pearOS-archlinux/iso

It is pearOS, but with Arch Base. Yes! It uses vanilla arch, less bugs, easier, better etc.

I had enough with Debian-based distros. pearOS with an Arch base solves some of the big problems with pearOS, for example:

"This requires you to reinstall with every new release"

"sudo apt upgrade would/will destroy your installation"

Not anymore. With Arch, there's no more base-hopping. Now, with Arch, the system is now Rolling Release, as it should be :>

You can do now sudo pacman -Syu and you will stil have the pearOS branding.

Make sure you satisfy the dependencies in the section below. After that, run sudo ./build-binary and pray wait.

Note: The build script must be run as root (using sudo) since it needs to create chroot environments and install packages.

# Core build tools
sudo pacman -S arch-install-scripts    # Provides pacstrap and arch-chroot
sudo pacman -S mtools                  # Provides mcopy, mmd for FAT filesystem operations
sudo pacman -S squashfs-tools          # Provides mksquashfs for creating squashfs images
sudo pacman -S xorriso                 # Creates the final ISO image
sudo pacman -S e2fsprogs               # Provides mkfs.ext4 and tune2fs for filesystem creation
sudo pacman -S git                     # Required for cloning pearOS-installer during build
sudo pacman -S pv                      # Required to see progress bars

# For EROFS image type support (if used in profiledef.sh)
sudo pacman -S erofs-utils             # Provides mkfs.erofs

# For GPG signing of the rootfs image (optional)
# GPG is usually pre-installed, but ensure it's available:
sudo pacman -S gnupg

sudo pacman -S arch-install-scripts mtools squashfs-tools xorriso e2fsprogs git pv

To check if all required commands are available, you can use:

command -v pacstrap arch-chroot mksquashfs xorriso mkfs.ext4 tune2fs git pv

If any command(s) are missing, install the corresponding package listed above.

The live ISO boots via Ploader (custom rEFInd fork, source at pearOS-archlinux/pearos-bootloader) on UEFI, with syslinux kept as a BIOS/non-EFI fallback. build-binary does not compile Ploader itself — it just picks up prebuilt artifacts from pear/efiboot/ploader/. To update the bootloader:

git clone https://github.com/pearOS-archlinux/pearos-bootloader.git
cd pearos-bootloader
make

This needs the gnu-efi toolchain (sudo pacman -S gnu-efi on Arch). Once built, copy the artifacts into this repo:

cp pearos-bootloader/ploader/ploader_x64.efi   pear/efiboot/ploader/ploader_x64.efi
cp -r pearos-bootloader/theme                  pear/efiboot/ploader/theme

pear/efiboot/ploader/ also holds two templates that build-binary sed-substitutes (%ARCHISO_LABEL%/%INSTALL_DIR%/%ARCH%) at build time and does not need regenerating unless boot options change:

• ploader.conf — sets silent_menu false so the picker is always shown on the live ISO (Ploader defaults to silent/seamless boot otherwise)
• ploader_linux.conf — the kernel auto-boot stanzas (FOSS/NVIDIA × Plymouth/no-Plymouth), Ploader's equivalent of a systemd-boot loader entry

build-binary validates all of the above exist before building and errors out clearly if ploader_x64.efi is missing.

Result: booted, installed pearOS and booted it ✅

Success score: 100/100

Usability checks:

One screenshot every 10s.

1. 10s —
2. 20s —
3. 30s —
4. 40s —
5. 50s —
6. 60s —
7. 70s —
8. 80s —
9. 90s —
10. 100s —
11. 110s — desktop ready, then clicked Install pearOS in Welcome —
12. 120s — pearOS installer loading —
13. 130s — Language screen, then selected English —
14. 140s — Language screen, then clicked Next —
15. 150s — Recovery screen, then selected Install pearOS NiceC0re (offline installer) —
16. 160s — Recovery screen, then clicked Continue —
17. 170s —
18. 180s —
19. 190s —
20. 200s —
21. 210s —
22. 220s — Calamares —
23. 230s — Calamares: Welcome, clicked Next —
24. 240s — Calamares: Location, clicked Next —
25. 250s — Calamares: Keyboard, clicked Next —
26. 260s — Calamares: Partitions, selected Erase disk —
27. 270s — Calamares: Partitions, clicked Next —
28. 280s — Calamares: Summary, clicked Install —
29. 290s — Calamares: installing (2 min) —
30. 300s — Calamares: installing (4 min) —
31. 310s — Calamares: installation finished —
32. 320s — Installed system: first boot —
33. 330s — Installed system: first boot —
34. 340s — Installed system: first boot —
35. 350s — Installed system: first boot —
36. 360s — Installed system: reached the login screen / desktop —
37. 370s — First boot: language —
38. 380s — First boot: keyboard —
39. 390s — First boot: time zone —
40. 400s — First boot: create account —
41. 410s — First boot: account filled in —
42. 420s — First boot: look —
43. 430s — First boot: terms —
44. 440s — First boot: applying settings —
45. 450s — Login screen —
46. 460s — Login screen —
47. 470s — Login screen —
48. 480s — Login screen —
49. 490s — Login screen —
50. 500s — Login screen —
51. 510s — Login screen —
52. 520s — Login screen —
53. 530s — Login screen —
54. 540s — Login screen —
55. 550s — Logging in —
56. 560s — Logging in —
57. 570s — Logging in —
58. 580s — Logging in —
59. 590s — Logging in —
60. 600s — Logging in —
61. 610s — Logging in —
62. 620s — Installed system: desktop —
63. 630s — Konsole opened —
64. 640s — Konsole: fastfetch —
65. 650s — Konsole: pacman -Syyu succeeded —
66. 660s — App: Seafari opened —
67. 670s — App: Calculator opened —
68. 680s — App: Notes opened —
69. 690s — App: Finder opened —
70. 700s — App: Kate opened —

Result: menu bar + dock look as expected ✅
Compared against the reference tests/ui-reference/desktop.png (% of pixels within ±16 per channel; pass ≥ 90%).

Current frame:

This project is released under the GNU Pubilc License v3 or later.

Copyright: Alexandru Balan @ Pear Software and Services S.R.L. based in Romania, Dacia Boulevard 133, floor D, Sector 2, Bucharest CIF: 50888207