David Heinemeier HanssonandClaude Opus 5
ed710a3b41
Every boot entry has named vmlinuz-linux-t2 since0638855, but the file has contained stock Arch. Verified against the shipped ISO: arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-linux-t2: bzImage, version 7.1.5-arch1-1 (linux@archlinux) while the mirror carries linux-t2-7.1.4-2. T2 MacBooks have been installing with no keyboard or trackpad in the live environment. Kernel packages ship nothing in /boot — only usr/lib/modules/<kver>/vmlinuz. install_kernel() in /usr/share/libalpm/scripts/mkinitcpio sources /etc/mkinitcpio.d/<pkgbase>.preset and copies THAT package's kernel to whatever ALL_kver names, whenever is_kernelcopy() sees an unowned absolute path. Our file was named linux.preset, so it overrode releng's copy of the same name and pointed the STOCK kernel at the T2 filenames. linux-t2's own generated preset writes those same two paths, and stock won.c23e0e7introduced it a week after0638855added T2 support, so the feature worked for exactly seven days: before the preset existed, releng's linux.preset kept the stock kernel on its own filenames and linux-t2's generated preset produced the real thing. The fix is the filename. releng's linux.preset takes over the stock kernel again, which now writes /boot/vmlinuz-linux and initramfs-linux.img instead of squatting on the T2 names — so the ISO grows by one kernel and one archiso initramfs. That cost is not free and is worth revisiting: the stock kernel is in the live root only because releng's broadcom-wl hard-depends on it, and broadcom-wl is a prebuilt module for that kernel which cannot load on the T2 one we now boot. Dropping both is ~147MB and old Broadcom Macs lose live Wi-Fi. Boot the ISO on a T2 Mac before trusting this; the version string is only evidence that the right kernel ships, not that it works. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Omarchy ISO
The Omarchy ISO is the only supported way to install Omarchy. It ships the Omarchy Configurator, installs Arch Linux, installs the Omarchy packages from the bundled mirror, runs target system setup in the chroot, creates the user, and runs omarchy-setup-user for that user.
Downloading the latest ISO
See the ISO link on omarchy.org.
Creating the ISO
Run ./bin/omarchy-iso-make; output goes into ./release. By default the ISO uses the Omarchy packages and tracks the quattro branch, from the stable mirror. Pass --edge to use omarchy-dev and omarchy-settings-dev from the edge mirror.
For local development, build the ISO from sibling checkouts:
./bin/omarchy-iso-make --local-source ../omarchy-installer ../omarchy-pkgs
Despite the local folder name, the first argument is the Omarchy source checkout (runtime commands, configs, setup scripts, themes, shell, migrations). The installer itself lives in this ISO repo.
Use --dev or --rc to build against those package channels. Both --dev and --edge select the dev packages from the edge mirror.
Testing the ISO
Run ./bin/omarchy-iso-boot [release/omarchy.iso].
To exercise installation alongside existing Windows-style partitions, run
./bin/omarchy-iso-test-windows-disk [release/omarchy.iso]. It creates a
synthetic disk in /tmp with an existing ESP and data partition plus ample
unallocated space, then offers to start an interactive installation on it. The
fixture exercises Windows partition preservation but does not contain Windows.
Acceptance testing the ISO
Run ./bin/omarchy-iso-test [release/omarchy.iso] to install the ISO into a headless VM by driving the real interactive install flow — the harness reads each screen via QMP screendumps + OCR and answers with virtual keystrokes, so the configurator wizard, install dashboard, reboot prompt, and SDDM login are all exercised exactly as a user would. It then boots the installed system, sends real VM keyboard shortcuts for the primary shell and window-management actions, and runs the in-guest acceptance suite (test/acceptance in the omarchy repo). The suite checks session and service health, the complete core-package manifest, user defaults, representative applications, menus, panels, live weather, launchers, visual selectors, notifications, clipboard, and other interactive shell behavior.
Visual checkpoints are saved as success-<step>.png or failure-<step>.png alongside the serial and install logs in test-runs/<iso>/runs/<timestamp>/. Independent test files and applications continue after a failure so one broken surface does not hide the rest of the report. The harness then stops the VM and opens the ordered screenshots in imv for quick visual review.
The harness syncs the acceptance suite from $OMARCHY_PATH when it is available. The install phase produces a reusable base image, so iterating against another checkout is fast:
./bin/omarchy-iso-test release/omarchy.iso --install-only # once per ISO
./bin/omarchy-iso-test release/omarchy.iso --reuse-base \
--sync-omarchy ../omarchy # fast loop against local tests
Pass --encrypt to drive the encrypted install flow (including typing the LUKS passphrase at boot) instead of the unencrypted one. Pass --no-preview to collect the same visual artifacts without opening them in imv when the run finishes.
Signing the ISO
Run ./bin/omarchy-iso-sign [release/omarchy.iso]. The signing key is retrieved from the shared Omarchy vault with the 1Password CLI.
Uploading the ISO
Run ./bin/omarchy-iso-upload [release/omarchy.iso]. This requires rclone configuration (rclone config).
Full release of the ISO
Run ./bin/omarchy-iso-release VERSION to create, test, sign, and upload the ISO in one flow. Add --rc to release an RC build instead.