Arch Linux Installer Archinstall 2.6 Preparing New Features

For two years now Arch Linux's official install media has been shipping with archinstall as a nice, text-based installer for more quickly setting up an Arch Linux environment. In preparation for release now is Archinstall 2.6 as the next feature release while available for testing today is the release candidate.

Archinstall 2.6 does bring some breaking changes to its API and configuration file format: its encryption method has been renamed, a refactoring of the installer and general design patterns, and other changes.

Some of the other work coming with Archinstall 2.6 includes enabling separate /boot and /boot/esp via XBOOTLDR in systemd-boot, a rewrite to the underlying partitioning handling, Limine bootloader support, easier to save configuration files by supporting tab-completion for the folder path entry, Hyprland window manager support as a desktop option, support for inputting custom Arch Linux Pacman mirrors, additional translations, and dozens of bug fixes. There is also improved Python 3.11 support and other minor enhancements.

More details on all of the changes to find with Archinstall 2.6-rc1 can be found via the release announcement on GitHub.