Arch Linux

django

Member

Registered: 2006-10-29

Posts: 11

Guide for beginners?

The Installation guide and the Wiki was a great help for me when I set up arch to dual boot with Ubuntu yesterday, but it is far from as thorough as the Ubuntu Guide which tells you exactly what to do.

I started with Arch Linux to learn more about Linux, so I don't mind a kernel panic or having to test a few different things, but maybe more people would find their way to Arch if it was easier to begin.

For example, in the installation guide it says about network access:

After adding your newly installed network card to the modules.conf/modprobe.conf or the MODULES array, you should install the rp-pppoe package and run the adsl-setup script to configure your connection.

This might be enough for many experienced Linux users, but it will be difficult if you come from ubuntu or suse where internet access is set up automatically. The steps in a guide for beginners could for example be:

Internet access for ADSL:
1. Run  pppoe-setup as root (the new name of adsl-setup). If you dont use a password to access the internet, you do not have to provide username and password.
2. In /etc/rc.conf, change ROUTES=(!gateway) to ROUTES=(gateway)
3. Find out what NIC you have, and google for some module for this, Then add "alias eth0 <module>" to /etc/modprobe.conf.
(I know what my network card is, but many people using ubuntu have never looked at the inside of their computer, so they might need help to find out this.)
4. Run "dhcpcd" as root to get a list of nameservers.

Why don´t I write such a guide myself? Well, I don´t have the knowledge to do so.

Echo

Member

From: Ohio, United States

Registered: 2006-05-16

Posts: 239

Re: Guide for beginners?

Welcome to Arch django. I'm a fairly new arch user myself.

If you search the forum, you will find that your thoughts on a more detailed guide have been discussed on several different occassions. Even reference to the Ubuntu guide has been made before. There may be a more detailed guide already started?

django

Member

Registered: 2006-10-29

Posts: 11

Re: Guide for beginners?

Thanks for the welcome!

And indeed, there was the thread ubuntuguide for arch with similar thoughts.

(By the way, the guide I linked to is not http://ubuntuguide.org/ , but https://help.ubuntu.com/ .)