Replace hardcoded msdos disklabel with firmware-aware configuration:
- UEFI systems now use GPT, allowing ESP creation for grub-install EFI
- BIOS systems continue using MBR/msdos where core.img fits in post-MBR space
This fixes the bug where forcing msdos on UEFI prevented ESP creation,
resulting in non-bootable installations. The disklabel is now dynamically
generated by a %pre script that detects firmware type and writes the
appropriate clearpart command to /tmp/fws-clearpart.ks for inclusion.
Clarifies that clearpart --all only affects GUI-selected disks, addressing
multi-disk scenarios where users may not want all disks wiped.
Add explicit activation of systemd-timesyncd service to ensure proper clock synchronization on installed systems. This prevents clock drift issues that can affect TLS and pacman operations, and meets user expectations for accurate system time.
The service is already present in the image but inherited symlinks from the live environment may be ordinary files that systemd ignores, so explicit enablement ensures correct behavior on all installations.
Add PolicyKit authorization policy file to allow fws-recovery-gui to execute fws-recovery engine via pkexec with administrative privileges. The policy uses auth_admin_keep to require authentication only once per session.
Document the FWS recovery boot entry generated by GRUB configuration and explain how the fws-recovery.target and fws-recovery-boot.service work together. Clarify that no explicit activation is needed as the service has no [Install] section and is pulled by the target through Requires, while the desktop launcher provides an alternative way to invoke recovery.
Implement a robust desktop installation retry system that handles transient network issues during the Arch installation process.
Changes:
- Create fws-desktop-retry script in /usr/local/bin for manual recovery after installation
- Add DNS resolution wait loop (up to 10 attempts with 3-second intervals)
- Implement pacman retry logic with up to 3 attempts (15-second delay between retries)
- Generate /var/lib/fws/desktop-failed marker file on installation failure
- Create informative MOTD message guiding users to retry desktop installation
- Preserve FWS-specific MOTD when it contains retry instructions
This allows users to recover from network/mirror failures without reinstalling the entire system.
Update package lists for Hyprland and i3 desktop environments:
- Replace thunar file manager with dolphin (KDE's file manager)
- Add kio-extras for dolphin functionality
- Replace gvfs with udisks2 for USB mounting
- Update comments to reflect new mount mechanism
This change improves consistency and provides better integration for the respective desktop environments.
Install rofi configuration file (rofi-config.rasi) for i3 desktop to provide an application menu with FWS styling, equivalent to wofi in Hyprland. Configure rofi for both skeleton and existing user home directories with proper ownership settings.
- Add python-gobject for fws-hello welcome window (GTK3 comes with Firefox)
- Add pacman-contrib for checkupdates/paccache (update indicator and fws-update)
- Enable firewalld.service by default with public zone (blocks inbound, allows outbound)
- firewalld is already in the base image and can be activated offline
- GUI included in firewall-config package; KDE has additional plasma-firewall
Rename fws-hypr-keys to fws-keys and extend it to support both Hyprland and i3 desktop environments. The tool now detects the session type and uses appropriate methods:
- Hyprland: queries hyprctl binds for real loaded bindings (wofi dmenu)
- i3: parses ~/.config/i3/config with variable resolution (rofi dmenu)
Update all references in configs and templates. Add VM detection warning in fws-vr-setup to prevent VR attempts in virtual machines where GPU/USB access is unavailable.
Add ttf-liberation font dependency for Steam UI stability on minimal installations and improve error guidance for Steam crashes.
Add scalable SVR icon for the fws-vr-setup launcher using FWS/Catppuccin color palette. The icon depicts a VR headset with straps, lenses, and nose notch in blue and dark theme colors.
Add desktop application entry for VR setup tool that allows users to install drivers and runtimes for VR headsets including HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Meta Quest devices. The application launches fws-vr-setup command in a kitty terminal.
Add i3 window manager as a selectable desktop environment option in the anaconda kickstart configuration. Includes:
- i3-wm with essential packages (i3status, i3lock, rofi, kitty, etc.)
- X11 server requirement for VR compatibility (SteamVR incompatible with Wayland)
- Bluetooth service enablement for i3 sessions
- Icon cache update for VR launcher visibility in rofi
- i3 configuration template installation for skeleton and existing users
- Keyboard layout handling via X11 xorg.conf.d (no keyboard injection needed)
This enables users to install a lightweight X11-based desktop environment with VR support capabilities.
Add PipeWire audio stack (pipewire, pipewire-pulse, wireplumber, pavucontrol)
and Bluetooth support (bluez, bluez-utils, blueman) to xfce and hyprland
package lists to ensure they are installed alongside the desktop environment.
Enable bluetooth.service at installation time for hyprland to have Bluetooth
ready at first boot. Update comments to reflect the new guaranteed installation
of audio and Bluetooth components as part of the desktop environment transaction.
Add missing packages for hyprland desktop environment:
- mako + libnotify for notifications
- polkit-gnome for GUI authentication
- network-manager-applet for network management in tray
- xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland for screen sharing
- gvfs for USB mounting in thunar
- ttf-nerd-fonts-symbols for waybar icons
Add start-hyprland launcher support for hyprland ≥0.53 to properly prepare systemd session/environment.
Add wofi configuration files (config and style.css) for application menu styling.
Update skeleton directory setup to install wofi configs for new users and fix chown path formatting.
Introduce a new SDDM theme "fws" designed for FWS with support for KDE, XFCE, and Hyprland desktop environments.
The theme is built using pure QtQuick and QtQuick.Controls (Basic style) with no additional dependencies beyond what SDDM already requires. It includes:
- Main.qml: Custom login screen with clock, date, user/password fields, session selector, and power controls
- metadata.desktop: Theme metadata and configuration
- theme.conf: Default configuration with customizable accent color and gradient colors
The design uses a dark theme with accent colors and supports capslock detection and login error handling.
Update interactive-defaults.ks kickstart file with:
- Clarified documentation on LiveOS payload detection and mounting via /run/rootfsbase bind-mount instead of direct liveimg directive
- Added comprehensive comments explaining why liveimg directive is intentionally omitted and how anaconda --liveinst handles payload creation
- Enhanced XFCE and Hyprland package sets with noto-fonts for proper TTF rendering and additional tools (thunar, hyprlock, grim, slurp, wl-clipboard, playerctl)
- Implemented SDDM theme configuration with FWS theme support and accent colors per desktop environment (teal for XFCE, Catppuccin blue for Hyprland, Breeze blue for KDE)
- Added GDM (GNOME) configuration via dconf with welcome banner, clock enhancements, and numlock settings
- Expanded Waybar configuration installation for Hyprland with config and style files
- Added comprehensive documentation for greeter customization and Hyprland VM compatibility
- Included details about FWS recap spoke (standalone GUI summary screen) replacing zenity-based pre-install approach
Add fws-setup-hardware script that automatically detects and installs:
- GPU drivers (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) based on lspci output
- Hypervisor guest tools (VMware, VirtualBox, QEMU, Hyper-V)
- Audio/mic/headset stack (PipeWire), Bluetooth (BlueZ), containers (Podman)
- Optional desktop stack when non-CLI desktop is selected: Steam, Wine, VR support (Monado/OpenXR), and winboat-bin
The script is integrated into the Anaconda kickstart post-installation phase and is non-blocking to prevent installation failures from missing packages or network issues.
Also update profiledef.sh to set correct permissions (755) for the new script.
Add Hyprland desktop environment support with:
- New hyprland.conf template with keyboard layout placeholders (__KB_LAYOUT__ and __KB_VARIANT__) that get injected during installation
- Hyprland wrapper script (/usr/local/bin/fws-hyprland) that detects virtual machines and forces software rendering to prevent compositor crashes on virtual GPUs (VMware vmwgfx, VirtualBox)
- Automatic configuration deployment to /etc/skel and existing user home directories
- Refactored keyboard layout detection logic (moved to section 3bis) to support both X11/SDDM and Hyprland configurations
- Added locale generation during installation to ensure proper language support
Keyboard layout is now derived from either kickstart configuration or system locale using langtable, providing consistent keyboard behavior across all desktop environments.
- Fix XFCE display manager: replace lightdm-gtk-greeter with sddm for consistency
- Add SDDM numlock initialization for KDE, XFCE, and Hyprland
- Configure X11 keyboard layout from kickstart or locale via langtable to ensure correct SDDM login keyboard
- Enable wheel group sudo access and add all human users to wheel group
- Apply FWS branding to os-release, lsb-release, and GRUB configuration
- Remove inappropriate live system motd file
- Fix DNS resolution: configure systemd-resolved stub resolver with NetworkManager integration to prevent "Limited Connectivity" on first boot
- Reformat case statement for better readability
Implement a new Anaconda spoke that allows users to select their preferred desktop environment (CLI, GNOME, KDE Plasma, Hyprland, or XFCE) during installation.
The spoke:
- Displays radio buttons for five desktop choices with CLI as the default
- Persists the selection to /tmp/fws-desktop for the kickstart %post script
- Supports revisiting the spoke and resuming previous selections
- Includes a GTK UI definition file (glade) with translatable labels
- Integrates as a SoftwareCategory spoke in the Anaconda installer
The implementation leverages Anaconda's runtime spoke discovery mechanism via the airootfs overlay, avoiding the need to rebuild the anaconda package.
Replace keyboard correction logic in kickstart with anaconda package patches:
- Add "Nom de machine" (hostname) field to the User spoke in anaconda GUI
- user.py writes the hostname value to /tmp/fws-hostname for the kickstart %post
- Simplify kickstart to read from /tmp/fws-hostname instead of live hostname
- Fix keyboard layout selection to use full locale (e.g. fr_CH) instead of just language (fr)
to correctly derive territory-specific keymaps (ch(fr) for Switzerland, not fr for France)
- Remove outdated fix_keyboard() function from kickstart
Also add --network=host flag to podman run in setup-aur.sh to ensure DNS and internet
connectivity through the host stack instead of the bridge (fixes timeout issues on
certain networks with firewalld/NAT).
Bump anaconda pkgrel from 2 to 4.
Fix two bugs in the anaconda post-installation script:
1. Hostname handling: Anaconda writes an empty /etc/hostname to the target system. Now we preserve the hostname set during installation from the live environment, falling back to 'fws' if using default values.
2. Keyboard mapping: Anaconda derives keyboard layout from language only, ignoring territory. For locales with territory variants (e.g., fr_CH for Switzerland), we now apply territory-specific keyboard maps to both console (vconsole.conf) and X11 (xorg.conf.d) using langtable for proper mapping.
- Add kernel copy step in %pre to ensure vmlinuz-linux is available for mkinitcpio
- Refactor xinitrc post-install log detection to use /tmp/fws-post-chroot.log copied by kickstart
- Add success detection based on mkinitcpio and grub-install log markers
- Display success screen and poweroff on successful installation, show debug logs on failure
- Add load_policy and setstatus stub scripts to suppress SELinux-related Anaconda warnings
- Force MBR partition table (--disklabel=msdos) for BIOS boot compatibility
- Create standard mkinitcpio preset to replace archiso-specific configuration
- Automatically inject lvm2 hook when root is on LVM
- Fix GRUB installation to properly extract disk path from lsblk output
- Downgrade version to 0.5.3 (development/testing release)
- Add fallback GRUB installation for UEFI systems using --removable flag to ensure boot without NVRAM entries
- Fix BIOS disk detection for LVM root partitions by using lsblk with proper filtering instead of pkname
- Enhance debug logging to include %post chroot phase logs (fws-post.log) which indicate bootloader success
- Automatically mount and retrieve installation logs from the installed disk to verify bootloader installation
- Add detailed comments explaining UEFI/BIOS fallback strategies and LVM-aware disk detection
These changes ensure the system can boot even when NVRAM entries are missing or forgotten by firmware, and provide better visibility into bootloader installation success during the debug phase.
Add zerombr and clearpart commands to ensure clean disk state before installation.
This prevents issues when reinstalling on previously partitioned disks by:
- Reinitializing invalid partition tables (zerombr)
- Removing all partitions from all disks (clearpart --all)
- Writing a fresh disk label (--initlabel)
This makes reinstallation reliable even on disks with previous installations,
while allowing users to override defaults via the GUI if needed.
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