Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

ProzacR · 2007-04-29 09:55:52

boring INTRO:
I am 6.10 ubuntu user for about 9 months. But now I am getting boried with ubuntu, and also my laptop is only pentium 3, and "ubuntu 7" in not for it. I upgraded and that was my mistake. Boot time now became very long, gnome is not starting any more. I think I would be able to fix gnome, but those new desktop efects will send my laptop to huge lags. So I use fluxbox. Also tons of usless (at least for me) debs crowded my only 20Gb hdd.

IDEA:
I need lightweight, fast and flexible linux distribution! And after gathering some info from http://distrowatch.com/
I fond my way to this forum and Arch linux.

QUESTIONS:
1) Boot time on pentium 3 in seconds?

2) As I see from distrowatch.com Arch is not Multilingual.
Is it possible to use my native (Lithuanian) letters somehow?

3) Some people in IRC said to me that Arch is very hard to instal. Is this true?

4) How much hdd space(how large partition) I need for normal instaliaton?

5) mp3, avi and other multipulti formats in Arch. They work same as in ubuntu?

6) My RT2400 WLAN card? Will I be able to use it in Arch?

7) Triple boot ubuntu/arch/windows2k from dual boot ubuntu/windows2k is possible? And is this good idea then I lack my hdd space even with dual boot? Ant is this hard to do or not?

Mikko777 · 2007-04-29 11:04:37

ProzacR wrote:

QUESTIONS:
1) Boot time on pentium 3 in seconds?
about 33 secs
2) As I see from distrowatch.com Arch is not Multilingual.
Is it possible to use my native (Lithuanian) letters somehow?
Huh? seems to be multilingual to me
3) Some people in IRC said to me that Arch is very hard to instal. Is this true?
No
4) How much hdd space(how large partition) I need for normal instaliaton?
bout 1-4Gb
5) mp3, avi and other multipulti formats in Arch. They work same as in ubuntu?
Huh? Dunno / works just fine
6) My RT2400 WLAN card? Will I be able to use it in Arch?
Prolly / Dunno
7) Triple boot ubuntu/arch/windows2k from dual boot ubuntu/windows2k is possible? And is this good idea then I lack my hdd space even with dual boot? Ant is this hard to do or not?
Sure, not.

Are you advanced linux user? Doesn't matter if not but just read beginners guide in wiki and see if you are willing to go through all that

Edit: What I mean is that pros install arch in few hours 1-4 while newbies with problems might take a few weeks to get _everything_ working.

Last edited by Mikko777 (2007-04-29 11:07:09)

rayjgu3 · 2007-04-29 11:08:08

1. yes it can happen , it might take some tweaking by you but it can happen

2. arch does have languages other than english , you may not see your language but there is others
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewforum.php?id=30

3. i recently suggested arch to a friend who with bout 2 months freebsd experience said it was easy enough , just read the documentation
there is this http://www.archlinux.org/static/docs/ar … -guide.txt
and plenty more to read during install explaining things as you go

4. as little as say 200 MB for a base install, but if you want X , DE , some other gui stuff youll want more room, i myself have arch on a 20GB partition but i see you only have 20GB so yes you can get away with say
1-5GB depending how much room you want/have for it

5. pacman -S codecs

6. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=12105

7. yes it is possible , it isnt hard if you have the knowledge

pelle.k · 2007-04-29 11:24:38

1) Boot time on pentium 3 in seconds?

What have you been drinking? Even beos couldn't boot up in 3 seconds. No, not even my mobile phone starts in 3 seconds. I suggest you buy an electronic typewriter. This one, you might start up in 3 seconds.

2) As I see from distrowatch.com Arch is not Multilingual. 
Is it possible to use my native (Lithuanian) letters somehow?

Sure thing. Just set xorg to your keyboard, and choose a fitting locale in /etc/locale.gen when you install arch.

3) Some people in IRC said to me that Arch is very hard to instal. Is this true?

Yes, and no.
If you're organized, like the shell (terminal), and interested in how things really work under the hood, you'll be allright. You should _really_ browse (or print out) the official arch handbook, and the arch beginners guide from the wiki though. Once it's set up, it's no harder than any other distro though.

4) How much hdd space(how large partition) I need for normal instaliaton?

My "/" is 10 gigs, 5 gigs in use right now. I have both kde and gnome installed, and i havent cleaned the cache in a while. (pacman -Sc). My freevo (openbox) box has like 1 gig in use.

5) mp3, avi and other multipulti formats in Arch. They work same as in ubuntu?

Pretty much. Some applications use xine, so "xine-lib" and "codecs" package should make things work right out of the box with most files. If you use a gstreamer application (such as totem or bpmx) you should install the necessary gstreamer-0.10-XXXX package.

6) My RT2400 WLAN card? Will I be able to use it in Arch?

Probably. If it requires a firmware, you have to put it manually in /lib/firmware as the arch kernel is pretty vanilla out of the box. Ubuntu often patches the kernel, and include properitary firmware in the kernel.
You need the rt2x00 module. The easy way to do this is to download i off a mirror and "pacman -A <package>" since it's not on the install cd, and you obviously have no internet until you've got his package installed. So use you ubuntu to download this package to a usb stick, burn in on a cd, or save it in a partition on you hard drive.

This is important, so read this; a module package is always compiled to fit a certain kernel build. So if your install cd uses kernel 2.6.19 and you download a rt2x00-xx-x.pkg.tar.gz that is compiled for 2.6.21 (since arch is at that now) you'll have to look around and try to find a version that might fit the old 2.6.19 kernel, such as an old rt2x00-xx-x.pkg.tar.gz package. (There might be a couple versions in the repo). Do you understand what i mean?

ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/unstable/os/i686

7) Triple boot ubuntu/arch/windows2k from dual boot ubuntu/windows2k is possible? And is this good idea then I lack my hdd space even with dual boot? Ant is this hard to do or not?

This is possible. You'llhave to do some research though. I myself run several OS:es on my computer. In my case i always install grub to its root partition (depends on where the root of ubunu/arch is) and use GAG in the mbr. In your case i don't know. 20 gigs is not very much...

arvster · 2007-04-29 11:32:39

2) As I see from distrowatch.com Arch is not Multilingual.
Is it possible to use my native (Lithuanian) letters somehow?

I am Latvian and have no problems writing with Latvian letters or finding translations,spellchecking, etc. for different programs. I have Gnome that has Latvian interface and it was quite easy to install. I don't remember if I added anything from Pacman repositories or installed the language files from elsewhere, but it certainly wasn't difficult. Knowing that Lithuanians are usually more active in translations and localizations, there should not be any problems

The rest was pretty much answered before. Arch is maybe more difficult to set up than "user-friendly" distros, but with the help from wiki and minimal Linux knowledge there shouldn't be any difficulties. When I started, I went from a couple of months experience of Mandrake to Slackware and turned out fine, so unless you are very scared of learning more about Linux, Arch can be suitable for you.

Mikko777 · 2007-04-29 11:33:26

ProzacR wrote:

1) Boot time on pentium 3 in seconds?

Dudes! Someone needs english lessons and I hope it ain't me

I read that as : How fast does pentium3 boot? In seconds? which i said about 33.

NOT

Is it possible to boot pentium in 3 seconds as u think he said

oli · 2007-04-29 11:58:04

1) Boot time on pentium 3 in seconds?

-yes, but it depends on your harddrive too and certain desktop environments, but it's fast indeed

2) As I see from distrowatch.com Arch is not Multilingual.
Is it possible to use my native (Lithuanian) letters somehow?

-yes with unicode (UTF8)

3) Some people in IRC said to me that Arch is very hard to instal. Is this true?

-it's hard compared to Ubuntu, but just rather easy if you read the installation guide at the wiki

4) How much hdd space(how large partition) I need for normal instaliaton?

-it depends what you call "normal" and your environment of choice

5) mp3, avi and other multipulti formats in Arch. They work same as in ubuntu?

-yes and you don't have to use some tools to install these, you can install it like any other application

6) My RT2400 WLAN card? Will I be able to use it in Arch?

-don't know

7) Triple boot ubuntu/arch/windows2k from dual boot ubuntu/windows2k is possible? And is this good idea then I lack my hdd space even with dual boot? Ant is this hard to do or not?

-of course grub is able to do such things, but you can use Gag as easy alternative too

http://gag.sourceforge.net/

ProzacR · 2007-04-29 12:01:24

Mikko777 you are right. I was talking about PentiumIII and not 3 seconds.

Also thanks to everyone for answers.
I am downloading Arch iso now.

ryurhrt · 2007-04-30 06:05:57

i was a ubuntu user b4 also, it is easy but... slow... then i change to arch, the installation is not hard if u have experience with linux, the pacman is just as easy to use as the apt-get, and dun worry about problem like Multilingual, it is depend on u want it to be or not, like mine, i configure it to show my language - chinese very perfectly... anyway ARCH is one i am looking for...

davin · 2007-05-01 06:28:38

Oh man arch is really good one you can run it on old pc and can perform all your day to day work.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-04-29 09:55:52

Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#2 2007-04-29 11:04:37

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#3 2007-04-29 11:08:08

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#4 2007-04-29 11:24:38

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#5 2007-04-29 11:32:39

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#6 2007-04-29 11:33:26

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#7 2007-04-29 11:58:04

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#8 2007-04-29 12:01:24

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#9 2007-04-30 06:05:57

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

#10 2007-05-01 06:28:38

Re: Thinking about using Arch... some questions.

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