Arch Linux

RobK

Member

Registered: 2005-12-07

Posts: 121

Installing Arch on an existing Slackware based system

I would like to switch over to arch.  I am using Vector Linux which is essentially Slackware 10.1 with the 2.6.12 kernel.

I would like to use a more transparent package manager.  I do not like the Slackware binary packages since you do not know how they were built.  So I often end up compilng from source and creating my own packages.

pacman / abs is a much more transparent packaging system!

Can I just install the pacman manager on my existing Vector Linux system and do a system upgrade using pacman? 

Won't that be the easist way to switch to Arch?  Or do I need to reformat my partitions and use the 0.7 arch iso?

Rob

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

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Re: Installing Arch on an existing Slackware based system

I'd suggest a new install... you could probably save your home partition, but since a lot of other stuff is different between arch and slack, it might not work too well... think of initscripts and the organization of /opt and other structural differences. Plus the packages you have installed from slack will very likely conflict with arch packages, or you will have a lot of loose slack files lying around that never get overwritten by arch packages because they are in different locations, etc.

It is probably possible to just install pacman but I suspect it would not be the *easiest* way. :-)

Dusty

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RobK

Member

Registered: 2005-12-07

Posts: 121

Re: Installing Arch on an existing Slackware based system

Thanks.  I might save some of my config files like xorg.conf so I don't have to edit them by hand a second time..

Rob