Frequently asked questions

Here are answers to questions about instantOS, we get asked all the time. Chances are, you will find a quick answer for your lingering inquiries here. Please have a look at the Documentation and the Community Wiki, if not. If you still don't get an answer or need additional information or clarification, we have an active and friendly community to support you. The Discord channel is usually the quickest and most active way to get information.

Troubleshooting system issues

instantOS includes a diagnostic tool to check and fix common system problems:

# Run all health checks
ins doctor

# List available checks
ins doctor list

# Run a specific check
ins doctor run <check-name>

# Fix all fixable issues
ins doctor fix --all

# Interactively choose which fixes to apply
ins doctor fix --choose

Checks include: network connectivity, locale, pending updates, disk health, swap status, display configuration, and more.

Does it use its own repos

Only instantOS related packages are hosted in the instantOS custom repo, for everything else the Arch repos are used.

Can I install instantos on an encrypted drive

Yes, you can, but it will be a bit of work. The installer does not currently support setting up encryption for you. So you will have to select the manual partitioning option and set it up yourself including bootloader setup.

How do I install instantOS software on a regular Arch

The instantOS tools are on the AUR. If not, you can add the custom repo, e.g. by running repo.sh. Use your regular package manager to install any instant packages you like. In case you wondered, the corresponding PKGBUILDs have their own repository. This works on most Archlinux variants, too.

How do I build an instantOS component from the source repos

On instantOS:

• instantSETTINGS: instantOS → instantOS development tools → yes
• wait for the installation to finish
• Use ibuild from the command line, ibuild help for available commands and some help

For instance, if you want to build the latest instantWM from the GitHub source repository:

ibuild install instantwm
cd ~/.config/instantos/ibuild/extra/instantwm/src/instantwm-git  # where the files are

How about instantOS based on other distributions

Officially, we only support instantOS tools on Arch Linux and NixOS (instantNIX). Technically, you can install the Nix universal package manager on almost any distribution and use it like that, but that is a little more work. Or you can try to compile the tools yourself for your favourite distribution. We hope you understand that maintaining and testing packages for a distribution is a lot of work and we as the maintainers are only working on it in our free time in addition to full-time work/study.

How do I change the colors

Depends on what colors you want to change. Some are available through the various theming options in the settings menu. For the window manager and instantMENU colors, edit ~/.config/instantwm/config.toml. Look at the wmsettings documentation for the full configuration reference. You can also try some preexisting themes from (instantRICE).

What is the weird A100% or "i" in the status bar

The "A" and "B" stand for "audio volume" and "battery". These indicate the charging percentages for your (laptop) battery and your master audio volume. The battery indicator is not always present. The small "i" on green and sometimes red background is an indicator of whether you have internet connectivity.

Why does the status bar update so slowly

The status bar is currently updated every few seconds as opposed to when things like the audio volume change. That is owed to the way the status bar and window manager work. A major rework of the status bar is planned, that will make for immediate update

Can I customize the status bar

You can completely disable the built-in status bar in the settings menu and then run your own status bar (or status script periodically). For inspiration have a look at /usr/bin/instantstatus.

My keyboard layout doesn't work with instantOS and language support sucks

You can configure keyboard layouts in ~/.config/instantwm/config.toml:

[keyboard]
layouts = [
  { name = "us" },
  { name = "de", variant = "nodeadkeys" },
  { name = "fr" }
]
options = "compose:ralt"

Use instantwmctl to switch layouts at runtime:

instantwmctl next-keyboard-layout
instantwmctl list-keyboard-layouts

Keep in mind that we are doing this in our free time for little to no compensation.

How do I put things in the autostart

InstantOS executes a shell script at ~/.config/instantos/autostart.sh on startup. You can also link or copy a .desktop file to ~/.config/autostart or use a graphical tool that does this.

Does it support 32-bit

Yes, but the 32-bit version doesn't have a live session yet so you'll have to use the CLI installer

Raspberry Pi

There are some people working on an arm community edition. Development is happening on GitHub.

The NixOS-based variant, instantNIX, has an article about how to Install instantNIX from scratch on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Why is this a Distro not a DE

instantOS has an approach similar to elementary OS (apart from providing a different workflow) in that it's technically a collection of custom software that can be run under any distro but actually doing so could require some extra steps. Being a Distro everything about the initial setup can be controlled and things are pretty much guaranteed to work properly. instantOS should be accessible to anyone with as little upfront effort as possible. It also gets you a near Arch experience under the hood, more so than Manjaro or Endeavour as the installer is compliant with the official install guide. This is ideal as a base system and previously not accessible to non-technical people.

Wayland

instantWM now supports both X11 and Wayland! The Rust rewrite includes native Wayland support. You can choose which session to use:

• X11: instantwm-x11 (traditional X11 session)
• Wayland: instantwm-wayland (native Wayland compositor)

Wayland support includes most features from the X11 version, with continued development to maintain feature parity. Both sessions share the same configuration file at ~/.config/instantwm/config.toml.

Can I change keybindings

Yes! instantWM uses a TOML configuration file at ~/.config/instantwm/config.toml. You can add or override keybindings in the [[keybinds]] section.

Example:

[[keybinds]]
modifiers = ["Super"]
key = "Return"
action = { spawn = ["alacritty"] }

[[keybinds]]
modifiers = ["Super", "Shift"]
key = "q"
action = "kill"

See the wmsettings documentation for the full list of available actions and modifiers. You can also use instantwmctl to control many settings at runtime without restarting.

Is feature X planned

Maybe. Have a look at our roadmap. If it's not there request it by opening a feature-request issue on GitHub or talking to people in the community.

Is there a swap? I don't see any

Yes, there is! Swap is automatically allocated as needed via systemd-swap.

Calamares

instantOS used to use Calamares but switched to a custom installer called instantARCH for several reasons.

• Calamares has higher system requirements than the OS itself which would lock out a potential userbase.
• Calamares only has official support for amd64 while instantARCH can easily be ported to any architecture.
• Calamares also makes adding features to it quite complicated and is still quite limiting in that regard. instantARCH already lets you do things like choose kernel or extra packages, both of which would be difficult to do with Calamares.
• instantARCH fits the system aesthetic a lot better while QT looks quite out of place
• instantARCH can run as a CLI off any up-to-date Arch ISO

In the current state of development it is also important to be able to adjust the installation process without releasing a new ISO every time. That is why instantARCH is netinstall only at the moment. An option to install without internet access will be added in the future.

Why is this not a Manjaro flavor

instantOS used to be based on Manjaro in the beginning, but switched to being based on pure Arch for a few reasons.

• Manjaro uses Calamares which is not a good fit for instantOS, see the reasons above
• forking a fork comes with a bunch of problems
  The Manjaro version had a bunch of issues like being laggy or not working on some systems, bad internet connectivity, installation issues etc. With how messy Manjaro development tools are it was hard to tell where the issues came from and at some point it was just becoming easier to switch to Arch which is what most people wanted anyway.
• Arch is available for more architectures than Manjaro. Manjaro 32-bit is unmaintained and the other versions are a mess. instantOS being a lightweight distro has a target audience on ARM and 32-bit, both of which can be served better on Arch. You can read more about the experience with Manjaro tools here
• It does things differently than Manjaro which led to development basically fighting its bloated base.
• Most users want it to be based on Arch after beta 1
• Arch can be trusted to be always there and maintained, Manjaro can't as the recent drama, forums being set to read-only and so on shows

Is instantOS just Arch with instantWM

No it isn't. Just take a look at the GitHub and tell me if you just see a window manager. Installing instantWM on Arch will just give you a window manager. No application launcher, no settings, no start menu, just a window manager. installing the instantOS packages on another distribution will get you pretty close to the stock instantOS experience. Please note that that is not the intended use case for instantOS packages. It is harder to provide support for these "frankensteined" systems.

YoUrE FrAgMeNtInG tHe LiNuX DeSkToP REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, become a gnome contributor instead

Sorry if this one is getting a little defensive but the question is provocative and so is the answer. The question of why a distro should exist is an interesting one, so let me explain why I think instantOS doesn't fall into the "30th fork of something that doesn't contribute to the original but still breaks in different ways"-category. First of all, if you wanted to rid the earth of such projects, start with Zorin OS. It is Ubuntu Gnome with a custom GTK theme. That is not even exaggerated, if you take a look at their GitHub that's the only thing you'll find, among with a fork of KDE Connect that's also just a rename. The amount of press Zorin has managed to gather with absolutely no substance is staggering. And no, I also think that we do not need yet another Debian ISO with KDE or XFCE preinstalled and a changed wallpaper. The reason why I created instantOS is that it didn't exist before. It is unique and its experience is not offered by any other distro and I suspect that won't change. It's aiming to be lightweight, feature rich, power user friendly and still usable for people who are not experienced with standalone WMs. It has a GUI control center that is not dependent on any desktop environment, a hybrid WM, a noob-friendly lightweight installer and many more things that offer a desktop experience that is unique. It also ticks the technical boxes that makes it a distro like having its own repos.