Search the Community

Arch Linux is a lightweight and minimalist OS that requires approximately 2 to 4 GB of RAM. This Linux distro focuses significantly on precision, aesthetics, adaptability, and usability. Pacman is Arch’s package management utility. Arch gives a do-it-yourself (DIY) aspect, allowing the users to work according to their needs and interests. Despite the user-friendly installation of Arch Linux, it is often used by Linux specialists due to its DIY approach. Arch’s distinguishing characteristic is its usage of “Rolling Release,” which allows the system to install new upgrades with a single command automatically. Moreover, Arch offers numerous distributions, each with its unique set of pre-installed programs. Hence, whether you are a beginner or an expert, there is a huge range of Arch-based distros to meet your requirements. So, in this blog, we have listed the best Arch Linux-based distros of 2024. Before getting on any Arch Linux-based OS, you must determine your needs and technical understanding. That’s why we have included both beginner and expert level Arch based operating systems: Endeavor OS Endeavour OS is one of the most renowned Arch Linux distros due to its simple installation process. Bryan Poerwoatmodjo, Johannes Kamprad, Fernando Omiechuk Frozi, and Manuel chose to continue the community that Antergos had started. They all produced new distributions based on the old core. The Endeavour OS can be used with desktop environments like Cinnamon, GNOME, Budgie, and Plasma. It requires a minimum of 4GB RAM and includes eight desktop environments, one window manager, and a limited number of programs. EndeavourOS ‘Galileo’ is the most recent version, and significant improvements were made to the installation. Pros Customization of your system to your liking. Handy installation process. Compatible with older computers. Frequent updates and new features with bloatware. Cons Lack of pre-installed graphical interface It has a smaller community. Support is more professional but may take longer. Manjaro Manjaro was created in 2011 by Germany, Austria, and France for new users and full-time developers. It is a more durable, adaptable, and practical open-source operating system for its users. Manjaro is intended to be “groundbreaking” with its pre-installed apps. As Manjaro is an Arch Linux-based OS, meaning it works on rolling releases. Hence, fresh updates are continually available to make it easy for users to maintain their computers efficiently. The most popular Manjaro versions are Manjaro GNOME, Manjaro Xfce, Manjaro Cinnamon, and Manjaro KDE Plasma. Pros Easy Installation. New updates are available consistently. A strong security system is designed to remove antivirus, which can harm your data. Variety of inbuilt user interface. Cons Weekly upgrades are required, which can make a user annoyed. Since it is an Arch-based Linux OS, some issues may arise related to installing Arch User Repository (AUR). Garuda Linux Shrinivas Vishnu Kumbhar created Garuda Linux on March 26th, 2020. The name “Garuda” honors a Hindu mythical bird. The installation of Artix uses Calamars and contains the Arch rolling release. Garuda Linux has both user-friendly and graphics-focused UI for being a beginner-friendly OS. It embodies performance enhancement, which includes custom kernels. Moreover, Garuda Linux simplifies the experience for gamers and designers alike. This Linux distro requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM with 30 GB storage, but you can go for 8GB of RAM if you want to use Garuda Linux for gaming purposes. Pros Customization is available to make the desktop more attractive. Has a graphic installer to give a more pleasant experience. Garuda has pre-installed options for gamers to escalate their gaming skills. Continuous modification is available for free with a supportive team. Cons Compared to other distros, Garuda Linux has a smaller community than new distros, so finding help might be difficult. As it is performance-based, the resource consumption is high compared to other distros. Artix Linux Developed in 2017, Artix Linux relies on rolling release distributions, which help keep the system current. It offers distinctive functions, allowing users to choose between two init systems, OpenRC, and systemd. Only the most basic functionality is available after installation, improving system performance and providing greater user control. Artix works nicely with Arch Linux repositories but has created its own. Moreover, Artix Linux is a community-driven OS with active community support. It helps beginners resolve common errors and difficulties while working on Artix Linux. Pros It has a speedy boot time and reduces resource consumption efficiently for older computers. Provide complete freedom to customize the system. Freedom to choose between two init systems. It is completely free with open-source roots. Cons The type of control and freedom Artix has can overpower a new user. With the latest updates, encountering bugs can make it slightly risky. ArcoLinux ArcoLinux, previously known as ArchMerge, is an Arch-based distribution divided into three sections: ArchoLinux, ArcoLinuxB, and ArcoLinuxD. It offers a user-friendly environment and a superb platform for all people who want to learn and understand Arch Linux better. As ArcoLinux is Arch-based, it features a continuous release that includes the most recent software updates. You can also choose from various pre-installed desktop visuals, including GNOME, Xfce, and KDE Plasma. It also allows you to customize your desktop by installing and uninstalling specific software. Pros Easier for new users to install without any vast knowledge. It focuses on learning and providing ample resources to its users. Easy customization is available on the system and desktop. It is completely free with open-source roots. Cons Due to continuous updates, bugs can enter your system. Smaller community, so finding help is difficult. ArchCraft OS ArchCraft is an Arch-based distribution known for its aesthetically pleasing and artistic minimalist aspects combined with efficient power, which is excellent for older computers. It just requires 500 MB of memory and includes pre-installed wallpapers and customizations. Since it has the rolling release from Arch, it enables simple access to the most recent updates, and the most recent version was released in 2023. ArchCraft has two highly customized pre-installed desktop environments, Openbox and Bspwm, but also allows for the modification and installation of a large variety of software. Pros Provides aesthetic and gorgeous interfaces. It focuses on optimizing resources, making it easy for older desktops. Comes with a variety of pre-installed software. Great choice for gamers as it enhances the performance. Cons The font size is small on desktops and in many Openbox themes. It comes with minimal pre-installed software, so you need to manually install additional software. Rreborn OS RebornOS is an Arch-based distro designed for novices who want to learn more about Arch Linux. However, it can be a little frightening due to the manual installation. This OS provides a variety of desktop environments, including GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, LXQt, MATE, Cinnamon, Budgie, Deepin, i3, Enlightenment, and Openbox. These desktop environments allow you to select the best fit for your desktop. It also has a simple method to reinstall the previous system if the new system fails. Pros Freedom to choose between a wide range of desktop environments. Has a good variety of preloaded software and applications. It has a rollback function that allows the user to switch to the previous system if the new version breaks down. Always keeps the system up-to-date with new versions. Cons It requires some basic knowledge of Linux, and it is not suitable for an amateur. It’s possible to run into bugs with the most recent upgrades, which makes it quite dangerous. ArchLabs Linux ArchLabs Linux is built with a Featherlight Openbox window manager and the Calamares installer. Due to its design and appearance, ArchLabs is considered an imitation of BunsenLabs Linux. ArchLabs Linux has various pre-installed applications, allowing you to personalize your desktop environment. Hence, this includes 16 different desktop interfaces and window managers. Pros Personalization of the desktop is available through a variety of amazing wallpapers. System customization is available in a variety of applications. Easy-to-use installation with pre-installed packages. Cons It might be difficult for a new user. It is a small new project, so the community is very limited. Conclusion So this was all about the best Arch Linux-based distros available in 2024. Arch is designed to be simple, user-friendly, efficient, and flexible while catering to individual needs and interests. We have included the best Arch-based Linux operating systems for beginners and experts. Hence, you can check out and install any of the above Linux distros based on your skill set and requirements. View the full article

The beta version of Ubuntu 24.04 won’t be released on time, the developers have confirmed, following concerns about a major security threat. Instead of launching on April 4, the latest Ubuntu version, which also holds the codename Noble Numbat, will now be released on April 11 after developers Canonical decided to push the release for a week because of the discovery of CVE-2024-3094, a critical vulnerability recently discovered in xz-utils. XZ-utils is a set of data compression tools and libraries used by major Linux distros. The vulnerability was introduced to XZ version 5.6.0 by a pseudonymous attacker, and persisted throughout 5.6.1 as well. Securing future versions The majority of Linux distros seem to be affected by the flaw. Ubuntu 24.04 (but not older versions), Red Hat, Fedora Rawhide, and Fedora 40, as well as some Kali Linux versions, and some Arch Linux installation media, are affected. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions, stable Debian releases, as well as Linux Mint, Gentoo Linux, Alpine Linux and Amazon Linux are not affected, it was said. In the Discourse post, Canonical said it will “remove and rebuild all binary packages that had been built for Noble Numbat after the CVE-2024-3094 code was committed to xz-utils (February 26th), on newly provisioned build environments." This should make the latest Ubuntu release safe from the vulnerability which was given a severity score of 10.0. Tom’s Hardware speculates that the launch of the final 24.04 version - planned for April 25 - could also be delayed. A survey on Mastodon, set up by a former Canonical employee, showed that out of roughly 100 respondents, only a slim majority (56% versus 44%) expects the version to be released on time. Earlier this week, Binarly released a free scanner to make hunting for the flaw faster, more seamless, and with fewer false positives. More from TechRadar Pro Huge backdoor discovered that could compromise SSH logins on LinuxHere's a list of the best firewalls around todayThese are the best endpoint security tools right now View the full article

The Ubuntu 24.04 beta has been delayed for a week due to malicious code in the xz-utils package. Updates and fixes are being worked on. View the full article

The post 10 Most Used Linux Distributions of All Time first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides .In this article, we will review the 10 most used Linux distributions based on the huge availability of software, ease of installation and use, and The post 10 Most Used Linux Distributions of All Time first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.View the full article

If you are considering transitioning from Microsoft Windows to another operating system that suits your needs, check out these five Linux distributions for data science and machine learning.View the full article

This article describes the most popular tools to create your own Linux distribution. If you need to create a Linux distribution, this tutorial will clarify the important issues while giving a fast view on the creation processes. This article focuses on Linux From Scratch and Ubuntu Live as ways to create your custom Linux distribution. LFS (Linux From Scratch) is a great method for advanced users, while Ubuntu Live is good for inexperienced ones. The steps and commands shown are not meant to be functional but to portray the difficulty level of each process. Linux From Scratch LFS (Linux From Scratch) is the most popular tool to create custom Linux distributions from source. Creating your own Linux distribution may include some advantages (and disadvantages too). Among the advantages, during the process, you will learn a lot on Linux. You will know how Linux modules interact and how to customize the system. The operating system size is also an advantage depending on your hardware resources or the use that you want to give the system. On their website LFS, developers say that they created a web server to work with Apache on 5 mb size. Together with Gentoo Linux, Linux From Scratch is the most flexible way to set up a Linux system. Building it is pretty simple and the process is described step by step. We will only show the initial steps to portray an idea of the difficulty and a link to the official documentation from the building stage. To get started with Linux From Scratch, you need to create first a partition (minimum 3 GB due compilation process). It is also recommendable to create a swap partition or to share your existing one (for instructions on partitioning, check Partitioning hard disks under Debian/Ubuntu and resizing partitions). Once you create the partition, create the $LFS variable by running the following command: export LFS=/mnt/lfs You can check it by running the following command: echo $LFS Create the directory as shown in the following: sudo mkdir -pv $LFS Note: Replace <sdX> for your partition. mount -v -t ext3 /dev/<sdX> $LFS Then, run for the swap partition: /sbin/swapon -v /dev/<swap> You need to download the packages to a specific directory called LFS/sources. To create the directory, run the following command: sudo mkdir -v $LFS/sources Make it writable and sticky. sudo chmod -v a+wt $LFS/sources Download and save within the directory all the packages from https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/chapter03/packages.html And from https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/chapter03/patches.html Alternatively, you can use the wget-list: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/wget-list Create the tools directory and symbolic link by running the following commnand: sudo mkdir -v $LFS/tools Then, run the following command: sudo ln -sv $LFS/tools / Run the following commands to create the lfs user, giving it rights on the tools and sources directories. Type the password when requested as shown in the following screenshot: sudo groupadd lfs sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs sudo passwd lfs sudo chown -v lfs $LFS/tools sudo chown -v lfs $LFS/sources sudo su - lfs Log in as the lfs user and run the following command: cat > ~/.bash_profile << "EOF" Then, execute the following: exec env -i HOME=$HOME TERM=$TERM PS1='\u:\w\$ ' /bin/bash Finally, type the following command: EOF Create a new bashrc by running the following command: cat > ~/.bashrc << "EOF" set +h umask 022 LFS=/mnt/lfs LC_ALL=POSIX LFS_TGT=$(uname -m)-lfs-linux-gnu PATH=/tools/bin:/bin:/usr/bin export LFS LC_ALL LFS_TGT PATH EOF Then, run the following command: source ~/.bash_profile set MAKEFLAGS='-j 2' Then, you can save the tools to start building your Linux distribution by following the steps at https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/chapter05/introduction.html. After finishing, change the tools directory ownership by running the following command: sudo chown -R root:root $LFS/tools The official documentation to build your distribution, prepare the kernel. The base software can be found here. It is a sequence of steps that you need to create a customized distribution. The following steps are: Preparing a Virtual Kernel File Systems Package Management Entering the Chroot Environment Creating Directories Creating Essential Files and Symlinks Installing additional software Listed Here Stripping Again Cleaning Up To start customizing the system, visit the following chapters: LFS-Bootscripts-20220723 How Do These Bootscripts Work? Creating setlock script Configuring the Linux Console Configuring the sysklogd Script Creating the /etc/inputrc File The Bash Shell Startup Files Device and Module Handling on an LFS System Creating Custom Symlinks to Devices Configuring the localnet Script Customizing the /etc/hosts File General network customization Creating the /etc/fstab File Installation of the kernel Finally, install GRUB using GRUB to set up the boot process and follow the steps before rebooting for the first time. Creating Your Own Ubuntu Based Linux Distribution Creating a customized Linux based on Ubuntu is pretty easy. It can be done very fast. It is extremely simple when compared with the Linux From Scratch but it is not flexible at all. You’ll be able to add the software and customize the background and some details. But the basic customizations like the applications menu edition are not supported. sudo debootstrap Add the following command: --arch=amd64 --variant=minbase bionic $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/chroot Set the mount points. sudo mount --bind /dev $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/chroot/dev sudo mount --bind /run $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/chroot/run sudo chroot $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/chroot mount none -t proc /proc mount none -t sysfs /sys mount none -t devpts /dev/pts export HOME=/root export LC_ALL=C echo "ubuntu-fs-live" > /etc/hostname Then, you’ll need to update the repositories and run the apt update using the following command: apt-get install -y systemd-sysv dbus-uuidgen > /etc/machine-id ln -fs /etc/machine-id /var/lib/dbus/machine-id dpkg-divert --local --rename --add /sbin/initctl ln -s /bin/true /sbin/initctl apt-get install -y ubuntu-standard casper lupin-casper discover laptop-detect os-prober network-manager resolvconf net-tools wireless-tools wpagui locales linux-generic When prompting the configuration screens like GRUB, press ENTER to default choices to continue. Then, run the following command: sudo apt install -y ubiquity ubiquity-casper ubiquity-frontend-gtk ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu ubiquity-ubuntu-artwork Install any X Window Manager that you want. sudo apt install -y plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo ubuntu-gnome-desktop ubuntu-gnome-wallpapers Add any additional software that you want in your distribution. Then, run the following: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y code Select your locales and reconfigure the resolv.conf and network manager. sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolv.conf sudo dpkg-reconfigure network-manager Then, run the following: truncate -s 0 /etc/machine-id rm /sbin/initctl apt-get clean rm -rf /tmp/* ~/.bash_history Unmount all the filesystems. umount /proc umount /sys umount /dev/pts export HISTSIZE=0exit sudo umount $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/chroot/dev sudo umount $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/chroot/run Create the directories and copy the kernel and binaries. cd $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch mkdir -p image/{casper,isolinux,install} sudo cp chroot/boot/vmlinuz-**-**-generic image/casper/vmlinuz sudo cp chroot/boot/initrd.img-**-**-generic image/casper/initrd sudo cp chroot/boot/memtest86+.bin image/install/memtest86+ wget --progress=dot https://www.memtest86.com/downloads/memtest86-usb.zip -O image/install/memtest86-usb.zipunzip -p image/install/memtest86-usb.zip memtest86-usb.img > image/install/memtest86rm image/install/memtest86-usb.zip To finish, setup GRUB by executing the following: cd $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch sudo mksquashfs chroot image/casper/filesystem.squashfs printf $(sudo du -sx --block-size=1 chroot | cut -f1) > image/casper/filesystem.size cd $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch cd $HOME/live-ubuntu-from-scratch/image grub-mkstandalone --format=x86_64-efi --output=isolinux/bootx64.efi --locales="" --fonts="" "boot/grub/grub.cfg=isolinux/grub.cfg" grub-mkstandalone --format=i386-pc --output=isolinux/core.img --install-modules="linux16 linux normal iso9660 biosdisk memdisk search tar ls" --modules="linux16 linux normal iso9660 biosdisk search" --locales="" --fonts="" "boot/grub/grub.cfg=isolinux/grub.cfg" cat /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/cdboot.img isolinux/core.img > isolinux/bios.img sudo /bin/bash -c "(find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum | grep -v "./md5sum.txt" > md5sum.txt)" sudo xorriso -as mkisofs -iso-level 3 -full-iso9660-filenames -volid "<YourDistroName>" -eltorito-boot boot/grub/bios.img -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table --eltorito-catalog boot/grub/boot.cat --grub2-boot-info --grub2-mbr /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/boot_hybrid.img -eltorito-alt-boot -e EFI/efiboot.img -no-emul-boot -append_partition 2 0xef isolinux/efiboot.img -output "../<yourdistronam>.iso" -graft-points "." /boot/grub/bios.img=isolinux/bios.img /EFI/efiboot.img=isolinux/efiboot.img As you can see, the process with Ubuntu Live is a lot faster and easier. But it is not more than an Ubuntu distribution with light customizations in contrast to Linux From Scratch which is fully customizable. Conclusion As you can see, creating a Linux distribution may be a very hard task, but a good goal to get a full understanding on how Linux systems work. This happens especially with the first described method based on Linux from Scratch. The Ubuntu alternative is also a good starting point for the new users who are looking for an Ubuntu based custom Linux distribution. The LFS process is messy; do not give up before errors which are common when getting started. After all, you are creating an operating system. We hope that you found this tutorial useful. Keep following LinuxHint for additional tips and updates on Linux and networking. View the full article