4] (bash UI framework):

  * Made long checklists much easier in CLI mode, by using $EDITOR

  * More flexible initialization

[Archiso][5] (image builds):

  * Snapshot of current core, including kernel 3.0.3-1, pacman 3.5.4-3, glibc
2.14-4, mkinitcpio 0.7.2-1, initscripts 2011.07.3-1 and netcfg 2.6.7-1

  * Big overhaul: use dm-snapshot instead of aufs2

  * All needed files to boot for custom USB media installed on /arch

  * Allow changing NBD export name

  * Allow using serial console (kernel parameter: console)

  * Allow starting custom script (kernel parameter: script), autologin tty1.

  * Add self integrity test (kernel parameter: checksum=y)

  * Add support to mount iso in loopback mode

  * Added packages: btrfs-progs-unstable crda curl dhclient dialog dnsmasq
hdparm netcfg nilfs-utils openconnect rp-pppoe rsync vpnc wpa_actiond

  * Removed packages: aufs2 aufs2-util joe ndiswrapper ndiswrapper-utils tiacx
tiacx-firmware

  * Remove x86test, add HDT to initial syslinux menu

  * Add support for booting from memdisk

  * XZ compression for SquashFS and initramfs.

Obviously there's more, such as bunches of code cleanups and bugfixes, but this
should be the most important.

The [Official installation guide][6] has been updated to reflect the changes
where necessary.

  * [Download][7]

  * [List of packages][8]

Please assure tickets exist in the [bugtracker - Release Engineering project][9]
for any issues you may find. To get in touch, join the [arch-releng mailing
list][10] or visit the [#arch-releng IRC channel][11]

   [1]: http://www.archlinux.org/news/201005-snapshots-less-is-more/

   [2]: http://www.archlinux.org/news/changes-to-kernel-package-and-filenames/

   [3]: http://projects.archlinux.org/aif.git/

   [4]: https://github.com/Dieterbe/libui-sh

   [5]: http://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git/

   [6]: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide

   [7]: http://www.archlinux.org/download/

   [8]: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DeveloperWiki:2011.08.19

   [9]: https://bugs.archlinux.org/index.php?project=6

   [10]: http://mailman.archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/arch-releng

   [11]: irc://freenode/arch-releng

URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/20110819-installation-media/