Custom Arch Linux ISO

This is a customized Arch Linux build based on a minimal GNOME Workstation setup, designed for a streamlined and efficient environment tailored to Software Development needs. Built on the official archlinux/archiso, this live USB provides:

• A minimal GNOME desktop with essential networking, Wi-Fi, and core GNOME apps.
• A macOS-inspired boot screen via Plymouth for a clean and modern startup experience.
• Optional proprietary AMD and NVIDIA driver support (including nvidia-open-dkms).

Whether you’re setting up a portable development environment or a clean Arch install, this ISO offers a lightweight, software-dev-ready GNOME environment with room for further customization.

Additional packages and tweaks include:

• Brave Browser
• Visual Studio Code
• GitHub Desktop
• Proprietary Nvidia Drivers (nvidia-open-dkms)
• Fastfetch (C++ Neofetch replacement) github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch
• Plymouth Theme archlive/airootfs/usr/share/plymouth/themes/logo-mac-style
• Font IBM Plex Sans archlive/airootfs/usr/share/fonts/ttf/ibm-plex-sans
• Font Intel One Mono archlive/airootfs/usr/share/fonts/ttf/intel-one-mono
• A universal solution to fix blurry Electron apps when using fractional scaling on Wayland with HiDPI monitors archlive/airootfs/etc/environment
• Multilib repository is set to true archlive/pacman.conf
• Unifies dark theme across all GTK apps. (Older than GTK4)

Full package list can be found in archlive/packages.x86_64

How to Use:

First you need to:

sudo pacman -S archiso

Clone the Repository:

git clone https://github.com/darkestmedium/archiso.git && cd ./archiso

For Visual Studio Code Users:

You can build the ISO using the Visual Studio Code tasks by pressing Ctrl + Shift + B, selecting "Build ISO", and waiting for it to finish. Afterward, you can burn/copy it to a USB drive with the "Burn to USB Drive". Alternatively you can use the Build and Burn task to do everything in one go. Available build tasks:

• Build ISO
• Burn to USB Drive
• Build and Burn
• Clean Workspace

Without Visual Studio Code:

You can manually run the following shell commands: (Replace $inputFields with actual names.)

sudo mkarchiso \
	-L ${input:isoLabel} \
	-w	./build" \
	-o	./iso" \
	-v \
	${input:config}

Burn the ISO to a USB :

sudo dd \
	if=${input:inputFile} \
	of=${input:outputFile} \
	bs=4M status=progress