The latest Arch Linux ISO snapshot for April 2021 comes with the well-known archinstall command-line guided installer to help veterans spend less time installing the famous distro.
Arch Linux 2021.04.01 is now available for download as the most up-to-date installation medium of this independently developed, flexible, lightweight, and rolling-release GNU/Linux distribution.
While last month’s ISO release was the first to be powered by the latest and greatest Linux 5.11 kernel, Arch Linux’s ISO release for April 2021 includes the archinstall guided installer developed by Anton Hvornum.
Written in Python, ArchInstall has been around for a few years now and it acts as both a guided/automated installer for Arch Linux, as well as a Python library to manage packages, services, and other things inside the installed system.
ArchInstall is an official Arch Linux package since January 2021, and it could be used in previous Arch Linux ISO releases if you installed it from the repos with the sudo pacman -S archinstall command, but now it’s included by default in the installation image so you won’t have to run another command.
While it’s a welcome addition to the default method of installation, making the installation easier/quicker for experienced users when they’re in a hurry, newcomers still need to read the Arch Linux Installation Guide to familiarize themselves with different terms.
With ArchInstall, you only need to select a few options at the command prompt to install Arch Linux. For example, you have to choose a keyboard layout, location, target drive, file system type and encryption, hostname, root password, default user, desktop environment, graphics drivers, and timezone.
Other than including the archinstall package, the Arch Linux 2021.04.01 ISO snapshot ships with the Linux 5.11.11 kernel by default and all the security fixes and package updates released throughout March 2021.
For new installations, you can download Arch Linux’s ISO release for April 2021 right now from the official website. If you’re already using Arch Linux, just keep in mind to run the sudo pacman -Syu command from time to time.
Source : 9to5linux.com