BigLinux live-session setup and Calamares installer integration.
This package is what runs between powering on the live media and having an installed system: it starts the live desktop, offers a wizard to pick language, keyboard and appearance before that desktop appears, and carries those choices into the installation performed by Calamares.
Live session bootstrap.startbiglive prepares the display manager and the
monitor layout, runs the setup wizard and then hands over to the desktop
session. livecd-tweaks applies the tweaks a live session needs before the user
arrives, including the ones requested through kernel arguments.
Setup wizard (/usr/share/biglinux/livecd, GTK4 and libadwaita). Choices are
written to /tmp under the names listed in usr/lib/biglinux-livecd/live-state,
which is the single place that maps a setting to its file. Calamares copies them
into /etc/big-default-config so the installed system starts as the live session
was left.
Installer integration.calamares-biglinux is the wrapper that launches
Calamares with the right profile and environment, and
/usr/share/biglinux/calamares is the GTK wizard that collects the installation
options before it starts.
Calamares profiles for the three products built from this base — biglinux,
bigcommunity and xivastudio — each with its own settings.conf, module
configuration and branding.
Calamares modules under usr/lib/calamares/modules:
| Module | Purpose |
|---|---|
btrfs-fix | Applies the Btrfs layout and mount options the installed system expects |
grubcfg-fix | Adjusts the generated GRUB configuration |
luks-pbkdf | Lowers the Argon2id cost of the volume GRUB unlocks, so the passphrase prompt answers quickly |
The active profile is named in /etc/biglinux-livecd/profile, which must be a
regular root-owned file. resolve-profile reads it and returns the profile
directory, preferring /etc/biglinux-livecd/calamares-profiles over the ones
shipped in /usr/share/biglinux/calamares-profiles, so an image can override a
profile without replacing this package. Without the marker the profile is
biglinux.
Recognised on the live media's boot line:
| Argument | Effect |
|---|---|
biglinux.bootcmd=<command> | Skips the normal flow. Accepts only-calamares, boot-in-plasma, only-konsole, calamares_polkit, konsole, urxvt and startplasma-x11 |
driver=nonfree | Installs the runtime mkinitcpio shim for proprietary drivers |
driver=free | Disables proprietary driver detection |
wayland | Starts the session under Wayland |
sshenable | Enables the live SSH server for recovery |
These arguments are dropped from the command line written to the installed system, so a choice made to get through the live session is not inherited.
Useful when a machine cannot be operated locally — a failing boot, or a display
that does not come up. It sets a temporary password on the existing UID 1000
user, whose name is read from /etc/passwd and is usually biglinux, and adds a
runtime drop-in to sshd_config allowing password authentication for that user
only. The password is big, PermitRootLogin stays no, and no account is
created or otherwise modified.
ssh <live-user>@<live-address>The password is public, so this is for a trusted local network and never for a machine reachable from the Internet. Everything is in effect only while the live session runs: reboot without the argument and nothing remains, and nothing is written to the installed system.
biglinux-livecd/ files installed on the system, mirroring their paths
locale/ gettext catalogs, compiled at package time
usr/bin/ live session entry points and installer wrappers
usr/lib/biglinux-livecd/ shared shell helpers: kernel-options, live-state
usr/lib/calamares/modules/ Calamares job modules
usr/share/biglinux/livecd/ setup wizard
usr/share/biglinux/calamares/ installer wizard
usr/share/biglinux/calamares-profiles/ per-product Calamares profiles,
each with its own QML branding
pkgbuild/ PKGBUILD and install scriptlet
tests/ test suite
Requires an Arch or Manjaro based system, Python 3.11 or newer, and GTK4 with libadwaita.
python -m pytest tests/ # test suite
ruff check # lint
ruff format --check # formattingAll three pass on a clean checkout, so a failure means the change under review.
The test suite is the quality gate. Besides covering behaviour, it type-checks
the Calamares modules and the two wizards by running mypy against each entry
point in the isolation Calamares itself uses — a plugin is loaded as a standalone
module named main, so checking them together reports false duplicates. Adding a
module means adding it to the list in tests/test_mypy_plugins.py; a test fails
if an entry point is left out.
Shell scripts are checked with shellcheck and shfmt -d, syntax-checked with
the interpreter each one declares — most are bash, a few are POSIX sh.
Building the package:
cd pkgbuild
makepkg -simakepkg builds from the published git repository, not from the working tree.
To try local changes, copy them into a live session or install the built package
over an existing one.
Sources are the .po files in biglinux-livecd/locale, compiled by the PKGBUILD
into /usr/share/locale. msgfmt --check-format runs during the build, so a
catalog whose placeholders do not match its source fails the package rather than
the running program.
GPL-3.0-only, with CC0-1.0 material. See LICENSE.