EndeavourOS is a user-friendly Arch Linux-based rolling release distro with some handy new features that improve the user experience. In other words, it fits into a similar-but-different niche as Manjaro.
It might be the perfect solution for less experienced Linux users to get the best Arch Linux offers. Additionally, despite its claim to be a terminal-focused distribution, it has excellent GUI tools that make handling an Arch Linux system simple for new users.
The new EndeavourOS Nova continuing the Artemis series, is now available for download just over a month after the previous Neo release. So let’s see what’s new.
EndeavourOS Artemis Nova Highlights
First, at the risk of disappointing those expecting major changes, we should highlight that EndeavourOS Artemis Nova has no new features.
Almost everything in this release serves the distro’s development team’s efforts to fix a recent GRUB issue that affected Arch Linux and distros based on it. Since EndeavourOS is an Arch-based distro, unfortunately, its users were also impacted by the issue.
But for those not in the know, let us explain what this is all about. In short, many Arch users reported that after updating to grub 2.06.r322, their PCs failed to boot or booted directly into the BIOS or another OS.
To address the issue, EndeavourOS Nova has removed almost all of the bootloader customization and replaced it with a vanilla GRUB experience. On top of that, the grub-tools package has also been removed from the distro and its repositories.
Now for the essential part. When you install or remove kernels, the GRUB menu will no longer be updated automatically. So, you must perform this manually. Therefore, after any change concerning the Linux kernel, be sure to run:
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgAside from that, some of the software in EndeavourOS Nova has been updated. In the list, you can find, of course, GRUB 2:2.06.r322.gd9b4638c5-4 and continue with Linux kernel 5.19.7.arch1-1, Calamares 3.2.61, Firefox 104.0.2-1, Mesa 22.1.7-1, Xorg-Server 21.1.4-1, and nvidia-dkms 515.65.01-2.
The last important note is that in this release, devs prioritized the EndeavourOS software repository for the first time over the Arch ones in the pacman.conf file.
Maybe some will consider that no big deal; however, the order of repositories in the configuration file is important. In other words, the first repos will precede those listed later in the file when packages in two repositories have identical names, regardless of version number
We want to be clear, we are just moving our existing small repo to the top, and it does not mean we are planning to grow the size of our repo or start overriding critical packages with custom versions. This is consistent with what many other Arch-based distros are doing.
EndeavourOS Artemis Nova Official Announcement
In conclusion, let’s emphasize that you don’t need to perform a fresh install to upgrade to EndeavourOS Artemis Nova, as the distro follows the rolling release model. All you have to do to get the latest is type the following into the terminal:
sudo pacman -SyuHowever, if installing from scratch, keep in mind that offline installation doesn’t require an internet connection and provides a fully themed Xfce desktop environment.
On the other hand, the online installation gives you the choice of eight desktop environments: Xfce, Mate, LXQt, LXDE, Cinnamon, Plasma, Gnome, Budgie, and tiling window managers i3-WM, BSPWM, Sway, Qtile, and Worm.
You can refer to the official announcement for detailed information about all changes. In addition, you can get your copy from the project’s download page if you want a fresh EndeavourOS Artemis Nova to install.
