Manjaro MATE 6.12.y image
Rex's Arch-based Manjaro image with the MATE desktop for CM3/CM4/CM5 — legacy now, hosted on Drime only, and its held kernel packages must not be force-updated.
What it takes
- Software only
Difficulty 1 of 3 — easy.
Details
Rex's Manjaro MATE build (September 2024) put a rolling Arch-family desktop on his 6.12.y kernel with the usual presets: charging defaults, external antenna, headers, auto-expanding filesystem and simplified overlays. The critical instruction in the thread: certain packages are held, and forcing them through replaces the custom kernel with Manjaro's stock one, which has no uConsole drivers and will not boot.
The image was pulled in May 2025 over update-compatibility problems and restored as a legacy download; the OS directory records it at kernel 6.12.27, Drime only, and it was not part of the February 2026 new-screen rebuilds. For a maintained Arch-family option see the Arch Linux ARM entry.
Links
Open at Forum threadRelated mods
Rex's ClockworkPi-RetroPie image (Pi-Gen, EmulationStation, RetroArch) is the working answer; the Debian install and gamepad threads fill in the rest.
The community's recommended OS: Debian 13 on Rex's patched Pi kernel, desktop and Lite variants, for CM3+, CM4, CM4S and CM5.
The previous Debian release of Rex's line, still rebuilt for the new screens in 2026 — the fallback when something on Trixie is not ready yet.
Rex's Kali image for CM4 and CM5 on the uConsole kernel with the hardware presets; cuu's original CM4 build is documented on the ClockworkPi wiki.
Rex's Parrot OS build for CM3/CM4/CM5 in Home and Security editions, plus krokowitz's Security spin with RTL-SDR and ALFA drivers preinstalled.
Rex's build of DragonOS Pi64 — an Ubuntu 22.04 SDR distribution with the radio tools preinstalled — on the uConsole kernel for CM4 and CM5.