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 I got caught as a newbie when I didn't do a pacman -Sy before an update, and tried to pull down out-of-date files.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.

Similar Messages

Dual-booting with Windows 8, Arch Linux first?

I initially had Windows 7, then Arch. Now, I have a key for Windows 8. I can just upgrade the previous Windows 7 partition, but I only allocated 37 GB originally, so I want to expand it - I would therefore need to delete the partition and make a new one. However, dual-booting guides say that Windows should be first. What is the best way to go about this?

srs5694 wrote:
x33a wrote:Thanks, that's interesting. I always thought that it didn't run without secure boot.
Note that Secure Boot is NOT synonymous with EFI. Secure Boot is one optional feature of EFI. In fact, of five computers I've got that use EFI, only one supports Secure Boot.
I did know that
Microsoft requires manufacturers to ship their computers with Secure Boot enabled in order to get a Windows 8-compatible sticker. Because most manufacturers consider the lack of such a sticker to be the kiss of death for their products, this means that nearly all computers that ship with Windows 8 ship with Secure Boot enabled. Because Secure Boot is an EFI feature, this means that these computers also use EFI.
This does not mean that Windows 8 itself requires either EFI or Secure Boot; the requirement is a marketing requirement for new computers. If you buy a Windows 8 package at the store, it will install on an older BIOS-only computer (assuming it's not too old), on an EFI computer that lacks Secure Boot support, on an EFI computer with Secure Boot support but with that feature disabled, or on an EFI computer with Secure Boot and Microsoft's keys enabled. (It is possible to replace your firmware's Secure Boot keys, which would prevent the installation of Windows unless you re-signed the Windows boot loader yourself.)
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Thanks, that's very informative.

Install Windows 7 after Arch Linux?

Hi guys.
My fingers urge to play some Windows games, so I thought I might as well give dualbooting a shot.
I know it's usually easiest to install Linux after Windows, but I don't feel like reformatting my current setup.
This is how my current partitioning works:
***@archlinux ~]$ fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x42414240
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 208844 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 208845 738989 265072+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 738990 32483429 15872220 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 32483430 976768064 472142317+ 83 Linux
I've never quite understood the whole partion-part-stuff, so that is why I'm posting this in the newbie corner.
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you dont need that stupid 100 mb partition for windows. The way i did it was /boot as my first partition just because i wanted a boot partition.
My second partition was my ntfs/windows then i had
swap then
/root then
/home
Install arch linux first, then go back and boot to the dvd install windows on that ntfs partition. It will make a master boot record and overwrite your grub stuff. Stupid windows. You can then boot back into the arch linux cd and there is a command to fix the grub. This might do the trick, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub or http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=24113 or you can reinstall the arch linux to fix the grub stuff and add windows in the menu.lst. The place holder is already there just un comment it and i think you leave out makeactive. At least mine has that commented out so its not using it.
I guess whats important here is that you diaper in your ntfs windows partition. Then windows cant make that 100mb sys partition. My windows works just fine...I think its used for saving system restore points.....not sure.
good luck.

I'm impressed (Arch Linux vs. CentOS 5)

My webserver used to run Centos, but now runs Arch linux. (32bit)
pretty basic nothing special machine: pentium 4, 2ghz, 1gb ram
I ran this script which grabs info from a pdf and converts it into mysql.
the document is pretty large (msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf), and changes regularly and I like to have a copy of it.
on centos: 58 secs
on Arch : 5-10 secs .. I cant give an exact number because I was testing the server under load and other parameters - there was a peak for a couple of seconds then it finished..
I'm very impressed!
edit: typo
Last edited by scarletxfi (2010-07-22 00:22:27)

fukawi2 wrote:
scarletxfi wrote:the document is pretty large (msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf), and changes regularly and I like to have a copy of it.
I'd be interested in that script if you don't mind sharing... I'm often looking thru that price list
Me too please

First alternative skin for the Neuf Box 4 : Arch Linux skin !

Since the last firmware version of the Neuf Box 4, it is now possible to customize its web interface with skins.
As I've not seen any skin yet, I decided to make my own, base on the design of archlinux.org.
The result is here : Arch Linux skin for the NB4
with details on how to use it.
Tell me what you think

Would you be willing to post a larger image? That one is so tiny that it is hard to see. It seems like a great project, and from what I can see, it looks good.
When I first read the description, "integrated access device" sounded like some corporate/marketing drivel. But, it seems like a great device: "DSL modem that supports ADSL, ADSL2+, and fiber connections. It also integrates a a WiFi access point and three-port Ethernet switch, an RJ-11 phone jack with analog-to-IP phone network adapter, a print server for USB printers (two host ports are provided), a USB device port for USB networking with a PC, and a special Ethernet port for connection to an available TV decoder box."
Wow.

Arch Linux Rocks! A Follow Up

A week and a half ago, I took the plunge and installed Arch 0.7.1 (Noodle). I posted a thread here on that day called "And the Odyssey Begins - First Impressions of Arch Linux".
It is a week and a half later, and I am a confirmed believer. I have retired my previous distro (SuSE 9.3) and use Arch exclusively. Noodle is amazing. It is the FASTEST linux distribution I have ever used: fast in terms of boot time from grub prompt to full desktop and fast in terms of the speed with which applications launch and run. Everything is significantly, noticably faster than it was under SuSE on the same hardware. Truly amazing.
But that is not all. By and large, everything I have tried on Noodle JUST WORKS! All my physical devices JUST WORK, including the usually troublesome ones like my webcam. I have had almost no issues getting everything up and running. I had a brief issue with sound (my fault - didn't add my non root user to group "audio"), but that was it.
...and multimedia - it all JUST WORKS. I can't tell you how much trouble I had to go to in order to get other distros to do basic stuff like play MP3s or MPGs. In Noodle, I installed XMMS, MPlayer and gxine, and all my media JUST WORKS. Again, amazing.
...and then there is package management. Why can't everyone have a package manager that is as simple, fast and effective as pacman? pacman is a real winner! ...not to mention the impressive selection of packages that are available. I have been able to find almost everything I normally use in the repository. The few I haven't been able to find I have been able to build from source easily, without all the usual fussing about.
Arch is the linux I have been looking for. It is fast, stable, capable and supported by a great bunch of folks here in the forums. My hat is off to those who created and maintain this great distro, and to everyone here in the forums. I have found a new home.

Can you expand on that? What does qpkg do?
I had one bad experience with AUR and haven't gotten back to it yet. I followed the instructions I found somewhere (Wiki, forum, somewhere - don't remember any more), dowloaded the package, and attempted to build. My screen flooded with compile errors and I just gave up - I figured that if I had to fight with compile errors, I might as well do it with the good 'ol
./configure, make, make install
route, rather than adding the complexity of a (to me) unknown build system on top of it. So far, I haven't needed to go back. Arch is *so* good (i.e. follows normal standards, everything is where it should be) that pretty much everything I have tried to build from source the usual way has worked like a champ.
I think it was qamix that I was trying to build this way, by the way. Eventually I built it myself from source via the ./configure, make, make install route. There were *lots* of compile errors this way too, but I fixed them all and got it to build. Perhaps the version in AUR was suffering from the same problems.
If qpkg is in AUR, and it sounds interesting, perhaps I will give this a whirl again.
Meantime, to get back on topic for a moment, it is a few weeks later now since my Arch install, and I remain incredibly impressed with it. The best part is the speed. I feel like I've gotten a new CPU that is twice as fast. Arch not only ROCKS, it RACES!

[SOLVED] Arch Linux is zombie infested !!!

Sigh !
I don't know what happened but a few minute before when I rebooted my Arch Linux desktop, it started acting weird.
First thing I do is to start my torrent client Deluge, look there was no icon in the tray for it but it was shown in System-monitor.
Then I started Firefox, a few minute later the whole thing logged off. I renter my password and then again it logged of within one minute.
So I rebooted to see if that changes this time, but this time I could see was that firefox was shown as ZOMBIE process and then when I tried to take the screenshot the system hanged
Some thing I did today was
Installed Yaourt
Then installed nautilus-dropbox plugin
Dropboxd service runs in background, so is there something fishy about the dropbox service. I tried to kill it but it again restarts.
Please help me from zombie infestation, I am writing this from Ubuntu
Last edited by visio159 (2008-09-14 08:41:47)

No one replied !!! huh
Well good news is that my RAM module needed a dust cleanup. Probably due to corrupt memory it was behaving bad.
I am impressed that it (linux) logged me off when it detected that there were memory violation and corruptions to prevent any data damage ! Now can anyone explain this to me ? Is it really a feature or was just random occurring ?
Case solved, learned a lesson too.
Last edited by visio159 (2008-09-13 05:44:10)

My Arch Linux review

Hi,
If someone is interested in reading a review of Arch Linux, you can find one written by me here: http://nirski.pl/2010/02/arch-linux-keeps-it-simple/ . Please feel free to comment, criticism is welcome as it is my first review of an operating system. I am currently testing a free hosting so tell me if it works for you.
tarantoga

It's a nice article, but I want to comment on one quote you made, so there is no discouragement among new users.
tarantoga wrote:A small flaw – the repositories could be richer, package quantity is not as impressive as (for example) in Debian.
This is not a flaw. It's actually an advantage to the way Arch works. Probably 1/3 or more of packages you see in Debian are split packages such as the "*-devel" packages, which can be among the same variety of packages you would already have installed without them. In Arch, everything comes inside the package to simplify the installation/removal of packages with a more clear overhead on what's in the system. Rarely there is a need to split any, but they would all come as a dependency if needed. Every package you would ever want is in the repositories. If there is a package you cannot find, you are not limited as you already know. 99.8% of the time, they can be found in the AUR already setup with pre-made pkgbuilds and install scripts maintained by users, that can be downloaded and installed with an AUR helper (such as yaourt, packer, bauerbill, slurpy, etc.) or done manually with makepkg. If an upsupported package gains enough popular votes, it can move to the community repo maitained by a TU to make sure you get update the latest package updates possible without having to intervene with the AUR or the pkgbuilds. At the same time this would allow the Arch developers to focus more on the main repos, making sure you get the bleeding edge. When it comes to Arch, quality is always better than quantity.
Last edited by Acecero (2010-02-10 05:55:35)

[SOLVED] (U)EFI dualboot Win7 Arch Linux - partitions gone - recovery?

Hi everybody,
I have a slight problem with my (U)EFI dualboot system (Windows 7 and Arch Linux) which used to be configured using rEFInd like it is described in my previous post:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p1300356
<EFI PARTITION> is /dev/sda1 and I used to boot via <EFI PARTITION>\EFI\Boot\Bootx64.efi which then successfully either loaded Windows or Linux kernel.
Thanks to my own stupidity and a recent update of refind I decided to copy the new driver, font and icon folders to the <EFI PARTITION> in order to be up-to-date.
After doing so, the rEFInd boot menu had a third icon which said "Boot via \EFI\Boot\Bootx64.efi" and if I clicked on it a second rEFInd boot menu appeared with only the two icons for Windows 7 and Arch.
So I figured I could delete Bootx64.efi and ultimately did so, unfortunately. Afterwards I couldn't boot neither Windows nor Linux anymore.
Following this I went through my noumerous USB boot sticks in order to be able to recover the Bootx64.efi. Unfortunately the first USB stick was a Windows XP one which has the plop bootloader alongside:
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/thebootmanager.html
Out of couriousity I entered this bootloader and found HDA and HDB (I assume resembling my SSD and my USB stick).
To my knowledge I didn't change anything but after entering the bootloader again I just found HDA left, HDB seemed to be gone. But I didn't think of anything bad happening yet.
Then I found a working Archiso which I booted and using blkid I couldn't find the partitions of my earlier system anymore, only its device and the USB stick:
/dev/sda: PTUUID="..." PTTYPE="gpt"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="..." LABEL="ARCH_201312" TYPE="..." and so on
/dev/sdb2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" and so on
Even within the EFI shell I could not detect any internal drive anymore (only fs0: which is the USB stick)
Using Archiso onboard tool testdisk I could find the old partitions. The correct result of the GPT from testdisk is:
Fri Jul 4 08:45:25 2014
Command line: TestDisk
TestDisk 6.14, Data Recovery Utility, July 2013
Christophe GRENIER <[email protected]>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Linux, kernel 3.12.1-3-ARCH (#1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Nov 26 11:17:02 CET 2013) x86_64
Compiler: GCC 4.8
Compilation date: 2013-08-06T08:42:31
ext2fs lib: 1.42.8, ntfs lib: libntfs-3g, reiserfs lib: 0.3.0.5, ewf lib: none
/dev/sda: LBA, HPA, LBA48, DCO support
/dev/sda: size 500118192 sectors
/dev/sda: user_max 500118192 sectors
/dev/sda: native_max 500118192 sectors
/dev/sda: dco 500118192 sectors
Warning: can't get size for Disk /dev/mapper/control - 0 B - 1 sectors, sector size=512
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 256 GB / 238 GiB - CHS 31130 255 63, sector size=512 - Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series, S/N:S12RNEAD322171L, FW:DXM04B0Q
Disk /dev/sdb - 2013 MB / 1920 MiB - CHS 1022 62 62, sector size=512 - SMI USB DISK, FW:1100
Disk /dev/sdc - 4210 MB / 4015 MiB - CHS 1020 130 62, sector size=512 - Generic Flash Disk, FW:8.07
Disk /dev/mapper/arch_root-image - 1478 MB / 1410 MiB - 2887680 sectors, sector size=512
Disk /dev/dm-0 - 1478 MB / 1410 MiB - 2887680 sectors, sector size=512
Partition table type (auto): Intel
Disk /dev/sda - 256 GB / 238 GiB - Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series
Partition table type: EFI GPT
New options :
Dump : No
Align partition: Yes
Expert mode : Yes
Analyse Disk /dev/sda - 256 GB / 238 GiB - CHS 31130 255 63
hdr_size=92
hdr_lba_self=1
hdr_lba_alt=500118191 (expected 500118191)
hdr_lba_start=34
hdr_lba_end=500118158
hdr_lba_table=2
hdr_entries=128
hdr_entsz=128
hdr_size=92
hdr_lba_self=500118191
hdr_lba_alt=1 (expected 1)
hdr_lba_start=34
hdr_lba_end=500118158
hdr_lba_table=500118159
hdr_entries=128
hdr_entsz=128
Trying alternate GPT
Current partition structure:
Trying alternate GPT
search_part()
Disk /dev/sda - 256 GB / 238 GiB - CHS 31130 255 63
FAT32 at 0/32/33
FAT1 : 4110-6150
FAT2 : 6151-8191
start_rootdir : 8192 root cluster : 2
Data : 8192-2097151
sectors : 2097152
cluster_size : 8
no_of_cluster : 261120 (2 - 261121)
fat_length 2041 calculated 2041
set_FAT_info: name from BS used
FAT32 at 0/32/33
MS Data 2048 2099199 2097152 [NO NAME]
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 1073 MB / 1024 MiB
NTFS at 146/251/42
filesystem size 249593856
sectors_per_cluster 8
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 2
clusters_per_mft_record -10
clusters_per_index_record 1
NTFS part_offset=1209008128, part_size=127792054272, sector_size=512
NTFS partition cannot be added (part_offset<part_size).
NTFS at 146/251/42
filesystem size 249593856
sectors_per_cluster 8
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 2
clusters_per_mft_record -10
clusters_per_index_record 1
MS Data 2361344 251955199 249593856
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 127 GB / 119 GiB
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=0/160, s_mnt_count=1318/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 5242880
recover_EXT2: part_size 41943040
MS Data 251955200 293898239 41943040
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 21 GB / 20 GiB
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=0/80, s_mnt_count=1317/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 2621440
recover_EXT2: part_size 20971520
MS Data 293898240 314869759 20971520
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 10 GB / 10 GiB
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=0/706, s_mnt_count=1317/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 23156049
recover_EXT2: part_size 185248392
MS Data 314869760 500118151 185248392
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 94 GB / 88 GiB
Results
P MS Data 2048 2099199 2097152 [NO NAME]
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 1073 MB / 1024 MiB
P MS Data 2361344 251955199 249593856
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 127 GB / 119 GiB
P MS Data 251955200 293898239 41943040
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 21 GB / 20 GiB
P MS Data 293898240 314869759 20971520
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 10 GB / 10 GiB
P MS Data 314869760 500118151 185248392
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 94 GB / 88 GiB
interface_write()
1 P MS Data 2048 2099199 2097152 [NO NAME]
2 P MS Data 2361344 251955199 249593856
3 P MS Data 251955200 293898239 41943040
4 P MS Data 293898240 314869759 20971520
5 P MS Data 314869760 500118151 185248392
simulate write!
TestDisk exited normally.
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large file Sparse superblock, 94 GB / 88 GiB
Now the question is: Can I - using testdisk or any other tool - recover those partitions successfully so I will be able to boot again afterwards? I tested and I could mark them as:
P Primary
Any help will be greately appreciated.
Best regards
Last edited by blablubb1234 (2014-07-08 09:20:08)

Issue resolved If you care to know how, read on:
Looking at the disk using gdisk was doing no good. Neither of the recovery options in gdisk did the trick.
I then returned to testdisk and restored the partitions (successfully). However, afterwards I was greeted by shell telling me the root device was not found (seems like UUIDs get changed when one restores them using testdisk). Adjusting the PARTUUID for root in <EFI SYSTEM PARTIITION>/boot/refind_linux.conf did the trick and I could boot up Archlinux again.
Windows 7 still didn't boot telling me the required device was inaccessible (probably wrong UUID, too). I could however not restore/edit Windows' BCD using bcdedit, see my post Status: 0xc0000225 boot selection failed; required device inaccessible:
To make a long story short: Removing bcd and running autorecovery from withing Windows RE successfully created a new bcd. Unfortunately, Windows writes its backup bootloader at <EFI SYSTEM PARTITION>/boot/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi. This file originally was a copy of refind_x64.efi which I need to put at that location to be able to dualboot. After chrooting to my Arch system I could restore bootx64.efi, create a new fstab and everything is running fine now again.
Best regards and thanks for the help.

Installing Multiple Operating Systems with grub and Arch Linux

NOTE: Please keep in mind that there are many different ways to achieve this same result using various loop and ramdisk methods, read this with a separate window to jot down your comments and suggestions... this is ongoing for me so any help would be appreciated!
Read the full article at Install Multiple Os without cds
This is my first post and I plan on making this topic an official HOWTO with www.tldp.org.
I have been into the computer security scene since 1990, but I realized that I had very little experience with the various LInux, Unix, and alternative Operating systems out there.
I have a CD-RW drive but being a struggling computer security researcher I had no money for blank cd-recordables. What follows is how I managed to install various operating systems on my computer (1 hard drive) without having to burn to a CD the ISO and then boot from that.
I first partitioned my 120GB harddrive into 10 partitions, the 2nd partition is a small swap and the last partition is extra large because it holds all the ISO images..
I then wrote a small shell script to automatically download (I love wget!) the following.
OpenBSD
IpCOP
Libranet
Arch-Linux
Fire
Local Area Security
Packet Master
Devil-Linux
FreeBSD
Knoppix
Helix
Gentoo
Yoper-Linux
NetBSD
RedHat
Slackware
The script also downloaded Installation manuals and md5 checksums.. (let me know if I should post... its pretty unsophisticated
I installed Slackware (personal favorite) on hda1 using my last blank CD-R, note that I do not have a separate boot partitino. (Should I?). I also installed grub on the MBR. I love grub, if you read through the man pages and all info you can find about grub, you can learn a whole lot. Grub has much more features and capability than lilo, even though lilo comes installed by default with slack.
I organize my kernel situation as follows... In my /boot directory, I mkdir KERNEL, CONFIG, MAP, INITRD and that is a good way for me to keep my kernels and everything organized.. Another good way is a separate dir for each new kernel.
Since Arch-Linux is a solid distro, I'll use that as a first example.
Here is the Arch-Linux section of my shell script
goge Arch-Linux
$w http://puzzle.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/archlinux/arch-0.6.iso
$w http://unc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/archlinux/arch-0.6.md5sum
$w http://www.archlinux.org/docs/en/guide/install/arch-install-guide.html
md55
cat arch-0.6.md5sum
md5sum arch-0.6.iso
md55
The first thing to do is to mount the downloaded ISO image so we can use it as if it were an actual CD.
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0 cdimage /mnt/cdrom
Where cdimage= the ISO image. EX. /usr/local/src/ISO/Linux/Arch-Linux/arch-0.6.iso
This mounts the iso as /mnt/cdrom.
Next you need to copy /mnt/cdrom to a separate partition for the booting process. So mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda9. ( I prefer reiserfs or even XFS to ext but if you use something other than ext2 you could run into some problems because some of the installation kernels and initrds don't include support for reiserfs and so can't recognize the files. Although you could use mkinitrd to create a new initrd with reiserfs support, that might be pushin it IMO... I use the 9th partition consistently for this. I know there is a "right" way to copy the /mnt/cdrom files so everything stays the way it is supposed too, using tar or cpio, but I'm lazy so I just do cp -rp.
(What is the tar or cpio commands to copy with correct permissions etc??)
So you mount the 9th partition as whatever, say /mnt/hd and then copy the files. Now what?
Now edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file to include the specific options to boot arch-linux installation.
A good idea is to find the isolinux.cfg file somewhere on the distro cd, this will tell you what to include in the menu.lst.
Here is the section in my menu.lst
title Arch Install
root (hd0,8)
kernel /isolinux/vmlinuz load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 root=/dev/rd/0
initrd=/isolinux/initrd.img
This should be self-explanatory. The root (hd0,8) is pointing to partition 9. So the rest of the commands start from partition 9.
When you experience problems, remember you can always edit the grub boot options by typing 'e' and then edit the section. Also, a good idea is to include several variations in your menu.lst so you can easily try other ways to boot efficiently. And, remember to read up on all the installation guides that come with your distro, specifically, hard-disk installs.
There are special cases, Gentoo, has a semi-new compressed filesystem called squashfs. BTW, this is AWESOME, so check it out. It has to be compiled into the kernel, so some work is in order, but use this recompile to optimize your kernel. You can get the squashfs patch for almost any kernel. I use the latest stable 2.6 kernel. Squashfs is incredible and although I don't think you need it to install from ISO, you do need it to expand the livecd.squashfs filesystem that comes with the cd.
Heres a sample Gentoo section from my menu.lst
title Gentoo Install
root (hd0,8)
kernel /isolinux/gentoo root=/dev/ram0
initrd=/isolinux/gentoo.igz init=/linuxrc acpi=off looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs cdroot vga=791 splash=silent
A nother' tip is the shell that is provided if you experience problems, typically busybox or ash. The key tools to get you going from here is mount and chroot. Sometimes you will need to manually create a simulated file system and then chroot into it. For instance, you might have to create boot, etc, bin, directories on the target partition.
I generally install each OS onto the next partition (careful of the logical partition) and add it to my menu.lst after install. A good idea is after installation, copy the kernel and initrd(if there is one) to the slackware(or whatever) boot partition on hda1. I copy kernels to /boot/KERNEL/ and initrd's to /boot/INITRD, then menu.lst is more organized...
You then need to add an updated section to your menu.lst (just comment out the install section for later)
Here is the finished arch-linux section from menu.lst
title Arch Linux 6
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 ro root=/dev/hdc3
This doesn't use my convenient boot/KERNEL/vmlinuz26 as you can tell by setting the root to partition 3.
***NOTE: Make a backup of MBR using dd and save to floppy, also backup the partition table to floppy, using cfdisk or parted. And boot disks (I use 1 with grub, and 1 with slack, and tomsbootdisk) will invariably come in handy. Tomsbootdisk is recommended, and make the grub boot disk when you install grub. install to floppy.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The final result after some fun experimenting, is when I boot, I have a cool grub boot screen come up with the option to boot into whatever OS I want, this is handy for multiple reasons. One good thing to do after this is to port scan and vuln scan each OS, after you update of course. Write this stuff down and you will know the weaknesses/strengths of the various OS's.
I can boot a custom Firewall, snort, or multiple honeypots using this procedure, as well as a graphical kde environment with a kernel optimized for graphics and my processor/architecture, or an environment devoted to forensics or even an environment suitable for programming.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P.S. Some of the cooler alternative operating systems are BeOS 5, EOS, ER_OS, V2_OS, and my personal favorite Menuet. Menuet is 100% assembly graphical operating system that fits on a floppy. Its f'in money!
This should be a good enough example to get you started, this kind of thing should be learned and not just copied... Knowing how to do this stuff could prove to be exceptionally useful...

Start by reading all the articles built-in on your Mac - Help > Mac Help, search "printer sharing."
http://desk.stinkpot.org:8080/tricks/index.php/2008/04/how-to-print-to-a-cups-se rver-from-mac-os-x/
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080324224027152&query=share%2Bpri nter
http://members.cox.net/18james/osxprintersharing.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-56940.html

[SOLVED]Arch Linux / UEFI / BTRFS using Grub2 & Windows 8 in a 2nd HDD

PROBLEM:
====================================================================================
Dear fellas
I just purchased an new HP TouchSmart 17.3" laptop that comes with Windows 8.1 pro (1 tb HDD + small SSD for cache only ) and still have space for one more HDD or SSD.
I Google a lot and read a lot but many questions emerged since seems that no one has the same scenario (maybe I pick the wrong choices) like me.
The problem is.. I didn't wish to re-install Windows 8.1 since it came with from factory.. so I purchased a 750 gb hdd and put it into the free slot to install Arch Linux in a different HDD.
As I am not familiar with UEFI what I did was to reorder the hdds. I just put the Windows HDD as second disk and the new disk (For Arch Linux) as primary and changed into Bios from UEFI to compatibility mode and installed Arch Linux into the primary one.
I reaaaally need help to add to grub the correct "path" to Windows 8.1 disk that came with UEFI..
Anyone could please help me?
Thanks in advance!
====================================================================================
SOLUTION:
A huge thanks to @TheSaint and other users for their help and assistance!
More sources:
http://www.kossboss.com/linux---arch-in … -grub-boot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=METZCp_JCec#t=146
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 1#p1390741
Step by Step Summary:
Use gdisk to create partitions on /dev/sda:
- 512MB - EF02 type partition (for EFI boot)
- 690GB - Linux partition for the BTRFS.
- Create an EF00 (ESP) with 512mb
- Create a Linux System partition with the rest of space
Make the FAT 32 system for EFI boot:
# mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
Make the BTRFS partition. If it complains about existing filesystems just add a "-f":
# mkfs.btrfs -L arch -f /dev/sda2
We will make out a root subvolume for sda1, this will be a folder called root located at the root of sda2. The way we will design this is that When the system boots we will not see /root, we will be inside root. Inside root you will have all of your etc,sys,proc,whatever folders etc.
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
# cd /mnt
# btrfs subvolume create /mnt/root
This should show you your root
# btrfs subvolume list -a /mnt
Something like this: ID 256 gen 5 top level 5 path root
# cd /
# umount /dev/sda2
Now we will mount sda2 root subvolume as /mnt and we will dump the arch system into there with pacman. We will also enable compress to utilize btrfs compress feature.
# mount -o defaults,compress=lzo,subvol=root /dev/sda2 /mnt
NOTE: the command "mount" will not show which subvolume is mounted, to see how subvolumes are mounted you need to look inside proc (cat /proc/self/mountinfo):
# cat /proc/self/mountinfo | egrep sda2
The line for the mount of sda2 looks like this:
43 21 0:34 /root /mnt rw,relatime shared:30 - btrfs /dev/sda2 rw,compress=zlib,ssd,space_cache
We can see that the subvolume /root is mounted to /mnt from the device /dev/sda3
Notice how with regular mount command its missing:
# mount | egrep sda2
/dev/sda3 on /mnt type btrfs (rw,relatime,compress=zlib,ssd,space_cache)
Pacman will dump stuff into a boot folder, so we better mount our sda1 EFI boot partition to it. Or else all of the boot stuff will go to sda3 instead of sda1:
# cd /
# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
Let us create the directory and mount the EFI partition
# cd /mnt
# mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
Let us generate the FSTAB:
# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Let us chroot into the arch installation:
# arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
Change password:
# passwd
Then pick the right one like this and associate it with a link to /etc/localtime
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime
Let us generate the initial RAM disk
# mkinitcpio -p linux
Let us setup the bootloader (GRUB)
# pacman -Syu grub efibootmgr
Let us generate the grub configuration
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Let us install grub into the HDD
# grub-install /dev/sda
# umount -R /mnt
# umount /mnt
# reboot
From this step you can go straight and forward with the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_guide
Last edited by erickwill (2014-11-21 20:41:06)

TheSaint wrote:As UEFI BIOS is a boot loader itself. You should make on each HDD an ESP.
When you want to start win8 you go to BIOS and chose its entry, so will do for Arch the same.
For this way I suggest you write to boot the kernel directly from the BIOS. It just take some reading on this topic
Other option you set on you second ESP the boot loader of your liking and it will try to find win8 partition.
Thanks for your reply.
For the second option, may I use the compatibility mode and install the booloader into the first partition along with Arch?
Or in case the first option is still the better option, could you pleaaaase give me some directions from the scratch? Do you have Google Hangout?
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by erickwill (2014-11-18 19:54:26)

[SOLVED] Arch Linux Duke (2007) Fails to Boot

Folks, I have a unique and challenging problem that has exhausted my Arch Linux skills, and so I am now turning to you.
I have a vintage Pentium Pro 200 system (that’s 200 MHz folks! – 200 MHz 686 architecture – the original 686!), two CPUs, running a dual boot between Windows NT 4.0 and Arch Linux Duke (2007). It has 512 MB of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive, partitioned up between Windows NT and Linux. I built this system new in 2007, hence the dated version of Arch. It has run like a charm all these years, granted not getting that much use. After about a year of no use at all, I fired the system up last week to help with a little research for a blog post I was writing on networking Windows NT 4.0 and Mac OS 8.6. Windows NT 4.0 fired right up with no issue, and after I was done testing what needed to be tested I tried to boot over to Arch.
After a year of disuse, Arch unexpectedly and stubbornly refused to boot. The boot process started up just fine, but towards the end, it declared that it could not mount the root file system on the root device and took a kernel panic and stopped. My Arch skills have gotten a bit rusty in the last few years, but I dusted them off and went to work. My guess was a file system or superblock error. Arch wouldn’t boot, but I dragged out my trusty RIPLinux 2.9 Rescue Live CD and fired it up. It came right up and ran, and I was able to mount the Arch partition and view all the files… everything seemed to be there; it just wouldn’t boot. Windows NT 4.0 AND RIPLinux both boot and run on the machine, so the hardware is fine as well.
A little information on the disk layout. Windows NT 4.0 is in the first partition on the hard drive. The extended partition has a second Windows NT 4.0 partition (sort of a /home partition for Windows NT 4.0), followed by the main Arch partition (the one I am trying to boot), followed by a swap partition and then the largest partition, which I use to share data between Arch and Windows NT 4.0 (I have loaded an ext2/3 driver into Windows NT 4.0 and it happily accesses the Linux partitions on the box).
RIPLinux’s e2fsck did find some issues with the Arch partition and I had it repair them all. I checked again afterwards that all the files were still there, and they were. With the partition now known to be clean, and the superblock repaired from one of the backups, all should have been well. However, Arch still wouldn’t (and still won’t) boot.
RIPLinux has a kind of a chain loader function, so I had it attempt to start up Arch for me. However, this was flummoxed by the fact that Arch addresses all my hard drive partitions as /dev/sdax and RIPLinux addresses them as /dev/hdax. Hence, without a common language, it was hard to get the one to start the other. Still, using this function, I have been able to get a crippled version of Arch running on the machine again. No modules had been loaded, and so it couldn’t do almost anything, but there it was (and is), Arch Linux Duke, at the CLI level. From there, I can see all the files, I can move freely in and out of my user account and the root account, but I can’t make the thing actually boot properly.
If you have read this far, you are a trooper. Summarizing what I know, the hardware is good, the file system is clean, the superblock is good, I can mount it cleanly from a live CD and I can chain load a crippled version of Arch. Here is the boot process blow-by-blow. When I try to do a normal boot, the Windows NT 4.0 loader passes control to the Lilo boot sector I have placed on hda1 (sda1 in Duke’s parlance). Lilo takes over, present a menu and when I select Duke, takes off. Arch Linux Duke starts to boot. It gets a good long way along, all the way along to:
:: Loading udev events [Pass]
:: Mount root Read-only
:: Checking file systems
This is where it stops.
The next thing I see is:
/dev/sda6
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else) then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
E2fsck –b 8193 <device>
I then get a sort of character based splash screen that says
**********FILE SYSTEM CHECK FAILED ****************************
* Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root file system
* is currently mounted read-only. To remount it read-write, type:
* mount –n –o remount,rw /. When you exit the maintenance
* shell, the system will reboot automatically
Give root password for maintenance
At this point, I give the root password and enter the maintenance shell as root. I typed in “mount” and the first entry I got back is
/dev/sda6 on / type ext3 (rw)
This is exactly the root partition that the start up complains about. It is clearly there. I can see it, I can walk around it… it is clearly there. Why won’t it boot? Despite the message, the superblock is fine – it passes every test e2fsck can throw at it.
At this point, I did a “e2fsck /dev/hda6 (which is how RIPLinux would have passed it into Arch” and it says it is “clean”. I suspect that the Superblock message is because Arch sees root as sda6, while RIP passed it in as hda6...
Deciding to see what Arch would be seeing as it tried to set things up in the boot sequence, I tried the following next:
# mknod “/dev/root2” b 3 6
(“3” because RIPLinux refers to my hard drive as IDE, while Arch refers to it by major number “8”, which is SCSI. By the way, it IS an IDE drive – not sure why Arch insists on using the sdx nomenclature instead of hdx)
Then I entered “mount /dev/root2 /mnt/hda6” and “ls /mnt/hda6”
All was well. I can make the node, I can mount it, and I can see the contents. All is clearly well, but something is clearly wrong enough that Arch can’t boot.
I am totally out of ideas. I have tried every trick I know and am out of tricks. I would welcome any insights as to what I could try to get this venerable Arch installation back on its legs.
By the way, the key section of the /etc/lilo.conf file (lest anyone want to know) is:
image = /boot/vmlinuz26
root = /dev/sda6
label = ArchLinux-Duke
initrd = /boot/kernel26.img
read-only
I am stumped. Thanks in advance for any and all pointers you may be able to offer.
Last edited by mac57 (2014-06-02 17:42:21)

Folks, thanks for all your helpful comments, and I wanted to report back to you that I finally overcame the issue, and ArchLinux-Duke (2007) is once again executing flawlessly on my old Pentium Pro 200 system. I won't bother reporting here all the blind allies I went down as I tried to figure out what was wrong, but in the end, literally moments before I was about to give up and overwrite my Arch installation with a new Linux variant (antiX seemed well suited for such old and low power hardware), my attention was drawn to a note I had made in my files back in 2007 about a problem with similar symptoms. In that case, I had just deleted ZenWalk Linux from the hard drive (both Arch and Zen had been on the drive), and merged several partitions to make use of the newly free space. This had changed Arch's view of the drive lettering, and what had been its /dev/sddx root device was now /dev/sdcx. Arch failed to boot, throwing off the same errors I was seeing now. I wish I had recalled that note a month or so ago! It would have saved me a lot of work and a lot of frustration.
At any rate, as a last step, and testing the idea that maybe the drive lettering had changed for some reason, I repeatedly manually booted Arch, specifying root=/dev/sda6, then /dev/sdb6, then /dev/sdd6, and finally, /dev/sdc6. Eureka! Arch now considered itself to be on /dev/sdc6 whereas previously it had been on /dev/sda6. This got me part way there, but the boot failed at the filesystem check stage and threw me into root. I disabled the file system check in /etc/rc.sysinit and got farther. Then I cleaned up /etc/fstab to agree with the new sdc naming, and I was back on the air fully.
So, what had happened was that Arch had changed its view of the drive it was on from sda6 to sdc6. While I could not understand why this "sudden" change had occurred, at least I had a solution, and had Arch back up and running.
Trolling through the rest of my notes, I found the answer. In 2012, the Tekram SCSI card in the machine failed, and I ultimately replaced it with an Adaptec card. The Tekram card did not have a BIOS segment on it. The Adaptec card did. My guess is that this caused the two internal SCSI devices I have built into the system (Iomega ZIP and Jaz respectively) to be enumerated first, claiming the "sda" and "sdb". device names. That left "sdc" for the root device, and that is where Arch went next. This is my guess anyway.
I should have caught this issue back in 2012, at the time, but from my notes, I can see that I tested the new card thoroughly using the Windows NT 4.0 side of the machine, but never thought to bring up Arch as well. Hence, this problem lay dormant for two years, before I attempted to fire up Arch last month and blundered right into it.
It has not all been bad. I have learned more about the ext2 and ext3 file systems and superblocks in the intervening time than I will ever need to use. I have learned how to manually boot Linux on a machine whose BIOS is so old that it cannot address the disk cylinder that the kernel is on and I have completely refreshed the many general Linux skills that used to just flow from my finger tips. It has been a frustrating experience, but ultimately a successful and useful one.
Just wanted to let everyone know that this is now [SOLVED]. I would mark the post as such, but I don't see any obvious way to do that. Thanks again everyone.

Troubles with HP OfficeJet 6500 E710n-z on Arch Linux

Recently, I have tried to use my printer after five months break. It used to run smoothly on Arch Linux with hplip. However, now, I have not managed to make it print properly with hplip again. This is my configuration, as seen from the CUPS web interface:
Driver: HP Officejet 6500 e710n-z hpijs, 3.12.11 (color, 2-sided printing)
Connection: hp:/net/Officejet_6500_E710n-z?ip=192.168.1.4
After trying to print some test page, the jobs listing in the CUPS web interface showed me a error message "Filter failed". I deleted my .cups and .hplip directories in my home folder and reinstalled cups and hplip. The same symptoms appeared again after restarting and a fresh installation.
HP_Officejet_6500_E710n-z-400 Unknown Withheld 98k Unknown pending since Sat 05 Jan 2013 04:22:46 PM CET "Filter failed"
My Arch system is up-to-date. I heard that it might have become necessary to install the hplip-plugin somewhen in the last month for some HP printer models. If I understand the table at the bottom of http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/mo … 10n-z.html correctly, then the hplip-plugin is neither required nor available for my printer model. I tested also installing it from AUR, just because it was worth a try (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/hplip-plugin/), but this made matters worse, having my printer to madly produce almost-empty paper with some crap characters at each page top. As expected, the hplip-plugin was a dead-end, and I uninstalled it to continue some experimentation with printing test pages (all on the same page, mind the trees!). Resuming the printer, CUPS prints
***** Unable to open the initial device, quitting.
Looking at the number of hits on Google, this seems to be one of the favourite error messages. I looked at the output in /var/cups/error_log
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Spooler: cups
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Printer: HP_Officejet_6500_E710n-z
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Shell: /bin/bash
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] PPD file: /etc/cups/ppd/HP_Officejet_6500_E710n-z.ppd
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] ATTR file:
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Printer model: HP Officejet 6500 e710n-z hpijs, 3.12.11
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Job title: Leafpad job 5
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] File(s) to be printed:
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] <STDIN>
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Ghostscript extra search path ('GS_LIB'): /usr/share/cups/fonts
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Printing system options:
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'number-up=1'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Unknown option number-up=1.
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'job-uuid=urn:uuid:ac6ebe82-17e5-3f8f-49ec-01820c35ea2e'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Unknown option job-uuid=urn:uuid:ac6ebe82-17e5-3f8f-49ec-01820c35ea2e.
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'job-originating-host-name=localhost'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Unknown option job-originating-host-name=localhost.
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'time-at-creation=1357400341'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Unknown option time-at-creation=1357400341.
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'time-at-processing=1357400341'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Unknown option time-at-processing=1357400341.
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Options from the PPD file:
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'InputSlot=Default'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'Quality=FromPrintoutMode'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'MediaType=Plain'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'PageSize=Letter'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'PrintoutMode=Normal'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'DryTime=Zero'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Pondering option 'Duplex=DuplexNoTumble'
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] ================================================
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] File: <STDIN>
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] ================================================
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Filetype: PDF
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] PID 28827 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftopdf) exited with no errors.
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Storing temporary files in /var/spool/cups/tmp
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] File contains 1 pages
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Starting renderer with command: gs -dFirstPage=1 -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=612 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=792 -sDeviceManufacturer="HEWLETT-PACKARD" -sDeviceModel="HP Color LaserJet 2600n" -dDuplex=true -dTumble=false -r300 -sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2,PS:MediaPosition=7 -dIjsUseOutputFD -sOutputFile=- /var/spool/cups/tmp/foomatic-3lyFKy
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Starting process "kid3" (generation 1)
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Starting process "kid4" (generation 2)
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Starting process "renderer" (generation 2)
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] JCL: %-12345X@PJL
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] <job data>
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] prnt/hpijs/hpijs.cpp 269: unable to set device=HP Color LaserJet 2600n, err=48
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] prnt/hpijs/hpijs.cpp 290: unable to set device=HP Color LaserJet 2600n, err=48
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] renderer exited with status 1
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] prnt/hpijs/hpijs.cpp 697: unable to read client data err=-2
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] Possible error on renderer command line or PostScript error. Check options.Kid3 exit status: 3
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] STATE: +connecting-to-device
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] PID 28828 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip) stopped with status 9.
Indeed, some errors show up. I find it strange that ghostscript is called with a parameter -sDeviceModel="HP Color LaserJet 2600n" -dDuplex=true even though I clearly have an inkjet printer and no laser printer – and also specified the correct printer model. Also later, I can see the two lines
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] prnt/hpijs/hpijs.cpp 269: unable to set device=HP Color LaserJet 2600n, err=48
D [05/Jan/2013:16:39:10 +0100] [Job 407] prnt/hpijs/hpijs.cpp 290: unable to set device=HP Color LaserJet 2600n, err=48
which to the best of my knowledge indicates some internal mess. Raising the debug level in cups.conf did not tell me anything new.
Notably, using the hpcups driver at least makes the printer print pages properly, but the wonderful (mind the trees) duplex-mode seems to only be available when using hpijs when selecting the PPD file in the add printer wizard. That is why I want to stay with the driver mentioned above.
The trouble for me is that the printing pipeline is so complex and so many components are involved that I have no real good starting point to where exactly post bug reports. I would appreciate if some fellows with the same printer and the same errors could confirm my description. Or even point out how to get that organism to paint ink properly on the paper. Any ideas where to start? Or references to better resources regarding the combo of HP OfficeJet 6500 E710n-z and Arch? Is it just an regression bug and will be fixed? Is my system corrupted in some way? There is lots of open questions I don't quite feel able to answer all by myself. Any hints for troubleshooting appreciated!
Edit:
After some more reading and troubleshooting, I have filed the following two bug reports at hplip:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1096418
https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1096421
Last edited by jeadorf (2013-01-05 19:30:19)

SCAN ISSUE SOLVED!!!!
I have an HP Photosmart 6500a Plus printer that is connected via USB to a less than 1 year old Dell XPS 8300 tower running Win 7 64bit Home Premium Edition. The print function worked fine but scans would halt mid-way through the scan and eventually the software would indicate that it had lost connection with the scanner.
After EXTENSIVE testing, I determined that the problem was with the Dell tower and NOT THE PRINTER. I hooked the printer up to a Dell Inspiron mni-tower running Vista and had NO PROBLEM scanning. I hooked the printer up to a Gateway laptop running Win 7 Pro and had NO PROBLEM scanning.
On a hunch, I inserted a POWERED USB hub in between the Dell XPS 8300 tower and the HP Photosmart 6500a Plus and was rewarded with a, first time ever on the XPS 8300, complete and flawless scan.
I surmise that the HP Photosmart 6500a Plus was not getting the required voltage from the USB on the Dell XPS 8300 tower and that was causing the scan to fail.
WOOHOO!
Been chasing this one for several months...

[SOLVED]Multiple Problems after a new install on Arch Linux

Hello all,
I just finished installing Arch Linux from the core ISO which I downloaded from the site. The install went smoothly and booted up fine. Also I was able to install gnome and its extras fine as well. On the first boot after installing gnome I managed to get my resolution correct also. However later on after I installed compiz fusion everything with the resolution seems to be going wrong . My computer specs are shown below :
AMD 64 3200
Asus M2N MX-SE
2 GB Ram
Geforce 8600 GT
Viewsonic VA1918wm (Native resolution is 1440x900)
At the moment I can only manage to get upto 1024x768 and it looks quite bad at that resolution. I have attached the xorg.conf I have at the moment.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "record"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "G84 [GeForce 8600 GT]"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
While I was trying to fix this I noticed I was encountering other problems also. For one I found that sometimes dhcpcd times out on booting up and I cant seemt o connect to the Internet on booting. Although I just thought of trying a static IP and I'll post if that helped later on.
Another problem is I found that I seem to get the following error randomly. Pressing ctrl + D after this just restarts the machine.
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
Finally, while I boot up I noticed that it says "Mounting root partition as read only [DONE]" Is the root partition supposed ot be mounted as read only ? Attached my fstab just in case it is needed.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
#/dev/cdrom /media/cd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /media/fl auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sda3 /boot ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdb1 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdb2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb3 /home ext3 defaults 0 1
As you can see I'm quite new to Arch Linux so any help would be deeply appreciated.
Last edited by FilledVoid (2009-09-11 16:28:28)

Thank you for all your suggestions . I tried replacing the ID to Card0 but it didnt seem to fix it . However on the bright side I checked more threads on the forum and found some that helped out . :)
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=75070&p=2
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=72788
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=76938
I copied the xorg.conf file from the third link and just made minor changes to it like removing all the resolutions I didn't need and now its working fine :).
Now Im just stuck with two problems. One is the following message which appears randomly.
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
******************* FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED *************
* Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root *
* filesystem is currently mounted read-only. To remount *
* it read-write type: mount -n -o remount,rw / *
* When you exit the mantenance shel the system will *
* reboot automatically. *
A thread about the same can be found http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=295384 but there isn't a solution on it.
The second is the intermittent problems with the Network being setup. Sometimes when I boot up it just says dhcpcd timedout and I won't be able to connect . However I can connect on another machine at the same time.
Took a look at the drive in question with gparted and it shows the below information:
/dev/sdb1 ext3 / 32.59 GB 4.92 GB 27.68 GB boot
By any chance is any of the above information relevant :x ?

Installing Arch Linux on USB key: error while booting

Hello,
first of all, I must say I've followed the steps from this article on arch wiki to install archlinux on my USB key: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _a_USB_key
So what I did is to use one of my 2 usb keys to INSTALL linux, and the second one to RUN linux. I used dd to write on the 1st usb, eveything worked fine when booting, then I do install arch on the my second usb following the stept from the link above, everything works until I get this error while booting (at the middle):
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sdc/
Root device '/dev/sdc' doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/lotsofnumbers'
You are being dropped to a recovery shell
Type 'exit' to try and continue booting
/bin/sh: Can't contact tty; job control turned off
[ramfs /]#
To summarize I'll show you my conf files that could help you to resolve my problem:
/etc/fstab.conf
/dev/sdc1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc2 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc3 /home ext3 defaults 0 1
So here I've sdc1 boot 32MB partition; sdc2 root 3GB partition; sdc3 home 978MB partition for a total of 4GB USB key~
I didn't make a swap partition as in the tutorial they are writing it's unnecessary for some kind of reasons.
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS="base udev usb autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"
I've added to here, "usb" to the hooks
installed GRUB on my sdc, here is the menu.ist:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux (USB)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc ro vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img
So, I boot GRUB without problems, start Arch Linux, but then I got this error above.
I've searched alot on some forums and read many stuffs, but sitll can't fix it and it seems complicated.
I've tried to boot with UUID, also, but didn't make difference. I tried to remove some parameter from the hooks, but unfortunately this wasn't working still. I've read somewhere to use chroot, but I didn't catch on how to do that and what was the use of chroot, I'm still noob user of arch linux and currently learning. Maybe it's the problem, as some forum were talking about creating a new image, but I still don't know how to make it. By the way, I'm not sure this could have fixed my current problem. I've also read somewhere it could be due to my lack of space, but I wrote you how I did partition my USB key, let me know if you have any suggestion please.

1. What I did is re-installing entirely from my installation disk or USB to test out different setting in my config files, because I don't know how to edit my .conf as I can't really finish to boot to the end and get in terminal mode? If there is a quicker way to edit files from any terminal to go into my current USB sdc to modify directly my file from there, I'd enjoy probably. So rebuilding the initpio, no, I just re-installed to test out different configs.
2. Yes, same error.
3. Tested out by-id/by-path and uuid = no difference
4. Didn't know about larch, it seems to be a nice tool, I'll check it out

Arch Linux first impressions

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