add 2025-12-20 images post

Author: q66

_posts/2025-12-20-new-images.md

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+---
+title: New images
+layout: post
+excerpt_separator: <!--more-->
+---
+
+The 20251220 set of images is now published.
+
+This is an incremental refresh.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## Changes
+
+This set has been overdue for a while so it mainly comes as
+an update with new versions.
+
+This set is based on kernel 6.18 and comes with latest versions
+of desktop environments and most other software.
+
+Newly, the live images will not automatically import LVMs and
+ZFS pools, as that was found to be unintuitive and sometimes
+system-breaking (with ZFS-on-root setups).
+
+Additionally, the images now come with an experimental TUI
+installer. It can be invoked as `chimera-installer` from the
+command line.
+
+The installer supports the following:
+
+* Local and remote installs
+* APK mirror setup, with up to date mirror list fetched from the repo
+* Basic setup (hostname, timezone, root password, user account)
+* Installing extra packages
+* Kernel version selection
+* Bootloader setup (GRUB and systemd-boot, including BIOS/EFI/OF)
+
+It does not support the following:
+
+* Disk partitioning and formatting
+* And probably a lot of other things
+
+You are expected to partition, format, and mount your filesystem
+layout beforehand and then point the installer to the mounted root.
+This is by design and will remain that way, however a separate tool
+for simplified disk setup may be provided later on.
+
+However, it does validate your mounted filesystem tree for baseline
+correctness, performs detection of system-specific things (like ESP)
+and automatically generates `crypttab` for encrypted setups (this is
+rudimentary so if you use keyfiles or other advanced things you need
+to tweak it afterwards).
+
+## Next images
+
+The next set will come early next year with some more major changes.