Frequently Asked Questions
The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) article provides answers to questions often asked by users who moved to Hyperbola GNU/Linux-Libre from other GNU/Linux distributions.
Packages
But Hyperbola is a "systemd-free Arch GNU/Linux", isn't it?
No, Hyperbola is not based on any other system-distribution. We are using pacman for our package-management, but our packages are complete done from scratch, based on our own repositories. So it is not possible to describe Hyperbola as some kind of “systemd-free Arch GNU/Linux” and we do not use these either.
Why Hyperbola is using old(er) versions of packages?
Hyperbola is a long-term support system. It isn't focussed on rolling release. Also Hyperbola is using partwise Debian patchsets and other patches for more privacy and security, therefore all packages are being stabilized with improvements through its development. See the Packaging Guidelines and social_contract for further details.
Why is package X missing, even though it's available in Arch GNU/Linux?
This usually means the package is non-free or has some other freedom-related issues. Since Hyperbola GNU/Linux-Libre follows the GNU FSDG, we don't include non-free software and you can't get it from our official repositories.
Why is systemd missing if it is free software?
Hyperbola's objective is to support the Init Freedom Campaign. Hyperbola refuses init systems such as systemd that breaks portability, ignores backwards compatibility, and replaces existing services, forcing into adoption.
How can I extract a RAR archive?
unrar command is missing in Hyperbola because it's non-free software. You can use bsdtar command to do the job. It should be installed on your system by default because pacman depends on libarchive which provides it. Unfortunately, it cannot handle some extra features of RAR archives in which case you may have more luck with unar.
Hardware
Why doesn't my Nvidia graphics work?
This may be the case if you have a recent Nvidia card. Nouveau may not support your card yet. To check if your card is supported by Nouveau, first look for a code name of your card in the output of:
$ lspci | grep VGA
Next, look at CodeNames to further decode it. Finally, you can check support for your card on FeatureMatrix.
Why has my Wi-Fi card stopped working?
It's common for Wi-Fi cards to require a firmware to be loaded into the card. Many cards do not work at all if the firmware is missing. The firmware is often proprietary, thus we don't distribute it. This is the case for many internal Wi-Fi cards.
The usual fix to the problem is either to replace the card or use an external USB Wi-Fi dongle. You can buy one with Atheros chipset (eg. ath9k_htc as an external USB dongle or ath9k for PCI and PCI-Express expansion slots). Another is the RTL818x chipset (eg. rtl8187 as an external USB dongle or rtl818x_pci for PCI and PCI-Express expansion slots). Both of these Wi-Fi adapters have fully free free firmware. You can also search the h-node database to find Wi-Fi adapters known to work well with free software or scripts/deblob-$ver to check Wi-Fi adapters are included in the Linux-libre device blacklist.
Acknowledgement
This wiki article is based on ParabolaWiki.