✴️ Cosmic Script (Alpha) ✴️
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Warning
The script shared herein is work-in-progress. Cosmic is still in Alpha stages; so it needs time to reach full maturity. Please do not use it on your production machine. If you want to test in a VM, for best performance I would highly recommend ProxmoxVe.
Script info¶
Well, it does what it says on the tin, it installs Cosmic in one of 3 ways. I also discovered the Cosmic group on Arch does not include the xdg-user-dirs package which creates the Documents, Music, Pictures, Downloads & Videos folders in your home & system76-power is missing which the Cosmic Settings will prompt you for; so I added them.
Included are some useful packages, like a freaking web browser eg. Firefox, an archive manager, Meld and so much more. It's a start. We shall add more if you wish, just keep in mind that only packages coming from the official Arch Repositories are supported, none from the AUR.
The Blockers¶
I have also implemented some checks making sure script is being run in chroot and on ArchLinux blocking execution anywhere else. This helps me in the long run not having to bang my head against the wall trying to provide support in case it was run on Distros I have no control over.
So to avoid the headaches, I decided to block the execution. Better for everyone. This will allow me to concentrate on the distro and other current/future projects, with support being limited within XeroLinux.
Scroll down for usage instructions...
.// The Wiki \\.
Instructions¶
Danger
Do not select the Development Version unless you are ready to fix issues that might arise from it. It's commit based. Should you choose it, Please report all the bugs related to the DE or any feature requests you might have upstream, to the Cosmic Bug Tracker
Using this script is identical to the Plasma Installer am not gonna rehash it all here. Suffice it to say, you will need to go through the ArchInstall script, skipping the Profiles and Drivers sections completely, which would result in a minimal Server install of Arch.
Anyway, once that's all done, we will be prompted if we want to chroot into our new install, we answer with yes of course since we still have no DE yet.
Caution : We do not recommend to blindly execute scripts without inspecting them first. We do it this way so it's much easier to use. Especially in cases like this one. But in the end it's all up to you. Anyway, you can find the code on Github.
Now, we type the following command :
This will execute the script. Just go through the prompts. In this case however, I would Highly recommend option Complete Cosmic Install to avoid any future headaches. But that's not to say we cannot select any of the other option, it's all up to you in the end.
The script will tell you that going throught with the installation, the XeroLinux as well as the Chaotic-AUR repos will be enabled in order for script to work correctly, like so...
You will notice that, the multilib repo was enabled as well. I made sure of that since most newcomers forget to do it. It's an essential repo required for the likes of Steam, and various drivers.
Finally, for now at least, once script is done, we will be prompted to exit and reboot the system. We do that by typing exit then reboot, that's it !
Now use my toolkit to install any drivers especially if you are using an nVidia GPU otherwise you will have a bad time. Besides that enjoy the DE.
If you would like to customize the look, feel free to jump on over to the all-new Cosmic-Themes site, where you will be able to grab a few cool ones, like Catppuccin, Dracula among others. Keep in mind that those are just color schemes no more no less. They do not apply to everything.
Wrapping up¶
That's it for now. If you would like to help out so we can bring it to the public, you are more than welcome to. Especially when it comes to the Hardware Checker part which requires a lot of testing that I cannot do due to limited hardware availability.
Cosmic is shaping up to be the DE that might break the current Top 2 (KDE and Gnome) making it the Top 3 DEs of all time. Who knows ? I wish the System76 team all the best.
Cheers !