Garuda, another Arch-based distro (fbc 1.09 Arch package)

Linux specific questions.
Post Reply
Munair
Posts: 1286
Joined: Oct 19, 2017 15:00
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Garuda, another Arch-based distro (fbc 1.09 Arch package)

Post by Munair »

Every now and then a new Linux distro enters the top 10 on DistroWatch. It doesn't necessarily mean that the distro is popular or widely used, but it is an indicator that there is greater interest.

The latest such distro is Garuda Linux from India, which was first released in March 2020. Being Arch-based it is now the third Arch-based distro in the DistroWatch top 10, which has been dominated by Debian-based distro's for years.

The quickly rising interest in Garuda made me review the distro the other day. What stands out is its theme and neon-like icon set, clearly inspired by MacOS. It's a matter of taste and as with any Linux distro, it is 100% customizable.

Much more important than the look is the set of tools and Garuda has definitely done its best to make it easy for the user to apply system changes or to turn it into a gaming experience without having to resort to a console. In this respect it rivals with MX Linux.

However, what I've learned over the years about Linux distro's is that no matter how great and promising they look or how user-friendly they are, the most important thing is software availability (repository), system stability and upgrade cycle.

An important reason for the rise of Arch-based distro's is undoubtedly their rolling release system; install once and update forever. In contrast, all distro's based on Debian testing (includes Mint, Ubuntu) have a 6-months point release schedule forcing the user to upgrade the entire system each time, while Debian stable based distro's have support for up to 5 years.

Because I use Linux on a daily basis for software development (NASM, FreeBASIC, FreePascal), stability and reliability are key. Looking back at the last 15 years and a whole bunch of Linux distro's, the most reliable rolling release distro for me so far has been Manjaro, also Arch-based but with a package release delay of a few weeks in order to ensure stability, which in my experience definitely pays off.

Garuda looks promising and it offers a lot of tweaking tools, but it doesn't have its own repository like Manjaro, which in the long run may be a disadvantage.

As I said earlier, the DistroWatch top 10 has been dominated by Debian/Ubuntu based distro's for years. Mint was at the top for a long time, only recently taken over by MX Linux (based on Debian stable branch). But two Arch-based distro's (Manjaro and EndeavourOS) now also rank higher than Mint.

The rise in popularity of Arch-based distro's is no surprise; Arch, like Debian, is a very good Linux distro with the main advantage that the OS updates forever as opposed to Debian's static update schedule.
Last edited by Munair on Jan 30, 2022 21:14, edited 2 times in total.
speedfixer
Posts: 606
Joined: Nov 28, 2012 1:27
Location: CA, USA moving to WA, USA
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by speedfixer »

Also hurting Debian main is the *extremely* slow package acceptance policies.

Individual Deb distros try to pick the pace, but it isn't easy and requires too much effort, sometimes. Only the large Deb distros have a chance to persist.

david
badidea
Posts: 2586
Joined: May 24, 2007 22:10
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by badidea »

Inspired by MacOS is not a selling point for me, but my Ubuntu Mate 18.04 does need to be updated soon. Temped to try an Arch distro, so mabye Manjaro. I do prefer stabily over the latest features (and bugs).
Munair
Posts: 1286
Joined: Oct 19, 2017 15:00
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro (fbc 1.09 Arch package)

Post by Munair »

Next to Manjaro, I tested the other high-ranking Arch-based distro's Garuda and EndeavourOS. What stands out is that the latter two do not have a GUI out of the box for adding/removing software. From what I understand is that Manjaro uses Pamac as a GUI and that Pamac targets the Manjaro repository and that as a result Pamac tends to break on other Arch-based distro's. It makes me appreciate Manjaro even more.

There are many great looking distro's out there, but many rely partially or whole on their ancestor's repo. Garuda and EndeavourOS primarily give the user an out-of-the-box Arch experience, while Manjaro provides the user with an out-of-the-box and stable desktop experience.
Last edited by Munair on Jan 30, 2022 21:34, edited 2 times in total.
aurelVZAB
Posts: 666
Joined: Jul 02, 2008 14:55
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by aurelVZAB »

It is ok but why is not posted under linux board ?
marcov
Posts: 3455
Joined: Jun 16, 2005 9:45
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by marcov »

aurelVZAB wrote: Jan 29, 2022 22:04 It is ok but why is not posted under linux board ?
It's not FB related. The Linux board is for FB Linux related stuff.
badidea
Posts: 2586
Joined: May 24, 2007 22:10
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by badidea »

aurelVZAB wrote:It is ok but why is not posted under linux board ?
I guess, because that is for "Linux specific [freebasic] questions" and this was not a question?
This section is for "General discussion for topics related to the FreeBASIC projects or it community", so It sounds like the right place to me.
coderJeff
Site Admin
Posts: 4313
Joined: Nov 04, 2005 14:23
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by coderJeff »

Moved to Linux Board.

Is someone working on running fbc on this distro?
Munair
Posts: 1286
Joined: Oct 19, 2017 15:00
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro (fbc 1.09 Arch package)

Post by Munair »

coderJeff wrote: Jan 30, 2022 16:47 Moved to Linux Board.

Is someone working on running fbc on this distro?
I tried to get fbc 1.09 from the Arch repo running on Manjaro and EndeavourOS. Same error when trying to compile a program:
"/usr/bin/../bin/ld: /usr/bin/../lib/freebasic/linux-x86_64/fbrt0.o: plugin needed to handle lto object"
The package maintainer replied to my report:
This package should be rebuilt with the latest LTO fixes. I'll address it soon.
When installing fbc 1.09 manually (with ./install.sh) on an Arch-based distro, then the package ncurses5 must be built from the AUR. This is because Arch considers ncurses5 outdated. I haven't tried this yet so I don't know if it will work.

Keep in mind that if you install fbc manually (with ./install.sh) fbc will be installed in /usr/local/bin. This may conflict with an installation from the repo (installed in usr/bin.

Until the Arch package has been rebuilt with the LTO fixes, fbc 1.08 from the repo will work fine. I took the package from cache, which can be downloaded here.
This is the original Arch package and should be saved (as sudo) to /var/cache/pacman/pkg/. The advantage of this package is that it doesn't require ncurses5 as it has been recompiled to work with ncurses6.

Install (downgrade) the package as sudo with:
pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/freebasic-1.08.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
You can add it temporarily to the ignore list in /etc/pacman.conf so that it will not be automatically upgraded again (until version 1.09 works).

For more information on downgrading packages on an Arch system, see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/downgrading_packages
Last edited by Munair on Jan 30, 2022 21:34, edited 2 times in total.
coderJeff
Site Admin
Posts: 4313
Joined: Nov 04, 2005 14:23
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro on the rise

Post by coderJeff »

Munair
Posts: 1286
Joined: Oct 19, 2017 15:00
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro (fbc 1.09 Arch package)

Post by Munair »

Thanks for the link! According to the information given, adding options=('!lto') to PKGBUILD solves the problem. So I did and rebuilt the source and installed the package. So far, fbc 1.09 compiles source correctly on Manjaro with this built. It also correctly compiles the SharpBASIC compiler source code, which is a good test. :-)

Until the official Arch package has been updated, anyone who wants fbc 1.09 on Manjaro, EndeavourOS or Garuda (without having to install ncurses5) can download the package from the SharpBASIC server.

Once downloaded, copy the file to /var/cache/pacman/pkg:

Code: Select all

sudo cp freebasic-1.09.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /var/cache/pacman/pkg
Install with:

Code: Select all

sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/freebasic-1.09.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
That's it.

Make sure any manual install in /usr/local/bin is uninstalled. Then check the version in the terminal: fbc -version. It should say:
FreeBASIC Compiler - Version 1.09.0 (2022-01-30), built for linux-x86_64 (64bit)
Copyright (C) 2004-2021 The FreeBASIC development team.
Munair
Posts: 1286
Joined: Oct 19, 2017 15:00
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Garuda, another Arch-based distro (fbc 1.09 Arch package)

Post by Munair »

Successfully tested on EndeavourOS.
Post Reply