Idea: Add a setup-configurator to the minimal edition installer

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1

Hey there,

I really like what you garuda devs added to this Linux distro. Btrfs and your own tools make garuda really nice to use and prevent the worst from happening, most of the time. Garuda even has nice, but questionable visuals.

Now, regarding the latter. I almost go as far as calling this bloat. I mean, yeah it looks pretty nice, but tinkering with it is basically impossible as things start to look out of place immediately if you change only small details (mainly on the dr460nized edition).

I ended up getting rid of all the garuda theming after a while of failing to edit it the way I wanted to.

My suggestion is, that the minimal garuda edition gets a little more ease of use. I would like to propose a tool, that allows you to basically fully customize your edition (or, well, not at all), similar to garuda-gamer or the garuda-setup-assistant but for things like the DE, theming and general functionality.

I'm suggesting this, because I ended up ditching like pretty much all of garuda's visual configs to work on my own, because always looking at the same design can get a little tiring. I did previously consider installing the minimal image, but in my case (hyprland) it would just require a lot more setup to get all the tools installed and configured for a full experience, so I ended up always installing the sway edition and then just removing everything sway-related. If I'd installed the minimal edition as-is, I would have to remove KDE as well, which is yet again a waste of time in both download and setup.

This could just be added directly on-top of the existing minimal-edition, so nothing really changes for you with the handling of support-requests.

TL;DR: I'd like the minimal-edition to have a setup-assistant that allows me to cherry-pick all the features I want in my garuda installation, while leaving the unneeded ones behind, allowing for a faster, more efficient setup of the desired desktop.

Would this introduce any issues in the long run? I can't think of any apart from having to create the tool.

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Since Garuda is an offline installer, that would basically mean putting a substantial portion of the repos on the ISO if I understand what you would like to see.

It would probably be a lot easier for you to use the Garuda tooling to create an ISO with the things you want on it.

You just need to create an ISO profile and run the tools to create the ISO.

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This doesn’t make much sense, as aside from maybe an icon set and a few wallpapers there isn’t any “bloat” being added to KDE; the ability to deeply customize the themes and desktop effects is built into KDE itself. KDE lite has wobby windows and transparency built in too, you just have to turn them on.

If I paint my bike shed blue and you don’t like blue–you would rather have a red bike shed–does that mean blue paint is bloat? :thinking:

9173c619d46fd400e9fce8bc8e2a6db24f434224
9173c619d46fd400e9fce8bc8e2a6db24f434224630Ă—766 60.3 KB

I feel like “bloat” doesn’t mean anything anymore, it’s become just another dismissive way to say you don’t like something.

</rant>

I think there is merit to the idea of installing Garuda without the very opinionated theming applied, if there is room for a feature like that. It could help increase adoption of the distro, as some folks find the theme off-putting or shocking but would otherwise enjoy using Garuda.

EOS does a very nice job with this (just a check-box in the installer):

image
image995Ă—720 95.6 KB

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Oh I never noticed that. I guess the offline installer can just install the version as it is present right now and optionally manage to online things as well.

I’m referring to the absolute abundance of theming and visual additions that are present in garuda. It’s not just a little theming, it’s all the theming.

And it’s not only that, it’s also almost completely required by just a few garuda packages. Garuda assistant requires the entire sweet icon theme (mine does not even render them for some reason), even though I never used that intentionally. There is a lot of stuff like this in garuda, that I honestly don’t need.

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Dann geh doch zu Netto Arch. :slight_smile:

It's ok, you don't have to like everything. But you should learn to live with compromises.
Build your own DE from the existing building blocks or complement Arch with things you like.

Your dream DE can only be realized by you.
Our devolopers don't do anything else. They make it the way they want to have it.

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I did not intend this post being all about ranting about and defending the way you chose garuda to be like.

I'd much rather hear your opinion on a setup configurator :wink:

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I don't mind, and I understand you. But is it worth the effort?

When I install Garuda :dragon: KDE dragon , the first thing I do is remove everything that looks like apple and is pink.
That's pretty quick.

And when I'm done playing and need to work, I go back to i3wm.

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I would question if the result of that would be Garuda or not.

A big part of Garuda is that it is opinionated. Meaning the software selection, config, default and other configuration is the way the Garuda devs want to see it.

It seems like turning Garuda into a distro where you can build it to your specific needs would make it something else altogether.

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I’m not saying you should like the theme. I’m not even saying that I like the theme. I’m just pointing out that when someone rices KDE and you don’t like it, it doesn’t mean it’s bloated.

This is not accurate, as anyone can see:

pacman -Sii garuda-assistant
Repository      : garuda
Name            : garuda-assistant
Version         : 2.7.5-1
Description     : An app which helps with all kind of system maintenance related tasks on Garuda
                  Linux
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://gitlab.com/garuda-linux/applications/garuda-assistant
Licenses        : GPL3
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : qt5-base  qt5-svg  noto-fonts  xdg-utils  polkit  reflector-simple  hblock  pace
                  garuda-update  garuda-libs  btrfs-assistant
Optional Deps   : snapper-tools
Required By     : None
Optional For    : garuda-welcome  garuda-welcome-git
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Download Size   : 195.51 KiB
Installed Size  : 329.95 KiB
Packager        : Garuda Builder <[email protected]>
Build Date      : Sun 05 Feb 2023 11:13:35 PM EST
MD5 Sum         : 07fcc0f01102396e46341c719892a46b
SHA-256 Sum     : e3dd2124c928d39d0198f58fceb034c8c283e889333064c31e21f00cfdac410c
Signatures      : 0706B90D37D9B881

I am willing to test it once you have finished developing the app. :wink:

1 Like
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I'm talking more about the installation process. I think it would be much easier to configure your new installation, if some programs were already listed for easy installation.

If I for example want to set up a sway installation with my own configs, I normally first need to gather all the tools and programs that I usually depend on. One of these is mako. I use mako for notifications, and there are not really many more notification popup thingies like mako (I think like 3 exist).

If I was able to just pick that off a list, along with a few other programs, a setup is done in very little time, which also invites to try something new.

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You have basically exactly described the Setup Assistant app.

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oh I swear it depended on it once.

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that's why I compared it to the setup assistant above. The problem with the setup assistant is just that it contains desktop applications, not things like notification daemons

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OMFG, that’s too nitty-gritty.

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haha yeah I am talking about a reasonably thorough setup assistant

Edit: I'm gonna look at the EnOs setup assistant. It seems to pretty much do what I'm thinking about

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