Hardened Arch Linux — XFCE Edition (Alpha 1.10)

A from-scratch, security-hardened Arch Linux distribution built around XFCE 4.20, Kernel 7.1.2 (hardened configuration), the Limine bootloader, and Pacman.

This is an alpha release. It is functional and boots reliably, but is intended for testers and early adopters — not production use. See KNOWN_ISSUES.md for what's still being worked on.

What's in this build

• Kernel: 7.1.2, hardened configuration
• Desktop: XFCE 4.20 (X11 session)
• Display manager: SDDM
• Bootloader: Limine
• Package manager: Pacman, with core/extra/multilib and the BlackArch security-tools repository pre-configured (BlackArch's GPG key must be trusted manually on first use — see BUILD_NOTES.md)
• Included applications: Thunar, Kate, KMag, Dolphin, Firefox, Chromium, Magnus (screen magnifier), xfce4-terminal
• Icon/theme set: Breeze, Breeze-Dark, Papirus (all switchable)
• Accessibility: Sticky Keys via native XFCE AccessX, Magnus for screen magnification, Orca-compatible via AT-SPI

Live boot

The live session auto-logs in as the hardened user (password: hardened) — this is intentional. Anyone holding the boot media already has physical access to the live environment, so a password prompt on the live session adds no real security; it's standard behavior shared by most major live Linux distributions.

Installing to disk

Run hardened-install from a terminal in the live session. It will:

1. Present a numbered list of detected disks (works correctly in VirtualBox and on real hardware)
2. Require you to type ERASE /dev/sdX to confirm before anything is touched
3. Prompt you to create a real administrator account with a real password

Once installed to disk, autologin is disabled. A real account and password are required to log in, exactly as expected for a persistent installation. Live-media convenience and installed-system security are deliberately different by design.

Reporting issues

This is early alpha software built by one person with community testing in mind. Please report anything broken, including:

• Panel plugin crashes (a live diagnostic log is written to ~/.config/hardened/panel-crash.log on every boot — please attach it)
• Login/session issues (~/.config/hardened/first-login.log)
• Anything visually or functionally inconsistent with what's documented here

See BUILD_NOTES.md for the full technical build notes and KNOWN_ISSUES.md for what's already been identified and is being worked on.