this project is currently paused due to lack of time

Intro

This is the home of a new attempt to have an i586 port of Archlinux.

This project is sponsored by Net7 - www.netseven.it

Help from the Arch community (and not only) is very welcome and needed.

Repositories

NEW main repository! Server = http://www.inele.ufro.cl/archlinuxi586/repo/

You can run pacman -Sy pacman-mirrorlist to switch repository

See current status section below for important details

Why

Archlinux is a lovely i686 optimized distribution and sometimes members of the community ask how to install it on VIA C3 (mini-itx systems) or AMD Geode based systems. Since these CPUs are not fully i686 compatible, there is the need to use an i586 port.

History

There have been some past attempts to create an i586 port of Archlinux some where successful, but they are not maintained anymore.

Last fruitful i586 installation disk port was Lowarch http://www.lowarch.org which has not been updated during last two years and the project homepage has now expired.

Goals

To have an up to date i586 installation CD, with a reasonably sized package repository with at least 4-5 mirrors.

Current status

NOTE

The following packages are currently missing from core: capi4k-utils isdn4k-utils netcfg wlan-ng26-utils wpa_supplicant

7 Jun 2009

I'm sorry to announce that this project is currently on hold (as you probably guessed) since I have basically no free time left from my job and the research for my thesis.

18 Mar 2009

Today I uploaded the 600th package. I'm sorry, but unfortunately I don't have enough free time at the moment to work on the install CD. Follow this instructions to upgrade from Lowarch to Archlinux-i586: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=489075#p489075

12 Mar 2009

ATTENTION: Main repository changed! You can run pacman -Sy pacman-mirrorlist to switch repository

Thanks to kjon from archlinux forum we now have a new repository. I hope I'll be able to setup another mirror soon. I'm using kjon's server as our main repository due to the now famous issue #2293.

I'm looking for other mirrors, so any donation of some free resources on a web server are more than welcome.

Bug #2293 is now in the top 100 of google code's bugs. Thank you very much to all who starred it.

09 Mar 2009

If you have a gmail account consider adding a star to this bug report: http://code.google.com/p/support/issues/detail?id=2293 This is the only way to let google code developers that this issue is important for us.

04 Mar 2009

A bug report regarding the impossibility to upload libstdc++5 has been filed http://code.google.com/p/support/issues/detail?id=2293

03 Mar 2009

Packages are now in the download area.

Unfortunately I can't upload libstdc++5-3.3.6-2-i586.pkg.tar.gz since this file is refused (probably they don't like the + sign in the name). I contacted the technical support team, and let's hope they can iron this issue out.

02 Mar 2009

Will have to move packages out of SVN. I do know SVN is not the appropriate tool for storing binary files, but it's the only way I found to circumvent google code's limitations on file's storage (no file deletion, no directories).

I'm working on setting up two mirrors. One is kindly hosted by a member of Archlinux forum, I'll give more details when he will make the announcement in the forum :)

I will try to use the Downloads area of this website and see if it is usable or not for distributing packages.

26 Feb 2009

Disk space usage reached 932 MB out of 1024. I asked for more space. Let's keep finger crossed.

23 Feb 2009

If you want to build your own packages take a look at the wiki. Information is very scarce for the moment, so if you need more help email me.

Reached quota 400 packages.

18 Feb 2009

Xorg packages are now in extra

05 Feb 2009

Extra and community repositories are up. Don't expect to find everything from i686 ported to extra for the reasonable future.

If you need a bunch of packages open an issue and I will try to do my best to port them.

I don't have time to port entire groups (e.g. gnome or kde). If you really need something big I'm more than happy to help you setting a chroot up where you can build what you need provided you then accept to share your packages in the i586 repository (of course you'll get credits).

02 Feb 2009

I succeeded in porting Kernel 2.6.28.2 with ARCH patchset to i586!

An almost complete core repository is available.

I'm currently building, from extra and community, some packages that I need.

29 Jan 2009

I've been ill and then overburdened with work.

First attempt at kernel installation on my VIA C3 Samuel 2 system didn't come out well.

Hope to have a working kernel and a core repository by next Monday.

11 Jan 2009

Hacked PacBuilder (http://code.google.com/p/pacbuilder/) to make it compile i586 PKGBUILDs and built 194 packages in two afternoons.

Unfortunately I can't trust the HD (Maxtor) nor the PSU (No brand, but Maxtor like "quality") in the PC building this "magnificent" port so I can build packages only when I can check that nothing breaks or sets my house on fire.

I'll try to get a building machine in the company I work for in the near future.

9 Jan 2009

Got in touch with Karolina and now the repository located at ftp://archi586.ath.cx/archi586/ is back online

I'd like to thank Karolina for the good job she is doing with her i586 port

8 Jan 2009

I finally have a Pentium 4 @ 2.53GHz machine running archi586.ath.cx port of archlinux. I wrote an email to Karolina the author of archi586.ath.cx port and I hope she will give me access to a copy of her ABS tree so I can start compilation updating base packages and then adding more software.

2 Jan 2009

I would like to thank k.mandla from Archlinux community for providing a torrent for the now difficult to find Lowarch 0.1.1 installation CD.

http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=7ca348467875268f1c1dff1d9e77005e22d6ac7d

Lowarch gives you a functional (but old) i586 system to thinker with.

If the repository ftp://archi586.ath.cx/archi586/ cames back to life (it was working until 30th December 2008) it would be possible to update Lowarch to a more recent system following k.mandla suggestions: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/believe-it-or-not-up-to-date-arch-on-an-i586/