Garuda Downloader - A zsync enabled delta downloader for Garuda Linux ISO files

[TNE]

I've been working on an interesting application I want to show off and get some feedback on: Garuda Downloader

It is a user-friendly ISO downloader with a focus on saving bandwidth via delta downloads by utilizing zsync2. It provides an easy UI for downloading the latest (official, not development) live images of all the official editions. On Linux, you can manually select an older ISO file as a "seed" file in order to save bandwidth.

After an ISO file has been downloaded, it provides a button to quickly launch a recommended flashing tool (Etcher on Linux, Rufus on Windows (only because the Rufus executable is absolutely tiny)).

The ISO files are generously mirrored by Fosshost, button SVGs are by @SGS and I got the original idea/inspiration from @jonathon.

Permalinks:
Windows: https://builds.garudalinux.org/garuda-downloader/latest/Garuda%20Downloader.7z
Linux: https://builds.garudalinux.org/garuda-downloader/latest/Garuda_Downloader-x86_64.AppImage

And of course, there is a garuda-downloader-git package in the AUR and in Chaotic-AUR

Let me know what you think, what issues you may have found and what I could improve, thank you!

[librewish]

[TNE]

Thank you, I forgot to add an image

[Stroke_Finger]

Downloaded, will try later today - looking good!

[freebird54]

Nifty idea - but can the Linux button be something other than Etcher?

[TNE]

What's your suggestion? Keep in mind that it has to be available as an AppImage, and it must be possible to pre-select an ISO file using a parameter.

[Stroke_Finger]

Ok, just kicked-off a download of Garuda Gaming - it is FAST!!
Simple, intuitive...should suit the average user

3 minutes to completion :+1 (failed to retrieve)

Edit - will keep trying from here on in!

[TNE]

@Stroke_Finger

(failed to retrieve)

Hmm, why? Do you have the full terminal logs for me?

[Stroke_Finger]

TBH - no. Kicked-off using GUI - just the message seen.

Started again (no.3) now seems to be adding to 'current.iso.part'

Will advise. Ok, see below

QStandardPaths: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, defaulting to '/tmp/runtime-root'

Edit - all purrrfect now!!

[harbhim]

already downloaded QTile version today. Its great tool, Thx TNE a lot. The only things I don't understand is how to get seed file for downloader???

[TNE]

You can select any previous .iso file you downloaded beforehand and zsync2 will automatically find out what it can re-use from that .iso file.

Any existing current.iso or current.iso.part file will also automatically be used as a seed file.

[jonathon]

Just to confirm, you can use any file as a seed file and zsync will try to use what it can. zsync is very very cool.

[TNE]

Don't tell anyone I limited it to *.iso

[harbhim]

WOW, man its great creation. Very very happy to use Downloader tool.

[jonathon]

@TNE

I limited it to *.iso

Hmm…

mv anyfilename.extension anyfilename.extension.iso

[freebird54]

Not sure about appimage being a limitation - but is there some reason not to dd the result? And, command line control of mint-stick also works well - but I don't know about appimage there.

You can put it down to anti-Etcher bias, and anti-Electron bloat for the most part

[tbg]

@freebird54

You can put it down to anti-Etcher bias, and anti-Electron bloat for the most part

Small quibble, but I also have the same bias.

Thanks for the great program.

[TNE]

@tbg @freebird54

It was my intention to keep the program code relatively simple (that didn't work out that well, windows support...)

When using a utility like DD, you'd also need to parse the disks, exclude system disks (so DD doesn't turn into disk destroyer ), provide a UI for the user to select their disk of choice, etc etc. Using something like etcher makes this simple on our end.

[tbg]

Neither, here nor there.

No big deal.

Nice work.

[subluminal]

What about checksum verification? Is that included?