02 — ARCHITECTURE
What is actually running.
Kane's Arch is a configuration, not a fork. It is stock Arch Linux with a specific set of choices made and defended. Everything below is reproducible from the install script.
| Component | Choice |
|---|---|
| Base | Arch Linux · rolling · pacman |
| Init | systemd, 11 units enabled at boot |
| Display | Software framebuffer over KMS/DRM |
| Window management | dwm, patched — no compositor, no bar daemon |
| Swap | None. vm.swappiness=0 |
| Audio | ALSA directly. No PulseAudio, no PipeWire |
| Shell | bash, no framework, no prompt engine |
| Boot target | multi-user.target — no display manager |
| Cold boot to tty | 1.9s measured, NVMe |
| Idle memory | 112 MB |
04 — INSTALL
Reproduce it in one pass.
The script is not clever. It partitions, installs base, applies the configuration set and exits. Read it before you run it — that is rather the point of the project.
# from the Arch ISO, after connecting to a network curl -LO https://example.invalid/kanes-arch/bootstrap.sh less bootstrap.sh # read it first sh bootstrap.sh --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --hostname arch
# /etc/sysctl.d/99-arch.conf vm.swappiness = 0 vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 50 vm.dirty_ratio = 10 # no swap unit, deliberately systemctl mask swap.target # boot to a tty, not a greeter systemctl set-default multi-user.target
06 — THE ARCHITECT
The Silent Architect.
The name attached itself to the project before anyone thought to object to it. It refers less to a person than to a way of working: no announcements, no roadmap, no release cadence. The configuration changes when something turns out to be unnecessary, and the changelog is the only place it gets mentioned.
Everything here is reproducible from a shell script. That is the whole claim.
07 — HISTORY
How it got here.
Kane's Arch started as a broken install that was easier to understand than the working one it replaced.
PHASE I
Early systems
A stock desktop install, stripped one package at a time to find out which ones were load-bearing. Most were not.
PHASE II
The display path
Removing the compositor broke screen tearing in an interesting way. Software rendering turned out to be fast enough for everything except video, which was the trade accepted.
PHASE III
Zero swap
Swap was disabled to make out-of-memory conditions honest. The system now fails loudly, early, and in a way that can be traced.
PHASE IV
Documentation
The configuration became worth writing down once someone else asked for it. That document became this project.