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<h1><span><em>live Arch Linux</em> builder</span></h1>
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<div class="indent1">GUI Tab: Preparing the Medium</div></a></li>
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<h2 id="pagetitle" level="2">GUI Tab: Larchify</h2>
<p>You can repeat the 'larchify' command as often as you like,
to test various configurations or to build differently configured
<em>live</em> systems with the same underlying packages. This works
because the 'larchify' process itself does not change anything within the
installation - all the files it generates are placed in the 'overlay',
which (thanks to <em>aufs</em>) will just cover up any old versions of
the added files in the underlying installation. At present <em>larch</em>
does not support the 'deletion' of installation files, they can only be
overlayed by replacements.
</p>
<h3>User accounts</h3>
<p>You can enter or edit user accounts to be added during the creation of
the <em>live</em> system. Any of the columns except the first (the login
name) may be empty.
</p>
<p>A password can be set for the new user by entering this (plain text -
I'm guessing this is alright in this situation ...). An empty password
field will allow passwordless logins (at least on the console).
</p>
<p>The primary group of a new user can be set in the 'Group' column.
When this is empty, it takes the <em>useradd</em> default, which is
defined by settings in '/etc/login.defs' and '/etc/default/useradd'. Note
that the default in <em>Arch Linux</em> is a group with the same name as
the user, this is set by 'USERGROUPS_ENAB yes' in 'etc/login.defs'. You can
override this by adding an 'expert' option, or by placing a modified version
of this file in the profile's 'rootoverlay' directory.
</p>
<p>By default the UID number will be chosen automatically, but a specific
number may be entered here. In <em>Arch Linux</em> the UIDs normally start
at 1000.
</p>
<p>The 'skel'-directory column determines how the user's home
directory will be initialized. The default (empty cell) is to copy the
contents from '/etc/skel'. The editor popup shows a list of the available
alternatives (folders within the profile beginning with 'skel_').
</p>
<p>The additional groups to which this user should belong can also be
specified. Entries in this column are initialized to some default value
which should be adequate for normal use, but may well need tweaking.
This is a comma separated list <strong>without spaces</strong>.
</p>
<p>The final column allows you to pass further options to the system
'useradd' command used to add the new user. Do not use double-quotes in this
option string. Read 'man useradd' for more information about the available
options.
</p>
<h4>Editing the table</h4>
<p>Click on a cell in the selected row to cause an editor popup to appear.
Clicking on an unselected row selects that row.
</p>
<h3>The kernel</h3>
<p>By default the standard <em>Arch</em> kernel will be used in the
<em>live</em> system, but it is also possible to use some other kernel, so
long as it is suitably configured. In particular it must support
<em>squashfs</em> and <em>aufs</em>. If you are using a non-standard kernel
you need to tell <em>larchify</em> where it is (its file name within the
/boot directory - the default is 'vmlinuz26') and the name of its
<em>mkinitcpio</em> preset file (default 'kernel26'). These can be entered
in the corresponding places in the advanced options section of the gui.
</p>
<h3>The overlay</h3>
<p>Apart from the few customization options offered by the GUI directly, it
is possible to include any files in the <em>live</em> system by adding them
at the appropriate path within the overlay directory ('rootoverlay') of
the profile. This button opens a file browser on the 'rootoverlay' directory
of the current profile.
</p>
<h3>Locales</h3>
<p>You can select the (glibc) locales supported by the <em>live</em>
system by editing the /etc/locale.gen file in the overlay. If there is
no such file initially it will be copied from the new installation's
(not the host's!) version. See (for example) the <em>Arch Wiki</em> for
more information about locales. Note that <em>larch</em> tries to leave
the locale files in the installation itself unchanged, new files are
placed in the overlay.
</p>
<h3><em>Arch</em> configuration: /etc/rc.conf</h3>
<p>This is the central configuration file for an <em>Arch Linux</em>
system. You can edit it here (see for example the <em>Arch Wiki</em> for
more information about this file).
</p>
<h3>Reuse existing system.sqf</h3>
<p>After 'larchify' has been run, the base installation will have been
'squashed' into a compressed archive. Setting this option will prevent
the repetition of this compression (which is quite a lengthy process) on
the next run of 'larchify'. This should only be enabled if no changes
have been made to the base installation (otherwise these changes will
not be picked up).
</p>
<h3>Advanced options - the defaults are normally fine</h3>
<h4>mkinitcpio.conf</h4>
<p>Here you can edit the mkinitcpio.conf used for building the
<em>initramfs</em> for the <em>live</em> system. N.B. The details of
<em>mkinitcpio</em> handling in <em>larch</em> are a bit complicated,
so if you change something here please be careful - you are not editing
'/etc/mkinitcpio.conf', but rather 'etc/mkinitcpio.conf.larch' in the
'rootoverlay' directory of the profile (see
<a href="larchify.html#mkinitcpio">here</a> for further details).
Also, don't change the <em>larch</em> hooks.
</p>
<h4>ssh-keys</h4>
<p>See <a href="larch_ssh.html#ssh_hostkeys">ssh host keys</a>. The default
is to generate these keys (if the <em>openssh</em> package is installed).
</p>
<h4>Reuse existing locales</h4>
<p>For people generating a lot of locales this can save a bit of time on
a rerun, so long as nothing significant (like <em>glibc</em>, or
/etc/locale.gen) has changed in the installation.
</p>
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