4 ms·

A while ago I started looking for alternative linux distributions and void linux is my new darling that came out of this search. It has many binary packages, o

A while ago I started looking for alternative linux distributions and void linux is my new darling that came out of this search. It has many binary packages, out of the box musl images, images for many of my arm boards (raspberry pi *, c2 and cubieboard for instance) and a nice packagemanager with source support and arch like syntax (it's splitted like the debian apt-get/apt-cache but worse... I still like it) If someone knows where I can report bugs for the live system I would appreciate a link (or I have to do it over the forum/mailing list). It uses runit as init system and I nearly forgot how nice a system without systemd could be. I have a little project on the backburner where I started porting arch to musl, but since I found voidlinux I completly stopped. It has an arch package to install void in a chroot and it has void packages for an arch like init system (mkinitcpio). The packages are updated regulary and even thought it's a larger distribution than alpine linux (it doesn't start with a barebone busbox base, but without wget and curl :D),but has a way larger precompiled package list than it (it even has some precompiled packages missing from other distributions like toybox the bsd licensed busybox like tool) Anyway since it still offers 32bit x86 binaries I will maybe use it in time for my old hardware. Up until now void Linux has made me very happy and I wonder why I didn't see it 10 years ago when it's first release was born. If you haven't yet give it a try.

xfer 9y ago
I also used to use void-linux for many of these reasons(after arch for a few years). But i have now moved to nixos. It offers me the benefits of replicating system setup(i don't backup my system folders anymore, just my homedir and the nixos configuration files), cleanly removing system-wide packages(no more stale config hanging around) and of course the benefits of using nix for isolated/reproducible builds.
- BlackLotus89 9y ago
  Nixos was on my list as well, but I never got to try it out properly since void linux won me over. I'm still using arch as well, but I guess I always try to choose the right distro for my use case. But I think I will give nixos a spin again some time. I like the idea of the package manager very much
- pknopf 9y ago
  With Darch (I'm the author), you can use VoidLinux with a replicated setup. Also, each boot is a clean boot (tempfs overlay). This ensures you capture your OS changes through your build script. https://godarch.com/ https://godarch.com/ This gives me what I love about Nix (scripted setup) with OSs I love (Arch and Void).
  - kanbannoman 9y ago
    This is cool!
  - heywire 9y ago
    I’m glad you posted this again. I remembered you posting this a week or two ago, but when I got a chance to look into it I couldn’t remember which article or what the name of the project was. I’m a fan of the style of NixOS, and also a fan of Arch, so this is a must-try. Thanks!
  - atmoz 9y ago
    I just automated my laptop setup with Salt [1]. I want to keep using that instead of bash scripts (what Darch uses, by the looks of it). I like the idea of having "images" with tempfs overlay. Is it possible to combine Salt with the image feature from Darch? [1]: https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula
    - pknopf 9y ago
      I'm not familiar with Salt, but it looks interesting! Does Salt allow you to run from an already-built (but minimal) Arch installation? The base Darch images (godarch/arch) is bootstrapped manually. Would I have to create a godarch/arch-salt image that is bootstrapped from salt files, so that you could further salt the image? How would salt handle the inheritance that Docker provides?
      - atmoz 9y ago
        Yes, have a look at how I bootstrap an Arch installation: https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula/blob/master/bootstrap https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula/blob/master/boo... All you have to do is install Salt, and then you can run salt-call to apply states. Yes, Salt states can depend on other states, and you could choose to apply only selected states.
Johnnynator 9y ago
Bug reports are mostly handled on GitHub. For the live system probably here: https://github.com/voidlinux/void-mklive/issues https://github.com/voidlinux/void-mklive/issues And issues related to packages https://github.com/voidlinux/void-packages/issues https://github.com/voidlinux/void-packages/issues
rurban 9y ago
I also love void. The reason I use it is for regression testing of musl. But boy the updater is so much faster than anything else.

xfer 9y ago

I also used to use void-linux for many of these reasons(after arch for a few years). But i have now moved to nixos. It offers me the benefits of replicating system setup(i don't backup my system folders anymore, just my homedir and the nixos configuration files), cleanly removing system-wide packages(no more stale config hanging around) and of course the benefits of using nix for isolated/reproducible builds.

BlackLotus89 9y ago
Nixos was on my list as well, but I never got to try it out properly since void linux won me over. I'm still using arch as well, but I guess I always try to choose the right distro for my use case. But I think I will give nixos a spin again some time. I like the idea of the package manager very much
pknopf 9y ago
With Darch (I'm the author), you can use VoidLinux with a replicated setup. Also, each boot is a clean boot (tempfs overlay). This ensures you capture your OS changes through your build script. https://godarch.com/ https://godarch.com/ This gives me what I love about Nix (scripted setup) with OSs I love (Arch and Void).
- kanbannoman 9y ago
  This is cool!
- heywire 9y ago
  I’m glad you posted this again. I remembered you posting this a week or two ago, but when I got a chance to look into it I couldn’t remember which article or what the name of the project was. I’m a fan of the style of NixOS, and also a fan of Arch, so this is a must-try. Thanks!
- atmoz 9y ago
  I just automated my laptop setup with Salt [1]. I want to keep using that instead of bash scripts (what Darch uses, by the looks of it). I like the idea of having "images" with tempfs overlay. Is it possible to combine Salt with the image feature from Darch? [1]: https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula
  - pknopf 9y ago
    I'm not familiar with Salt, but it looks interesting! Does Salt allow you to run from an already-built (but minimal) Arch installation? The base Darch images (godarch/arch) is bootstrapped manually. Would I have to create a godarch/arch-salt image that is bootstrapped from salt files, so that you could further salt the image? How would salt handle the inheritance that Docker provides?
    - atmoz 9y ago
      Yes, have a look at how I bootstrap an Arch installation: https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula/blob/master/bootstrap https://github.com/atmoz/workstation-formula/blob/master/boo... All you have to do is install Salt, and then you can run salt-call to apply states. Yes, Salt states can depend on other states, and you could choose to apply only selected states.

Johnnynator 9y ago

Bug reports are mostly handled on GitHub. For the live system probably here: https://github.com/voidlinux/void-mklive/issues https://github.com/voidlinux/void-mklive/issues And issues related to packages https://github.com/voidlinux/void-packages/issues https://github.com/voidlinux/void-packages/issues

rurban 9y ago

I also love void. The reason I use it is for regression testing of musl. But boy the updater is so much faster than anything else.