General Questions

AcreetionOS is a user-friendly Linux distribution built on the powerful Arch Linux foundation. It features the Cinnamon desktop environment, a graphical installer, and is designed to be accessible to newcomers while offering the full power and flexibility of Arch Linux. Think of it as Arch Linux made easy—stable, fast, and ready to use out of the box.

Yes! AcreetionOS is completely free and open source. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You can download, install, modify, and share it freely. We believe in software freedom for everyone.

While AcreetionOS is built on Arch Linux, we provide:

• A graphical installer (Calamares) instead of the command-line installation
• The Cinnamon desktop environment pre-configured for a familiar experience
• Pre-installed essential applications and codecs
• A curated selection of software that works reliably together
• Ongoing stability testing before updates reach our users
• A welcoming community focused on helping newcomers

Yes. Like Arch Linux, AcreetionOS follows a rolling release model. This means you install once and receive continuous updates forever—no need to perform major version upgrades every few months. However, we add an extra layer of testing to help ensure stability before updates reach your system.

Absolutely! Cinnamon is a lightweight yet full-featured desktop environment that runs well on older hardware. Combined with Arch Linux's efficient design, AcreetionOS can breathe new life into aging computers. Check our System Requirements page for details.

Download the ISO from our website, create a bootable USB drive using tools like Rufus (Windows) or Balena Etcher (cross-platform), boot from the USB, and follow the Calamares graphical installer. For detailed step-by-step instructions, visit our Installation Guide.

Yes! The Calamares installer includes an option to install AcreetionOS alongside your existing operating system. We recommend backing up important data, disabling Fast Boot in Windows, and creating unallocated disk space before starting the installation.

Minimum: 2 GB RAM, 25 GB storage, 64-bit processor. Recommended: 4 GB RAM, 40 GB storage (SSD), dedicated GPU. For full details, see our System Requirements page.

On Windows, use Rufus (recommended). On Linux or macOS, use Balena Etcher or the dd command. Select the AcreetionOS ISO file, choose your USB drive, and write the image. Make sure to select the correct drive as this process will erase all data on it.

AcreetionOS includes Pamac, a graphical package manager that provides access to official repositories, the AUR (Arch User Repository), Flatpak, and Snap packages—all in one place. You can also use the terminal with the pacman command. sudo pacman -S packagename installs software from the repositories.

The Arch User Repository (AUR) is a community-driven repository containing thousands of package build scripts. Pamac integrates AUR support, making it easy to install community-maintained packages with a single click. Note: Always review AUR packages before installing, as they are maintained by the community.

Open Pamac and click "Check for Updates," or use the terminal: sudo pacman -Syu. We recommend updating regularly—at least once a week—to get the latest security patches and features. AcreetionOS tests updates before distribution to help ensure stability.

Yes! Pamac includes built-in support for both Snap and Flatpak packages. You can enable them in Pamac's preferences. This gives you access to sandboxed applications from multiple ecosystems, all through one unified interface.

Most Wi-Fi adapters work out of the box. If yours doesn't, it may need additional drivers. Common solutions:

• Broadcom: Install broadcom-wl or b43-firmware
• Realtek: Some models need rtl8821ce-dkms or similar
• Connect via Ethernet temporarily and check for drivers in Pamac

You can run lspci -k | grep -A 3 Network

This is rare but can sometimes happen. Try these steps:

1. Boot from the installation USB and use arch-chroot to access your installed system
2. Run sudo pacman -Syu to complete any partial updates
3. Check for and reinstall any broken packages
4. If you use NVIDIA drivers, they may need to be reinstalled after kernel updates

Our support channels are available if you need help.

Install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers: sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils. For older cards, use nvidia-390xx or nvidia-470xx. After installation, reboot your system. You can manage driver settings through the NVIDIA X Server Settings application.

If you forgot your user password:

1. Reboot and press e at the GRUB boot menu
2. Add init=/bin/bash at the end of the kernel line
3. Press F10 to boot into a root shell
4. Run mount -o remount,rw / to make the filesystem writable
5. Run passwd yourusername to set a new password
6. Reboot with reboot -f

AcreetionOS uses PipeWire for audio. Try these steps:

• Check that audio is not muted in the system tray volume control
• Run systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse
• Install alsa-firmware and sof-firmware for additional hardware support
• Use pavucontrol to verify the correct output device is selected

We welcome contributions! Check out our Contributing Guide. You can help with code, documentation, testing, translations, or community support. Our repositories are on GitHub and GitLab.

You can reach us through:

• Our Contact page for direct support
• The Discord community
• The Root community
• Our GitLab for bug reports

Report bugs on our GitLab or GitHub repositories. Please include: your AcreetionOS version (cat /etc/acreetion-release), relevant log output, and steps to reproduce the issue. This helps us fix problems quickly.