Chakra Edn 2011.12 is the third and final edition of the Chakra Edn line of Chakra, a desktop GNU/Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. The first two editions were Chakra Edn 2011.09 and Chakra Edn 2011.11.

But problems with its graphical package manager, and the fact that latest releases do not even have one, has seen it drop off my list.

Aside from the usual kernel and software updates or upgrades, there is very little difference between Chakra Archimedes-2012.04 and Chakra Archimedes-2012.02. So this review will not be as comprehensive as the one published in February, but for those new to Chakra, here are the major features of this distribution:

Chakra is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It evolved from a hobby project to what is now, from my initial assessment, a very solid desktop distribution with features not yet available on established Linux distributions.

Chakra 2011.11 is the second maintenance release of Chakra Linux, a KDE (desktop) distribution originally derived from Arch Linux. A detailed review of it will be published later tonight. While we await that publication, this article gives some customization tips. And there is much to customize because a new installation of Chakra 2011.11 is like bringing something home from IKEA.

You have to hand it to the Chakra project developers: they sure have ambition. Don’t expect a remastered Ubuntu here, Chakra takes the do-it-yourself distribution Arch, and tries to make the installation easy, providing you with the latest and greatest KDE in the process.

Unlike other Linux distributions that feature a graphical package manager, Chakra’s tend to have issues handling major updates, so a decision was made not to ship a graphical package in the April ISO image. Which meant that installing and updating applications (and the system) on a default installation of Chakra Archimedes 2012.04 could only be accomplished from the command line.

This recent release of Chakra Linux, codenamed ‘Jaz’, provides users with many new features. Chakra 0.2.0 features the Linux kernel 2.6.33.7 with LZMA support, KDE SC 4.4.5, X.Org 1.7.7, access to 5670 software packages, a new cinstall multi-tool for creating and managing bundles and packages and many other enhancements.

The Chakra Development Team is proud to announce the release of Chakra 2011.04 codenamed Aida. Two month passed since Chakra 2011.02. Now it is time for Aida to impress. We added kernel 2.6.38.4 and lots of package updates. KDE got updated to 4.6.2 with our chakra-patches added, such as our hardware detection including the latest drivers.