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#1 2006-05-17 13:30:31

miller0521
Member
Registered: 2006-05-17
Posts: 38

Genral ArchLinux Questions

Hey Guys, I am not new to Linux, but I have never used this Distro before, and I am looking for a new distro ( I use to love Gentoo, but it is just way behind on stable packages ) I just have a couple ideas that I like to see in a distro, someone tell me if ArchLinux is the way to go for me.

1) I normally prefer KDE over Gnome, is KDE supported in Arch, and which DE is the primary DE in Arch? And when a new release of one comes out, how long before I would be able to grab it via the packagemanager and update?

2) I have a wireless pci card that uses the ralink rt61 driver. How hard will it be for me to get it running in arch? NOTE : I will not have internet any other way than to use the wireless card.

3) I can't seem to find where an installation instruction manual is on the website, do I need one, or is it a graphical install like Fedora? Or if I need a manual, can you point me to it?

4) How up to date do most packages stay?

5) How hard will it be to acess a printer that is connected to a windows machine? Would that be easy or hard to configure?

Thanks guys!
Mitch

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#2 2006-05-17 13:48:10

Pick2
Member
From: Illinois
Registered: 2006-05-16
Posts: 55

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

Installation Guide Here:
http://www.archlinux.org/docs/en/guide/ … guide.html

Pick2 big_smile

Edit .... One noob to another:
there is a lot of good info on the Wiki , but it NEEDS an Index to pull it all together
The forums and community are A++ !  On Par with the best of them
The "Distro" is a Rolling upgrade , I think you'll like it !
The Forum Search function is every Noobie's friend !
http://bbs.archlinux.org/search.php

Pick2  ... or three big_smile


Just Folded Space From Arrakis

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#3 2006-05-17 13:52:48

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

miller0521 wrote:

1) I normally prefer KDE over Gnome, is KDE supported in Arch,

Yes.

miller0521 wrote:

and which DE is the primary DE in Arch?

None. No DE is installed by default - you choose you own. That's the way with all applications.

miller0521 wrote:

And when a new release of one comes out, how long before I would be able to grab it via the packagemanager and update?

Generally quickly, but it varies according to the release. The devs won't release packages unitl sufficient testing has been done.

miller0521 wrote:

2) I have a wireless pci card that uses the ralink rt61 driver. How hard will it be for me to get it running in arch?

I don't use ralink, so I can't give you anything specific, but if it runs under other distros, it will run under Arch.

miller0521 wrote:

3) I can't seem to find where an installation instruction manual is on the website

Installation Guide

miller0521 wrote:

4) How up to date do most packages stay?

Generally, very up-to-date, but varies from app to app - see 1) above.

miller0521 wrote:

5) How hard will it be to acess a printer that is connected to a windows machine? Would that be easy or hard to configure?

Difficult to answer without knowing your current skill/comfort levels, but as with 2) above, if you've done it with other distros, you can do it with Arch.

Apart from the Install Guide, have a good look through the wiki, and a search here in the forum, for anything else you're interested in.

Welcome to Arch. smile

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#4 2006-05-17 13:58:29

IceRAM
Member
From: Bucharest, Romania
Registered: 2004-03-04
Posts: 772
Website

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

1. There is no preffered desktop in ArchLinux. Just get what you want from the repos using pacman. Arch uses a rolling release (release=snapshot of the current repos) - I recommend getting the base iso and install afterwards whatever you want.

The package maintainers have the source packages of KDE before a new version is announced. The ArchLinux KDE packages are available in the repos usually the same day of the announcement or a few days before.

2. (don't use wireless - should be fairly easy, as long as the kernel supports it - I think). http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup could help - don't know what the install CD has on it in terms of wifi drivers.

3. http://www.archlinux.org/docs/en/

4. very up to date - as it says everywhere, ArchLinux tends to stay bleeding edge - you'll see for yourself

5. I do not believe this is a distro issue, is more like a Samba issue. If it worked in any other distro, it should work in Arch too. You will have to dig into some config files though, as Arch does not provide any tools for this (arch preffers not to alter packages) - well, since you used Gentoo, I don't think this will be an issue.

If you settle on Arch, welcome aboard.

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#5 2006-05-17 14:57:20

FUBAR
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2004-12-08
Posts: 1,029
Website

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

Damn, everything has been answered already! big_smile


A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

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#6 2006-05-17 15:22:15

ScriptDevil
Member
From: In Front of My PC
Registered: 2006-04-06
Posts: 253

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

for the printers part you can refer the wiki
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CUP … s_to_Linux


Be yourself, because you are all that you can be

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#7 2006-05-17 16:56:13

miller0521
Member
Registered: 2006-05-17
Posts: 38

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

Ok I got internet running. I notice when I do a lsmod there are tons of modules listed, most aren't being used by anything. Will it increase my PC performance to get rid of these? Or are they all required for Arch?

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#8 2006-05-17 16:56:45

raskolnikov
Member
From: France
Registered: 2006-01-08
Posts: 100

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

tomk wrote:

The devs won't release packages unitl sufficient testing has been done.

Nooo really ? fam, xorg7, kernels 2.6.16.*, udev... Not to mention some packages as cpufreq-utils which overwrites config files.

Anyway troubles are occasional, so you can try it and use it without major headaches. Never totally broke my system in six months of use wink


Excessive showering, grooming, and toothbrushing is not only vain, it wastes valuable coding time.

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#9 2006-05-17 17:02:05

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
Website

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

raskolnikov wrote:
tomk wrote:

The devs won't release packages unitl sufficient testing has been done.

Nooo really ? fam, xorg7, kernels 2.6.16.*, udev... Not to mention some packages as cpufreq-utils which overwrites config files.

Most things go to testing first.  If you don't actually use it and test/bug report it, you can't blame someone else.

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#10 2006-05-17 17:16:40

paul2lv
Member
From: Vegas
Registered: 2005-11-09
Posts: 116

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

miller0521 wrote:

Ok I got internet running. I notice when I do a lsmod there are tons of modules listed, most aren't being used by anything. Will it increase my PC performance to get rid of these? Or are they all required for Arch?

To get rid of those extra modules, customize your Initrd.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ini … our_Initrd

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#11 2006-05-17 17:45:44

miller0521
Member
Registered: 2006-05-17
Posts: 38

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

Ok one more issue. I want networking to start on boot. Let me tell you what I have to do each time I reboot.

I log into KDE, then go to konsole and cd into a direcotory called RT61 ( it is the file I downloaded from ralink website to get my wireless drivers( i have to go to the directory in it that has rt61,ko I have to type insmod rt61.ko then I have to type ifconfig ra0 inet up then I have to type iwconfig ra0 essid xxxx then I have to type dhcpcd ra0

How can I get this all done on boot? What do I need to configure?

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#12 2006-05-17 17:47:14

raskolnikov
Member
From: France
Registered: 2006-01-08
Posts: 100

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

phrakture wrote:

Most things go to testing first.  If you don't actually use it and test/bug report it, you can't blame someone else.

I use testing for a while (-Syu daily) and report bugs as I find them and they are not in flyspray, thanks. These packages were in testing and some (fam) reported broken, but nevertheless they found their way in current. I'm not blaming anyone, just saying that this can happen.


Excessive showering, grooming, and toothbrushing is not only vain, it wastes valuable coding time.

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#13 2006-05-17 18:01:52

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
Website

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

raskolnikov wrote:
phrakture wrote:

Most things go to testing first.  If you don't actually use it and test/bug report it, you can't blame someone else.

I use testing for a while (-Syu daily) and report bugs as I find them and they are not in flyspray, thanks. These packages were in testing and some (fam) reported broken, but nevertheless they found their way in current. I'm not blaming anyone, just saying that this can happen.

I had to find out about cpufrequtils over IRC.  Most people don't notice package issues unless they are in the bug tracker.

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#14 2006-05-17 18:11:09

raskolnikov
Member
From: France
Registered: 2006-01-08
Posts: 100

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

I know, I was not sure if it was a bug so I post it in the forum for confirmation. It was here.


Excessive showering, grooming, and toothbrushing is not only vain, it wastes valuable coding time.

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#15 2006-05-17 18:15:46

paul2lv
Member
From: Vegas
Registered: 2005-11-09
Posts: 116

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

miller0521 wrote:

Ok one more issue. I want networking to start on boot. Let me tell you what I have to do each time I reboot.

I log into KDE, then go to konsole and cd into a direcotory called RT61 ( it is the file I downloaded from ralink website to get my wireless drivers( i have to go to the directory in it that has rt61,ko I have to type insmod rt61.ko then I have to type ifconfig ra0 inet up then I have to type iwconfig ra0 essid xxxx then I have to type dhcpcd ra0

How can I get this all done on boot? What do I need to configure?

Okay, first off, do a

pacman -Sy rt2x00

Then do a

modprobe rt61pci

Make sure the rt61pci module works for your wireless card.
If it does, edit your rc.conf and add "rt61pci" to your MODULES array.
Reboot, and your card should have the needed modules loaded.

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#16 2006-05-18 07:42:11

IceRAM
Member
From: Bucharest, Romania
Registered: 2004-03-04
Posts: 772
Website

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

I think there are some network profiles in the Arch configuration (/etc/network-profiles/), created especially for people switching networks. I don't use them since I'm on Ethernet.

In my Ethernet configuration, once I am sure my network module is loaded (which happens to be loaded automatically by udev), "network" in the DAEMONS=(..) array does the configuation.

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#17 2006-05-18 11:55:25

miller0521
Member
Registered: 2006-05-17
Posts: 38

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

Pacman says rt2x00 is not found in sync db

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#18 2006-05-18 12:20:10

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Genral ArchLinux Questions

uncomment [unstable] to your pacman.conf.

please be aware that rt2x00 is updated frequently, as it is based off a CVS snapshot. Do not be surprised if it breaks.

James

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