GUI Tab: Installation

This tab mixes profile options and project options. Which packages to install is a feature of the profile, as is the basic design of the 'pacman.conf' file. The exact location of the packages (repository and cache paths) are more related to the build environment.

Package selection

See here for details of how the list of packages to be installed is built up. The gui offers convenient editing of the 'addedpacks' and 'vetopacks' files.

pacman configuration is handled in separate parts. 'pacman.conf' is effectively split into two, the options part and the repositories part can be edited separately, though the default options should be alright for most purposes. This split might ease management of updates to the structure of the file 'pacman.conf' with new pacman releases. Default versions of both parts (for the options part a complete pacman.conf can be used, the repositories will be stripped automatically) are supplied in the 'data' directory of the 'larch' package. A simplified format is used for the repository file, details can be found here.

Note that the larch repository must be available for building the live system, i.e. it must be included in the 'pacman.conf' used for the installation process. It is not strictly necessary for the resulting live system to include this repository. See below for further details.

'mirrorlist'

It is possible to customize the 'mirrorlist' file used for installation. This can be very convenient, because when building a live system the build environment can be very different from the run-time environment. For example, you might use local package repositories for building which cannot possibly be available when the live system is used.

Customized versions of the 'mirrorlist' file are not regarded as belonging to the profile, because they are build environment specific, so they are stored in the project directory, which is made current when the larch backend scripts are run.

Special installation repositories and cache

Adjustments to the installation repository file and cache location are treated as 'advanced' options, because in many cases the defaults will be perfectly adequate.

Using different mirrors/repositories for the installation

The second part of the 'pacman.conf' file, the repository list, can be specified separately for the installation, via the frame 'Use project repository list'. For certain build environments this can be very useful.

A further way of getting a distinct 'pacman.conf' in the resulting live system is to put it in the profile's 'rootoverlay' directory (in the '/etc' subdirectory, as usual).

Package cache

Normally the host's standard package cache will be used for the installation, but it is possible to use a non-standard location. I guess, however, that this will not normally be necessary.

Tweak installed packages

To perform small changes to the base installation, such as updating the packages, or adding or removing the odd package, it may be convenient not to have to do a complete reinstallation. To this end a set of buttons for basic pacman operations are included (in an optional frame). Their use should be fairly self-explanatory. During testing it can be helpful to be able to make quick changes like this, but it is probably not a good idea to use these facilities too freely. The installation will differ from the specification in the profile (unless you immediately edit the profile too), which may be no problem for one-offs, but if you ever want to reuse the profile you may well lose track of what changes you have made.

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