Archinstall, the popular guided, user-friendly TUI installer for Arch Linux, has just rolled out version 3.0.9. It provides a streamlined, semi-automated alternative to the traditional manual Arch installation process, which can be challenging, especially for new users.
One of the standout new additions is the interface that lets users adjust LUKS iteration times. Another notable update is the added support for U2F authentication, making secure logins simpler with hardware tokens.
Users opting for grub-btrfs setups will now find inotify-tools installed by default alongside grub-btrfs, enhancing snapshot management. And the big news – Bluetooth support has now been neatly integrated into the installer.
It’s worth noting that this update also addresses practical necessities like adding the missing xdg-user-dirs package, streamlining user directory setups. Plus, there’s a new --skip-boot option for users who prefer handling bootloader installations manually.
As always, the Archinstall team has tackled several pesky bugs. Partition alignment issues (particularly aligning Logical Volumes to PE boundaries) have been fixed, and the installer now accurately detects boot partitions using the correct flags.
Beyond features and fixes, the authentication menu now houses both root password and user management, making things more organized. Several modules got simpler, more intuitive names.
Finally, there have also been a bunch of code quality improvements, like dropping unnecessary type annotations, fixing circular dependencies in the bootloader setup, and updating documentation to clarify the --config-url option.
For more information, see the changelog.
Archinstall 3.0.9 is expected to land in the upcoming August update to the Arch installation ISO. However, if you’re using an older ISO, you can easily update Archinstall (before launching it) to its latest version by running pacman -S archinstall after the ISO boots.
