Arch Linux

jwmollman

Member

Registered: 2009-05-20

Posts: 31

About to make the switch!

Hello,

I was searching for an operating system for my new ASUS Eee PC 1000HA. I found many distros to be too heavy/bloated. I tried many like Ubuntu (Netbook Remix), gOS, Easy Peasy, CrunchEee, etc. I've always known about Arch Linux being the type of distro where you add everything you want, and nothing else. And I really like that in a distro. I believe it could be the end of my distro-hopping.

I also like the fact that it's fast, simple, and lightweight. I believe that could run extremely fast and lean on a netbook, right? I reformatted my hard drive on my netbook, so currently, there's nothing on there, and I'm really thinking about putting Arch on it tonight. There were some other questions I had though. I was going to install openbox as my window manager, but what else would I need to get a fully functional system with WiFi and all that? Here are my questions:

1.) When I begin installing something like openbox (I know I need to get X setup first), would I just do "pacman -S openbox" and then it'll install everything needed to get openbox to run?

2.) I use an iPod. How easy would it be to install gtkpod? Would it automatically install the dependencies needed to run the program just like it might on openbox?

Those are pretty much all the questions I had about Arch Linux. Would you guys say Arch is well worth the time trying out, even though there's a bit of some configuring to do first? I'm not used to configuring, so I know that'll be a bit of a learning curve for me, as well as the command line. I used some command line here and there with the Ubuntu terminal and a bit on DOS, so as long as I have another computer to use for the internet and searching for anything I need help with, I'll be good there.

Thanks,
John

esters

Member

Registered: 2006-11-04

Posts: 173

Re: About to make the switch!

Take a look at wiki entries such as - http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide and more specifically - http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Eee . It won't be easy at first but after you've read the Beginners Guide I think that will clear some of the questions asked. As for Ipod - what exact model you have ?

Last edited by esters (2009-05-20 18:22:34)

jwmollman

Member

Registered: 2009-05-20

Posts: 31

Re: About to make the switch!

Take a look at wiki entries such as - http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide and more specifically - http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Eee . It won't be easy at first but after you've read the Beginners Guide I think that will clear some of the questions asked. As for Ipod - what exact model you have ?

Thank you for the reply. The model iPod I have is the 2nd generation iPod Video 30GB (Black), I believe.

esters

Member

Registered: 2006-11-04

Posts: 173

Re: About to make the switch!

I'm sure GTKpod supports your iPod, but you don't have to worry about the dependencies, pacman -S gtkpod will do just fine. I've used it on my iPod Nano 2nd Gen. 4GB without problems.

evr

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

Registered: 2009-01-23

Posts: 554

Re: About to make the switch!

Take a look at wiki entries such as - http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide and more specifically - http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Eee . It won't be easy at first but after you've read the Beginners Guide I think that will clear some of the questions asked. As for Ipod - what exact model you have ?

Thank you for the reply. The model iPod I have is the 2nd generation iPod Video 30GB (Black), I believe.

I have the exact same ipod and it works fine with gtkpod.

soupcan

Member

From: ?

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 268

Re: About to make the switch!

To both your questions: Yes. To the question about Arch being worth it: It all depends on you. Try it out, stick with it if you like it, move on if you don't. Don't worry about configuration and such, it's not nearly as difficult as it seems. My first experience with Linux was in August '08 with Ubuntu; I installed Arch about two months later. You've got a couple months of experience on me; you'll be fine.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: About to make the switch!

you don't have to worry about the dependencies, pacman -S gtkpod will do just fine

But you should have some knowledge of Arch-specific ways of installing software. Sometimes installing just the biggest package and it's dependencies doesn't solve the problem f.e. when installing X server.
I'll have a look at the current state of affairs wiki-wise this weekend (wikend? ;-) ) - people are still stumbling over this like I did almost a month ago, so it doesn't look like it's gone go away all by itself. Time to roll-up my sleeves :-D