Arch-GRIT

Overview

Arch Graphical Recovery and Installation Tool (Arch-GRIT) - a live, graphical Arch Linux ISO, with my custom installer written in Bash.

This is a project with only one goal - easy redeployment of my opinionated, minimal Arch Linux system configuration, which is primarily designed for the needs of power users such as sysadmins and developers.

Features

• Live system / ISO
  • Full graphical environment
  • High compatibility
  • Wide variety of useful tools
  • Automatic rebuilds on the first day of the month
• TUI installer
  • Takes user input
  • Handles a variety of hardware configurations
  • Delivers a fully functional system
• Installed system
  • Uses ZFS for data security and integrity
    • Native encryption enabled by default (at the zpool level)
    • LZ4 compression enabled by default (at the zpool level)
    • Pairs linux-lts with zfs-dkms for maximum reliability
    • Automatic snapshots before all pacman transactions
    • Automatic, weekly scrubs
    • Automatic TRIM/discard on supported devices
    • Uses atime=off for best performance
  • Uses smartd for disk health monitoring
  • Firewalld enabled by default

Getting Started

There are two ways to use this project:

1. Download the latest pre-built ISO and write it to a USB drive, following the instructions in Usage
2. Build it from source with the instructions below, before continuing on to Usage

Building

Prerequisites

To build the ISO, you will need an existing Arch Linux system with the archiso package installed. A containerized build system is also being developed for a future release.

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/ralgar/arch-grit.git

2. Navigate into the repo:

   cd arch-grit

3. Start the build using the included Makefile.

   sudo make

Usage

Booting the live system

1. To write the ISO to a USB drive, follow the instructions provided by the Arch Linux Project.
2. Boot from the live USB. The bootloader will present you with two options. If your system has sufficient RAM (at least 4GB), then I recommend choosing the Copy to RAM option. Otherwise, choose the default option.
3. When the live system has finished booting, it will automatically log in and launch a terminal window. The live environment is very similar to the final product, so this is a good opportunity to test it out before committing to a permanent installation.

Navigating the live system

There are a few keyboard shortcuts that are important to know:

Key Combo	Description
Super + 1-9	Switch workspaces.
Super + Enter	Opens a new terminal window.
Super + E	Opens the app launcher.
Super + Q	Closes the currently focused window.
Super + Shift + Q	Ends the current session (logout).

Note: The default user is unprivileged. You can gain root privileges by using sudo with the password archlinux.

Using the arch-grit command

The arch-grit command is simple to use:

Invocation	Description
arch-grit install	Starts the interactive installer.
arch-grit mount	Mounts an existing system for recovery purposes.
arch-grit umount	Umounts a previously mounted system.

License

Distributed under the GNU GPLv2 License. See LICENSE for more info.

Acknowledgements

Some of the following software is showcased in this project:

• AwesomeWM
• Powerlevel10k