[SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

Amanda S · 2013-09-21 06:18:59

Hello everyone.

My previously system was Debian Testing. It worked well but I needed a bigger challenge so I decided to install Arch.
The installation is easy and it's pretty easy to understand everything once you already read the wiki and installed it before.

As of now, it's working very well on Virtualbox and I will install it on my machine in a couple of hours.

I have some questions first.

1. I installed it in English and my keyboard is portuguese. I need it to be in br-abnt2 but 'keymaps' outputs an error*. Is there a wiki where I can change the layout?

2. I would love to see tips for beginners. I'm not a hardcore user, I don't mess around my system, I'm not that curious. I expect the system to work as I want (one of the reasons I chose Arch) and the only things I do on my systems is work on GIMP, web-surface, gaming with Steam, recording my songs (with Audacity), modeling with Blender etc. Do I need some kind of 'non-free repo'?

3. How often do I need to update the system?

* The error is

Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

Regards.

Last edited by Amanda S (2013-09-21 21:15:51)

headkase · 2013-09-21 06:26:15

Amarildo wrote:

..3. How often do I need to update the system?..

I update my system whenever I see a new package. I check the main page multiple times per day, I check it when I'm on my way to the forums. You don't want to let packages build up and if you see an advisory appear on the Home page then make sure to take care of it right away. I would say update at least once a week or whenever a advisory appears.

Anoniem · 2013-09-21 07:29:14

headkase wrote:

Amarildo wrote:
..3. How often do I need to update the system?..
I update my system whenever I see a new package. I check the main page multiple times per day, I check it when I'm on my way to the forums. You don't want to let packages build up and if you see an advisory appear on the Home page then make sure to take care of it right away. I would say update at least once a week or whenever a advisory appears.

Same here, in the beginning (I'm a starter) I thought if it is working, don't break it, but now I've learnt to read the packages, see what's updated and upgrade.

jasonwryan · 2013-09-21 07:40:18

Welcome to the boards. Please choose a more descriptive title for your thread: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … ow_to_Post

1. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KEYMAP

2. No. The only additional repo you would require on a 64bit system is multilib

3. Regularly; the smaller the incremental change you have to manage, the easier to identify potential issues and work through them. Arch is designed to be updated, don't fight it.

tomk · 2013-09-21 07:43:19

2. The wiki is full of tips for beginners, and everyone else. Your system will work as you want if/when you set it up as you want. GIMP, Steam, Audacity, and Blender are all in the repos. And no, you don't need any non-free repo.

karol · 2013-09-21 11:46:10

3. I'd says weekly. Always pay attention to the news - if there are any. You may have to take some time to follow an announcement e.g. https://www.archlinux.org/news/deprecat … ysctlconf/ . Always pay attention to pacman's output.

If you think something should be mentioned in the news or in pacman's output and it's not, open a thread on the forums or a bug report in the bugtracker e.g. https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/36466

Last edited by karol (2013-09-21 11:46:42)

Mr.Elendig · 2013-09-21 14:12:19

The most important post you will ever read on this forum.

As for your error: use loadkeys if you are on a tty.

smirky · 2013-09-21 14:32:16

Sorry but there are non-free repos. The Linux kernel is licensed in such a way that there would never be one (thank God).

karol · 2013-09-21 14:36:57

smirky wrote:

Sorry but there are non-free repos. The Linux kernel is licensed in such a way that there would never be one (thank God).

You can create a non-free repo to hold packages that are less free than other packages. You pick the definitions, set limits and you're done.

What does it have to do with the linux kernel? 'One' what? Just one repo?
Or do you mean there are no non-free repos, but you forgot the 'no'?

Amanda S · 2013-09-21 21:15:35

headkase wrote:

Amarildo wrote:
..3. How often do I need to update the system?..
I update my system whenever I see a new package. I check the main page multiple times per day, I check it when I'm on my way to the forums. You don't want to let packages build up and if you see an advisory appear on the Home page then make sure to take care of it right away. I would say update at least once a week or whenever a advisory appears.

Thanks for the headsup.

jasonwryan wrote:

Welcome to the boards. Please choose a more descriptive title for your thread: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … ow_to_Post
1. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KEYMAP
2. No. The only additional repo you would require on a 64bit system is multilib
3. Regularly; the smaller the incremental change you have to manage, the easier to identify potential issues and work through them. Arch is designed to be updated, don't fight it.

Thanks.

tomk wrote:

2. The wiki is full of tips for beginners, and everyone else. Your system will work as you want if/when you set it up as you want. GIMP, Steam, Audacity, and Blender are all in the repos. And no, you don't need any non-free repo.

Good to know!

karol wrote:

3. I'd says weekly. Always pay attention to the news - if there are any. You may have to take some time to follow an announcement e.g. https://www.archlinux.org/news/deprecat … ysctlconf/ . Always pay attention to pacman's output.
If you think something should be mentioned in the news or in pacman's output and it's not, open a thread on the forums or a bug report in the bugtracker e.g. https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/36466

Yes, I was advised by many to always read the news after upgrading.

Mr.Elendig wrote:

The most important post you will ever read on this forum.
As for your error: use loadkeys if you are on a tty.

Thanks for that link.

I fixed my issue by adding

Option "XkbLayout" "br"
        Option "XkbVariant" "abnt2"

to '/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf'.

cfr · 2013-09-22 02:43:12

Also, install pacmatic and alias pacman to pacmatic if you think you'll forget...

skunktrader · 2013-09-22 02:48:31

Amarildo wrote:

Yes, I was advised by many to always read the news after upgrading.

You will save much heartache if you remember to read the news BEFORE upgrading

cfr · 2013-09-22 20:53:52

pacmatic does that for you... and reminds you about .pacnew/.pacsave (except for kdmrc.pacnew for some reason which it ignores).

karol · 2013-09-22 20:59:51

cfr wrote:

pacmatic does that for you... and reminds you about .pacnew/.pacsave (except for kdmrc.pacnew for some reason which it ignores).

pacnew_count()  # none : int
{
    find /etc/ \( -name \*.pacnew -o -name \*.pacorig -o -name \*.pacsave \) 2> /dev/null | wc -l
}

/usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc is not in /etc.

I think there is /was a similar issue with the pacdiff utility that's shipped with pacman.

Edit: pacdiff let's you override the default search path:

$ pacdiff usage
pacdiff : a simple pacnew/pacorig/pacsave updater
Usage : pacdiff [-l]
  -l/--locate makes pacdiff use locate rather than find
  DIFFPROG variable allows to override the default vimdiff
  DIFFSEARCHPATH allows to override the default /etc path
Example : DIFFPROG=meld DIFFSEARCHPATH="/boot /etc /usr" pacdiff

I posted about this issue in the pacmatic thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1328083

Last edited by karol (2013-09-22 21:04:53)

cfr · 2013-09-22 21:22:38

Thanks, karol. I still think pacmatic is extremely helpful - I just mentioned kdmrc since it is important to notice if there are files it doesn't pick up so you make sure to keep a particular eye on them. (Luckily kdmrc doesn't change much except for the "random seed".)

Amanda S · 2013-09-23 05:56:41

skunktrader wrote:

Amarildo wrote:
Yes, I was advised by many to always read the news after upgrading.
You will save much heartache if you remember to read the news BEFORE upgrading

Sorry, I posted that in the wrong order =P
Yes, of course, I will read BEFORE. Now I got that right.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-21 06:18:59

[SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#2 2013-09-21 06:26:15

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#3 2013-09-21 07:29:14

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#4 2013-09-21 07:40:18

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#5 2013-09-21 07:43:19

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#6 2013-09-21 11:46:10

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#7 2013-09-21 14:12:19

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#8 2013-09-21 14:32:16

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#9 2013-09-21 14:36:57

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#10 2013-09-21 21:15:35

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#11 2013-09-22 02:43:12

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#12 2013-09-22 02:48:31

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#13 2013-09-22 20:53:52

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#14 2013-09-22 20:59:51

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#15 2013-09-22 21:22:38

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

#16 2013-09-23 05:56:41

Re: [SOLVED] My 1st thoughts on Arch

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