Meowix Linux

[FabioLolix]

• https://github.com/hykilpikonna/hyfetch/pull/159
• https://github.com/Meowix-Linux
• https://github.com/Meowix-Linux/Meowix-ISO
• https://github.com/Meowix-Linux/Meowix-Repo

[Nekosis]

Just a note, we have a GitHub Pages site now: https://meowix-linux.github.io/

[FabioLolix]

Hello @Nekosis, I've took a brief look, like in many others Arch based packages are:

• 'dirty builded' (not build in clean chroot, armcord-bin not needed for building calamares)
• unsigned
• lack packager info (Unknown Packager)

And Meowix-ISO is in some way an 'hostile fork' of Archiso https://github.com/Meowix-Linux/Meowix-ISO/commit/7abb6db321083aaf998db29d8b884366f77f00d7 which is rude to the original developers

[Nekosis]

Hi @FabioLolix,

Thank you for your reply. I have tried to address your concerns:

1. I wasn't aware that "dirty building" should be avoided and that my packages could be tracked. I will try to build the ISO and packages in a clean chroot going forward.
2. I also did not know that signing was absolutely necessary. The safety of our users is of utmost importance, but I had followed a guide to set up the repository (relevant clip) and it led me to believe that package signing was unnecessary in most cases. If I should start signing packages, please let me know.
3. I'm not aware of any packages with an unknown packager. Please point me to these specific packages and I will do my best to diagnose the issue.
4. Meowix-ISO is not intended to be a hostile fork of Archiso releng. Archiso releng is provided as a base to build your own Arch-based distribution on and I am not sure how that could be seen as a hostile fork. I am not aware of any other way to create an Arch-based Linux distribution. I do not intend to be hostile towards the Arch Linux community and instead encourage collaboration between the Meowix and the Arch Linux teams and communities.

I hope these address your concerns. I await a further response. Thank you for maintaining the Distroware Archive.

[FabioLolix]

• for building packages the proper way see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/DeveloperWiki:Building_in_a_clean_chroot, it is needed to ensure makedepends and depends are properly set, avoid unwanted dynamic linking and 'automagic' depends. It isn't an issue for the ISO itself
• Major distros sign their packages, with packages in a git repo is less an issue, is a thing I point out in the distro page but ultimately do what you want
• I have checked calamares and paru, this is happening because PACKAGER= field is not set in makepkg.conf
• I didn't mean it is intentionally hostile. Archiso have a git history of 1374 commits as of today and there isn't that history in Meowix-ISO, is that what I mean; there isn't the previous history in a system (git) that let modify stuff keeping the previous history. For making a proper fork import the Archiso Gitlab or Github mirror repo; pratically all git forges let you do that, here on Github use Import repository for it instead of using New repository

[Nekosis]

Hi @FabioLolix,

• I have taken the needed steps to allow for building in a clean chroot and all packages will be built this way when they are next updated. Thank you for notifying me of this issue.
• Ultimately, I have chosen not to sign packages. The process seems very meticulous, especially when pulling from the AUR. Since you mentioned signing is not really an issue if the packages are managed in a Git repo, I believe this decision should not negatively affect users.
• I have set PACKAGER in my ~/.makepkg.conf. Thank you for letting me know about that.
• The Archiso repo you have linked contains the actual code for the Archiso program. releng is included as well, but is in a subdirectory configs/releng, and is not a Git submodule. Thus, I am unsure about how I would go about taking changes from upstream. If you know how, please let me know as soon as possible. Until then, Meowix will have to maintain a "hostile fork" for the time being (although I believe the term you're looking for is "hard fork"). The way I originally got the releng sources was via the package in the Arch Linux package repos (see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Archiso#Prepare_a_custom_profile).