General questions concerning gaming in (arch)linux

Hi,
I've searched the forums, and I found a lot of howto's that sometimes worked, and sometimes didn't. I'm not a gamer, but have been a longtime linux-user.
I have talked a lot of people into using linux, and almost all of them are happy with there new OS, but my brother (my latest convert) is a gamer 'pure sang'. He's not to happy with the switch to Ubuntu:
* Enemy Territory works, but punkbuster keeps kicking him off the servers
* WoW: he was used to getting rocksolid 80+ FPS in windows, now he gets 50FPS with drops to below 20FPS
* Mumble: giving problems
Yesterday I have found a link to a solution for punkbuster - maybe I can solve that one myself. Is it normal that you have a significant amount lower FPS in linux than in windows? I thought the nvidia-blob was about 'on par' with the windows-driver? I have set WoW to OpenGL and applied several tweaks that I have found around the interwebs...
Should I give archlinux for him a try (I only chose Ubuntu to make it easier for him to update)? Since punkbuster is 32bit-only, should I install 32bit linux for him? Or should I advise him to buy a 'windows 7'-licence key?
PS: Is the Archlinux gaming repo still alive? It looks as if no updates have made since early 2010 and only 1 of the 3 mirrors mentioned in the wiki is still up...
THX!

I am a pretty much a gamer, less so in recent years but...  I have found that Linux does not offer the same gaming possibilities as Windows.  To this day, I am still dual-booting because of gaming, and I doubt that will change in the near future.  I have ran things like Half-life2 and Stracraft 2 in Linux with statisfying results, but with generally fewer frame rates than Windows.  As for gaming performance, recent test ran by Phoronix suggest that BSD is faster than Linux, but that's not your question.  For myself, I doubt you would find a distro with a significant performance boost for gaming, as they all share the same drivers and all share Xorg to produce graphics.  The only reserve is that other test ran by Phoronix suggest that "compositing" as used in Ubuntu's Unity or Gnome 3 has some negative effect on 3D gaming performance, so if you switch to Arch, you might want to consider the "less cute" desktops, like XFCE or LXDE and the like, without compositing.  Also, I should mention that using 64 bit Linux to run 32 bit windows games tends to make things a little more difficult.  If gaming under Linux with Wine is a must, consider staying under a 32 bit version of the distro of your choice.
As for Windows games, you might want to look at Crossover ( http://www.codeweavers.com/ ) which offers an interface to Wine and better support.  There is a "gaming edition" of crossover which might help.  Check their DB to see which games are supported, but there's a full-featured demo mode anyway, so try before you buy.  Also, you might try playonlinux ( http://www.playonlinux.com/ ) wich offers an interfaces that manages Wine installations for you with "recepies" in the background that are known to offer the best results.  If you want the "free" option, playonlinux is the way to go if you want the best chances at running your games, if supported.
Lastly, I would suggest looking at http://www.penguspy.com/ to find Linux native games.  Of course, that might not satisfy your brother if he wants specific games.
Last edited by jpsimard (2011-09-27 14:50:16)

Similar Messages

  • Question/Concern with my Arch Linux Linode

    I typically login to my Linode Arch server daily with ssh, and I always use my domain name to do it like so:
    ssh mydomain.com
    I have root login disabled, and use the same username as my local Arch box, but with a different password. This means I have to supply the password while connecting.
    Usually when I login the prompt in the terminal looks like this:
    [[email protected] ~]
    But when I logged in today it shows something like this: (changed slightly just to be safe)
    [username@li563-7 ~]
    I checked the rc.conf file, and the Hostname has not been changed.
    Any ideas what might have happened?

    Have you received an answer from linode?
    I have exactly the same problem since I updated and rebooted yesterday and it messes up my configs.
    I have submitted a ticket, but if you already know how to solve it, let me know.
    Akael wrote:
    Usually when I login the prompt in the terminal looks like this:
    [[email protected] ~]
    But when I logged in today it shows something like this: (changed slightly just to be safe)
    [username@li563-7 ~]
    I checked the rc.conf file, and the Hostname has not been changed.
    Any ideas what might have happened?

  • A general question concerning .EAR files?

    Hi All,
    My question is, what should be the file extension of the utility class that
    I will include in my ".ear" file? Should it be filename.jar or
    filename.war? The team that I am on has successfully been able to deploy a
    .ear file that only contains our entity and session beans. We would also
    like to "JAR" up our utility class, so that we may be to use the hot
    deployment feature of the application server and the removal of the
    enviroment variable where the utility classes are located.
    We are currently using the Ant utility to help us build our .ear file.
    When I give the utility file name a ".war" extension and then deploy the
    ".ear" file; the application server boots up successfully without throwing
    any exceptions. When I give the utility file name a ".jar" extension and
    then deploy the ".ear" file, the application server boots up successfully
    with exceptions concerning unable to locate one to several utility classes.
    Thank you in advance,
    Charles
    Charles Jean-Baptiste
    [email protected]

    It sounds like you are having a ClassLoader problem.
    The main advantage of deploying EJBs and WebApps in an ear file is that the
    ClassLoader for the webapp inherrits from the ClassLoader for the EJBs.
    This basicly means that the webapp can see the EJBs...when you put another
    util.jar file in the EAR file this will be in a different ClassLoader and
    not accesible by either the EJBs or the WebApp
    (and visa-versa)....to make this accesible you need to add the entry
    Class-Path: util.jar to the manifest file for the EJB.
    1)Create a text file newmanifest.txt with a one line entry of
    Class-Path: util.jar
    2) When you build the original EJB jar file do like this:
    jar cmf newmanifest.txt MyEJB.jar com META-INF
    -this will create the jar file MyEJB.jar adding directories com and META-INF
    and including the contents of newmanifest.txt in the manifest for the jar
    file.
    3) Build this all into the ear file.
    The EJB will now be able to see the util.jar and because the WebApp can see
    the same as the EJB it will also be able to see the util.jar.
    Gareth
    "Charles Jean-Baptiste" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    news:[email protected]...
    Hi All,
    My question is, what should be the file extension of the utility classthat
    I will include in my ".ear" file? Should it be filename.jar or
    filename.war? The team that I am on has successfully been able to deploya
    .ear file that only contains our entity and session beans. We would also
    like to "JAR" up our utility class, so that we may be to use the hot
    deployment feature of the application server and the removal of the
    enviroment variable where the utility classes are located.
    We are currently using the Ant utility to help us build our .ear file.
    When I give the utility file name a ".war" extension and then deploy the
    ".ear" file; the application server boots up successfully without throwing
    any exceptions. When I give the utility file name a ".jar" extension and
    then deploy the ".ear" file, the application server boots up successfully
    with exceptions concerning unable to locate one to several utilityclasses.
    >
    Thank you in advance,
    Charles
    Charles Jean-Baptiste
    [email protected]

  • RAID - a very general question concerning stability

    Hi everyone,
    I've read quite a bit about RAID and the various types of arrays one may set up. Most posts give the following info:
    ••• RAID 0, while fast, is risky because if one drive dies, everything is lost; good backup routines is essential in this scenario (unless it is only used for scratch disk purposes).
    ••• RAID 1, and other types of mirrored arrays, are safer because of the built-in duplication of the data on one or more disks.
    ••• Mirrored arrays, as a general rule, should not be used for backup purposes because, while they duplicate data, they don't replace good backup routines and are therefore susceptible to human error, fires, floods, theft, and general calamity.
    But there is one question which I cannot seem to find an answer to:
    As I understand it, the stability of any particular array depends on the stability of the disks used. I have used quite a lot of harddrives in my years but have never had a drive fail on me. Perhaps I've been lucky. Then again, I've never hooked drives up using RAID.
    My question is therefore:
    Using harddrives in any type of RAID setup, will that make them more prone to failure?
    Is it a matter of statistical risk? In other words, each drive has a certain, theoretical Mean Time Between Failure and the more drives you have the greater the theoretical MTBF.
    Or has it do to with the error handling of the hard-/software controller? I guess it is could be relevant whether you use Enterprise grade drives or not because those, as I understand it, skip errors more easily than non-Enterprise drives and leave the rebuilding of the broken bit up to the controller (of course this is not a RAID 0 scenario).
    Basically, do drives become more susceptible to errors because they've been hooked up in a RAID array?
    Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.
    /pullman

    pullman,
    No, drives do not become more susceptible to failure as a result of being included in an array.
    I'm not sure I totally agree about mirrored arrays not being good for backup purposes. In this regard, one must make the distinction between using a RAID array to make a backup, versus using the array to store a backup. In the first case, the data is stored on the array and the built-in redundancy stands in place of a de facto backup strategy. In the second, the backup strategy includes the use of a RAIDed volume to further safeguard the already-redundant backup (which is made by other means).
    In other words, using an external mirrored RAID array to store ones backups seems to me to be an excellent solution. Plus, one can add additional drives to the array, to further increase the redundancy in the system. In a mirrored array, the risk of drive failure is removed from the equation.
    However, the risk of a software, or logical failure still remains. By this, I mean potential disk errors. I have suffered far more disk errors than I have actual drive failures. A mirrored RAID array only contains one logical volume, and this volume is just as susceptible to directory failure as any other. However, backup storage on a single mirrored RAID array is no different in this regard as storing it on a single, dedicated drive.
    So, we get back to the age-old question: Is a single backup enough? Well, it really comes down to the critical nature of the data being backed up.
    Scott

  • General questions concerning RAC installation

    Dear Oracle experts,
    I would like to try an RAC installation using Oracle 10g on Solaris(Sparc).
    I just want to go through the installation process without the intention to use
    the RAC productively.
    Is it possible to install the RAC database in a second ORACLE_HOME additionally to
    an existing Oracle installation ?
    Are there any traps to avoid ?
    Do I really have to install the database software after installing the Cluster software or
    is it possible to install the cluster software to upgrade an existing database installation ?
    Is it possible to use the RAC without ASM ? (My second machine doesn't have a harddisk left..).
    Thanks in advance for your advices.
    Best regards,
    Daniel

    Hi Daniel,
    You can't have only one instance of ASM running and sharing the disks. You need to have ASM installed on each RAC node in order to mount the shared disks.
    Now you can use one single ASM instance on a server that could be shared by multiple databases (on that same server). We do this in one of our development environments.
    You may not have to upgrade your hardware for a little RAC sandbox. The main thing is getting storage shared between the 2 servers and having the extra NICs for the private interconnect.
    Alfredo

  • Arch Linux System Maintenance

    I have a few questions regarding maintenance of Arch Linux.
    I come from Gentoo where I typically execute the following:
    emerge --sync
    emerge -uDNv world
    emerge --depclean
    revdep-rebuild
    I suppose emerge --sync && emerge -uDNv world is equivalent to pacman -Syu. But as for emerge --depclean, I have not seen what command could be used to find stray/obsoleted dependencies and have them removed. Should I be using pacman -Rs <package_name> every time I want to delete a package?
    revdep-rebuild probably does not apply to Arch Linux as it is binary based.
    Additionally, I was wondering if there are more things I should do to ensure that my installation is healthy. Any help/tips would be appreciated.

    sitquietly wrote:
    John5788 wrote:
    I have a few questions regarding maintenance of Arch Linux.
    I come from Gentoo where I typically execute the following:
    emerge --sync
    emerge -uDNv world
    emerge --depclean
    revdep-rebuild
    .....revdep-rebuild probably does not apply to Arch Linux as it is binary based.....
    For most users Archlinux is not a pure binary distro in practice.  We need packages from AUR for a complete system.  On my Arch system today I see that that there are 182 binary packages available in abs/core, 1957 packages in abs/extra, and 2340 packages in abs/community; so there are a total of 4479 binary packages available in Archlinux.  By comparison my Gentoo system has 17348 packages available in portage, and more packages available in various overlays, and they are all updated properly by emerge -auDN @world.
    There are 41182 source-based packages available in my copy of Archlinux's AUR.  Unfortunately pacman -Syu does not know how to update AUR packages and they may be left with dangling references to libraries that got updated out from under them.
    AUR packages tend to get broken by updates.  So we do need something like revdep-rebuild but so far as I know we don't have any equivalent maintenance tool.  I use my own script for checking my system for AUR packages that need to be rebuilt: 
    #!/bin/sh
    # check all binaries in /usr/bin for any with "not found"
    # library links
    cd /usr/bin
    for file in $(find . -type f -executable -readable)
    do
    ldd $file | grep "not found" >/dev/null && echo -n $file " links to an missing library " && \
    echo "(rebuild `pacman -Qq --owns $file`)"
    done
    Good luck with your new Archlinux system.
    Thanks very much, I added that script to my system! I am half surprised that something like this doesn't exist natively in pacman.
    ewaller wrote:
    John5788 wrote:
    I come from Gentoo where I typically execute the following:
    emerge --sync
    emerge -uDNv world
    emerge --depclean
    revdep-rebuild
    <tear forms in ewaller's eye>I miss those commands </tear>
    Welcome from a fellow Gentoo refugee !  I miss that distribution sometimes, but I love Archlinux; mostly because it does not seem to suffer the sort of bit rot with age as does Gentoo.  I recall that subtle changes in use flags could come back to bite weeks later when you update something seemingly unrelated (especially +doc) Spend some time around here and you will find that housekeeping is really not an issue.  I do still build custom kernels and don't use initrd; one cannot completely break old habits
    Good to see some former Gentoo users here. I still use Gentoo as my desktop OS, but my new Ultrabook will have to use Arch Linux. I'd rather not kill the life of the SSD by constantly compiling packages (not to mention that the emerge times for installing something trivial could get stupid on a laptop). I've been doing as much reading as I can to get familiarized with Arch Linux and I am liking everything so far. It is a nice change to go to a binary distro that isn't Ubuntu.

  • Just some few Arch Linux questions

    Hi, I am new to Arch Linux and am looking for some advice and answers.
    Here are the questions:
    1. Does the update command (I think its called pacman and it updates many things with one command in terminal) update the Arch Linux base, the DE that is installed, the apps that are installed and artwork on Arch Linux?
    2. Is Arch Linux User friendly once installed (When I say user friendly, I mean something like Ubuntu)?
    3. Does the drivers (Wireless card drivers, graphics card drivers, printer drivers and audio card drivers) come pre-installed once Arch Linux is installed like Ubuntu?
    4. What is the stablility and speed of Arch Linux compared to Ubuntu?
    That is all I need to know.
    Cheers,
    molom

    molom wrote:Hi, I am new to Arch Linux and am looking for some advice and answers.
    Here are the questions:
    1. Does the update command (I think its called pacman and it updates many things with one command in terminal) update the Arch Linux base, the DE that is installed, the apps that are installed and artwork on Arch Linux?
    pacman is the package manager for Arch. It will install single package, batches of packages, update the installed packages and several other things. Yes, one command 'pacman -Syu will update all the installed packages to the most recent available in the repositories. It will not update your artwork, ut everything else will be updated if you so desire.
    molom wrote:2. Is Arch Linux User friendly once installed (When I say user friendly, I mean something like Ubuntu)?
    Once you have installed the base systen, updated and then installed whatever desktop environment or window manager you want, whatever programs you want, etc., it will be as user friendly as you have made it.
    molom wrote:3. Does the drivers (Wireless card drivers, graphics card drivers, printer drivers and audio card drivers) come pre-installed once Arch Linux is installed like Ubuntu?
    As others have said, the install process does a fairly good job of detecting your hardware and installing the necessary modules, but it is up to you to install drivers for your nVidia / ATI video card if you want accelerated graphics. You'll have to install your printer (generally via cups, which you must also install). You'll have to install alsa and you may have to configure your sound.
    molom wrote:4. What is the stablility and speed of Arch Linux compared to Ubuntu?
    Arch is what you make it. You can have a rock solid stable system, or you can opt to be bleeding edge and risk the occasional package breaking.
    molom wrote:So when you say 'pkgs', do you also mean the desktop environment as well. For example, I have E17 installed and I use the 'pacman -Syu' command, will it update the version of E17 on my PC to the current version of E17?
    A package is a piece of software. E17 is a package, or perhaps a meta package made up of a bunch of packages. alsa is a package. gnome network-manager is a package. Anything that is installed on your system is managed and updated by pacman.
    molom wrote:Is there something similar to synaptic in Arch Linux?
    pacman is the Arch package manager. It does not need a gui front end, though there are a few third party front ends that have been written. I do not know if they are still active.
    molom wrote:
    I'm really eager into knowing about Arch Linux.
    Cheers,
    molom
    Then I also suggest as other have, that you avail yourself of the wiki, especially the beginner's guide which answers several of the questions you've asked.
    Arch Linux is what you make of it, but you have to do the making. Heck, that's 95% of the fun!

  • One question about arch linux 2009.02 and ext4

    hi,
    i want to download newest arch linux version. i heard i can select file system type as ext4, that sounds cool, because i really want ext4. anyway i heard that you need grub2 to properly boot ext4 arch system. so is grub2 will be included in arch linux 09.02? because my root partition is going to be in ext4 file system. thanks for help

    syms wrote:
    skottish wrote:
    syms wrote:Thanks for help. i have one more question - how much ext4 seems faster than ext3? i mean do you feel that ext4 is faster than ext3 in most cases? thanks.
    I've never done any benchmarks, but I can tell you that file system checks are many, many times faster.
    I do have a warning though, and it can be confirmed by others in this forum: ext4 does not crash gracefully right now. If you're on an unstable system, crashing can cause the loss of at least configuration files. My workstation is rock solid, so I've never seen any issues. Another computer that I was working on was having crashes due to an older Intel card with the newer xorg, and configuration files were being killed all over the place.
    Thanks. another thing is that about application start up. for example for me firefox starts in 4 seconds, when i close ff and try to run it again, it opens in about 1 second. what it would with ext4 system? maybe it would launch in 2 seconds at first start?
    It's hard to guess like that, but it's bound to be the same or faster. You're not losing anything going ext4 and it is a faster filesystem in general.

  • Arch Linux (and general Linux) graphics and artists community

    TheBodziO has started a discussion about the (Arch) linux graphics community. That gives me an idea. It would be nice to create an online (sub)community dedicated to graphics, DTP, and photography centered around Arch Linux. For now, I can only offer some ideas, my experience in graphics and DTP, and lots of hosting space on a non-dedicated server.
    The ideas for the (sub)community:
    * an open forum for discussion, not just Arch-related but 'graphics on Linux' in general
    * a wiki for Linux artists
    * a gallery (d'oh!)
    * an Arch LiveCD for graphics artists
    * a dedicated graphics repository
    If you have suggestions and/or are interested to participate, please post below.

    For start I want to say that I'm content that the new thread have been started to discuss the matters of cooperation of designers and developers communities. It's a good sign.
    As foxbunny said the whole idea is *much* more than another art repository. I thought about creating a common ground - a meeting point - for both developers and designers. Developers have the skills to code. Designers have needs and ideas how to speed up/ease their work. Developers create tools that designers use and designers provide feedback and ideas. What I think free software world lacks is an organized way to provide the pan-project and pan-distro connection between these groups.
    To illustrate the whole thing on a simple example: let's assume that I'd love to have a possibility to lock some operations on elements of my project with password. It's because my work will be given to someone else who will be responsible for placing a text in proper places on the design. I don't want to see him to move or delete something accidentally. It's possible that also some other designers will find that feature useful too. Then maybe some developer will be willing to implement that. The trouble is, that if I propose that feature and encourage its implementation in gimp, I would have to repeat the same process for scribus for example. But the idea is common. I want to state it once and see who will catch the bait . To some extent it will promote deeper integration between different projects.
    Today graphic designers have the tools for editing vector graphics, raster graphics some page design tools. These tools often use the same methodologies! There are bezier curves in gimp, inkscape, scribus... whatever yet they are implemented redundantly. Perhaps thanks to one thoughts sharing panel it will be possible to come with some common solutions. Maybe some common libraries or platforms will emerge in time? I think that mentioned meeting point will keep us close to unix philosophy: do it for a single purpose and do it well. In other words I think that it will allow us to have powerful building blocks on which something even better than today state of the art apps could be build.
    I want to at least start some discussion about the issue. Hopefully this will be only a beginning.
    First I want to ask: do you believe that a subcommunity of archers that would be responsible for communication between the developers and designers would be useful? If so then we could more precisely state our goals and code of conduct.
    Designers experience is of the essence if we want to make free software usable for demanding "art" community.
    Last edited by TheBodziO (2007-10-28 20:35:15)

  • Arch Linux based live gaming distro 'lg-live 0.9.5' released

    Hey all,
    first of all, sorry if this is the wrong subforum to post this in but this one seemed most appropriate.
    I would like to announce the release of live.linuX-gamers 0.9.5, an Arch Linux based live gaming distro. It was made using Archiso and of course a big investment of time. It is going to be officially released on LinuxTag 2009 in Berlin (in three days) but I thought I'd give it to you guys now.
    It is a very specialized distro: It contains lots of popular games, installs proprietary graphics card drivers out-of-the-box and provides you with a nice, clean interface for launching games and a few basic applications.
    I don't want to over-advertise this so I'll just say: Please go ahead and test it if you feel like it, maybe mirror it or seed the torrents a bit, post feedback or thoughts, insult me or threaten me, etc.
    If you want to give it a spin or see which games are on it, go over to http://live.linux-gamers.net and grab yourself an ISO/USB image.
    Thank you, Arch Linux, for making this possible.

    karol wrote:
    capoeira wrote:is there a way to install other games when using a USB-Device?
    This thread is rather old, but yeah, it's possible to remaster this "meta-distro" and add/remove games you like: http://github.com/svenstaro/lglive
    BTW, there's a new release http://live.linux-gamers.net/
    Ohh what a positive surprise to have a girl here,
    yea, i downloaded the DVD this week. I'm no gamer, I gamed in the 90ies on a Amiga 500 last time. But sometimes I get a wich to play a bit, so I found this DVD (I don't want to instal games to my production-distro and don't want to instal Catalyst either for my card)
    I want to play 3d first-person games but those ego-shooters i don't enjoy. Its running around shooting on everything and diying a hundred times. I want something more realistic, so I found penumbra and amnesia and would like to install it with this DVD. (if anyone has tips for realistic 3d-games, action-adventures, etc. I would apreciate tips)
    I will have a look at your link, thanks a lot

  • Arch Linux won't boot (and Linux in general)

    Hello everyone,
    I've been having this problem for about 3 days now. I finally made an account and post the problem since I can't find a solution (I solved most of my past problems by searching forums and googling so I had never posted before).
    So, I was installing Arch linux and Windows 7 on my machine (eee pc 1201t) but had problems booting into linux. First I installed Windows and it worked fine, then I installed Arch linux (this isn't my first time) and rebooted after finishing the installation. But my laptop just won't boot. It just displayed a blinking cursor on the top left of the screen. No error messages whatsoever. It was my first time encountering the problem so I thought reinstalling would do the trick. But it didn't. So I started researching on the same problems on google and discovered that it could be either a HD problem or corrupted MBR or some other problem. My drive works fine, since I can copy data onto it using a live cd (Ubuntu) and Windows works fine with it.
    I'm thinking of using "dd" command on my drive and repair the MBR. I would like to know if you guys have encountered the same problem before and what kind of solution you applied.
    Note: I also tried installing Ubuntu on my machine but the result was the same.

    ngoonee wrote:Live CD, setup grub again, and profit?
    I tried this first, had no luck or maybe I wasn't doing it right.
    nixpunk wrote:So are you booting into windows using grub or just ntldr?
    My laptop boots using ntldr only. Grub does not seem to work. I tried installing Arch and Ubuntu but I had the same result (blinking cursor on the top left of the screen).
    schuay wrote:As always with boot problems, you will need to provide some more data about your setup. Output of 'df -h', contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst, install location of grub, etc. Without that, other people can only make guesses about the possible solution
    I'll keep that in mind. Sorry for the lack of details regarding my problem. I will try to add as much information as I can the next time I post.
    Anyway, I think I solved the problem. I zeroed the MBR on my HD by issuing the command "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 and grub installed just fine. Thanks for the reply everyone.

  • Arch Linux as SteamOS?

    Howdy all,
    I have been quite busy the last year or so and took a break from Arch Linux, but with Borderlands 2 gaining GNU/Linux support (and SteamOS) a day or two ago I immediately installed SteamOS to give it a try.
    While it is certainly a bit buggy, I do enjoy how tightly integrated Steam and relevant compatibilities are currently setup. At the same time I would love to get the same setup with Arch Linux (while also further customizing my system and using Btrfs) if at all possible. As, for a general purpose OS, Debian stable definitely has some drawbacks from my perspective and for my usage.
    Part of the reason for my post here is I am having trouble sourcing information on exactly what SteamOS has changed compared to vanilla Debian Wheezy. I noted the SteamOS AUR packages, but I want to make sure I can get the full set of changes before I spend the time trying to get a perfect Arch Linux "SteamOS" setup going.
    Anyway, that is the gist of it. If anyone has any insight or can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I got spoiled on Arch's documentation and I am having a hard time finding anything as coherent for SteamOS.
    Here is where I have looked so far:
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Steam
    https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&K=steamos
    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamu … ussions/1/
    (Edit)
    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamu … 462768036/ <-- Feedback from an Archer regarding potential speed boost compared to SteamOS and insights about general compatibility.
    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamu … 741989999/ <-- FAQ with major changes, maybe these are the only ones to be concerned with?
    Thanks,
    Last edited by AdamT (2014-10-03 02:21:10)

    AdamT wrote:As, for a general purpose OS, Debian stable definitely has some drawbacks from my perspective and for my usage.
    Just as an aside, SteamOS isn't designed to be a general purpose OS. It is designed with gaming in mind, in particular, gaming from a distance (see 10ft interface). A lot of the changes they have made to their xserver, xcompmgr (steamos-compositor), and possibly other packages have been done with this in mind, making them, as I understand it, less suitable for regular desktops.
    There is no reason you can't install steam on Arch and have it start in steamos mode (which I believe is slightly different to bigpicture mode, and can be launched by passing the '-steamos' flag to steam). You could even set Arch up to auto-login, startx with your preferred DE/WM, and run steam if you really want to. You may not get the same optimized experience that you would get with steamOS, but you would still be able to use it as a desktop as well as a living room gaming PC, if that is what you want to achieve.
    Last edited by WorMzy (2014-10-14 16:34:22)

  • Backpac: A package state snapshot and restore tool for Arch Linux

    backpac:
    A package state snapshot and restore tool for Arch Linux with config file save/restore support.
    https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=52957
    https://github.com/altercation/backpac (see readme on the github repository for more information)
    Summary & Features
    It's a common method of setting up a single system: take some notes about what packages you've installed, what files you've modified.
    Backpac creates those notes for you and helps back up important configuration files. Specifically, backpac does the following:
    maintains a list of installed groups (based on 80% of group packages being installed)
    maintains a list of packages (including official and aur packages, listed separately)
    maintains a list of files (manually created)
    backs up key config files as detailed in the files list you create
    The package, group and files lists along with the snapshot config files allows system state to be easily committed to version control such as git.
    Backpac can also use these lists to install packages and files. Essentially, then, backpac takes a snapshot of your system and can recreate that state from the files and lists it archives.
    Use Cases
    Ongoing system state backup to github
    Quick install of new system from existing backpac config
    Conform current system to given state in backpac config
    Backpac is a very, very lightweight way of saving and restoring system state.
    It's not intended for rolling out and maintaining multiple similar systems, it's designed to assist individual users in the maintainance of their own Arch Linux box.
    Status
    Alpha, release for testing among those interested. Passing all tests right now but will continue to rework and refine. Bug reports needed.
    Why?
    There are a lot of 'big-iron' solutions to maintaining, backing up and restoring system state. Setting these up for a single system or a handful of personal systems has always seemed like overkill.
    There are also some existing pacman list making utilities around, but most of them seem to list either all packages or don't separate the official and aur packages the way I wanted. Some detect group install state, some don't. I wanted all these features in backpac.
    Finally, whatever tool I use, I'd like it to be simple (c.f. the Arch Way). Lists that are produced should be human readable, human maintainable and not different from what I'm using in non-automated form. Backpac fulfills these requirements.
    Regarding files, I wanted to be able to backup arbitrary system files to a git repository. Tools like etckeeper are interesting but non /etc files in that case aren't backed up (without some link trickery) and there isn't any automatic integration with pacman, so there is no current advantage to using a tool like that. I also like making an explicit list of files to snapshot.
    Sample Output
    This is the command line report. Additionally, backpac saves this information to the backpac groups, packages and files lists and the files snapshot directory.
    $ backpac -Qf
    backpac
    (-b) Backups ON; Files will be saved in place with backup suffix.
    -f Force mode ON; No prompts presented (CAUTION).
    (-F) Full Force mode OFF; Prompt displayed before script runs.
    (-g) Suppress group check OFF; Groups will be checked for currency.
    (-h) Display option and usage summary.
    (-p) Default backpac: /home/es/.config/backpac/tau.
    -Q Simple Query ON; Report shown; no changes made to system.
    (-R) Auto-Remove OFF; Remove/Uninstall action default to NO.
    (-S) System update OFF; No system files will be updated.
    (-U) backpac config update OFF; backpac files will not be updated.
    Sourcing from backpac config directory: /home/es/.config/backpac/tau
    Initializing.................Done
    GROUPS
    ============================================================================
    /home/es/.config/backpac/tau/groups
    GROUPS UP TO DATE: group listed in backpac and >80% local install:
    base base-devel xfce4 xorg xorg-apps xorg-drivers xorg-fonts
    GROUP PACKAGES; MISSING?: group member packages not installed:
    (base: nano)
    (xfce4: thunar xfdesktop)
    PACKAGES
    ============================================================================
    /home/es/.config/backpac/tau/packages
    PACKAGES UP TO DATE: packages listed in backpac also installed on system:
    acpi acpid acpitool aif alsa-utils augeas cowsay cpufrequtils curl dialog
    firefox gamin git ifplugd iw mesa mesa-demos mutt netcfg openssh rfkill
    rsync rxvt-unicode sudo terminus-font vim wpa_actiond wpa_supplicant_gui
    xmobar xorg-server-utils xorg-twm xorg-utils xorg-xclock xorg-xinit xterm
    yacpi yajl youtube-dl zsh
    AUR UP TO DATE: aur packages listed in backpac also installed on system:
    flashplugin-beta freetype2-git-infinality git-annex haskell-json
    package-query-git packer wpa_auto xmonad-contrib-darcs xmonad-darcs
    AUR NOT IN backpac: installed aur packages not listed in backpac config:
    yaourt-git
    FILES
    ============================================================================
    /home/es/.config/backpac/tau/files
    MATCHES ON SYSTEM/CONFIG:
    /boot/grub/menu.lst
    /etc/acpi/handler.sh
    /etc/rc.conf
    /etc/rc.local

    firecat53 wrote:I think your plan for handling an AUR_HELPER is good. If AUR_HELPER is defined by the user, then either you might need a list of major AUR helpers and their command line switches so you can pick the correct switch for what needs to be done (most use some variation of -S for installing, but not all), or have the user define the correct switch(es) somehow for their chosen AUR helper.
    That's a good idea. I'll add that to my AUR refactoring todo.
    I also found directory tracking to be a weakness in other dotfile managers that I tried. I think you would definitely have to recursively list out the contents of a tracked directory and deal with each file individually. Wildcard support would be nice...I just haven't personally found a use case for it yet.
    I've been thinking that I could just add the directory and scan through it for any non-default attribute files. If those are found then they get automatically added to the files list. That's pretty close to what etckeeper does.
    Edit: I just compiled the dev version and removed my comments for already fixed things...sorry!
    The master branch should have those fixes as well, but I didn't update the version number in the package build. I'll have to do that.
    1. Still apparently didn't handle the escaped space for this item: (the file does exist on my system)
    Ok, good to know. This wildcard directory business will require some new code and refactoring so I'll also rework my filenames handling.
    2. Suggestion: you should make that awesome README into a man page!
    I was working on one (the pkgbuild has a commented out line for the man page) but I had to leave it for later. Definitely want a man page. Once this stabilizes and I'm sure there aren't any big structural changes, I'll convert it to man format.
    3. Suggestion: add the word 'dotfile' into your description somewhere on this page, the github page, and in the package description so people looking for dotfile managers will find it. You could also consider modularizing the script into a dotfile manager and the package manager, so people on other distros could take advantage of your dotfile management scheme.
    I actually have a different script for dotfile management that doesn't touch packages, but there is definitely overlap with this one. That script isn't released yet, though, and if people find this useful for dotfile management that's great. I'll add that in.
    4. Suggestion: since -Q is a read-only operation, why not just make it run with -f automatically to avoid the prompt?
    Originally, running backpac without any command line options produced the Query output. I was concerned that since it is a utility that can potentially overwrite system files, it is important to give users a clear statement prior to execution about what will be done. Since the Query output is essentially the same as the Update and System reports in format and content, I wanted to be explicit about the Query being a passive no-change operation. The current command line options aren't set in stone though. If you feel strongly about it being different, let me know.
    Long answer to a short question
    5. Another suggestion: any thought to providing some sort of 'scrub' function to remove private information from the stored files if desired? This would be cool for publishing public dotfiles to github. Perhaps a credentials file (I did this with python for my own configs). Probably detecting email addresses and passwords without a scrub file would be rather difficult because dotfiles come in so many flavors.
    Yes, absolutely. In fact, if you look at the lib/local file (pretty sure it's in both master and dev branches in this state) you'll see some references to a sanitize function. The idea there is that the user will list out bash associative arrays like this:
    SANITIZE_WPA_=(
    [FILE]='/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
    [CMD]='sed s/expungepattern/sanitizedoutput/g'
    Question: am I missing an obvious option to remove a file from the files.d directory if I delete it from the files list? Or do I have to delete it manually? It might be helpful to add a section to the README on how to update and delete dotfiles from being tracked, and also a more detailed description of what the -b option does (and what is actually created when it's not used).
    You are only missing the function I didn't finish. There should be either dummy code or a TODO in the backpac main script referencing garbage collection, which isn't difficult but I just haven't finished it. The idea being another loop of "hey I found these old files in your files.d, mind if I delete them?" It's on my list and I'll try to get it in asap.
    And finally, just out of curiosity, why did you choose to actually copy the files instead of symlink like so many other dotfile managers do?
    git not following symlinks, hardlinks also out for permissions issues (git wouldn't be able to read the files, change them, etc.)
    I definitely would prefer to not make an entire copy of the file, but I haven't come up with a better option. Shout with ideas, though. Also, if there is a way around the link issues I noted above, let me know. I don't see one but that doesn't mean it's not there.
    edit: I think a Seattle area Arch meetup would be cool! Perhaps coffee someplace? Bellevue? U-district? Anyone else? BYOPOL (bring your own pimped out laptop)
    A general meetup sounds good. I was also thinking it would be fun to do a mini archcon with some demos.

  • Arch Linux deemed "best" distro of 2014 by Linux Voice

    Congrats everyone! http://www.linuxvoice.com/linux-distros/.
    We were looking for a distro that performs well in every area, and excellently in many, making it a good all-round distro. However this alone isn’t enough. It needs to have something that pushes it ahead of the competition – and the competition is getting better every year. It needs that certain X factor to make it stand out. It should be a distro people want to install; a distro that people get passionate about; a distro that makes you remember why you love Linux.
    Arch Linux does all this and more. The two things that make it stand out aren’t fancy bits of software, or slick user interfaces, but its philosophy and its community.
    Last edited by link (2014-10-09 05:31:52)

    From the same DistroWatch page karol quoted from:
    Before one can answer what is the best distro, they have to answer for what purpose! While Arch is a great linux distribution, it isn't the one I would want to install and support on a 100 workstations in a business or classroom environment, or even my mother's computer. I probably wouldn't use it for a mission critical server role and it's also not one I would use for embed systems work.
    There's a saying that learn Ubuntu and you learn Ubuntu, learn Arch and you learn Linux. Well, most users don't want or need to learn Linux (or Ubuntu).
    "Best Distro" declarations are worthless. Instead they need to be "Best Distro For..." declarations. Arch is an excellent distribution, but as most people will tell you, it's not for the feint of heart. For general use, particularly in a business setting, openSuse would seem to be a better choice. For general use as a home desktop, one might look at one of the *buntus. For development work, particularly in the US, fedora, RHEL or CENTOS seems a good choice.
    The reality is that from the user perspective, one can make any distro look and act like any other. The question as to what is best really comes down to how much work is involved to make it actually do that.
    Again, Arch is an excellent distro. But depending on your use case, it might not be the best distro.
    Fair points all (except for the "development work" bit), but since the whole article was a comparison of rolling-release operating systems, why single out Arch? Why bother even commenting? Using a rolling-release OS when you want a static setup is foolish, no matter what the distribution is.

  • Arch Linux on SmartQ (V5II) -looking to start project-

    Upfront I will note that I am not skilled enough to accomplish this alone at my current level.  I will learn what I can in order to achieve this task, so any and all links to tutorials and ideas on how to get this working will be taken and put through heavy consideration.  Primary concern will be getting a working "livecd" cloned image (basically, all the most standard core packages to get a working Arch Linux with USB Keyboard and mouse support, then build from there till I get X and all the nice features of the V5(II) working, and branch out from there  Will probably look into repartitioning the NAND so I can have a complete and full install (probably preserve Android for being boot from SD, which is fine since it's a complete dual-boot which requires rebooting to switch anyway)  As of now, I am referencing the development tutorial for SmartQ, tutorials for building firmware images from plugapps (nice Arch port to ARM devices) and whatever information I can gather from someone on the Arch Linux forums who has recently ported it to the newest ARM processor type (v7, if I'm not mistaken).  All links will be provided at the bottom of this post.
    My guess is that I will have to approach this with a "Linux From Scratch" mindset of compiling the kernel, busybox and whatever else I need to get a working base install (which, from there, I can compile everything else natively on the actual device)to the point where I reach a working system with gui, basic tools, maybe a game or two, and whatever else would constitute being enough for "firmware" status.  I guess, my only question ahead of all that is how do I go about making the "base install" firmware to build up from?  Secondary question to that is, once I get a nice setup, how do I take that (all being on the actual V5II) and remaster THAT into a firmware that I can then post online for others to test?  I already have my homework cut out for me, so I'll be reading what i can to figure this out while anybody and everybody here throws me tutorial links and ideas on how I can accomplish this each step of the way...  We shall see where this train takes us.
    SmartQ Linux Development Guild: https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddtx8wk … skpm&pli=1
    PlugApps Development Portal: http://www.plugapps.com/index.php5?titl … evelopment
    Arch Forum post for developer who ported Arch Linux to the v7 ARM processor: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=59638
    can't think of anything else at this point, but I will categorize links the best I can to morph them into somewhat of a workflow process and group the help aids to each relevant step along the way.  Anyone interested in helping, feel free to join in on the fun..  Will be looking that the ArchMobile stuff and incorporating what I can into my project... maybe this will help revive the ArchMobile project as well...

    If you are a new programmer then Python is a good place to start.  Install WingIDE 101 from the AUR for a good beginner's IDE for that.
    Think Python is a free book to get started with (PDF or HTML download on that page and you can buy the dead tree if you want)
    If you want to do programming that requires fast code above all else then C++ is the standard.  Code::Blocks is a good IDE for that.  Be sure to install "base-devel" and "gdb" to go along with it.
    Programming - Principles and Practice Using C++ is a dead tree book for C++, you have to buy it but that is offset by the fact that its author is also the author of the C++ language.

Maybe you are looking for