Directions for Custom Endeavour ISO running KDE

I am trying to create an install iso that loads with KDE instead of XFCE and would like to tweak some of the config files for the layout along with installing some additional packages onto the live boot image. I don’t need to change the installation, just want to have a custom setup for booting into a live session for troubleshooting and when I travel.

I looked around could not find exactly what I was looking for. If someone could point me in the right direction that would be great.

Take a look at the readme here and let us know if you have questions.

https://github.com/endeavouros-team/EndeavourOS-ISO

OK, I installed everything and I see where I modify the packages, but how do I set it to KDE instead of XFCE? Is it like a normal arch install and just delete the XFCE packages and replace them with the KDE ones?

I am still not sure about the user config files. For example, I want to place the default menubar at the top of the screen and change the default plasma theme. Is there dot files I would transfer over to the live users home folder?

EDIT: If there is a live user home folder, would I just make a fresh profile on a machine with a new user the way I want it set up then copy the config files to this folder? I have something like this saved for my guest user and it gets refreshed to the saved configs when they log out.

There is a packages file which contains the packages to install. You can remove the xfce packages and add the kde packages.

1 Like

Ok, I am building and trying that now. If I can get that to work then I can work on the tweaks.

It didn’t work. The DE will not load. It looks like it is still trying to load xfce but can’t because it was not installed. I am not sure how to enable KDE as the default and start sddm. All I did was replace the xfce packages with the ones needed for plasma in the packages.x86_64 file. I guess I still don’t know what I am doing here.

You probably need to also modify this script:

https://github.com/endeavouros-team/EndeavourOS-ISO/blob/main/run_before_squashfs.sh

Yeah, I don’t know what I am doing I guess. @joekamprad has a build that uses KDE, so maybe he can enlighten me?

You probably want some packages from here:

For example, these look important for KDE Plasma:
eos-plasma-sddm-config-22.03.1.2-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
eos-sddm-theme-2.4-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
eos-settings-plasma-1.3.1-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

And also take a look at these pages as well:

All the resources are there, you just need to experiement with how to combine what you need.

1 Like

see here:

1 Like

Bingo! That’s what im looking for. Thanks.

It was right there and didn’t realize it. Guess I just needed some sleep.

BTW, what does this mean?

“no in cooperation with unclemez”

EDIT: NM, I’m loosing it.

1 Like

w :wink:
now…

It was a project i done with/for unclemez :wink:

feel free to ask i can hint if something is unclear

I think I figured it out. I found the .bashrc file so I assume that is the live users home folder and where I would drop the .config files.

It’s not working. I guess it has to do with the new keys.

from the pinned comment:

sudo pacman -Sy endeavouros-keyring
sudo pacman -Syu
2 Likes

Oops, I thought I already updated this one, guess not. I thought maybe it had to be updated in a chroot environment or something. Still learning.

So, I think it was working, but the new mesa update has kinda screwed it up. Is there a way to work around this, like by specifying the package versions in the package list?

You could install the appropriate version from the arch archives using pacman -U --noconfirm in run_before_squashfs.sh

1 Like

That file kinda confuses me. Where would I put the command? At the end of the file or in the do_merge() section?