Calamares Installer Integration

Void-Builder includes native pipeline support for building and injecting the Calamares Graphical Installer into live ISO images.

Architecture of Calamares Pipeline

The template files for Calamares are stored under custom_packages/calamares/.

When building with Calamares integration:

void-packages repository is cloned or prepared under workdir/void-packages.
The local template from custom_packages/calamares is copied into void-packages/srcpkgs/calamares.
xbps-src compiles calamares for the target architecture.
The generated .xbps package and repository index are persisted in custom_packages/ for later builds.
Subsequent ISO builds requesting calamares automatically discover a matching package and index in custom_packages/ or the persistent build repository.
Explicit --repository selections take priority, followed by configured custom repositories, discovered local repositories, and official repositories.

The ISO workspace workdir/<architecture> is cleaned independently of the persistent package locations, so normal build cleanup preserves compiled packages.

Build Commands

Option A: Build Calamares Package Only

To compile the Calamares package for x86_64 without generating an ISO:

python3 cli.py --build-calamares

Option B: Build ISO with Calamares Included

To compile Calamares first and automatically build an ISO containing the installer:

sudo python3 cli.py x86_64 -d xfce --with-calamares --mode real

Reuse an already compiled package

Select the installer profile in your usual build command:

sudo python3 cli.py x86_64 -d xfce --package-profile installer --mode real

To use a package repository stored elsewhere, pass its indexed directory explicitly:

sudo python3 cli.py x86_64 -d xfce --package-profile installer --mode real \
  --repository /path/to/binpkgs

--with-calamares always runs the Calamares compilation step first. When the installer profile is selected without that flag, the builder reuses a matching indexed package from custom_packages/ or the persistent void-packages repository when one is available.

Offline repository

Add --with-offline-repo to include an indexed XBPS repository in the ISO at /repo (outside the SquashFS). By default it contains the build package selection and its dependencies. Use --offline-repo-packages git,vim to request a smaller set with its dependencies. The build downloads against an empty package database, includes locally compiled packages, indexes the archives, and checks dependency resolution using only that index before packaging the image. Download or indexing failures stop the build. /etc/xbps.d/00-offline-repository.conf enables the repository from the live ISO. The option is ignored for disk images and exported rootfs tarballs.

Example reusing the compiled installer:

sudo python3 cli.py x86_64 -d xfce --mode real \
  --package-profile installer --with-offline-repo