releases

every Arctic Linux image, newest first, and what changed in each

Alpha 1.2.2latest

x86_64 · 695 MiB · live image and installer

  • the compiler is on the image now - clang and lld, so it can build without downloading one first
  • wireless waits for the link before asking for an address; a correct passphrase used to end in DHCP failed
  • the wireless connection you install over is carried into the installed system, beside the wired one
  • arcticfetch no longer runs on every login
  • zsh loads autosuggestions and nothing else
  • the boot banner is a rule and a title rather than a full-width row of punctuation
  • initialization is listed and documented as the default init
  • the no-compiler advice names llvm, a package that exists, instead of base-devel
Download a1.2.2

Alpha 1.2.1

x86_64 · 492 MiB · live image and installer

  • alpm add installs and alpm rem removes
  • alpm rem -a takes what the package left behind, -d its dependencies, -f forces it
  • repositories are alpm repo add <url>
  • mesa installed its drivers into /usr/lib64, which does not exist here - nothing could load them
  • vulkan-loader is packaged; the drivers are of no use without it
  • mesa declares the Vulkan and VA drivers it contains, so asking for vulkan-radeon resolves
  • choosing nvidia says the proprietary driver is not packaged instead of installing nothing silently
  • the old verbs - ins, del - still work
Download a1.2.1
sha256 1a5309744ac26354a913cff811cc98346e23d6d5e6acf48e4791d605c4300fea

Alpha 1.2

x86_64 · 383 MiB · live image and installer

  • an installed machine had an address and a route but no resolver, so every lookup failed
  • wifi-connect scans, lists what is in range and takes the passphrase masked
  • iw is on the image - nothing there could list a network before
  • mesa 26.0.2 with the Intel drivers, which were missing entirely
  • the Xfce 4.20 desktop, openbox and icewm are packaged
  • initialization, the fork of nitro, is the default init
  • the installer asks before writing a bootloader and names the partition
  • nvidia and nouveau are configured, with a reboot notice
Download a1.2
sha256 387c84d9b22199c1b3e1e481c1e280f29c7077bc940b970566989c6fd427a1d9

Alpha 1.1

x86_64 · 382 MiB · live image and installer

  • the install runs end to end from the network repositories
  • the live session could come up with no network at all
  • lzo shipped no shared library, so mkfs.btrfs could not start
  • the repository indexes were weeks out of date behind a CDN
  • alpm system upgrade and alpm system fix
  • toybox claimed 27 commands other packages own - the install stopped at /usr/bin/blkid
  • wpa_supplicant pulled OpenSSL in beside libressl, leaving no curl and no NetworkManager
  • the live image's wget was toybox's, which cannot speak https
Download a1.1
sha256 89735185b8d203fbafbb7d90ddf6edc84b1f62f174959f6121a0502ac2c917d3

writing one

dd if=Arctic-linux-a1.2.2.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

it is a hybrid image — it boots on BIOS and UEFI, from a disc or a USB stick, with nothing needed to write it.

the version counts in three positions: a1 is the release, the second moves for a major bugfix, the third for minor fixes. they are positions and not a decimal — a1.2 is later than a1.1.9.