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Blake Ridgway 04bcb684b3 fix: run the live X session as an unprivileged user

The workstation ISO failed to start X with:

    (EE) unrecognized option --allow-root

Debian trixie ships Xorg 21.1.x, which removed --allow-root / -allowRoot
entirely — running the X server as root is no longer supported. The live
session now:

- creates a dedicated unprivileged `liveuser` account (in tty, video,
  input, audio groups) in build-live.sh;
- starts Xorg as `liveuser` on vt1 (no -allow-root flag at all);
- grants root display access (xhost +SI:localuser:root);
- still runs the installer itself as root, since deploy-disk.sh needs
  root. xinit is no longer used (and dropped from the package list).

2026-08-21 20:31:19 -05:00

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Arcline graphical installer

installer/arcline-installer is the GTK3 frontend that the live ISO boots into. It is a thin wrapper around scripts/deploy-disk.sh — the same, auditable deploy core the scripted installer and disk-image builder use.

How it works

 boot ISO → live session (Xorg on vt1) → installer window
   pick target disk → confirm device path → deploy-disk.sh → reboot

The installer extracts install/arcline-<edition>.tar.xz (the clean rootfs archive staged on the ISO by build-iso.sh) to a temp dir and runs:

/usr/lib/arcline/scripts/deploy-disk.sh <device> <rootfs> <edition> --boot <bios|efi>

streaming the deploy log into the window. Everything destructive lives in deploy-disk.sh, which the live image ships (with its dependencies) at /usr/lib/arcline:

/usr/lib/arcline/scripts/{common,deploy-disk,apply-fstab}.sh
/usr/lib/arcline/btrfs/init.sh
/usr/lib/arcline/editions/{server,workstation,cloud}/fstab

The layout mirrors the repo so the scripts' own path resolution works unchanged.

Building the ISO

make iso-server            # or iso-workstation / iso-cloud

build-iso.sh builds the clean rootfs, then build-live.sh clones it into build/rootfs/<edition>-live and layers on live-boot, a minimal X session (openbox), the installer, and the deploy tooling. The live session rootfs is never what gets installed — the installer always deploys the clean archive, so what you end up with on disk is exactly the hardened system, not the live session with the installer in it.

Autostart

overlays/live/etc/systemd/system/arcline-installer.service starts arcline-installer-session on boot. Modern Xorg (trixie 21.1.x) refuses to run as root, so the session script starts Xorg as the dedicated unprivileged liveuser account on vt1, grants root display access (xhost +SI:localuser:root), then runs the installer as root (it needs root for deploy-disk.sh). When the installer exits, X and the session end.

Manual run (for development / on a box without the ISO)

# on any Arcline system with the deploy tooling:
sudo /usr/local/bin/arcline-installer

The app refuses to run as a non-root user and errors if the deploy tooling is missing.

Notes

Disk discovery uses lsblk (util-linux); read-only devices are hidden.
Confirmation mirrors scripts/install.sh: you must type the exact device path before the install button will proceed.
Root is hidden by design; the installer runs before any user session.
For UEFI machines, pick "UEFI" boot mode (or use BOOT=efi when building); see docs/secureboot.md for signing the boot chain for Secure Boot.

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