SUCESS!!! x ob gui

Question

Hey all,
I am happy to report that I was able to get all the way up to a usable setup on openbox.  Firefox is up and I can use many of the internet related conveniences. It was a mountain of work forum digging. Even with auto seek text features there were a lot of distro related hurdles. Since im not CLI savy, It took a lot of failed builds before interpreting instructions to pacman were really relevant. Also there was a lot of guessing about commands and their consequences. Worth it once, probably not twice.
I am a recreational computer user and very happy to fry a board just to see what happens. But as I tally my personal "build it again" list I am noticing there is an awful lot of work involved in setting up my ideal system. UI is sacred to me. Probably the single most important feature of a computer in terms of brand allegiance (look at the mint/ubuntu gnome 3 shift). I have posted before about saving my work, but I wanted to know if there was a way to backup my installed packages with preferences setup so that I could easily install it on any other physical hardware and see the same GUI. I don't mind the installation process per say, but I believe in growth oriented decisions. If I know I will always want firefox running fireftp then there is little personal value to the physical repetition of that installation. I would all the same let it be a "me specific" net install to my hardware (0 click).
My ideal world is something like a million Boolean check boxes adjusted online and saved as one "setup" text file, requiring me to spend 80 years adjusting those values (with recursive dependency changes/warnings).
A script to automate "my install" sounds awesome. (newest real world example: I might wipe my archbox to see if my hardware can run Diablo 3 on windows). {it was a gift computer and I don't know how to check the specs in arch}
I also fully support the arch mentality of bleeding edge simplistic. I have no expectation, or want for arch to change in that regard. What I am looking for is people who are arch savvy (as I intend to use arch as my base every time) who can help me reduce redundant labors, so that my "Bonsai" can grow.
Any help regarding the best way to install my flavor of arch onto numerous machines with minimal effort is what I am looking for. What are the key files, and can their execution be automated?
thanks
-Jonathan

Answer 1

Jonathan,
arch is considered a "hands-on" distribution where you are required to do most of the work manually.
This is a bit different compared to more "streamlined" distributions out there such as Ubuntu, Aptosid, Fedora and so on.
An installer is often nice and myself I enjoy the optortunity to do a fresh Ubuntu, Sabayon or Trisquel install below one hour but arch is different here.
If you want to stay with arch, you should consider noting down all the adaptions and configuration steps you did for setting up your system. Based on this step you should be capable to build a script to automate both system setup as well as system installation. The script of helmuthdu linked above should provide enough examples on how to automate your setup.
Since nearly all Linux configuration is text-file based, you can pretty easy save and restore your system setup. You might even consider cloning your system with a backup software similar to REAR (relax and recover).
If arch feels like too much like handwork than it is not really a shame to use other distributions. I for one currently only use arch on my tinkerbox. My main PC runs under Xubuntu and the HTPC is powered by Sabayon.
Edit: If you like bleeding edge with less manual work required then consider trying Sabayon but mind you that automation of things does not keep you away from requiring the knowledge if anything breaks. Issues in Ubuntu may require the same indepth knowledge of the system as in arch. Using Ubuntu, Mint, Sabayon and so on doesn't make you a less skilled Linux user while using arch, gentoo or the like does not automagically make you a "Linux expert". Setting up a system by hand like with arch does not hurt though. Just my two cents....
2nd Edit:
Just as idea for a pretty straight-forward to both document and archive your system manipulations you could keep a copy of all config files you modify during installation.
Example: /etc/rc.conf could be store under /some-path/etc/rc.conf
Identical to this you could store files from your home dir there. If this is combined with a taylored install script similar to the one of helmutdu and fresh installed arch system would be there in just a few minutes without too much manual work involved.
Once again I can only suggest you have a look at rear:
http://rear.sourceforge.net/
HTH,
D$
Last edited by Darksoul71 (2012-06-04 16:03:38)