Tutorials for Newbie

sayems · 2009-06-16 20:57:11

Today I am gonna write a quick tutorial on installing Arch Linux. I believe Arch Linux is one of the best distributions available, if you are willing to work hard, you gonna love it. I recently switched to Arch from Ubuntu and I am loving it..

Getting the ISOs

I just grabed a copy from my local mirror and burned it on a CD. I only got the base system iso as it is faster to download and I always get packages through pacman. Leave the CD in the tray and reboot your system. Following the instructions on the screen you should get a command prompt:

[Arch Linux: /]#

Partitioning

I have my hdd already partitioned and I won't get into technical stuff such as partitioning your drive. You get fdisk and cfdisk for that and there are plenty of tutorials available on google for such. Anyway, here is my hdd layout:

/dev/sda5 - / - 10GB
/dev/sda6 - /boot - 1GB
/dev/sda7 - swap - 3GB
/dev/sda8 - /usr - 15GB
/dev/sda9 - /home - 15GB

Basic setup

Okay. At the prompt just type in /arch/setup and you should be welcomed by a dialog based installation program.

1. You are prompted to choose your installation media. I usually (I mean always) go for option 1 - CD-ROM or OTHER SOURCE

2. Prepare hard drive

* I only go for option 3 and assign mount points to my partitions. I choose ext4 for my filesystem \\
* Be careful that you first have to choose your swap partition.

3. Select packages. As I only downloaded the base ISO
4. Install packages - pretty straightforward.
5. Configure system - use nano or vi to your liking (I recommend nano if you want just easy editing)
6. Install the kernel - you only have one option here too

Now go ahead and reboot. All should be fine.

* Installing Yaourt
o # nano /etc/pacman.conf

[archlinuxfr]
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/x86_64

o # pacman -Sy yaourt

* First, use pacman to install python:
o # pacman -Sy python
o # cd /etc/pacman.d
o # cp mirrorlist mirrorlist.backup
o # rankmirrors -n 6 mirrorlist.backup > mirrorlist
o # cd

* Force pacman to refresh the package lists
o # pacman -Syy

* Update Pacman Itself
o # pacman -Sy pacman
o # pacman -Syu
o # pacman --sync --refresh --sysupgrade

* Add-user
o # useradd -m -G users,audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,power -s /bin/bash sayem
o # passwd sayem

* Install and setup Sudo
o # pacman -S sudo
o # EDITOR=nano visudo

* Install the alsa-utils package:
o # pacman -Sy alsa-lib alsa-utils
o # pacman -S alsa-oss
o # alsactl store

* Configuring Xorg
o # pacman -S xorg
o # yaourt hwd
o # hwd -xa
o # pacman -S xf86-input-evdev
o # pacman -S xf86-input-mouse
o # pacman -S xf86-input-keyboard
o # /etc/rc.d/hal start
o # pacman -Rd libgl

* ATI graphics card
o # yaourt -S catalyst catalyst-utils
o # aticonfig --initial
o # lspci | grep VGA

* Install fonts
o # pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-liberation

* Enabling sudo for Users
o # pacman -S sudo

* Install the base GNOME environment with:
o # pacman -S gnome gnome-extra
o # pacman -S gnome-system-tools
o # nano /etc/rc.conf

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network crond alsa hal fam gdm)

o # pacman -S gdm archlinux-themes-gdm
o # pacman -S gtk-engines gtk-aurora-engine gtk-candido-engine gtk-rezlooks-engine

* Install Chakra Project (KDEmod Desktop Environment)
o # pacman -Rd kde
o # pacman -Q | grep kde
o # nano /etc/pacman.conf

[kdemod-core]
Server = http://mirror.rit.edu/kdemod/core/x86_64

or

[kdemod-extragear]
Server = http://mirror.rit.edu/kdemod/extragear/x86_64

o # pacman -Sy kdemod-complete
o # pacman -S kdemod-extragear-gtk-qt-engine-svn
o # pacman -S kdemod-kdepim

* Installing Adobe Flash Player 10

o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … _on_Arch64
o $ wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs … .so.tar.gz
o $ tar xvf libflashplayer-10.0.22.87.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
o $ mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins
o $ mv libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins

* Most Common Apps
o # pacman -Sy codecs `pacman -Ss gstreamer | grep -e '^extra/gstreamer0.10' | awk '{print $1}'`
o # pacman -S evolution k3b bzip2 firefox
o # pacman -S openjdk6

* Installing Java the OpenJDK JVM
o # pacman -S openjdk6

* Most Common Apps

* Installing RealPlayer
o http://www.real.com/linux/
o # chmod +x RealPlayer11GOLD.bin
o # ./RealPlayer11GOLD.bin

* GNOME Commander
o # pacman -S gnome-commander

* Installing GParted
o # pacman -S gparted

* Installing Midnight Commander
o # pacman -S mc

* Installing GNOME-MPlayer
o # pacman -S gnome-mplayer

* Installing Alsamixer
o # pacman -S gnome-alsamixer

* Enabling the Numlock Key
o # pacman -S numlockx

* Graphics Apps
o # pacman -S gimp inkscape gthumb scrot f-spot

* Multimedia Apps
o # pacman -S audacious audacious-plugins vlc mplayer mplayer-plugin miro audacity

* Network Apps
o # pidgin purple-plugin-pack
o # pacman -S pidgin-facebookchat
o Skype
o # pacman -S emesene

* Themes
o # pacman -S gnome-themes-extras tango-icon-theme tango-icon-theme-extras

* Office Suites
o # pacman -S openoffice-base

* File Management
o # pacman -S unrar

* Bengali Fonts
o # pacman -S kde-l10n-bn_in
o # pacman -S ttf-freebanglafont

* NTFS Write Support (Enable Windows Partition)
o # pacman -Sy ntfs-3g
o # sudo mkdir /mnt/windows
o # sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
o # ln -s /mnt/windows /home/urname/Desktop
o # nano /etc/fstab
o # /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

* Resolution Display Setting
o System > Preferences > ATI Catalyst
o Change Desktop Area to "1680X1050"
o System > Preferences > Display
o Change Resolution to "1680X1050"

* Automatic Login
o System > Administration > Login Window
o Then "Users" to +Add user name. and then hit "Apply"
o Then, Security "Enable Automatic Login"

* Firefox Add-ons
o ColorfulTabs
o Flagfox
o Foxmarks bookmark
o WOT
o Strata Aero

* Floating Window Managers
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Compiz
o # pacman -S compiz-fusion

* Configure IMAP on Evolution and Gmail

=> Receiving E-mail
Server Type: IMAP
Server: imap.gmail.com:993
Username: Your complete Gmail address
Security: SSL
Authentication Type: Password
Remember Password: Check (optional)
----------------------------------------------
=> Sending E-mail
Server Type: SMTP
Server: smtp.gmail.com:587
Server Requires Authentication: Check
Security: TLS
Authentication Type: Login
Username: Your complete Gmail addresshttp://www.msn.com/
Remember Password: Check (optional)

* Fix for Video Playback Problem in Compiz-Fusion
o http://www.ubuntugeek.com/fix-for-video … usion.html

* Codeweavers (For paid customer only)
o https://www.codeweavers.com/login/

* X11 Cursors
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X11_Cursors
o http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show. … tent=73135

* Howto make GTK apps look nice
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/How … _look_nice

* OSX (GNOME Icon)
o http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show. … tent=31618

* Turn Your Ubuntu Hardy to Mac OSX Leopard
o http://maketecheasier.com/turn-your-ubu … 2008/07/23

* Firefox Tips and Tweaks
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fir … and_Tweaks

* How to Install Packages from the AUR
o mkdir -p $HOME/builds
o cd $HOME/builds
o wget http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yaourt/yaourt.tar.gz
o tar xvzf yaourt.tar.gz
o cd yaourt
o makepkg -s -i
o yaourt epiphany

* How to Compile and install from sources
o sudo pacman -S abs base-devel
o nano /etc/abs.conf | Remove the ! in front of the testing repos
o sudo abs
o mkdir -p $HOME/abs
o cp -r /var/abs/extra/htop $HOME/abs
o cd /$HOME/abs/htop
o makepkg -s
o sudo pacman -U htop-xxx.pkg.tar.gz

Using the System

* AUR User Guidelines
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AUR_User_Guidelines
o sudo pacman -Sy base-devel

* ABS - The Arch Build System
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … _is_ABS.3F
o sudo pacman -Sy abs

* Pacman
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman

* Tips, Trick and Tweak
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gnome_Tips
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CD_Burning_Tips
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gnome_Menu_tweaking
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gno … _Menu_Icon
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fir … and_Tweaks
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wine

Table of Contents of Wiki
* http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tab … _(English)

* All articles
* http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?tit … amespace=0

* Category:Kernel
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:Networking
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … y:Security
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:Software
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:Desktop user's guide
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:System recovery
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:Arch development
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:Live Arch systems
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Category:ArchWiki Tools
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … _(English)

* Popular Page - Favorite articles
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Spe … pularpages

* Lonely pages - Old articles
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Special:Lonelypages

* Wanted pages - Wanted articles
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Special:Wantedpages

* Special pages
o http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Spe … ecialpages

Last edited by sayems (2009-06-16 21:05:44)

Xyne · 2009-06-16 21:05:34

Hi sayems,

While your effort is appreciated, this does not seem to be appropriate for a forum post. The common reply would be to put this in the wiki, but from what I can tell, it seems that most of this is already in the Beginners Guide in the wiki.

Once you're up to the required 25 posts, maybe you could request an Arch Linux blog here and add this to it.

Babets · 2009-08-11 09:25:38

Why installing flashplugin and realplayer manually? :\
The first is in extra, the second in aur.

foutrelis · 2009-08-11 09:38:54

This looks awfully similar to http://daemon80.blogspot.com/2007/07/ar … orial.html

Also, nothing can beat the beginners guide on the wiki.

toad · 2009-08-11 09:54:42

Prolly a good way for the OP of remembering what (s)he did - but the thing with Arch is that you only need to install once

For me the install would be totally different and this post thus useless...

Heller_Barde · 2009-08-11 10:39:07

I think that is a good idea! but maybe the forums really aren't the right place for that. Especially the links at the end of the post are valuable

cheers
Barde

.:B:. · 2009-08-11 12:25:34

This stuff belongs in the wiki. Really. I know it's done with the best intentions, but... I won't keep repeating this.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-16 20:57:11

Tutorials for Newbie

#2 2009-06-16 21:05:34

Re: Tutorials for Newbie

#3 2009-08-11 09:25:38

Re: Tutorials for Newbie

#4 2009-08-11 09:38:54

Re: Tutorials for Newbie

#5 2009-08-11 09:54:42

Re: Tutorials for Newbie

#6 2009-08-11 10:39:07

Re: Tutorials for Newbie

#7 2009-08-11 12:25:34

Re: Tutorials for Newbie

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