The grumpy editor's Arch Linux experience

Jonathan Corbet from lwn.net did a review on Arch Linux.
It is now available for free <https://lwn.net/Articles/638069/>.

ANOKNUSA wrote:
satanselbow wrote:Not an unreasonable article - somewhat let down by the moronic, flag waving nature of some of the comment{er}s.
I'd rather someone avoid something entirely because it requires actual thought, than have them actively demand someone else do all the thinking for them while trying to reap the reward. People who stay away from Arch because it requires more than a mouse click are dodged bullets.
Its weird how anyone using Linux (even Ubuntu) would be adverse to thought and tinkering. Even with Ubuntu, there will be cases of googleing, reading the Arch Wiki, and copy/pasteing Terminal commands to fix problems. The only difference is that Arch requires more tinkering (and an involved install process), but as a result users become more conforable with tinkering their systems. Also being able to scrutinize what packages are installed.
Unless someone merely uses Ubuntu for web browsing, they should have to tinker once in a while too. So they shouldent hate on other distros for having to do it more .
Last edited by bromanbro (2015-04-10 05:09:15)

Similar Messages

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

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

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

Where is the command file in arch linux?

Hi!
Switching over from debian and Mac OS I'm missing some details in Arch Linux. At the moment there is an issue with my NagiosQL setup. In the config part I need to tell NagiosQL where to check if Icinga (a nagios replacement) is running by the path to its command file. Icinga gets started by systemctl. Usually I would look in /var/run, but there is no icinga.pid or such thing. Where do PID files reside?
Thanks

awado wrote:Do I have to run it as another user?
Hmm. The second page I linked says this:
Before you install the package create the user icinga:icinga with these commands:
# groupadd -g 667 icinga
# useradd -u 667 -g icinga -G http -d /dev/null -s /bin/false icinga
Did you try this? I probably don't don't what I'm talking about, because I've never used this package.
Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2014-02-13 01:37:44)

The biggest breaker of Arch Linux, ever...

Damn, I've never seen so many posts about anything breaking Arch the way the new Xorg 7.0 stuff has, especially in such a short time. :shock:
How about the rest of you? Do you remember anything ever causing more havoc among upgraders and fresh installers?

Well, I think the majority of ALL problems can be summed up by one of three things:
1) Mirror sync issues. I don't know how many people I've talked to already that only got HALF the update when they did a pacman -Syu, and that borked stuff royal, because the mirror wasn't totally synched yet.
2) Improper dependency lists on KDE stuff (and possibly other stuff too). This got fixed rather quickly, but alot of people were missing necessary libs to run KDE properly. The same happened with Gaim too, now that I think about it, and is probably present elsewhere.
3) The upgrade from Xorg 7 xorg-clients as a single package to split packages, causing a bunch of files to disappear. This one only affected the people who were already using Xorg 7 from testing. This one was caused by the behaviour of pacman when files move from one package to another -- it's a tough one to catch, I'd imagine.
So, in summary, these problems were problems on the pacman/server side - for that reason it's not surprising that they hit everyone. Problems with udev or initrd were more on the individual system-by-system basis - prepared people could be ready and do what they needed to do; there was nothing inherently wrong with the packages or the mirrors. Plus the Xorg upgrade is massive compared to the initrd/udev stuff.
Long and short of it; I'm not surprised there were more issues to deal with, when just considering the circumstances.

Modifying the stock arch linux kernel and kernel timer frequency

so if i understand correctly, if we want to modify the stock arch linux kernel, we have to pull it off of abs. ie "ABSROOT=. abs core/linux" then modify the pkgbuild, uncommenting out make menuconfig and setting the pkgbase name to something different than stock. ie, "linux-custom" then update the checksums followed by importing the gpg keys, ie "gpg --recv-keys 79BE3E4300411886 and gpg --recv-keys 38DBBDC86092693E" for the kernel and patches. then run makepkg -s.
we can't just run make menuconfig on the current kernel that's installed?
and if we pull the linux kernel from abs to customize, does it already come preconfigured with all the arch changes and settings? like its no different than the current one installed?
i just ask because for the most part, i like the current arch kernel, there are just a few minor things i want to change but kept everything else the same as stock arch linux kernel.
also, i herd arch uses 300hz for its timer. whats the benefits and disadvantage of using 300hz over 1000hz for a desktop system?

orlfman wrote:we can't just run make menuconfig on the current kernel that's installed?
No you can't, because the kernel then has to be compiled so the kernel will run with the different tick rate.
orlfman wrote:
and if we pull the linux kernel from abs to customize, does it already come preconfigured with all the arch changes and settings? like its no different than the current one installed?
i just ask because for the most part, i like the current arch kernel, there are just a few minor things i want to change but kept everything else the same as stock arch linux kernel.
As I understand it from the Wiki, the ABS pulls the PKGBUILD and other arch-specific sources from the ArchLinux script server. However, I don't use the ABS, but pull the files I need directly from the ArchLinux SVN and build using makepkg[1] after making the necessary changes.
orlfman wrote:Also, I heard arch uses 300hz for its timer. whats the benefits and disadvantage of using 300hz over 1000hz for a desktop system?
You're in for a technical discussion here. This has a reasonably friendly discussion on kernel tick rates.
Basically, higher tick rates = a higher level of timing precision & higher processor load, lower tick rates = lower level of timing precision & lower processor load.
[1] Technically, I use the clean chroot manager package, which is a wrapper for makechrootpkg (which in turn is a wrapper for running makepkg in a clean chroot if I'm not mistaken).

Wocka 0.5 - checkinstall for Arch Linux

Last updated: 17th-Feb-2007
With Wocka you can do:
./configure
make
su
wocka
and you'll get the application installed, and a pacman db entry too.
Wocka automatically figures out the package name, version and/or subversion revision, and if it can, other metadata too. It determines the build system (make, unsermake, scons, cmake, etc.). It can also create a basic PKGBUILD, with some of the fields (eg name, version) magically filled in. It can also handle upgrades and check AUR for PKGBUILDs.
Visit the site for a Arch linux package, the source tarball, and detailed usage examples. There's also a feed you can subscribe to at the site if you want to be notified of updates.
http://methylblue.com/wocka/
Comments, contributions, etc. most welcome! Thanks.
===========
I have discovered other programs that do a similar thing for Arch. They may be better and you may want to consider them, or at least demand I implement things they do into Wocka If you do use one of the others, I'd like to hear why, if you have the time, thanks!
bpkg
creapkg
pacinstall
versionpkg
Last edited by mxcl (2007-02-17 03:24:12)

Firstly, I'm really sorry I didn't see the above new replies, I subscribed to this thread, but never got the emails... Must have been my spam filter I expect.
Gullible Jones wrote:Wait a minute, why the heck does this thing require QT? It doesn't have a GUI so why would it use the QT library? :?
I used Qt as I have 4 years experience with it and develop fast with it. With Qt4 the library is separated into Core (CLI only) and GUI components, so as soon as Arch ships Qt4 and people have it installed en-mass, I'll switch to the CLI only library. I apologise if you think I'm crazy/stupid, you may be right
You should have talked to Xentac. He already has an app named "Wakka" IIRC.
Hmm sucks, I may have to rename again. I renamed the first time as pacgen is a name already used by two other projects!
sud_crow wrote:wasnt pacman's sound waka waka waka?
heh could be, I'm not a pacman expert. Extralife the webcomic always makes pacman say "Wocka!", but I spose I should have done more research!
phrakture wrote:Send a PKGBUILD to AUR!
Yeah I half did this and then couldn't figure out how to work the AUR or something. I'll try again.
I had 0.3 ready a few weeks ago, then I started using my CRT with my new XBOX 360 and didn't boot to Linux until yesterday Now I have some new TFTs.
The changes since 0.2:
· Automatic upgrade/merge for new installs of subversion managed source installations
· Better versioning detection
· Easy automatic AUR builds via: wocka --aur appname
· Metadata is extracted from LSM files
· --upgrade switch
The upgrade switch basically merges the old package with what's just installed, so you don't lose any information, I figured this was the safest route. Please correct me if you disagree. Thanks

Arch Linux User Creation Section

I think there should be some sort of Arch Linux software/script/multimedia section in this board. Like the various splash screens, wallpapers, scripts, and other related software/things that the users of Arch Linux have created. It isn't very easy to find the various scripts that Arch Linux users have made, so it would be a good idea to move things that make the Arch Linux experience much better to a section all to itself, either that or make there be some centralized place on the website with links to stuff like Arch Stats and some of the other scripts that I know people have made, but are hard to find.
Also, many distributions' websites have a few screenshots of their distro in action, so maybe we should take a few of the best screenshots that were posted to the forum, and put those in a section on the website.
Kritoke

apeiro wrote:Done and done.
Thanks. To begin, apeiro you can move the AMLUG Project Page to the new "Users Contribution" forum. Its a regular contributing page, still keep it as sticker.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=967

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)

Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

Dear Arch Linux community,
I would like to tell you a little background information about myself before I start to talk about my actual subject. I know that this part of my message does not belong here, but it is my own ritual to do it like this in my first message in every community. I hope I can make friends with people here and try not to harm this community in any way. Thank you for reading this.
I am a 16-year-old male student from Finland and addicted to GNU/Linux and freeware / open source software. My previous experience with GNU/Linux is fairly large; from thin client Debian GNU/Linux administrator to kernel hacker and software developer. My delight is music, particularly writing and composing my own music tracks which vary from classic chiptunes to acid trance and dance beats. Arch Linux seems to be a great GNU/Linux operating system for me, because I am looking for a GNU/Linux distribution that does not focus on desktop, but rather on simplicity and lightweight solutions. I also do not fear "bleeding edge" software which is a positive point for Arch Linux compared to Debian GNU/Linux. As you can probably notice I have been using Debian GNU/Linux before I considered Arch Linux. However now I am here hoping for a totally new experience from Arch Linux.
Enough with my foreword, I would like to now go back to the actual subject. Usually I use DVD media for GNU/Linux images to have both the installer for the GNU/Linux distribution and the main package repository to make installations faster and to have the possibility for an offline installation. As I see, Arch Linux provides only CD images which are approximately 160MB in size, making me to think about incorporating Arch Linux's "Core" and "Extra" package repositories to fill up the remaining 4GB on the DVD. If the "Core" package repository is already included in the Arch Linux CD image, please forgive my lack of information as this is the first time I have ever entered to the world of Arch Linux.
My question is as follows: Is it possible to incorporate Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD while retaining the ability to install Arch Linux from that DVD? If positive, how should I go on to do it?
Thank you in advance!
Last edited by Amplify.EXE (2007-11-09 20:53:44)

No niin, tervetuloa arch-mailmaan.
Ok, I better stop at one sentence before someone gets mad at me :roll:.
To answer your question, yes. It is quite possible to put something like that together, heck I think someone suggested we should distribute those some time, but we decided not to (don't quote me, I'm too lazy to read the archives right now) since in most cases pacman will get the job done will job done with less bandwidth waste, and distributing huge snapshots isn't really too conducive to the whole rolling-release thing.
You might want to check out archiso [1], the install scripts [2], and one of my sample archiso configurations [3] that effectively creates an install CD. Now, keep in mind that archiso isn't the *current* way installers are created, but I think it's much more straightforward to work with than what we're using right now. That said, we currently use archboot to create the CDs, so that may be worth taking a look at as well. There is also a really old installer remastering wiki article [4], though not terribly relevant, you could still use a similar technique to pull apart one of our recent install iso's and remaster it with whatever packages you want. Anyhow, if you'd like help with this, I'd be more than happy to give you a hand (I need some more test-cases for archiso...), or if you look at it and go "gee, this is dumb", don't be afraid to send patches. Just get in touch with me through email, jabber, irc, or whatever.
Good luck
[1] http://projects.archlinux.org/git/?p=ar … a=summary)
[2] http://projects.archlinux.org/git/?p=in … ;a=summary
[3] http://code.neotuli.net/gitweb/?p=archi … stall-conf
[4] http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rem … nstall_ISO

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

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

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

Installing Arch Linux on USB key: error while booting

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

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

[Bounty] Free Macbook Pro to get Arch Linux running on Amazon's EC2

First, the details:
I will purchase a lowest–end Macbook Pro 13″ ($US 1,200 on Apple's store, new) for the first person to deliver to me a working set of step–by–step instructions for installing the latest Arch Linux on top of Amazon's EC2 platform.
Caveats & Rules:
- I don't care how long it takes you—there's a good chance I'm doing something absolutely stupid in my noobishness that's causing the problems I've been experiencing; if it takes you half an hour to make a working AMI, and produce instructions to do such… you just won yourself a Macbook Pro for half an hour's work. Booyah!
- Again, I say, I don't care how long it takes you—if you don't produce a working set of instructions, there will be no payout, even if you spend 200 hours trying (as I already have!). It's a bounty, not a work contract d-:
- You must provide me with instructions that work for me (as I don't intend to use your AMI, but rather modify the steps that worked for you a bit at a time until I arrive at an AMI configured exactly as I want it). If you arrive at a working AMI, and can reproduce your steps successfully locally, but they can't be made to work for me, I may be able to go about procuring alternative hardware for myself on which to preform the steps, or taking other measures to reproduce your environment; but the bottom line is I will not shell out until I can, personally, produce a working AMI running Arch Linux.
- The instructions are considered to be "working" when I can successfully SSH into the root account on an instance instantiated from an AMI created by following the instructions using the key generated by EC2.
- Your instructions must work both for x86_32 and x86_64 instance types; however, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, as (barring any weirdness) anything that works on x86_32 should be easily made to work on x86_64.
- Instructions that involve instantiating an intermediate bundling host (say, a CentOS or Fedora Core instance) and then installing Arch to a loopback filesystem using a statically–built pacman are much preferred to instructions that involve me having to install and package Arch locally and then ship it up to S3, because my upstream is unimaginably slow and I eventually will need to create something between eight and twenty different AMIs (see below). But anything that works will be accepted.
- If you don't want a Macbook Pro, alternative payment methods may be arranged, though you need to contact me before you start and arrange these, as there's only so much I can do.
- If you are in any way confused or unsure of what I'm offering here, please contact me before you start (see below for contact info)
Backstory:
I set up the first AMI for Arch Linux on Amazon, but unfortunately, I did some really stupid things (hey, I was completely new to Linux at the time, gimmie a break!). The root filesystem was limited to 1GB, there was a whole bunch of software that really was completely unnecessary (WiFi drivers? on a virtualized server? seriously?), there were no kernel modules provided… and so on.
So, after running all my stuff on instances of that for a while, I finally got fed up and found the time to start setting up a newer, cleaner AMI. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of deleting my old AMI before starting work on the first. Now I find myself completely unable to create an AMI that will work whatsoever, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.
I've already invested 200 or so hours of my personal time since deleting my original, broken AMI; I'm very fed up and in badly need of working instances. I tried every method I could think of; running the Arch installer from a LiveCD locally and then bundling the running (and thus proved working) Arch install and shipping it off to S3; installing Arch on a loopback filesystem locally, cloning it to a local partition, booting to it to ensure it works, and shipping it off to S3; installing Arch on a loopback filesystem on a remote bundling host running CentOS or whatever and then shipping it off to S3… I've tried installing nothing but the essentials, I've tried installing everything the installer offers… I've tried to do my best to remember the exact steps I took the first time around, years ago, and reproduce them exactly… nothing has worked.
If I take EC2 out of the equation, and install the images I've prepared locally, they work. If I take Arch out of the equation, and install, say, CentOS instead, and then ship it off to EC2, it works. The only time I have problems is when I attempt to install Arch Linux specifically on EC2 specifically; the exact use–case I need.
I've run into a lot of problems along the way, and fixed them as I go, but I universally end up with an AMI that, once instantiated, does not successfully boot. Worse yet, I get absolutely no output from the console (provided by the ec2-get-console command–line tool) to help me debug the problem. I can't give you any more specifics beyond this to help you, because I don't want to insinuate some idea that will cause you to make some little stupid mistake that I also made, thus dooming the project.
Contact:
For more info of any sort, please hit me up on Google Talk or Jabber (… or any other XMPP–federated chat service, or AIM, or ICQ, or MSN, or whatever you like, they all use the same address anyway) at the following address:
[email protected]
Edit: I should point out that it would be good form to post here if you're going to make a stab at it, so interested parties know how many people are already making attempts.
Last edited by elliottcable (2009-07-25 03:59:46)

drtoki wrote:
http://blog.mudy.info/2009/04/archlinux-ec2-public-ami/
lolwat
from fryguy
Public AMIs aren't what I need, because I need to mass–produce quite a few AMIs with different custom configurations for different purposes; so I have to be able to start from scratch and arrive at a working AMI *myself*.
As for the script, I'm sitting down to play with it now; it looks just about exactly like what I've been doing so far. Maybe there's some small thing he did differently that will make it work. Here's hoping it works for me; that'll be a real load off my chest.

Arch linux for Ubuntu users

Hello everyone,
When using Synaptic on Ubuntu it usually sets everything up for you so all the installed software tends to work out of the box without any need to change around configuration. Is the package manager in Arch Linux as integrated as the one from Ubuntu?
Thanks
Frank

I'm new to the linux scene (about 1 month now). My most used distro (and my fallback if I mess up another distro on a seperate partition) was Ubuntu, until I figured out the basics of Arch. After this enlightenment, I find Arch to be much easier to work with in terms of customizing apps, having the right libraries I want, and to just do daily functions. I love to always check for updates to the system. Ever notice in ubuntu there are about 30 repositories you have to sync with? In Arch there are the 3 basic repositories (extra, core, community) and multilib if you are on 64bit. Working with pacman is much more efficient and controlled than apt-get imho.
One thing I hated with apt-get is that you add in 3rd party PPAs that are slow. With Arch and its pacman + yaourt(aur) there is really no need for these 3rd party repositories as everything you can imagine is probably available in official repositories or built by the community. Go check out https://aur.archlinux.org/ this is one of the coolest community made pool of apps around.
As mentioned before, the pacman doesn't hold your hands so be prepared to google and learn what some packages do. For example, I am running gnome and install a KDE app called amarok. Pacman will install everything (including KDE and qt libs) to get amarok started. However, the only things it doesn't install (but it does tell you what) is extra depencies.
Optional dependencies for amarok
libgpod: support for Apple iPod audio devices
libmtp: support for portable media devices
loudmouth: backend needed by mp3tunes for syncing
ifuse: support for Apple iPod Touch and iPhone
So, basically I just read through pacman's output, and either google or make a decision on what is needed. This way my system is controlled tightly and I know more about the system. In the future if I buy an ipod and want to sync, I'll remember there are some optional depencies available for this. I can type "pacman -Qi amarok" and it will show me what it depends on as well as optional depencies.
Sorry for going on for so long but you get the point.

Complete theme for Arch Linux

Hi guys. In celebration of Arch's new design, I finally decided to learn more about making wallpapers and GTK+ themes. Unfortunately, I had to basically hack an existing GTK+ theme (Smooth-Line), but it still looks good and matches the overall feel of Arch Linux, in my opinion.
I've created a collection of files that themes the following things:
GTK widgets
Fluxbox
desktop background
urxvt
The goal was to integrate seamlessly with the website's look and feel. I think I've succeeded:
Unfortunately, I don't have an xcf of the background, so I doubt it can be scaled easily. I guess it's one of those things you don't think about when a project starts out being 'just for me'.
I've uploaded a g-zipped tarball of the files you'll need to use the theme.
http://sporkbox.us/linux/arch-theme.tar.gz
* The sample .Xdefaults file allows you to change the colors for urxvt. Feel free to delete all the stuff before the "color#" lines.
* gtkrc goes wherever you want it, but should be put in /usr/share/themes/Smooth-Arch/gtk-2.0/ if you want theme switching apps to recognize it.
* The background can be put anywhere.
* Arch-Linux goes in /usr/share/fluxbox/styles or ~/.fluxbox/styles.
I hope you guys like it.
EDIT: Updated the screenshot and fixed the link to the archive.
Last edited by xelados (2009-12-07 11:46:15)

xelados wrote:
mfolnovic wrote:Can you please give us links to GTK+ theme documentation? I can't find any ...
Sure! GNOME Live: GTK Theme Tutorial
Beat me to it.
I've got loads of half-finished themes here (or did have; they might have gone when I switched to Arch) - once I found QtCurve, it just seemed too much hassle. It's not totally configurable from the GUI, but it certainly beats poring over gtkrcs until your eyes hurt.
Edit: I meant to add that the wallpaper works quite well cropped to 5:4 if you take the right end. The big Arch logo loses its bottom left point, but it's not too bad.
Last edited by dunc (2008-02-03 20:12:34)

Crover - generate OS version numbers for Arch Linux

Arch is a rolling distro, but did you ever wish it still had release numbers? So you could check what "version" you currently have installed, and upgrade to the latest "version" if necessary, with a reasonable delay between versions?
Of course you didn't. No sensible person would want to attach pseudo-version numbers to a rolling distro.
https://code.google.com/p/crover/
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/crover/
crover returns a version number for Arch Linux based on time elapsed since the distro's initial release (March 11, 2002). The number format is X.Y, with X being years and Y being subdivisions of the current year. By default, the version number is generated for the current date with a subdivision size of one week.
As of this writing, the current version is Arch Linux 12.1. In other words, Arch is 12 years and 1 week old.

Hmm, you could actually make this somewhat more relevant to actual update practices if you wanted. Were I to try to accomplish such a task, I would figure out a way to check and see if all the official repos are up-to-date (or just if all the packages the user has installed are up-to-date with `checkupdates`). Then, take the number of seconds elapsed since Arch's release till the last update (which brought that rig up-to-date).
Then, you could grab the user's list of currently installed packages with pacman and take a hash of it. And, by concatenating those two figures together, you could get some semblance of a "version" number. For example, mine would be something similar to the following:
378691200.4c41d609
Not to mention, with this calculation, it would not be difficult to format the time part of the version in a variety of ways. May be worth thinking about
All the best,
-HG

The grumpy editor's Arch Linux experience

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