Arch Linux

jacko

Member

Registered: 2007-11-23

Posts: 840

Re: Too scary for me...

I think learning the command line is the MOST beneficial thing any one linux user can do. I was ready for arch once I learned to use cmd line in ubuntu.

Ubuntu is great for what it was for me, a stepping stone.

Wintervenom

Member

Registered: 2008-08-20

Posts: 1,011

Re: Too scary for me...

I can see that you need to be an expert to install Arch.

I don't understand how to use the very technical (and therefore dangerous) partitioning tools on the CORE CD. I had Ubuntu Intrepid using the whole of my SATA drive. Used GParted to shrink the Ubuntu partition to half the disk capacity - leaving me with a big chunk of free (no partitions) disk space, and... sdb1 (ext3 / Ubuntu), sdb2 (4.58 Gb Extended), sdb5 (4.58 Gb Linux-swap).

I want to partition the free space on this drive to install Arch, and be able to dual boot with Ubuntu until I get used to Arch and decide to commit to it or not. I'm used to Windows (many years but hate it), learning about Linux (hard), I'm not daft, fairly technical, but cautious.

Expert help appreciated, as I have no idea how to do this. I need an idiots guide - step by step.

Thanks

Perhaps you could do the partitioning and formatting from Ubuntu with the disk partitioner on the Ubuntu Live CD.  After that, you could return to the Arch installer, skip the partitioning, and go straight to Set Filesystem Mountpoints and continue from there.

P.S I don't even understand what the difference is between an ext2 and ext3 file system, and which I should create for Arch using GParted.

Ext3 is generally the safest filesystem to choose if you're not sure which file system is best for you.

Last edited by Wintervenom (2008-11-27 03:50:07)

lordxenu

Member

From: Easley, SC

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 12

Re: Too scary for me...

I'm not really a linux expert by any means, but I managed to install Arch to my laptop just fine by following the beginner's guide, and from there the post install tips that follow.

Now I'm glad to have taken the time to have installed, it, it really is a great distribution, I've come to admire rc.conf and how it loads daemons and modules, I can get to them all in one place and I don't have to keep a bunch of pathnames in my head.

I still haven't gotten it to work on my desktop, but that's mainly because I didn't feel like mucking with catalyst and xorg, things get really icky fast.  I'm sure with some tinkering I can do it.

I must be weird though, my first distro was Gentoo, never got it to install, I tried to plunge straight in.  Then I used OpenSUSE 9 or 10, I don't remember, and from there I bounced around a ton of different ones including Ubuntu, Zenwalk, and Mandriva, as well as a brief stint with Slackware (ugh, no package management is lame)

---

Desktop Specs:  Vista Ultimate 64-bit & Arch 64
     --CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 4.0ghz  --RAM: 4GB G.Skill DDR2-800  --GPU: ATi Radeon HD 4870
     --HDD: 2 250GB Seagate Barracudas in RAID 0, 500GB eSATA external  --Sound: Razer Barracuda AC-1
Laptop Specs:  Dell Vostro 1500 with Arch 64, Core 2 Duo T5470, 2GB of ram, 160GB HDD, 8600m GT 256MB

dsr

Member

Registered: 2008-05-31

Posts: 187

Re: Too scary for me...

I used Mac OS X rather than Ubuntu as a gateway to Arch, but as neotuli and jacko said, learning the command-line made me comfortable with Arch from the very beginning. Stick with Ubuntu for now. Pick an interactive shell like bash (the default on most Linux distros), ksh-93, zsh, or tcsh, and learn it really well.

Also learn a command-line text editor really well. I suggest learning vim or emacs from the beginning, but nano has virtually no learning curve, so that might be more appealing to you. Actually, if you have the time, you should probably teach yourself both vim and emacs to see which you like better. Spend half an hour to an hour on the tutorials that come with each, and you'll be in a better position to make this long-lasting decision. I personally find vim's keybindings to be faster and more comfortable on my fingers (emacs = escape meta alt control shift ), but I find emacs's swiss army knife approach to be really nice. I always liked how vim conformed to the traditional UNIX philosophy of having each program do one thing and do it well, but I recently discovered that emacs does many things and does them all well. Vim is really just a powerful text editor, whereas emacs is a whole IDE and then some. So you'll probably prefer emacs if you're a programmer and vim otherwise, but it's all really just preference.

When you're comfortable with doing all your daily computing (with the possible exception of web browsing) from the command-line, i.e. when you find yourself jumping between a shell, w3m, mutt, slrn, and irssi, all within a session of GNU screen (or a shell, w3m, gnus, and erc/rcirc, all within emacs), you'll find it quite easy to install and use the more flexible distros like Arch, CRUX, Slackware, and Gentoo. When I first came to Arch, I jumped right into a desktop-less setup like this to force myself to learn quickly. It worked.

Llama

Banned

From: St.-Petersburg, Russia

Registered: 2008-03-03

Posts: 1,379

Re: Too scary for me...

Parted Magic for partitioning. Beginner's Guide for everything else. If you prefer KDE, consider KDEmod (especially if you'd like KDE 3.5, but KDEmod 4 rocks too ). That's it.

Honestly, the reading is neither tough nor long. It has nothing to do with 'extensive knowledge'. If you can install Ubuntu, you can do this, too. Unless you're illiterate .

dsr

Member

Registered: 2008-05-31

Posts: 187

Re: Too scary for me...

Llama is right. As long as you read all the important documentation (the beginners guide and the official install guide) before you attempt the install, you should be fine. But it helps a lot to be comfortable with the command-line from the outset. Think of how much easier it is to learn manual transmission when you already know how to drive.

Cotton

Member

From: Cornwall, UK

Registered: 2004-09-17

Posts: 568

Re: Too scary for me...

I'd recommend setting up Arch on either an old PC or a separate unused disk, so it doesn't matter if you make a mistake. 
Then just follow the installation instructions.  There may be a lot of them but they're fairly straightforward.
You'll have to get used to the command line, but that's a GOOD THING - you'll come to appreciate it, even in Ubuntu.  Especially when your GUI environment fails to start for some reason.
Good luck - enjoy the ride and don't give up.  There are always people here and on IRC willing to help people who are keen to learn.