HOWTO: Install Arch for Newbies

Question

Hello,
Yesterday was my fist installation of Arch and i've found that the informations are not very well combined for a newbie/new to arch, am not newbie to linux but am new to arch so i've spend quite time to figure out some things or to know some links, due to this fact i've decided to write an easy guide that combine the whole installation from Downloading Till getting an up & running Arch with Gnome
the HOWTO can be found here please i need your opinions/corrections so we can make it as easy as installing ubuntu for newbies

Answer 1

Try my gdm.conf, it's an unchanged one, and normally it would work
# GDM Configuration file. You can use gdmsetup program to graphically
# edit this, or you can optionally just edit this file by hand. Note that
# gdmsetup does not tweak every option here, just the ones most users
# would care about. Rest is for special setups and distro specific
# tweaks. If you edit this file, you should send the HUP or USR1 signal to
# the daemon so that it restarts: (Assuming you have not changed PidFile)
# kill -USR1 `cat /var/run/gdm.pid`
# (HUP will make gdm restart immediately while USR1 will make gdm not kill
# existing sessions and will only restart gdm after all users log out)
# You can also use the gdm-restart and gdm-safe-restart scripts which just
# do the above for you.
# For full reference documentation see the gnome help browser under
# GNOME|System category. You can also find the docs in HTML form on
# http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/
# NOTE: Some of these are commented out but still show their default values.
# If you wish to change them you must remove the '#' from the beginning of
# the line. The commented out lines are lines where the default might
# change in the future, so set them one way or another if you feel
# strongly about it.
# Have fun! - George
[daemon]
# Automatic login, if true the first local screen will automatically logged
# in as user as set with AutomaticLogin key.
AutomaticLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLogin=
# Timed login, useful for kiosks. Log in a certain user after a certain
# amount of time
TimedLoginEnable=false
TimedLogin=
TimedLoginDelay=30
# The gdm configuration program that is run from the login screen, you should
# probably leave this alone
#Configurator=/opt/gnome/sbin/gdmsetup --disable-sound --disable-crash-dialog
# The chooser program. Must output the chosen host on stdout, probably you
# should leave this alone
#Chooser=/opt/gnome/libexec/gdmchooser
# The greeter for local (non-xdmcp) logins. Change gdmlogin to gdmgreeter to
# get the new graphical greeter.
#Greeter=/opt/gnome/libexec/gdmlogin
# The greeter for xdmcp logins, usually you want a less graphically intensive
# greeter here so it's better to leave this with gdmlogin
#RemoteGreeter=/opt/gnome/libexec/gdmlogin
# Launch the greeter with an additional list of colon seperated gtk
# modules. This is useful for enabling additional feature support
# e.g. gnome accessibility framework. Only "trusted" modules should
# be allowed to minimise security holes
#AddGtkModules=false
# By default these are the accessibility modules
#GtkModulesList=gail:atk-bridge:/opt/gnome/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libdwellmouselistener:/opt/gnome/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libkeymouselistener
# Default path to set. The profile scripts will likely override this
DefaultPath=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/opt/gnome/bin
# Default path for root. The profile scripts will likely override this
RootPath=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/opt/gnome/sbin:/opt/gnome/bin
# If you are having trouble with using a single server for a long time and
# want gdm to kill/restart the server, turn this on
#AlwaysRestartServer=false
# User and group used for running gdm GUI applicaitons. By default this
# is set to user gdm and group gdm. This user/group should have very
# limited permissions and access to ony the gdm directories and files.
User=nobody
Group=gdm
# To try to kill all clients started at greeter time or in the Init script.
# doesn't always work, only if those clients have a window of their own
#KillInitClients=true
LogDir=/var/log/gdm
# You should probably never change this value unless you have a weird setup
PidFile=/var/run/gdm.pid
# Note that a post login script is run before a PreSession script.
# It is run after the login is successful and before any setup is
# run on behalf of the user
PostLoginScriptDir=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/PostLogin/
PreSessionScriptDir=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/PreSession/
PostSessionScriptDir=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/PostSession/
DisplayInitDir=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/Init
# Distributions: If you have some script that runs an X server in say
# VGA mode, allowing a login, could you please send it to me?
#FailsafeXServer=
# if X keeps crashing on us we run this script. The default one does a bunch
# of cool stuff to figure out what to tell the user and such and can
# run an X configuration program.
XKeepsCrashing=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/XKeepsCrashing
# Reboot, Halt and suspend commands, you can add different commands
# separated by a semicolon and gdm will use the first one it can find
RebootCommand=/sbin/shutdown -r now "Rebooted from gdm menu."
HaltCommand=/sbin/shutdown -h now "Halted from gdm menu."
SuspendCommand=/usr/bin/apm --suspend
# Probably should not touch the below this is the standard setup
ServAuthDir=/opt/gnome/var/gdm
# This is our standard startup script. A bit different from a normal
# X session, but it shares a lot of stuff with that. See the provided
# default for more information.
BaseXsession=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/Xsession
# This is a directory where .desktop files describing the sessions live
# It is really a PATH style variable since 2.4.4.2 to allow actual
# interoperability with KDM. Note that <sysconfdir>/dm/Sessions is there
# for backwards compatibility reasons with 2.4.4.x
SessionDesktopDir=/etc/X11/sessions/:/etc/dm/Sessions/:/usr/share/xsessions/:/opt/gnome/share/gdm/BuiltInSessions/:/opt/gnome/share/xsessions/
# This is the default .desktop session. One of the ones in SessionDesktopDir
#DefaultSession=gnome.desktop
# Better leave this blank and HOME will be used. You can use syntax ~/ below
# to indicate home directory of the user. You can also set this to something
# like /tmp if you don't want the authorizations to be in home directories.
# This is useful if you have NFS mounted home directories. Note that if this
# is the home directory the UserAuthFBDir will still be used in case the home
# directory is NFS, see security/NeverPlaceCookiesOnNFS to override this behaviour.
UserAuthDir=
# Fallback if home directory not writable
UserAuthFBDir=/tmp
UserAuthFile=.Xauthority
# The X server to use if we can't figure out what else to run.
StandardXServer=/usr/X11R6/bin/X
# The maximum number of flexible X servers to run.
#FlexibleXServers=5
# And after how many minutes should we reap the flexible server if there is
# no activity and no one logged on. Set to 0 to turn off the reaping.
# Does not affect Xnest flexiservers.
#FlexiReapDelayMinutes=5
# the X nest command
Xnest=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xnest -audit 0 -name Xnest
# Automatic VT allocation. Right now only works on Linux. This way
# we force X to use specific vts. turn VTAllocation to false if this
# is causing problems.
FirstVT=7
VTAllocation=true
# Should double login be treated with a warning (and possibility to change
# vts on linux and freebsd systems for console logins)
#DoubleLoginWarning=true
# Should a second login always resume the current session and
# switch vts on linux and freebsd systems for console logins
#AlwaysLoginCurrentSession=true
# If true then the last login information is printed to the user before
# being prompted for password. While this gives away some info on what
# users are on a system, it on the other hand should give the user an
# idea of when they logged in and if it doesn't seem kosher to them,
# they can just abort the login and contact the sysadmin (avoids running
# malicious startup scripts)
#DisplayLastLogin=false
# Program used to play sounds. Should not require any 'daemon' or anything
# like that as it will be run when no one is logged in yet.
#SoundProgram=/usr/bin/play
# These are the languages that the console cannot handle because of font
# issues. Here we mean the text console, not X. This is only used
# when there are errors to report and we cannot start X.
# This is the default:
#ConsoleCannotHandle=am,ar,az,bn,el,fa,gu,hi,ja,ko,ml,mr,pa,ta,zh
# This determines whether gdm will honor requests DYNAMIC requests from
# the gdmdynamic command.
#DynamicXServers=false
# This determines whether gdm will send notifications to the console
#ConsoleNotify=true
[security]
# If any distributions ship with this one off, they should be shot
# this is only local, so it's only for say kiosk use, when you
# want to minimize possibility of breakin
AllowRoot=false
# If you want to be paranoid, turn this one off
AllowRemoteRoot=false
# This will allow remote timed login
AllowRemoteAutoLogin=false
# 0 is the most restrictive, 1 allows group write permissions, 2 allows all
# write permissions
RelaxPermissions=0
# Check if directories are owned by logon user. Set to false, if you have, for
# example, home directories owned by some other user.
CheckDirOwner=true
# Number of seconds to wait after a bad login
#RetryDelay=1
# Maximum size of a file we wish to read. This makes it hard for a user to DoS
# us by using a large file.
#UserMaxFile=65536
# If true this will basically append -nolisten tcp to every X command line,
# a good default to have (why is this a "negative" setting? because if
# it is false, you could still not allow it by setting command line of
# any particular server). It's probably better to ship with this on
# since most users will not need this and it's more of a security risk
# then anything else.
# Note: Anytime we find a -query or -indirect on the command line we do
# not add a "-nolisten tcp", as then the query just wouldn't work, so
# this setting only affects truly local sessions.
DisallowTCP=true
# By default never place cookies if we "detect" NFS. We detect NFS
# by detecting "root-squashing". It seems bad practice to place
# cookies on things that go over the network by default and thus we
# don't do it by default. Sometimes you can however use safe remote
# filesystems where this is OK and you may want to have the cookie in your
# home directory.
#NeverPlaceCookiesOnNFS=true
# XDMCP is the protocol that allows remote login. If you want to log into
# gdm remotely (I'd never turn this on on open network, use ssh for such
# remote usage that). You can then run X with -query <thishost> to log in,
# or -indirect <thishost> to run a chooser. Look for the 'Terminal' server
# type at the bottom of this config file.
[xdmcp]
# Distributions: Ship with this off. It is never a safe thing to leave
# out on the net. Setting up /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny to only
# allow local access is another alternative but not the safest.
# Firewalling port 177 is the safest if you wish to have xdmcp on.
# Read the manual for more notes on the security of XDMCP.
Enable=false
# Honour indirect queries, we run a chooser for these, and then redirect
# the user to the chosen host. Otherwise we just log the user in locally.
#HonorIndirect=true
# Maximum pending requests
#MaxPending=4
#MaxPendingIndirect=4
# Maximum open XDMCP sessions at any point in time
#MaxSessions=16
# Maximum wait times
#MaxWait=15
#MaxWaitIndirect=15
# How many times can a person log in from a single host. Usually better to
# keep low to fend off DoS attacks by running many logins from a single
# host. This is now set at 2 since if the server crashes then gdm doesn't
# know for some time and wouldn't allow another session.
#DisplaysPerHost=2
# The number of seconds after which a non-responsive session is logged off.
# Better keep this low.
#PingIntervalSeconds=15
# The port. 177 is the standard port so better keep it that way
#Port=177
# Willing script, none is shipped and by default we'll send
# hostname system id. But if you supply something here, the
# output of this script will be sent as status of this host so that
# the chooser can display it. You could for example send load,
# or mail details for some user, or some such.
Willing=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/Xwilling
[gui]
# The specific gtkrc file we use. It should be the full path to the gtkrc
# that we need. Unless you need a specific gtkrc that doesn't correspond to
# a specific theme, then just use the GtkTheme key
#GtkRC=/opt/gnome/share/themes/Default/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
# The GTK+ theme to use for the gui
#GtkTheme=Default
# If to allow changing the GTK+ (widget) theme from the greeter. Currently
# this only affects the standard greeter as the graphical greeter does
# not yet have this ability
#AllowGtkThemeChange=true
# Comma separated list of themes to allow. These must be the names of the
# themes installed in the standard locations for gtk themes. You can
# also specify 'all' to allow all installed themes. These should be just
# the basenames of the themes such as 'Thinice' or 'LowContrast'.
#GtkThemesToAllow=all
# Maximum size of an icon, larger icons are scaled down
#MaxIconWidth=128
#MaxIconHeight=128
[greeter]
# Greeter has a nice title bar that the user can move
#TitleBar=true
# Configuration is available from the system menu of the greeter
#ConfigAvailable=true
# Face browser is enabled. This only works currently for the
# standard greeter as it is not yet enabled in the graphical greeter.
Browser=false
# The default picture in the browser
#DefaultFace=/opt/gnome/share/pixmaps/nobody.png
# User ID's less than the MinimalUID value will not be included in the
# face browser or in the gdmselection list for Automatic/Timed login.
# They will not be displayed regardless of the settings for
# Include and Exclude.
MinimalUID=1000
# Users listed in Include will be included in the face browser and in
# the gdmsetup selection list for Automatic/Timed login. Users
# should be separated by commas.
#Include=
# Users listed in Exclude are excluded from the face browser and from
# the gdmsetup selection list for Automatic/Timed login. Excluded
# users will still be able to log in, but will have to type their
# username. Users should be separated by commas.
Exclude=bin,daemon,mail,nobody
# By default, an empty include list means display no users. By setting
# IncludeAll to true, the password file will be scanned and all users
# will be displayed except users excluded via the Exclude setting and
# user ID's less than MinimalUID. Scanning the password file can be
# slow on systems with large numbers of users and this feature should
# not be used in such environments. The setting of IncludeAll does
# nothing if Include is set to a non-empty value.
#IncludeAll=false
# If user or user.png exists in this dir it will be used as his picture
#GlobalFaceDir=/opt/gnome/share/pixmaps/faces/
# File which contains the locale we show to the user. Likely you want to use
# the one shipped with gdm and edit it. It is not a standard locale.alias file,
# although gdm will be able to read a standard locale.alias file as well.
#LocaleFile=/opt/gnome/etc/gdm/locale.alias
# Logo shown in the standard greeter
#Logo=/opt/gnome/share/pixmaps/gdm-foot-logo.png
# The standard greeter should shake if a user entered the wrong username or
# password. Kind of cool looking
#Quiver=true
# The Actions menu (formerly system menu) is shown in the greeter, this is the
# menu that contains reboot, shutdown, suspend, config and chooser. None of
# these is available if this is off. They can be turned off individually
# however
SystemMenu=true
# Should the chooser button be shown. If this is shown, GDM can drop into
# chooser mode which will run the xdmcp chooser locally and allow the user
# to connect to some remote host. Local XDMCP does not need to be enabled
# however
#ChooserButton=true
# Welcome is for all console logins and RemoteWelcome is for remote logins
# (through XDMCP).
# DefaultWelcome and DefaultRemoteWelcome set the string for Welcome
# to "Welcome" and for DefaultWelcome to "Welcome to %n", and properly
# translate the message to the appropriate language. Note that %n gets
# translated to the hostname of the machine. These default values can
# be overridden by setting DefaultWelcome and/or DefaultRemoteWelcome to
# false, and setting the Welcome and DefaultWelcome values as desired.
# Just make sure the strings are in utf-8 Note to distributors, if you
# wish to have a different Welcome string and wish to have this
# translated you can have entries such as "Welcome[cs]=Vitejte na %n".
DefaultWelcome=true
DefaultRemoteWelcome=true
#Welcome=Welcome
#RemoteWelcome=Welcome to %n
# Don't allow user to move the standard greeter window. Only makes sense
# if TitleBar is on
#LockPosition=false
# Set a position rather then just centering the window. If you enter
# negative values for the position it is taken as an offset from the
# right or bottom edge.
#SetPosition=false
#PositionX=0
#PositionY=0
# Xinerama screen we use to display the greeter on. Not for true
# multihead, currently only works for Xinerama.
#XineramaScreen=0
# Background settings for the standard greeter:
# Type can be 0=None, 1=Image, 2=Color
#BackgroundType=2
#BackgroundImage=
#BackgroundScaleToFit=true
#BackgroundColor=#76848F
# XDMCP session should only get a color, this is the sanest setting since
# you don't want to take up too much bandwidth
#BackgroundRemoteOnlyColor=true
# Program to run to draw the background in the standard greeter. Perhaps
# something like an xscreensaver hack or some such.
#BackgroundProgram=
# if this is true then the background program is run always, otherwise
# it is only run when the BackgroundType is 0 (None)
#RunBackgroundProgramAlways=false
# Show the Failsafe sessions. These are much MUCH nicer (focus for xterm for
# example) and more failsafe then those supplied by scripts so distros should
# use this rather then just running an xterm from a script.
#ShowGnomeFailsafeSession=true
#ShowXtermFailsafeSession=true
# Normally there is a session type called 'Last' that is shown which refers to
# the last session the user used. If off, we will be in 'switchdesk' mode where
# the session saving stuff is disabled in GDM
#ShowLastSession=true
# Always use 24 hour clock no matter what the locale.
#Use24Clock=false
# Use circles in the password field. Looks kind of cool actually,
# but only works with certain fonts.
#UseCirclesInEntry=false
# Do not show any visible feedback in the password field. This is standard
# for instance in console, xdm and ssh.
#UseInvisibleInEntry=false
# These two keys are for the new greeter. Circles is the standard
# shipped theme. If you want gdm to select a random theme from a list
# then provide a list that is delimited by /: to the GraphicalThemes key and
# set GraphicalThemeRand to true. Otherwise use GraphicalTheme and specify
# just one theme.
#GraphicalTheme=circles
#GraphicalThemes=circles/:happygnome
GraphicalThemeDir=/opt/gnome/share/gdm/themes/
GraphicalThemeRand=false
# If InfoMsgFile points to a file, the greeter will display the contents of the
# file in a modal dialog box before the user is allowed to log in.
#InfoMsgFile=
# If InfoMsgFile is present then InfoMsgFont can be used to specify the font
# to be used when displaying the contents of the file.
#InfoMsgFont=Sans 24
# If SoundOnLogin is true, then the greeter will beep when login is ready
# for user input. If SoundOnLogin is a file and the greeter finds the
# 'play' executable (see daemon/SoundProgram) it will play that file
# instead of just beeping
#SoundOnLogin=true
#SoundOnLoginFile=
# If SoundOnLoginSuccess, then the greeter will play a sound (as above)
# when a user successfully logs in
#SoundOnLoginSuccess=false
#SoundOnLoginSuccessFile=
# If SoundOnLoginFailure, then the greeter will play a sound (as above)
# when a user fails to log in
#SoundOnLoginFailure=false
#SoundOnLoginFailureFile=
# The chooser is what's displayed when a user wants an indirect XDMCP
# session, or selects Run XDMCP chooser from the system menu
[chooser]
# Default image for hosts
#DefaultHostImg=/opt/gnome/share/pixmaps/nohost.png
# Directory with host images, they are named by the hosts: host or host.png
HostImageDir=/opt/gnome/share/hosts/
# Time we scan for hosts (well only the time we tell the user we are
# scanning actually, we continue to listen even after this has
# expired)
#ScanTime=4
# A comma separated lists of hosts to automatically add (if they answer to
# a query of course). You can use this to reach hosts that broadcast cannot
# reach.
Hosts=
# Broadcast a query to get all hosts on the current network that answer
Broadcast=true
# Set it to true if you want to send a multicast query to hosts.
Multicast=false
# It is an IPv6 multicast address.It is hardcoded here and will be replaced when
# officially registered xdmcp multicast address of TBD will be available
#Multicast_Addr=ff02::1
# Allow adding random hosts to the list by typing in their names
#AllowAdd=true
[debug]
# This will enable debugging into the syslog, usually not neccessary
# and it creates a LOT of spew of random stuff to the syslog. However it
# can be useful in determining when something is going very wrong.
Enable=false
[servers]
# These are the standard servers. You can add as many you want here
# and they will always be started. Each line must start with a unique
# number and that will be the display number of that server. Usually just
# the 0 server is used.
0=Standard
#1=Standard
# Note the VTAllocation and FirstVT keys on linux and freebsd.
# Don't add any vt<number> arguments if VTAllocation is on, and set FirstVT to
# be the first vt available that your gettys don't grab (gettys are usually
# dumb and grab even a vt that has already been taken). Using 7 will work
# pretty much for all linux distributions. VTAllocation is not currently
# implemented on anything but linux and freebsd. Feel free to send patches.
# X servers will just not get any extra arguments then.
# If you want to run an X terminal you could add an X server such as this
#0=Terminal -query serverhostname
# or for a chooser (optionally serverhostname could be localhost)
#0=Terminal -indirect serverhostname
# If you wish to run the XDMCP chooser on the local display use the following
# line
#0=Chooser
## Note:
# is your X server not listening to TCP requests? Perhaps you should look
# at the security/DisallowTCP setting!
# Definition of the standard X server.
[server-Standard]
name=Standard server
command=/usr/X11R6/bin/X -audit 0
flexible=true
# To use this server type you should add -query host or -indirect host
# to the command line
[server-Terminal]
name=Terminal server
# Add -terminate to make things behave more nicely
command=/usr/X11R6/bin/X -audit 0 -terminate
# Make this not appear in the flexible servers (we need extra params
# anyway, and terminate would be bad for xdmcp choosing). You can
# make a terminal server flexible, but not with an indirect query.
# If you need flexible indirect query server, then you must get rid
# of the -terminate and the only way to kill the flexible server will
# then be by Ctrl-Alt-Backspace
flexible=false
# Not local, we do not handle the logins for this X server
handled=false
# To use this server type you should add -query host or -indirect host
# to the command line
[server-Chooser]
name=Chooser server
command=/usr/X11R6/bin/X -audit 0
# Make this not appear in the flexible servers for now, but if you
# wish to allow a chooser server then make this true. This is the
# only way to make a flexible chooser server that behaves nicely.
flexible=false
# Run the chooser instead of the greeter. When the user chooses a
# machine they will get this same server but run with
# "-terminate -query hostname"
chooser=true