Antergos NeXT ISO

Looking for the old Arch/systemd version? See the before-systemd-change branch.

A technical successor to Antergos — built on Artix Linux with Dinit, KDE Plasma desktop, the Calamares installer (online mode), and a BYODE script for offline installs. It's its own thing with its own branding — not a replacement for the Antergos feeling, but a continuation of its lineage.

What changed

Before	After
Arch Linux (systemd)	Artix Linux (Dinit)
GNOME desktop	KDE Plasma desktop
archiso build system	artools (buildiso)
Custom Cnchi installer	Calamares (mature, upstream-supported)
Symlinked overlays	Resolved, self-contained profile overlays

Why Artix?

The Antergos NeXT project prefers init system flexibility over systemd lock-in. Artix Linux provides a clean Arch-like experience with your choice of Dinit (default), Runit, or S6 — see changing-init.md if you want something else.

Why Dinit? We shipped OpenRC. Then Calamares kidnapped pacman's resolver and every --noconfirm call picked elogind-dinit (alphabetically before elogind-openrc). Dinit works great and OpenRC's service enabling was broken on installed systems anyway. Dinit wins by alphabetical destiny.

Building

Option A: Build in a container (non-pacman distros — recommended)

No Artix/Arch needed. Works on Gentoo, Fedora, Debian — anything without pacman that has podman. This is the same path GitHub Actions CI uses.

# Build the image (installs artools + deps inside an Artix container)
podman build -t antergos-build .

# Build the ISO (rootful podman required — artools chroots mount devtmpfs,
# which rootless containers cannot do)
sudo podman run --rm --privileged \
  -v /var/lib/artools-buildiso:/var/lib/artools/buildiso \
  -v "$(pwd)/iso-output:/workspace/iso-output" \
  -e WORKSPACE_DIR=/workspace \
  antergos-build

Or use the helper script:

./build-iso-podman.sh

The finished .iso lands in iso-output/.

Option B: Native build (just pacman + artools)

You do not need an Artix-based system — buildiso is plain bash on top of pacman. You need:

• pacman (native on Arch/Artix/KaOS; on other distros, install it or extract the .pkg.tar.zst files)
• the artools libraries from the Artix repo: artools-base (provides basestrap, artix-chroot, fstabgen) and artools-iso (provides buildiso) plus their deps
• squashfs-tools, grub, xorriso/libisoburn, dosfstools, mtools

# On Arch/Artix:
pacman -S artools squashfs-tools
modprobe loop

# On KaOS (pacman native, but artools not in KaOS repos — extract from Artix):
pacman -S squashfs-tools
# grab artools-base/artools-iso from the Artix repo and extract over /

# On other distros: grab the packages from the Artix repo and extract
# them over / (e.g. into /usr/share/artools and /usr/bin), then install
# pacman and the deps listed above.

# Clone and enter
git clone https://github.com/Antergos-NeXT/antergos-iso.git
cd antergos-iso

# Set workspace to repo root
export WORKSPACE_DIR="$PWD"

# Must use our pacman.conf (has antergos-pkgs repo)
mkdir -p ~/.config/artools/pacman.conf.d
cp pacman.conf.d/iso-x86_64.conf ~/.config/artools/pacman.conf.d/

# Build
sudo ./buildiso -p antergos

⚠️ VERY IMPORTANT: Use ./buildiso, not buildiso. The Artix system buildiso at /usr/bin/buildiso lacks the --overwrite='*' flag passed to basestrap, causing file conflicts (e.g. calamares vs calamares-branding-antergos-next both claiming /usr/share/calamares/branding/default/). Our repo's ./buildiso has it.

The .iso appears in /var/lib/artools/buildiso/iso/antergos/.

First build pulls ~5 GB from the internet. Subsequent builds use pacman cache.

Which option do I use?

• Arch / Artix / KaOS / any pacman-based distro → Option B (native).
• Anything else (Gentoo, Fedora, Debian, ...) → Option A (podman).

Custom packages

The ISO pulls custom packages (branding, Calamares config, wallpapers) from our repo. Add it to your system:

[antergos-pkgs]
SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
Server = https://antergos-next.github.io/antergos-packages

Profile structure

iso-profiles/
├── antergos/
│   ├── profile.yaml          # Packages, services, build config
│   ├── root-overlay/         # Files merged into rootfs (os-release, pacman.conf, sddm)
│   └── live-overlay/         # Files for the live environment (Calamares configs, etc.)
├── common/
│   └── common.yaml           # Shared base packages
├── pacman.conf.d/
│   └── iso-x86_64.conf       # Pacman config used during ISO build
└── buildiso                  # Modified buildiso with Antergos branding

Overlays are self-contained (no symlinks to external directories) so the repo builds standalone.

Installer

Mode	Description
Online	Full Calamares netinstall with desktop selection (KDE Plasma, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, i3, Sway, Hyprland)
BYODE	Bare system + btrfs + snapper — you pacman -Sy your own DE. Script available on the live desktop.

Download

GitHub Releases

Sources

• Artix Linux — base distribution
• artools — ISO build tools
• Calamares — installer framework
• antergos-packages — custom PKGBUILDs
• Antergos wallpapers — original wallpapers

License

GPL-3.0

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Antergos launched in 2012 as Cinnarch (Cinnamon + Arch), renamed in 2013, and ran until 2019. NeXT continues the spirit with a modernized, Artix-based foundation — KDE Plasma, Calamares, and the same multi-desktop ambition you remember.

Dustin Falgout, one of the original Antergos developers, has given his blessing for this technical successor to carry the name and logo forward (see NOTICES). Antergos NeXT is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the original Antergos project.