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Everything you need to know before flashing an ISO — minimum requirements, editions, boot variants, installers and the mistakes everyone makes. Read it once and save yourself a headache.
Minimum requirements
For Pear Edition: x86_64 hardware with at least the following. These are the minimums — more is always better.
Memory
8 GB RAM
Storage
30 GB free
Processor
5 cores, x86_64
Arch or Debian — your choice
Every edition ships on both bases. Pick the one that fits how you use your computer.
Debian Edition
Rock-solid and predictable. Packages change slowly, so nothing breaks unexpectedly — but support for very recent hardware (new GPUs, Wi-Fi cards...) can lag behind. Best for older computers and anyone who values stability above all.
Arch Edition
Rolling release, always up to date with the newest drivers and packages. Excellent compatibility with new hardware — but updates ship constantly, so a version can introduce changes. Best for modern computers.
rEFInd or GRUB — your hardware decides
The ISO ships with both bootloaders. Pick the one your computer supports.
rEFInd
The closest to the Mac experience and the most comfortable to use. It requires a computer with UEFI support — it will not boot on legacy BIOS.
GRUB
The classic bootloader. Works on any machine, including legacy BIOS. Choose this if your computer does not support UEFI.
Two installers included
Every edition comes with two ways to install the system.
Pulsar Installer
Our own installer. More reliable, easier to use and the one we recommend. Use it first.
Calamares
Still being polished. It works as a fallback — if the Pulsar Installer fails for any reason, try Calamares.
Flash the USB correctly
How you write the ISO to the USB drive matters.
Do not use Ventoy
Our ISO layout differs from a standard Arch install, and Ventoy does not recognize it correctly. It won't inject the right boot parameters, so booting will fail. Please flash the ISO directly instead.
Recommended: balenaEtcher
Use balenaEtcher to write the ISO image directly to the USB drive. Other tools that write the ISO as a raw image (like Rufus or the Raspberry Pi Imager) also work.
After installing: remove the USB
The one step almost everyone forgets.
Unplug the USB before rebooting
Once the installer finishes, nothing will remind you. The system does not prompt you about it. Remove the USB drive before you reboot — otherwise your computer may boot straight back into the installer instead of your new system.
Ready to download?
Grab the latest release from GitHub, read the release notes and pick the edition for your hardware.
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