Arch Linux Beginners Guide

Remembering the days when I installed Arch Linux for the first time I still feel that Arch misses a guide for beginners. I started one at the Wiki. Its intention is to show how you install and configure Arch Linux until you have a fully working desktop system for multimedia and office purpose. I'm still heavily improving it. If you have any suggestions or critics feel free to drop me a note or add the content to the wiki. If you find some spelling or grammar errors do the same or fix them, I'm no native speaker

iphitus wrote:article is too big. provide links to existing wiki pages and documentation. If things change and you dont know, your article will be broken.
Sure...but you will have this problem with all wiki pages. If you don't have a maintainer for bigger articles, the whole idea of the wiki won't work well.
iphitus wrote:For example, change the install documentation to the install guide. Same goes for network, link to existing pages, and if there isnt one, create one.
I disagree with this one. I personally like the idea of having one basic guide which will led in most cases to a fully working system and does not stop right after the installation, which will leave you with a single prompt. I tried to explain the "basic things" and give links for digging deeper (I may have failed at this, but I tried and will try again).
Therefore you are right about linking, but as you may have seen I tried to link to existing pages if they exist and give more than just a basic information. As far as I know no install guide for voodoo exists yet.
What I really don't want to do, is to create just a meta page that only links to other pages, for three reasons:
* It's annoying to read if you have to follow a link, get back and follow the next link...
* Because there is no single maintainer for all the sub pages, you can only link to pages that are known stable, otherwise the beginner will be totally lost fast
* Some of the other pages are way too technically for a beginner, they quickly start with special things for exotic purposes (mainly because experienced people don't like writing about basic things I believe)
iphitus wrote:Some of it seems a bit overkill too, you give a newbie style how to for tiny things, but completely gloss over even a basic description of what the "daemons line" is. Newbies using this beginners guide learn bugger all, as they just copy from the beginner guide. When things go wrong, they come to the forums rather than use initiative. I guess the installation and configuration acts as a form of natural selection.
I think we have a different opinion how a wiki works, I always thought you start with something and improve it over time, when questions or suggestions arrive.
A wiki will get better if more than one people is involved, therefore sharing and discussing at an early point of time is reasonable.
On the other hand you are absolutely right about the daemons line, which should be explained for a beginner (EDIT: I added a paragraph about daemons a few moments ago).
But I think differently about the natural selection. I never felt that Arch Linux aims to be an elitist distribution and that an acceptance test is needed if you want to use it...what I have seen from the community so far, Arch seems in fact to be the opposite. I like Arch for being clean, simple and logical constructed, not for being complicated. I'm too old to get self-confidence just from installing an operating system.
If users use the forum to ask the same questions again and again, our beginners guide is incomplete and we should fix it.
iphitus wrote:Things like:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … or_newbies
and a better FAQ, would be more useful than yet another blow by blow install tutorial that falls out of date in 6 months.
James
This may not be representative, but a better FAQ and Jargon for Newbies (damn, I really love this elite attitude ) wouldn't helped him:
Someone at my blog wrote:Thanks for the guide! I tried installing Arch over Christmas and had the worst time trying to figure that out. So I of course went back to my trusty Gentoo. I always liked Gentoo because even though its an "advanced distro" they provide you with plenty of documentation. Arch on the other hand does not and that really bothered me. But now that I have a Gentoo style guide, I think I'll try it again!
Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your criticism because it makes me think twice about some things and will most probably lead to a better guide.

Similar Messages

Official Arch Linux Install Guide needs edit

Aloha,
This line in the Official Arch Linux Install Guide
Official Arch Linux Install Guide
dd if=archlinux-XXX.img of=/dev/sdX
Needs to be changed too
dd if=archlinux-2010.05-{core|netinstall}-{i686|x86_64|dual}.iso of=/dev/sdx
Mahalo

Hum, well I don't know how to write a git patch. I guess it would be a good thing to learn though, but I have to go to bed now.
Hum..., after further looking at the this forums section I guess I posted in a totally wrong place Live and learn.
Last edited by hunterthomson (2010-05-26 13:16:47)

Finding the Arch Linux installation guide...

...is not the most obvious thing. Couldn't/shouldn't there be a link on the main web page to the Arch Installation Guide, or at least to the docs page?
I've just tried Arch (0.7.2) for the first time, and am finding my way with it quite well so far - but just found it a little irritating to have to hunt around the web site for the installation guide from a 2nd machine (where it wasn't bookmarked yet) while I was installing Arch on another.

smoon wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean. The Installation Guide is two clicks away from http://www.archlinux.org/
http://www.archlinux.org/ -> "Documentation English" -> "Installation & First Steps"
Ok, now that I made a fuss about this, it's time to admit that I just didn't see that Documentation section on the home page - thanks for pointing it out - time for some sleep I guess :-)

Arch Linux Help Guide Flowchart

I got sidetracked again and ended up with this
edit: updated link
Last edited by Xyne (2013-02-28 08:27:33)

Kiwi wrote:
No mention of IRC...!?
I refuse to adopt or endorse this system until IRC is added!
Does anyone actually get any real help on IRC? When I stopped going (for various reasons) it was mainly discussing the same topics over and over again. Real fun, but not much practical use....

[SOLVED] Following Beginners Guide, do I make /root bootable?

Hey guys!
I am trying to follow the Arch Linux Beginners Guide, but I seem to be stuck at one thing. When making my partitions manually, which of the four sda partitions do I make bootable? I can't seem to write on the partitions unless I make one bootable.
They only seem to have a /var, /root, swap, and a /home partition! Thank you!
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide
Last edited by mag1strate (2011-07-02 14:36:57)

bwat47 wrote:
mag1strate wrote:I wanted ext4 instead of ext2. Or is there no reason why I should be using ext4?
You can use ext4 with auto prepare. It prompts you for the fs type for your root and home partitions.
I just realized I pressed enter too quick and skipped that option! I am sorry about that! Hope I didn't waste you guy's time!

[GUIDE] How to get MapleStory working in Arch Linux

MapleStory is a free-of-charge, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by the South Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Wizet and Nexon. Although playing the game is free, character appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the "Cash Shop" using real money. MapleStory has a combined total of over 50 million subscriber accounts in all of its versions. MapleStory North America (Global), for players mainly in North America and outside of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe, has over three million players.
In the game, players travel the "Maple World", defeating monsters and developing their characters' skills and abilities as is typical in role-playing games. Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading, and playing minigames. Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share the rewards. Players can also join a guild to interact more easily with each other.
I am an avid mapler myself, however, I am also an avid archer! For some time, I have wanted to get MapleStory working on Arch Linux in some way, but nothing seemed to work. As you might have guessed by now, recently, while playing around with VirtualBox, I discovered a method to get MapleStory working on it! Though in this method you won't actually have MapleStory running on Arch Linux, you'll have it running on a VirtualBox Windows virtual machine, that is still pretty good compared to other people's experiences.
I hope there are at least a few maplers on this forum, and if there aren't, I hope that someone will port this post over to other Linux, or even MapleStory, forums. Anyways, let's begin.
1. Download and install a version of Virtual Box that is version 3.0+. The reason for this is that, only versions 3.0+ support an experimental DirectX Driver with 3D acceleration that is required for MapleStory to run.
2. Create a Windows Virtual Machine, add a hard disk to it, and install and update Windows on it(preferably Windows XP, as it uses less resources than other contemporary Windows installations).
3. Once you have done all you needed and wanted on that Windows installation, restart it, boot it into safe mode by holding F8 at the boot, and wait until the desktop is fully loaded.
4. After you are at the desktop, go to "Devices" at the top of the menu of the Windows virtual machine, and select "Install Guest Additions...". Wait until Guest Additions finishes installing, and when VirtualBox asks you if you want to mount the disk containing the Guest Additions on the virtual machine, say "Yes".
5. Run the main executable on the disk that doesn't have amd64 or x86 following its name. Follow the instructions it gives you, and when it asks you what components to install, make sure both of the boxes it shows you are checked.
6. After the install is completed, the virtual machine will restart. After it restarts, shut it down.
7. Congratulations! You now have DirectX installed on your VirtualBox virtual machine! Now you need to activate the "3D Acceleration", that enables it.
8. In the VirtualBox main window, make sure you have your machine with Windows selected. Then, click on "Machine", and then "Settings...", at the top. A new window should pop up. On the left hand side, click on the display panel, and in the new settings section, tick Enable 3D Acceleration. Click "OK", to save the settings.
9. Start your Windows virtual machine, install MapleStory just as you would on a normal windows computer, and run MapleStory.
Notes: This way of running MapleStory is slower than by running it normally, on a normal windows computer. Also, try to not interact with your Linux desktop while playing MapleStory, because this can cause HackShield to shut down MapleStory, due to the fact that it believes there is a hacking attempt.
If any of you port this guide to any other place on the web, please, credit me, neovaysburd5.
For any further questions or inquiries, this goes to all of you, please contact me at [email protected].
Last edited by neovaysburd5 (2009-08-19 16:51:31)

Alright, I've posted it in the wiki. I don't know if it meets the Arch Linux wiki standards, so if there is absolutely anything wrong with it, please fix it right away. Don't even ask my permission.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MapleStory

Where's the intermediate and advanced guide to arch linux

i think some of us have finished reading the beginners guide already and would like a consolidated version of knowledge that would make up what would be considered as an intermediate and advanced guide to arch. (I know that there are many disparate sections on different aspects of managing the arch installation) So anyway, its just my suggestion, I can't do it myself as im still a beginner but would like to move on to more advanced stuff.

unregistered wrote:
Mr.Elendig wrote:
An advanced user shoudn't need a guide. He/she shoud know what he/she want/need to do, and where to look up the information on how to do it, himself/herself.
That's my twisted opinion, atleast.
yes, that is true but its not about ability or anything, imho its much more convienient to go to one place to get all the info than to go to google.com/the wiki/forum and type in what you want to search for.
After you have learned the basics, everything you learn means you increase your knowledge in a specific direction. This means that the knowledge itself grows exponentially from the beginner to the intermediate level, figuratively speaking. There can't be an intermediate guide to Arch. There can be a nice wiki which catalogs the knowledge, however. There can be How Tos, which explain how to reach a certain goal for every possible skill level.
Last edited by Sigi (2008-05-02 03:40:15)

[SOLVED] Configure The System (Beginners Guide) Question

Hello!
I'm currently working my way through the beginners guide, from the wiki. All going ok so far and I've reached the Configure The System section. Which is where I'm a bit stuck.
Beginners Guide wrote:You will be presented with a menu including the most important configuration files for your system. If you want to look up the available options as stated in /etc/rc.conf just press Alt+F2 to get a shell, look it up, and switch back to the installer with Alt+F1.
The problem I have is looking up the available options. For example, to find my locale it states I should run locale -a, however when I hit Alt+f2 and enter the command at the bash shell ([Arch Linux: /]# ) I get the following error
-bash: locale: command not found
When I attempt to lookup other items I'm also unable to find those (such as timezone in /usr/share/zoneinfo).
Can anyone let me know what I'm doing wrong, I'm missing something very obvious here, but sadly I just can't work it out!
Last edited by Laatia (2008-03-23 08:56:38)

dyscoria wrote:
I wouldn't skip all of the steps, particularly adding your hostname to /etc/hosts. Just fill in as much as you can, and edit the rest after you've finished installing, though I think the defaults are safe enough to have a running system.
If you typed in 'km' and chose your locale before you ran the /arch/setup command to start the installation, it should automatically enter in the locale you selected earlier (if you press yes in the dialog box that pops up).
Confirm this as that's what happended in this location on 2 recent install.

[Solved] Mounting Partitions from Beginners Guide

Hi everyone. I've setup Arch before, but I see that the installer has been removed. I had a question on some of the documentation from the Beginners Guide...
From the section "Prepare the storage drive" it states to setup the partitions like so:
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
sda1 Boot Primary Linux 15440
sda2 Primary Linux swap / Solaris 1024
sda3 Primary Linux 133000*
In the section below it ("Mount the partitions ") it explains to "mount any other separate partition" like so:
# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
However, I set my partitions up just how it was above, when I put in the syntax "mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home" I receive an error that sda4 doesn't exist. Using my best judgement I put in "mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home" as I set my partitions exactly the way from the storage drive section (minus some storage space for sda3). I'd just like to be sure that I set this up right and not doing anything extremely wrong. For some reason, Arch won't boot after I have the system setup in virtualbox, and I'm trying to narrow down the issue.
Thanks.
Last edited by Quill (2012-09-01 04:16:22)

Trilby wrote:
It says to do that if you have any additional partitions. You do not.
Sda3 should not be mounted as home, it should be your root partition right? You should have already done
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
You should not remount sda3 as something else (in fact I suspect it should give an error).
That partition scheme does not have a separate home parition.
Cool, thanks for the info. Yeah, sda3 is set as my root partition. It's solved.

Intepreting the beginners guide on UEFI

hi..
perhaps someone could clarify for me the meaning on the following text on the beginners guide.
under Gumminboot instructions it states:
You will need to manually create a configuration file to add an entry for Arch Linux to the gummiboot manager. Create /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and add the following contents, replacing /dev/sdaX with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2:
followed by the command line:
# nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
followed by the text:
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/sdaX rw
Am I meant to write the above four lines into the menu/screen that opens?
I suspect there may have been an earlier instances where the same 'instruction' was given but as it's not implicit .. it wasn't done.
similarly I get the following error message on attempting to install gummiboot
File System /boot is not a fat EFI system Partition (ESP) file system.
Now I have windows 8 and lubuntu currently installed and they were loading prior to start of this Arch install from a Fat 32 drive labelled /boot/efi.
I wasn't however sure (as the instruction wasn't clear in the installation guide) but was I meant to format a new efi boot or just mount the existing..
I mounted the existing as I was assuming that the ESP is basically a list of boot loaders and I didn't want to lose the win8 just yet.
anymore useful suggestions?
regards
malcolm
I further suspect that this install isn't going too well....
regards

with respect any installation I do is only as good as the tutorial I am using. I have in the past installed moderately complex set ups only 6-12 months later unable to repeat the exercise because the same tutorial is not available. and therein lies the problem.. I like many perform installations at this depth too infrequently to retain the method and thus rely entirely on tutorials.
However the real problem is the 'black box' the bios has become as a consequence of UEFI.. and that's down to a complete lack of documentation (not a linux issue but a PC manufacturers or a failure of to provide documentation) ... one is extremely cautious to do anything that might corrupt the UEFI and require a back to base exercise for the electric brick that might result.
With that in mind I rebooted the PC and whilst no Arch both the win8 and lubuntu partitions and bootloaders were unaffected.. so at least I can repeat my errors to date without destroying my machine (assuming that's possible)...
we will get there in the end and whilst it may not be the walk in the park I'd like it to be .. I will hopefully get a linux OS running that uses all the hardware available and has just the nec configuration to run the programs and local server set up I want...
back to square one in the morning...

[SOLVED]Arch Linux, and Windows 8.1 Dual Boot issue

Hi guys. I recently bought a new laptop, and decided to run Arch Linux and Windows 8.1. I installed Windows 8.1 first as recommended by the beginners guide, and then installed Arch Linux. I made sure UEFI was enabled in my BIOS, and made sure everything was on a GPT partition. The install itself went fine. My laptop loads grub, and Arch Linux shows up and boots, but there is no option to boot into Windows 8.1. The only way I can boot into Windows 8.1 is by accessing my motherboard, and choosing to launch the windows boot manager instead of the grub launcher. How can I get Windows 8.1 to show up in grub? Thanks in advance guys.
Last edited by Painguy (2014-08-20 20:19:37)

Painguy wrote:
-----------Edit------------------
Yeah just ran this after installing os prober
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
and it works now. Sorry for the crazy posts guys. Thanks for the suggestions and help.
Yeah I'm sure I'm doing something wrong lol. I did not install OS-Prober. I think that's where the issue is. I'm missing the menu entry in grub.cfg right? Do I just run os prober or do I have to manually edit grub.cfg.
If that's not the case then here is what I did up until now. What I did was start with a blank SSD drive. I used cgdisk to make the disk use a GPT partitioning scheme. I installed windows 8.1 and checked in windows to make sure it boots into UEFI-GPT mode and it does. I then installed arch linux using the beginners guide. I made sure to use cgdisk to create any extra partitions, and installed GRUB to the efi partition that windows had created ( I did not format this partition ). I then finished the installation and rebooted, and Grub only shows arch linux. I don't think I'm dealing with anything MBR related. I made sure I used the GPT partitioning scheme....i think lol.
All you need to do is run os-prober then run grub-mkconfig. It should pick up Windows at that point.

Dual booting Windows 8 and Arch Linux with UEFI

Hi all!
I'm trying to install Arch Linux on my computer where I already have Windows 8, and I'm getting a little stuck when it comes to the partitioning.
Following the beginner's guide and the method here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … n_in_Linux for setting up the partitions properly, regarding UEFI. My problem is that when using cgdisk to set up a new EFI system partition (ef00), I get an error message when trying to write the partition table (just saying that something went wrong). I figure the problem is that I already have a partition like this (correct me if I'm wrong), but it really looks like it succeded (see info below). So my question is: How do I preceed to keep my Windows 8 installation happy, but installing Arch? Do I remove the old EFI system partition and create a new one, or is there some method that allows me to edit the already existing one, to allow me to dual boot Windows 8 and Arch?
My partition table now looks like this:
Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name
1007KB free space
1 500MB Windows RE Basic data partition
2 300MB EFI System EFI system partition (this one was already present on my system)
3 128MB Microsoft reserved Microsoft reserved partition
4 63.5GB Microsoft basic data Basic data partition
8 512MB EFI System EFI System partition (this is the one I tried to create when I got the error message)
5 29.5GB Linux filesystem Arch (this is where I was going to put my Arch installation)
6 22GB Windows RE Basic data partition
7 1024MB Windows RE Basic data partition
615KB free space
Just for the record; I only created partition #8 and #5.
Any help is appreciated! And sorry for beeing a total noob, but I really suck at this.

sudo make sandwich wrote:If it is possible to share ESP between OSes, how do I do this (would it be sufficent to follow this section: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide#For_UEFI_motherboards)?
There's really very little to do to share an ESP between OSes. Most OS installers will auto-detect the ESP and use it. Problem solved. For Arch it may be a bit more effort just because Arch uses a more hands-on installation process, but I've only done a couple of Arch installations, and the last one was several months ago, so I don't recall the details clearly enough to comment.
And how big will the partition need to be? The beginner's guide says 512MB or higher.
I don't know what was in the mind of the author, but my guess is that's because that's roughly the cutoff point where mkdosfs starts creating FAT32 by default rather than FAT16. The ESP is officially supposed to be FAT32, not FAT16, although FAT16 usually works OK. It's also possible to create FAT32 on smaller partitions by using an explicit option to mkdosfs ("-F 32").
The optimal size of the ESP depends on the files stored on it. If you don't store your Linux kernels, something as small as 100MiB is usually adequate; but a few Linux kernels and their initrd files can consume twice that amount. My own recommendation is for the ESP to be 200-500MiB.
The only error message I got from cgdisk is "Problem saving data! Your partition table may be damaged!", however booting Windows again works fine. Parted did not complain about antything.
Use the "verify" function in cgdisk. That will reveal any problems with the data structures. If a verify turns up OK, then that means that cgdisk ran into some sort of disk problem. Running gdisk rather than cgdisk and using the gdisk "w" option (without making any changes) may produce a more helpful error message.

Is Arch Linux right for me?

Arch seems like a pretty awesome distro, and I think I would like it a lot. But is it right for me?
I was first introduced to Linux and Unix-based systems last summer when I took a course at my local community college. Since then, I have installed Ubuntu on my HP laptop. In the past months, I have learned and taught myself a lot about the way linux works: downloading and installing software, Unix command line prompt, etc.
Ubuntu is a fantastic distro for linux beginners, but I feel like I'm ready to take the next step and I'm always itching to see a little more of what goes on behind the scenes. I read a guide on Arch over at LifeHacker and skimmed the "Getting Started" guide on Arch Wiki and I generally understood everything that was going on; nothing seemed way over my head. So I think I could handle Arch. What do you guys think?
If you think I should take Arch for a spin, is it practical to install it as my main OS on my main machine? Should I dual-boot it next to Ubuntu or similar? I am planning on building a PC this summer and am currently debating over which OS to use; Arch is a main candidate. My main uses for this computer will be surfing the net, listening to music (integration with my iPod would be great), a little video editing, some casual gaming, and general programming/tinkering with my computer.
I know y'all probably get a lot of these but I appreciate your feedback.

Check out the Beginner's Guide and The Arch Way in the wiki. It's important to note that what really distinguishes Arch from most other distros is that it isn't a distro in the most common sense of the term. Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE, Sabayon, Mandriva, PCLOS, etc. have graphical installers that pre-configure everything for you; the choices are made for you, and you'll have to work around anything you don't find to your liking. You can easily add and remove programs, but always limited by what they've provided: packages that are patched in order to work in the way they've deemed appropriate, and an init system that's opaque to users (remember the fuss over certain graphics drivers not rendering Plymouth splashes correctly? I've never had that issue in Arch). Arch, on the other hand, is essentially a set of tools--the Arch Installation Framework, a couple init scripts, about six config files (give or take), repos, the ABS tree, the kernel and a package manager--that allow a user to craft their own operating system to their liking. A couple of the things I just mentioned are even optional as it is; at least three of those config files have never been touched by me, as I don't need them. Combine this sense of freedom and control with the DIY philosophy (which I find empowering as well, but hell--I enjoy research, learning and problem solving) and the close-knit community, and you've got my favorite distro. Ultimately, it's the choices of the developers that make a distro what it is; the software--at least in principle--rarely changes. In the case of Arch, most everything comes straight from upstream, goes in the testing repo briefly, then ends up in the standard repo, only altered if deemed necessary for security or basic functionality.
I left Ubuntu after switching to KDE and finding Kubuntu not to my liking; I also found that many of the "conveniences" of Ubuntu (and the 9-12 other distros I tried afterward) just got in the way. For example, why use the Ubuntu USB Startup Disk Creator or Unetbootin when "dd" is faster and easier? How much frustration could I have avoided installing the Catalyst driver in Ubuntu or SuSE if I'd done so manually (with a number of console commands I can count on one hand) rather than mess around with a GUI, thus knowing exactly what I did wrong? To me, it just seems better to start with what I absolutely need and build up piecemeal, rather than add a bunch of crap I don't need/want/even know is there in the first place and hide it all behind extra GUI's, then try and pick it apart. Ultimately, you make Arch what you want it to be. No one can tell you if it's right for you, or if you should install it (there are rare cases where folks here would flat-out say "No," but yours doesn't seem to be one of 'em ). Check out those wiki articles I mentioned; if it seems like something that interests you, give it a whirl!

Arch Linux Handbook 2.0

Hey all,
I'd like to announce the freshly minted Arch Linux Handbook 2.0, available from the estore here:
https://www.createspace.com/3482247
It should be showing up in Amazon stores within a few weeks, and you'll be able to order it from your favourite brick and mortar store after a month or two.
Nearly 400 copies of the first handbook were sold. This one is more up to date with a fancy cover, more pages, and prettier interior. The Arch Linux Handbook is simply a print edition of the Beginners' Guide, which has seen a few hundred revisions since the first edition went to print. So it was time for an update, and here it is!
I would like to extend a huge thank you to both Jules Pitsker (Misfit) and Branko Vukelic (foxbunny). Jules is the motivating force and primary maintainer behind the online Beginners' Guide. His tireless and thankless contributions have turned it into the exceptionally well-written and comprehensive document that it is. Branko is the best designer I know, both for print and web based materials. He did a terrific job on this handbook cover.

Thank you Dusty. I appreciate your handbook, it played a role in converting me to ArchLinux.
It was important to me to see that there is printed documentation for any linux distro I use.
ArchLinux passed the test because of you.
I bought a copy of your first edition and reviewed it on Amazon. As soon as the second edition
shows up on Amazon I'll buy a copy and give it another review. I'm sure that I'll be able to say
that it is greatly enhanced and everyone should certainly own a copy.
Every Archer **should** own a copy
In fact I have my copy [rummages through closet] right HERE and I did get it out recently when I
repartitioned my SSD and did a re-install with Arch-only. It's __handy__

Arch Linux first impressions

Hello all,
I have just recently decided to try arch linux. For a long while I have been running my own LinuxFromScratch system, but I have been looking for a little while for a nice KDE based system *with package management*.
So here I am now with an Arch KDE 3.5.6 system - what do I think?
1. KDE looks real nice! Fonts look very good.
2. nvidia drivers were simple to install and work as advertised, same ~6000fps under glxgears as under LFS
3. rc.conf, MODULES, DAEMONS, nice and simple!
4. pacman -S? Very nice. I got caught as a newbie when I didn't do a pacman -Sy before an update, and tried to pull down out-of-date files. Perhaps pacman -S could note that my synch was n weeks ago and warn?
5. Beginners Guide on the wiki. Very useful step by step to a KDE desktop.
6. All apps installed and work well, k3b, wesnoth, flashplugin, kmail, konq browsing, qemu + kqemu etc
The not so good
1. Twice now I have had a udev error on first boot into arch. Second boot it goes away. I put it down to my windows dual boot leaving some hardware in a dubious state. If I see it again I'll note the exact error message.
2. For some reason KDE 3.5.6 is not quite so snappy as on LFS. I can watch it paint as windows come up for the first time. Nothing major though.
3. modules & groups. It really sucks to get tripped up on missing modules (floppy) and groups (storage). Its my hardware let me use it by default I say!
4. ping myhostname returns unknown host. A little strange I think.
5. media mounting (usb key, floppy, cdrom) as my user seems a little flakey. Permissions problems preventing "safe removal" of the usb key etc.
TODO:
1. OpenOffice (although this seems to be 2.04 via pacman, perhaps I'll wait for 2.1 to arrive)
2. More learning about Arch....
A nice system thus far, this Arch Linux...
Dale

dale77 wrote:
codemac wrote:for #4 under the not so good, did you edit your /etc/hosts to reflect your host name?
Yes, that is what I did to fix it. I guess I would have expected the arch install to handle that detail.
Dale
It's a feature, not a bug. As a general rule you cannot count on the Arch installer to do any extra configuration tasks. It offers you the chance to edit the hosts file during setup.

Arch Linux Beginners Guide

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