How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 19:04:33

Moo-Crumpus wrote:

After booting, use the first of the grub menue's entries. Login as root, without any password, as adviced on the screen. Type /arch/setup [Enter] then. Follow each step, from top to bottom. Follow the guide. In doubt, ask questions.
But, to be honest, if installing archlinux seems to be so difficult to you, I doubt, if, right now, it really is the stuff you will like on the long run. Archlinux is a distro that gives you the power to design your os in details to fit your needs. There is no 'standard' way. That is the idea of archlinux. Therefore, you will need to know what you are doing. You will hardly see a kind of wizard asking you to decide if something should be done this or that way, and do the things for you.
Finally, archlinux is brilliant. Try it, fail, learn, do it better the next time, and proceed. If you will, you will learn quick. And, as ther are no standards, you will only learn to know things you *really* need to know.

Thanks.
AS I mentioned when I put /arch/setup, I get a reply that unrecognized command. And I am stucked on the first screen.

asmodaous · 2008-08-21 19:12:05

Hey mirchichamu, like Moo-Crumpus stated just when you get to the first screen after the live cd has booted up type ROOT and then hit enter
it will then take you to another screen and there you will type /arch/setup then hit enter. Also if you haven't you should print the beginners install guide not the regular one and that will take you step by step for the most part to get it installed, if by chance you still have questions please do not wait to ask. I know what you are going through I just installed arch myself not too long ago.

Is this a laptop or desktop? How old is your computer? is it 32 bits or 64 bits and also you might want to check your cd or dvd burner to make sure it is burning the ISO correctly.

Last edited by asmodaous (2008-08-21 19:14:50)

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 19:20:32

asmodaous wrote:

Hey mirchichamu, like Moo-Crumpus stated just when you get to the first screen after the live cd has booted up type ROOT and then hit enter
it will then take you to another screen and there you will type /arch/setup then hit enter. Also if you haven't you should print the beginners install guide not the regular one and that will take you step by step for the most part to get it installed, if by chance you still have questions please do not wait to ask. I know what you are going through I just installed arch myself not too long ago.

Is this a laptop or desktop? How old is your computer? is it 32 bits or 64 bits and also you might want to check your cd or dvd burner to make sure it is burning the ISO correctly.

I already mentioned above specifications. It is laptop 1.7 centrino, 512 ram, 80 gb hdd. 4 years old. It is 32 bits i think. I think it is correctly burning.

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 19:23:15

Now I will try again to boot. I will leave you. Sorry. I will be back if any problem. Just now I am from Windows with you.

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 19:45:25

I tried once again but failed. It is not accepting Root command or /arch/setup commands.

McDuck · 2008-08-21 20:01:27

How far have you made it?
Have you been able to boot up from the cd you burned?
Have you been able to login as root?

What does your screen display?

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 20:11:39

McDuck wrote:

How far have you made it?
Have you been able to boot up from the cd you burned?
Have you been able to login as root?
What does your screen display?

Thanks McDuck.
My booting start with black screen with Grub>-. I have to write a command. Something is written which totally I cannot remeber. Like first TAB will give you some commands like................................................ a long list. I don't know wich command I have to put. But I put /arch/setup.
Somebody suggested to put "root" first. I put that. But both commands refused as "unrecognized".

eyolf · 2008-08-21 20:18:35

Apart from the other differences between Arch and point-and-click distros like Ubuntu that have been mentioned, this thread is the best proof I've seen of one of the REAL strengths of Arch: its extremely knowledgeable and friendly/helpful community. I spent some time on the ubuntu forums lately because my son wanted to try it out, and I was amazed... Most of the advice that was given there was of the kind "click on the menu icon, scroll down to System, click on <etc.>, and if that doesn't work, reboot". It was virtually impossible to find info on the internals of the system.

DaveI · 2008-08-21 20:28:40

eyolf wrote:

Apart from the other differences between Arch and point-and-click distros like Ubuntu that have been mentioned, this thread is the best proof I've seen of one of the REAL strengths of Arch: its extremely knowledgeable and friendly/helpful community. I spent some time on the ubuntu forums lately because my son wanted to try it out, and I was amazed... Most of the advice that was given there was of the kind "click on the menu icon, scroll down to System, click on <etc.>, and if that doesn't work, reboot". It was virtually impossible to find info on the internals of the system.

Until a few weeks ago I was using Debian but I tried Arch after reading that it would teach me more about Linux. My plan was to install Arch and play around with it for a while for educational purposes, then go back to Debian. That plan has changed and I will be sticking with Arch, partly because it is a great distro but also because of the community. I completely agree with Eyolf.

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 20:32:10

DaveI wrote:

eyolf wrote:
Apart from the other differences between Arch and point-and-click distros like Ubuntu that have been mentioned, this thread is the best proof I've seen of one of the REAL strengths of Arch: its extremely knowledgeable and friendly/helpful community. I spent some time on the ubuntu forums lately because my son wanted to try it out, and I was amazed... Most of the advice that was given there was of the kind "click on the menu icon, scroll down to System, click on <etc.>, and if that doesn't work, reboot". It was virtually impossible to find info on the internals of the system.
Until a few weeks ago I was using Debian but I tried Arch after reading that it would teach me more about Linux. My plan was to install Arch and play around with it for a while for educational purposes, then go back to Debian. That plan has changed and I will be sticking with Arch, partly because it is a great distro but also because of the community. I completely agree with Eyolf.

You people have started something else leaving my problem aside. HAHAHAHAha
What is the use of its greatness if I am unable to install.

McDuck · 2008-08-21 20:36:12

Thanks McDuck.
My booting start with black screen with Grub>-. I have to write a command. Something is written which totally I cannot remeber. Like first TAB will give you some commands like................................................ a long list. I don't know wich command I have to put. But I put /arch/setup.
Somebody suggested to put "root" first. I put that. But both commands refused as "unrecognized".

Okay.
When I boot from my arch CD, I first get to a promt thats says "boot:".
There I write "arch" and press enter.

After a while I come to the login screeen where I login as root.

mirchichamu · 2008-08-21 20:42:04

As I mentioned several times my first screen is GRUB>__

DaveI · 2008-08-21 20:45:25

mirchichamu wrote:

DaveI wrote:
eyolf wrote:
Apart from the other differences between Arch and point-and-click distros like Ubuntu that have been mentioned, this thread is the best proof I've seen of one of the REAL strengths of Arch: its extremely knowledgeable and friendly/helpful community. I spent some time on the ubuntu forums lately because my son wanted to try it out, and I was amazed... Most of the advice that was given there was of the kind "click on the menu icon, scroll down to System, click on <etc.>, and if that doesn't work, reboot". It was virtually impossible to find info on the internals of the system.
Until a few weeks ago I was using Debian but I tried Arch after reading that it would teach me more about Linux. My plan was to install Arch and play around with it for a while for educational purposes, then go back to Debian. That plan has changed and I will be sticking with Arch, partly because it is a great distro but also because of the community. I completely agree with Eyolf.
You people have started something else leaving my problem aside. HAHAHAHAha
What is the use of its greatness if I am unable to install.

Don't worry mirchichamu, your problem hasn't been left aside. People are still trying to help you.

McDuck · 2008-08-21 20:55:32

As I mentioned several times my first screen is GRUB>__

Right, sounds like something is wrong with the boot cd then.

TBomBM3879 · 2008-08-21 21:08:14

"I have gone through that but that is also the same shell commands which is beyond my abilities as computer novice. I will sort some other distro."

I don't see whats so intimidating about installing arch. All you have to do is read the beginners guide and type in the code it tells you to type in as needed. The way I see it: if you can follow directions, you can get a working Arch Linux system.

I'm just beginning to get a grasp of linux, I switched to Arch from using openSUSE and (trying) Gentoo (got a working install but ended up breaking it.) for a total of 4 months. I'm nowhere near a linux enthusiast (yet), but I'm finding my way around Arch with nearly no issues.

Is the installation worth it though?

No doubt at all; you build the system entirely to your specifications and you only include what YOU want to include. What you end up with is an operating system thats tailored to your exact needs. It's also extremely quick and responsive (bootup is like 16-20 seconds on my middle-low end machine)

It's definitely worth it.

floke · 2008-08-21 21:51:40

I think our Mr M. has done something wrong somewhere.
If grub is coming up then it might be that a previous attempt to install has managed to put grub on to the mbr, and this is confusing things.
I would suggest starting from scratch - and read the beginners guide.
Not to be rude, but it really doesn't seem as if you have actually read it.

czar · 2008-08-21 22:16:05

Can't believe noone noticed before McDuck. Hes booting to "GRUB>" theres somthing wrong with his install CD, reburn it. Or maybe, since no other distribution seems to work, his hardware is just incompatible.

M177ER · 2008-08-21 22:16:09

floke wrote:

I think our Mr M. has done something wrong somewhere.
If grub is coming up then it might be that a previous attempt to install has managed to put grub on to the mbr, and this is confusing things.
I would suggest starting from scratch - and read the beginners guide.
Not to be rude, but it really doesn't seem as if you have actually read it.

Along this line of thinking if it was written to the mbr he would have to select windows to boot into it. Is this happening?

thunderogg · 2008-08-21 22:56:32

Yeah, mirchichamu, you should come up with a nice blue grub menu with the Arch logo, and then you should choose the first alternative, "Boot Arch Live" or something like that. If you don't come up with the menu your CD is corrupt.

koch · 2008-08-21 22:58:25

IMHO a few sreenshots (do you, mirchchamu, have a digital camera?) could help
just take some some shots from what happens exactly when you boot your machine and post them...

nick · 2008-08-22 02:02:31

Yeah you'll probably want to burn the .iso again. When I was installing another distro, it was suggested that I set write speed as low as possible and burn in raw mode, although I'm not sure how applicable that is here.

loyx · 2008-08-22 03:05:48

Yes, the same thing happend to me, turns out I downloaded the wrong architecture version of the CD, mirchichamu. You may have done this with ubuntu as well. You got the i686 one, right? http://archlinux.unixheads.org/iso/late … e-i686.iso

bangkok_manouel · 2008-08-22 03:29:45

Getting a GRUB prompt is also a known bug of the install CD. Workaround is: 1. using a USB key with the USB image (obviously your BIOS has to support booting from a USB device) or 2. using old tpowa's ISOs.

hokasch · 2008-08-22 23:09:36

Experienced the same thing (booting to grub console, not the grub menu) on a laptop last week with the current isos. Unfortunately, it was hardware-related, the same cd properly booted in another computer.

Try 2007.08, but use the core iso, ftp does not work anymore for that version (you will have an up-to-date system anyway by just doing a pacman -Syu afterwards). And stick to it, this is kind of an ugly problem, but in general: read the wiki, and you will be perfectly fine. Documentation really is a great strength of arch!

Last edited by hokasch (2008-08-22 23:11:56)

sultanoswing · 2008-08-23 00:52:37

mirchichamu, perhaps you ought to give some other distros a try - have you tried gentoo? >:

...seriously though - it sounds to me that one of two things are happening, to reiterate from the above posts:

1) you're not actually booting from the Arch CD
2) if you are, that CD is corrupted somehow

Good luck - once you get it, you will have more than just a working (and damn fine) OS, you'll also have a MUCH better knowledge of how your PC actually works and therefore be more at home on any OS. Trust us - it's worth it!

ps yes, somescreen shots of what's actually going on will help us much more.

Last edited by sultanoswing (2008-08-23 00:54:06)

Arch Linux

#26 2008-08-21 19:04:33

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#27 2008-08-21 19:12:05

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#28 2008-08-21 19:20:32

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#29 2008-08-21 19:23:15

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#30 2008-08-21 19:45:25

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#31 2008-08-21 20:01:27

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#32 2008-08-21 20:11:39

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#33 2008-08-21 20:18:35

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#34 2008-08-21 20:28:40

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#35 2008-08-21 20:32:10

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#36 2008-08-21 20:36:12

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#37 2008-08-21 20:42:04

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#38 2008-08-21 20:45:25

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#39 2008-08-21 20:55:32

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#40 2008-08-21 21:08:14

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#41 2008-08-21 21:51:40

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#42 2008-08-21 22:16:05

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#43 2008-08-21 22:16:09

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#44 2008-08-21 22:56:32

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#45 2008-08-21 22:58:25

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#46 2008-08-22 02:02:31

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#47 2008-08-22 03:05:48

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#48 2008-08-22 03:29:45

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#49 2008-08-22 23:09:36

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

#50 2008-08-23 00:52:37

Re: How to install archlinux? Very difficult? Why?

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