Calamares Installer
Uses Calamares with two modes and custom branding.
Modes
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Offline | Unpacks a KDE Plasma squashfs — no internet needed |
| Online | Netinstall with init system choice + desktop selection |
The launcher (calamares-next) presents a mode picker before launching Calamares.
Key differences from upstream
dracut/dracutlukscfgreplaced withinitcpiocfg/initcpio/luksopenswaphookcfg(Artix uses mkinitcpio, not dracut)services-openrcmodule instead ofservices-systemdremoveuserstep removed,postcfgaddedpackagechoosermodule compiled in (upstream skips it)
Init system selector (online)
Users choose from: Dinit, OpenRC, Runit, S6.
Implemented as a packagechooser instance with method: netinstall-add — the selected init pulls its associated packages.
Desktop selector (online)
Users choose from: Plasma, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, i3, Sway, Hyprland, or No Desktop.
Implemented as a separate packagechooser instance with method: legacy. “No Desktop” installs only the base system (TTY-only).
Available desktops
| Desktop | Artix Repo | Group/Packages |
|---|---|---|
| Plasma | world | plasma group |
| Xfce | galaxy | xfce4 group |
| Cinnamon | galaxy | Individual packages |
| MATE | galaxy | mate + mate-extra groups |
| LXQt | galaxy | lxqt group |
| i3 | world | i3 group |
| Sway | world | sway + related packages |
| Hyprland | world | hyprland |
Note: Budgie is not available in any Artix repo and has been removed from all configs and slideshows.
Offline mode
No packagechooser. Uses unpackfs to deploy a pre-built KDE Plasma squashfs, then initcpiocfg + initcpio for mkinitcpio configuration.
Branding
Custom branding lives in the calamares-branding-antergos-next package, installed to /etc/calamares/branding/default/. The componentName in branding.desc must match its directory name.