I would rather spend a week...

Bysshe · 2006-03-30 06:34:34

Basically, this is just a rant about how Arch is making another impression on me.

"I would rather spend a week..." installing Linux applications and configurations (post-Arch-install) than just installing Windows ME bare. Don't ask, I bought it way back when it was brand new not knowing that I had completely pissed my $200 away. What amazes me about Linux is that it just works almost no matter what.

The plan was, in getting a computer back up for my dad, give him an old dusty Windows ME install I wasn't using, and didn't have installed on anything for obvious reasons, but I would be able to bear the brunt of this dispicable creation, and get it working.

Well, I couldn't. The operating system can't install basic common drivers, and Microsoft would not allow me to perform any type of updates to it in order to ease the process. So, he agreed to Linux, and I immediately thought: "Go with one of the more common newbie distros". Unfortunately, as I dug through these distros, reading, and reading...I got to thinking, yeah, easy for him (but what about me), and maybe I just didn't see the supposed "intuitivity" the dummy features of these distros. What it appears is that the arch developers and community are freakin' awesome, and I'm just going to spend some time piecing together a nice fast distro with Arch instead.

Eh, it only took me a few hours (4) to get from a zero-filled drive to the point I am right this second with a basic functioning Arch install from 7.1 disk, and using all the newer features. Tapping away on a wretched KM266 with Unichrome graphics GLXgears=800FPS on xorg7, so I've done my homework, and now the REAL fun begins. BTW, thank you. In about sixteen hours, Windows ME was saying I couldn't do anything because of registry errors, and I had not accomplished the first thing.

Thanks again, and if you were patient enough to read this, hopefully you're also nice enough to suggest some post-install features that work best for Linux newbies because I know alot has changed in the past few months with Arch.

1) Is autofs still a good automounter? Or is there better?
2) I have never been able to get a login manager to properly handle the ctrl-alt-Backspace situation. I hear about "slim" here and there, but I've also not really had good luck with it because I don't really understand configuration instructions for it.
3) I plan on blocking upgrades to the kernel, and was thinking about xorg-server as well, but now with it modularized, guess I'd have to blacklist deps also...any thoughts (I don't have a problem doing this, just wondering if there's a real slick way to do it). Reason: if something doesn't go according to planned, don't want my dad freaking out because he wouldn't have the first idea of what to do. I plan on trying to teach him a few things, but for now, I need to block upgrades of key components, and I was wondering if there are any other packages anyone can recommend to "noupgrade"?

I just think it's nice when a plan comes together. :?

iphitus · 2006-03-30 07:50:42

1) ivman or either of the de's hal based solutions work fine for m2
2) In your /etc/inittab
x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
but change the path to the *dm you want.
3) Why block anything at all? There arent going to be any major changes that will break things. If you are worried about something breaking, then dont syu straight away, wait a few days, look at the forums, then syu. It's better that you keep up to date, us, the devs, would prefer not to be dealing with bugs resulting from conflicts with new and old packages mixed.

James

tomk · 2006-03-30 08:52:17

2) If you particularly want to use slim, post the specific problems you're having with it. It's a pretty basic app - shouldn't be hard to sort out for you.

codemac · 2006-03-30 13:53:03

1) if you are automounting usb devices, just use udev h4x:

KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", NAME="%k", SYMLINK+="usb%m", GROUP="users", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", SYMLINK+="usb%n", GROUP="users", NAME="%k"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p /mnt/usb%n"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", PROGRAM=="/sbin/vol_id -t %N", RESULT=="vfat", RUN+="/bin/mount -t vfat -o rw,noauto,sync,dirsync,noexec,nodev,noatime,dmask=000,fmask=111 /dev/%k /mnt/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/mount -t auto -o rw,noauto,sync,dirsync,noexec,nodev,noatime /dev/%k /mnt/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/umount -l /mnt/usb%n"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/rmdir /mnt/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"

2) SLiM is nice, but so is framebuffer + startx

3) I used to whore pacman -Syu every 4 seconds. It was an old habit I had back from gentoo, where I wanted to spread out my compile time, and get things on the ball faster. Binary distributions don't need that. Now I try and hold myself back to once a day. If you are afraid of something big breaking your install, then just make sure you only do pacman -Syu when you have some time to fix problems immediately and possibly have another computer with internet so you can reach information and help easier. I don't think IgnorePkg is too useful because if you never want packages to update why are you using archlinux?

Bysshe · 2006-03-30 16:56:29

Eh, you're right, I have gotten to a point where if something does break, for me, it's a minor situation and also, I think Arch has come to a point it is far less likely, but I didn't know for sure until now. So I won't block anything. LiveCD fixes everything.

iphitis, the problem I have with the instructions you posted for the login situation is that it has never worked (fluxbox), and I even tried slim, which kinda half-worked. The problem was the login manager tries to continously re-login after pressing ctrl-alt-Backspace, which was gdm, the only login manager that even worked at all for that time. I'm sorry, it's been a couple of months, but when I get there, hopefully there isn't really a problem since this is only my 2nd real Arch from scratch install. I assume there must be some configuration that occurs if you install the actual window manager which matches the login manager, since fluxbox doesn't officially have one. :?:

Arch Linux

#1 2006-03-30 06:34:34

I would rather spend a week...

#2 2006-03-30 07:50:42

Re: I would rather spend a week...

#3 2006-03-30 08:52:17

Re: I would rather spend a week...

#4 2006-03-30 13:53:03

Re: I would rather spend a week...

#5 2006-03-30 16:56:29

Re: I would rather spend a week...

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