Linux Install Podcast does Arch

The last two episodes of the Linux Install Podcast covers the installation of Arch Linux. I'm not what you'd call an expert, and I make mistakes, well, I make a lot of mistakes. But I do manage to get Arch installed with X. I get wireless working with a rt61 based wireless card and I get my ati radeon xpress 1100 working with both the open source and the proprietary drivers. Anyone interested in hearing someone fumble through an Arch install can get the podcast from: http://thelip.net

Arch can give you what you want (so can Debian and Gentoo), but the two most important criteria for a lightweight system are: 1: install and load only what you want, and 2: when you have an option, go for the less resource hungry solution (MPD vs Amarok, for example).
P.S.: I use both a custom kernel and the stock kernel on my netbook. Both load with same ram usage (as only required modules are loaded by udev), just the install size vary as the custom kernel is stripped down for the modules that I really need. What makes the difference is not kernel really, but what you load afterwards. My netbook loads xorg, openbox and some lightweight eye-candy like conky, wbar, etc immediately after booting up, the ram usage at the beginning of session is ~60 megs (only!).

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Official Arch Linux Install Guide needs edit

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

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

Does arch support Intel's IRRT tech?

I plan to install arch on my Dell E6400 notebook.
Should I use AHCI mode or IRRT mode to install?
Does arch support IRRT?

As an x86 compatible CPU, why would it not be supported? Newer stuff is backwards compatible; you should worry about older stuff not being supported anymore, due to the new instructions introduced in more recent products.
Also, we've had this kind of questions before: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=88585
Welcome to the forums ganeshsarathi - be sure to read the stickies. Our BBS search function is a bit shot, it's best to use google (or another engine that can filter on a specific URL).

Why arch linux install media is so big?

Hi all,
Yesterday I installed arch linux in my PC. My very first learning/questions regarding arch linux:
* Why is the install media 650 MB(so big) iso, when it doesnt contain any packages?
* From the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide page,
Download
Download the most recent Arch Linux installation ISO image from the Arch Linux download page: this is a hybrid image that allows booting into an x86_64 or i686 live system, depending on the system's architecture and the user's choice.
Why the most recent Arch Linux installation ISO? The ISO which is downloaded one year before also will install the latest linux right because everything is downloaded from internet?
Can anyone please explain what is special about new install media??
Thanks
Mario

Mariappan wrote:
Download the most recent Arch Linux installation ISO image from the Arch Linux download page: this is a hybrid image that allows booting into an x86_64 or i686 live system, depending on the system's architecture and the user's choice.
Why the most recent Arch Linux installation ISO? The ISO which is downloaded one year before also will install the latest linux right because everything is downloaded from internet?
While you are correct that a netinstall will indeed install the latest linux version, it does not mean that an old install medium will boot on the newest hardware, or is up to date with the latest Arch specific packages etc. Using an old installation image can mean that your hardware is not supported, old bugs are included or that you are not at all able to install Arch because of outdated Arch specific packages on the install medium.
The install medium is merely a specific set of packages combined together in an image, not a special project to install Arch (you can install all packages via pacman). It needs updating, just like a regular Arch install.

Installing and running Arch linux on the new MacBook 2015

So Apple has just started taking orders for the new 2015 MacBook. You know --
the thinnest and lightest MacBook to date (even thinner than the MacBook Air),
with a 12 inch retina display, the Intel Core M processor, a single USB-C port,
and the new force touch trackpad.
I'm pretty sure there are a few people like me who'd like to buy this new
MacBook and then install and run Arch (or some other flavor of linux) on it.
But of course, this MacBook is in many ways very dissimilar to previous MacBook
Pros and MacBook Airs. So this thread is a shout out to likeminded individuals
who are willing to brave the odds and install Linux on this new machine, so we
can help each other figure out (and hopefully fix) the inevitable issues that
will arise when we venture into this uncharted territory!
I have a little bit of experience installing and running Arch on MacBook Pros
and other Apple computers, but I'm (very) far from being an expert. But based
on my limited experience, I think the following areas will pose the biggest
challenges to getting Linux properly up and running on the new MacBook:
1. Installation: it's possible that booting a live USB will fail. So we might
have to use a CD. Indeed, perhaps we may even have to build a special ISO
image for this laptop. And once the install is complete, EFI/EFISTUB booting
with/without refit/refind may or may not work. Also, installing a bootloader
(grub, gummiboot, etc.) for dual booting Mac OS X and Linux may be a
challenge. We might have to endure kernel panics and deal with cryptic error
messages while booting.
2. Wifi may or may not work reliably. We might have to do some tinkering with
different drivers, etc.
3. Battery life may not be very good. We might have to fix a few things here.
4. The HiDPI retina display may or may not work properly with specific window
managers/desktop environments. Fonts/icons might be too tiny, may not scale,
etc.
5. The new Force touch trackpad may not work out of the box. In fact, I'm
fairly sure the regular xf86-input-synaptics package won't play nice with
this trackpad. There may not be support for features like the trackpad's
haptic feedback, multi-finger gestures, pressure sensitivity, etc. Indeed,
this might actually take a while to get properly working under Linux.
6. I don't know if the new USB-C port will work out of the box. It may not
play nice with USB flash drives and other peripherals and there may be
issues with ehci/uhci/whatever.
I tried Googling around trying to learn as much as I could about the issues
above, but since the laptop is going on sale only today and most users are
probably not interested in running Linux on it, I came up quite empty. I think
many others on this forum might also have faced the same issue.
So here's an open invitation. Let's share our experiences trying to get linux
working on this laptop. If you buy this laptop and try to install Arch on
it, please let us know how it went! Even if some things work out of the box, it
might be useful for others to know, so please share.
And of course, if you have more information/gotchas: for example, if you
encountered and managed to fix one or more of the issues above, or you
encountered a problem that's not on the list above, or even if you tried
something and it didn't work out as expected, please post below. I'm sure this
will be a very big help to others trying to solve similar issues on the same
hardware. Thanks!

It would probably be beneficial to post the output of lsusb -vvvv and dmesg.
FS1RTG77 wrote:
2. Broadcom BCM4360 AirPort Extreme, not supported.
5. The new Force touch trackpad and keyboard, both SPI bus devices, do not work.
On 2, it may just be a case of needing firmware, my laptop has a BCM43602 card, and the firmware required has only just been added to the linux-firmware package. Prior to that I had to install it manually.
On 5, I'm wondering if you identified them as SPI devices by looking in OS X, I ask because my laptop categorises my keyboard and trackpad in the same way. But they are actually still both connected to the USB bus, and presumably using SPI as an interconnect between the keyboard/trackpad and the microcontroller that tie them together.

Computer freezes before BIOS after arch linux install

This is my first time installing arch linux, I followed the beginners install guide word for word. However, after the install, my computer gets stuck before the BIOS. It identifies the RAM, GPU, and harddrive (all Diagnostic lights are ok on my MOBO). Before the install it booted fine, but now when I boot it up it wont go to the BIOS screen no matter how many times I press delete. However, when I remove the harddrive it boots to the arch linux install screen on my USB drive perfectly.
I know it is not my hardware because I did many different tests (mem-test, swapped out harddrives, tried 1 stick of RAM in different slots, etc). More importantly, my harddrive is brand new so I know it isn't dead because I could partition it when I was installing arch linux.
Computer specs:
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+
DFI LANPARTY nf4-d
ATI Radeon x800
2 GB DDR RAM
160 GB SSD
I have no idea what the problem is, I must have screwed something up with the bootloader or something. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Try clearing the CMOS settings either by removing the motherboard battery for some minutes or by using the relevant jumper on the motherboard. Check the manual of your motherboard for details.
Last edited by Foucault (2013-07-03 16:19:41)

Boot error message on new install of Paravirtualized arch

Hello,
I just finished installing a PV arch guest on xen.
I get the following error at boot:
[1.185226] i8042: No controller found
[1.1247134] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
Google told me this is the driver for the hardware clock so I tried the following:
[root@coronelaurelianobuendia ~]# hwclock --systohc --utc
hwclock: Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method.
hwclock: Use the --debug option to see the details of our search for an access method.
[root@coronelaurelianobuendia ~]# hwclock --debug
hwclock from util-linux 2.24
hwclock: cannot open /dev/rtc: No such file or directory
No usable clock interface found.
hwclock: Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is this a problem with my grub.cfg? A problem with PV arch? or a problem with my kernel?
Thanks for your help and advice

Hi , I see you have been troubleshooting an issue with your new LaserJet Pro MFP M127, and I may have found some items you can check.
This issue is usually caused by some sort of packing materials that may be hiding on you. I would double check Setting Up the Printer Hardware for HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw to make sure it's not a piece of cardboard inside the printer. The next thing that may cause this would be if you forgot to remove the orange tabs on the toner cartridge. If you take a look at Replacing the Toner Cartridge, it shows what needs to be removed from the toner before installing it inside the printer. There is a whole setup video about Unboxing and Setup of the LaserJet Pro MFP M127 you can watch as well. If the issue persists, you might still have options covered under the HP LaserJet Print Cartridges and Imaging Drums Limited Warranty Statement - I would still try to Contact HP Support to see if there is anything they can do. Fill in the model number and the form to receive a case number for expedited assistance. Please let me know if these steps resolved your issue, or if there is anything else I can do to help. I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks,

Does Arch have a PXE Net Installation?

As the topic reads, I'm trying to install Arch on a few computers using PXE. I've found a few topics that show how to BOOT Arch Live using PXE, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking to install arch on a computer using PXE.
Debian makes the process really simple with their network boot package. http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst
Does Arch something similar?
Many Thanks!

foolishrobot wrote:Debian makes the process really simple with their network boot package. http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst
Does Arch something similar?
i know what you mean, i'm currently searching for something like that, but didn't succeed yet. I use the debian netinstall (over pxe) alot and it works like a charm.
to be honest, i want this for archlinux to... no need setup NFS or NBD. I just want to boot a simple little environment which gives me the ability to install archlinux by getting all the things i need from the internet, keeping everything in ram until it is installed.
I thought the page mentioned in this topic (regarding pxe boot) would do exactly this, but after reading this topic, i think i might have been missing something.
Due to the reason i still haven't found a solution to this, i assume such an netinstall image does not exist for arch linux... but what about creating one.
Archlinux already removed the AIF from the installation media (which is great) i think it wouldn't be so hard to support a basic netinstall image.
Debian does support it, and it helps a lot.
About the size, just for the people who don't know about the debian netinstall: on my tftp server (which is used for pxe) i keep 2 setups (one for x86 and one for x64) each setup has a kernel and an initramdisk. all together, they only measure about 16MB in size.
This might be possible for arch linux as well, don't you think?

Y510P EFI Linux install Freezes

Hello,
I'm attempting to install Arch Linux on my Lenovo Y510p using the EUFI partitioning scheme that the HDD comes formatted with. I went through the official Arch Linux documentation in order to complete my install. I believe everything went well, although I did have to redo a few things a long the way.
I installed GRUB in what I identified as the GPT partition. Upon restarting the machine, I was able to boot Linux using GRUB. My OS appears to boot fine, but after a few seconds at the login prompt, it completely froze and became unresponsive. I rebooted a number of times and the result is the same. The OS appears to boot fine, but freezes up after a few seconds at the login prompt. I then decided to boot using the debug kernel option.
The result indicated a series of errors that look like this:
acpi error method parse/execution failed
From what I can gather, this has something to do with power management, but the information I found was not particularly useful. I also found some references to '/etc/inittab', which does not exits in my install.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to fix this ACPI error? My nuclear option is to wipe out the installation and start from scratch, but I'm not sure how to handle the cleaning the GPT.

I have an update.
I was not able to solve the problem. Call Lenovo and they sent me a new computer. I still have to return the original one.
Installing Linux Mint is very simple. Again I was playing with different options for the installation. I decided to create two partitions in the 24GB SSD; one of 512 MB for /boot and the second for / (root). I also create two partitions with the 1TB disk one for /home and one for /opt.
The computer is very fast loading the OS with this configuration. However, playing with the video drivers I lost the video and decided to reinstall. The installation was so easy the first time that reinstalling was not painful.
Here comes the problem: I can not longer access the 24GB SDD again. It is exactly the same problem that I have with the first computer. I can see the SDD disk, and I can ask for the disk to be erased during the installation, but the installation frozen. I even load GParted from a bootable USB and try to erase the partitions on the SSD drive without luck. The disk is like frozen. It do not respond to anything.
Have anyone experience something like this?
I can not believe that the two SDD disks are wrong is such a short period of time.
Now that I have installed Linux only on the 1TB disk, I can notice how much slower is the OS loading from it.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

USB Errors while trying to install 64 bit Arch

I'm trying to install Arch onto some brand new hardware. I am installing using the Arch Netboot environment.
When I try to install 64 bit Arch, I get the following errors straight after archiso.img is downloaded and the kernel is booted:
usb 2-5: device descriptor read/64, error -32
usb 2-5: device descriptor read/64, error -32
usb 2-5: device descriptor read/64, error -32
usb 2-5: device descriptor read/64, error -32
usb 2-5: device not accepting address 4, error -32
usb 2-5: device not accepting address 5, error -32
hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 5
The same lines appear for usb 4-1, 6-5 and 7-1. The only USB device that is plugged in is the USB key that I booted ipxe.lkrn from.
Googling seems to point to a kernel module that needs to be loaded earlier or a faulty USB controller. I do not know how to change what kernel modules are used during installation, and I'm fairly certain the USB controllers are fine. Its a brand new motherboard and I can access my USB key fine (I can boot from it) in any of the available USB ports.
I was close to giving up until for some reason I decided to try and install the 32 bit version of Arch instead. This worked as expected and I am sent to the archiso installation prompt without seeing any of the same USB errors.
Can someone please assist me with this? I would really prefer to have the 64 bit version installed.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=158206
This seems to be related, although my errors are giving error -32 instead of -110.
Is there a way I can force the installation environment to use kernel 3.7.6? Does the 32 bit installer use a different kernel to the 64 bit installer?
Is there a way I can use the 32 bit installation environment to install 64 bit as well as the 3.7.6 kernel?

Linux-2.6.18-ARCH compile error: missing Makefile

tried to compile custom kernel from provided sources and make generated following error:
make bzImage
CHK include/linux/version.h
CHK include/linux/utsrelease.h
scripts/Makefile.build:17: /usr/src/linux-2.6.18-ARCH/init/Makefile: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/src/linux-2.6.18-ARCH/init/Makefile'. Stop.
make: *** [init] Error 2
So I downloaded vanilla and this worked fine.
I was wondering if make install script will use mainitcpio however this did not work either as install.sh script is looking at /dev/hda which is read-only installation device (cd/dvd)
So I copied vmlinuz and system.map and generated img file manually.

There are no "provided sources" in Arch. /usr/src/linux-<kernel_version> contains only those elements of the compiled kernel that are required to build against, so getting the source from kernel.org is the right thing to do.
If you want to build a kernel package that uses mkinitcpio, like the official Arch kernels do, you need to create a PKGBUILD, or modify an existing one, and use ABS (Arch Build System). The wiki has all the details.

Does Arch have a partition program?

Hi
I'm running a dual boot setup and I initially gave Arch a small partition because I was just trying it out. Now, the tables have turned! I'm almost done a complete migration to Linux and am keeping XP just to run some stuff that works best on it. Needless to say, I need to change the sizes of my partitions. Do I need to download one via pacman or does Arch come with one? (The reason I ask is because I believe some distros like ubuntu do come with one).

pacman -Sy extra/gparted
or
pacman -Sy extra/qtparted
use any of the above programs to do ur partition resizing thing.even better use a ubuntu livecd.

Does arch support for amd 780g matherboard?

does arch support for amd 780g matherboard?
3 days ago, I installed the arch 2007.08.02, and I update the system up to date. I installed the xorg, ati driver, gdm, and gnome, but my 22" SAMSUNG LCD displayed error (display the desktop but the colors all wrong, can't see anything clearly), then I downloaded the ati catalyst install package , and installed it, the error occured too, so I came here to ask you
how to deal with it?
the video card of the matherboard is radeon hd3200.
Last edited by xmfs (2008-04-24 03:26:47)

Sorry for taking this long to reply, I was out of town.
I finally got it working with the latest catalyst. Video and everything. I am posting my xorg in case anyone finds it helpfull. I haven't done any tweaks and it is far from complete but it is working as base project.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
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 "GLcore"
Load "xtrap"
Load "glx"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "record"
Load "dri"
Load "freetype"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse1"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
DisplaySize 518 324
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

How does Arch cope with occasional upgrades?

Hi all,
I'm a long time Gentoo user, but as I don't have the time to upgrade my system every five minutes I only end up running upgrades every few months (or when I want to install a program that has a long string of dependencies.)
Unfortunately this process always ends in tears for me, as Gentoo is not designed to go for more than a few weeks between upgrades. So every time I do this packages fail to compile, programs won't run because of missing dependencies, libraries can't be upgraded because of weird conflicts, and I generally end up tearing my hair out trying to get my system back up and running again.
So I've pretty much had enough of this and I'm looking for a new distro. Gentoo would be perfect if it could cope with lengthy delays between upgrades, and from what I have read Arch has a similar methodology so I'm thinking Arch might be the way to go.
So - how does Arch cope if you wait six months or more between upgrading software packages? After upgrading a library, do you need to "manually" (at least Gentoo has a script) find applications that have broken and update those too? Or does pacman leave you with a working system every time you run it?
Any other insights that would be useful for someone coming from the Gentoo world?
Thanks!

Thanks for the helpful replies! Just to clarify, the problems I have with Gentoo are not so much the changes (e.g. updating configuration files to work with a new app version) my main complaint is that the upgrade just doesn't work. If I could run one command and come back 24 hours later and it was complete then that would be fine, the problem I have is that it breaks every few packages so doing a full upgrade takes days - and I mean days where you are sitting in front of it manually adding, removing and reinstalling packages to keep the package management system happy.
So when you mention things like packages changing their names or a python2 -> python3 transition, do you mean that pacman can't automatically handle this, and some manual intervention would be required? Because really, all I'm after is something like Gentoo but with less compile errors and nonsense complaints about package conflicts - something smart enough to just figure out what needs to be done by itself. But if this is likely to happen under Arch as well, maybe you're right and something like Ubuntu would be more my style (wow, coming from Slackware originally, I never thought I'd say that!)
Of course if it's binary-based then presumably these errors surface much faster than they do with Gentoo, so I'm curious - what are the types of problems you mostly get from pacman when upgrading your whole system?

No display after linux install on Satellite A100

Hi All,
On the weekend I decided to install linux on an extended partition on my toshiba satellite a100. I did a fresh install of windows from the recovery cd and everything worked fine. I then installed linux on an extended partition and my computer displays nothing when starting up - (the LCD has a back-light) and I get all the beeps and it reads from CD's etc. The strange thing is that I can plug it into an external monitor and it works fine. When I start it up with an external monitor I can then switch to the LCD and I get a display but it is very slow and has many imperfections.
I have updated the bios, installed the latest graphics drivers (ati) but still have no improvement. Since the linux install I have removed the extended partition and installed windows from the recovery cd again (still not improvement).
Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I can try next?
Thank you in advanced for your help.

You ask what you can do??
Delete and format the whole HDD and reinstall the OS from the recovery CD.
If you want to use the Linux, I would recommend using a Knoppix. You can get it on the Live CD and its not necessary to install it on the HDD.

Linux Install Podcast does Arch

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