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c-ludenberg 579574fa41 R.I.P. Cnchi (2012-2026) — switch to Calamares as sole installer

Cnchi was the heart of Antergos, but the GTK4 Python port proved
too unstable and maintenance-heavy for a solo dev to carry.
GTK4 Python bindings broke on every upstream release, the
codebase was brittle, and maintaining it consumed time that
should go into actual improvements.

Calamares is now the sole installer. It's mature, upstream-
supported, modular C++/Qt6, and with our branding package
it supports:
  - Offline mode (GNOME squashfs, no internet needed)
  - Online mode (8 DEs via netinstall)
  - dracut initramfs
  - zenity/kdialog launcher (calamares-next)

What changed:
  - packages/cnchi/ deleted entirely
  - packages.yaml: cnchi removed, memes kept
  - antergos-next-memes: repurposed from 'Cnchi audio enhancements'
    to generic 'Antergos NeXT welcome audio', path changed from
    /usr/share/cnchi-memes/ to /usr/share/antergos-next-memes/
  - calamares-branding show.qml: Cnchi line → Calamares line
  - README: Cnchi table → HAL section, sources updated

The welcome app's startup jingle still works — the memes package
lives on, just without the Cnchi association.

2026-06-23 13:35:37 +02:00

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antergos-pkgs

Custom package repository for Antergos NeXT ISO builds.

Packages

Package	Description	Source
`calamares`	Universal installer framework (Qt6)	upstream
`calamares-branding-antergos-next`	Blue Calamares theme + offline/online installer split + dracut	local
`hal`	HAL 9000 package manager — dual-mode (pacman wrapper + native standalone)	local
`antergos-next-keyring`	GPG keyring for the repo	local
`antergos-next-mirrorlist`	Mirror list for `[antergos-pkgs]`	local
`antergos-next-desktop-settings`	Custom GTK/Plasma theme, dconf defaults	local
`antergos-wallpapers`	Antergos desktop wallpapers	local
`yay`	AUR helper	AUR
`downgrade`	Pacman package downgrade tool	AUR

Usage

Add to /etc/pacman.conf:

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

Then:

pacman -Sy
pacman -S calamares hal antergos-next-desktop-settings

What is HAL?

HAL stands for HAL Arch Linux — a dual-mode package manager for Antergos NeXT.

It works two ways:

Wrapper mode (hal install firefox) — just passes through to pacman, same as always
Native mode (hal --self install firefox) — standalone. Reads repos, resolves deps, downloads packages, runs install scripts. No pacman needed.

The plan: give HAL enough native features that eventually you won't need pacman at all. One less dependency, one less point of failure. Wrapper mode means nothing breaks today — --self is the future.

"I can't let you do that, Dave. Also if we can delete the init, we're also going to delete systemd out of orbit. Just kidding lol you all would cry in pain."

Calamares installer

The calamares-branding-antergos-next package provides:

Offline install — unpacks a GNOME squashfs from the ISO (no internet needed)
Online install — netinstall from the internet with 8 DE choices (KDE, GNOME, Xfce, Budgie, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, i3/Sway)
dracut initramfs — replaces mkinitcpio for faster boot
Launcher (calamares-next) — zenity/kdialog/dialog GUI to pick offline or online mode

Branches

master — package definitions, CI builds + deploys to gh-pages
Calamares packages shipped from upstream (with custom branding)

License

GPL-2.0

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