Keeping arch as main OS

sewa2k · 2012-02-26 14:39:48

# English is not my native language, so i'll try my best.

Hi everyone, im using arch since Nova (0.5) (not regularly, but my system is always be related to arch in someway, alongside with windows although), the main reason i keep windows is for:

1.- Gaming (not pro, mainly gta3 and some fps, amnesia, something like that)
2.- Bussiness Forecasting software, Oracle Crystal Ball (best forecasting software, but only works over MS Office, (for some courses at university)

For "1." i think i can run the games i play natively on linux, or using with wine,
For "2." i can emulate windows through vmware or something like that.

So over the past days im thinking of delete windows and use my entire HDD for hosting Arch.

But i have some questions regarding this change.

> OS: Arch Linux x86_64
> Hostname: phage
> Uptime: 2:22, 1 sec
> Kernel: 3.2.7-2-ck
> Shell: /bin/bash
> Packages: 955
> Desktop Environment: GNOME
> RAM: 1686 / 3906 (43%)
> CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz
> Root: 16G / 93G (18%) (ext4)
> Sewa: 157G / 216G (73%) (fuseblk)
> Wintendo: 120G / 147G (82%) (fuseblk)

That's currently my arch setup on this laptop (Toshiba L745)

My first question is:

Im using Gnome 3.2, im kind used to it, but sometimes it refuses to start (because gdm wont start, or because extensions (i have only enabled themes)) and things like that, i want to have arch as my main OS but with that bugs its kind unussable sometimes, someone have a tip for that?

And, for you, what's the best virtualization suite to have installed with arch, and to have windows as guest? (Windows 7, or XP?)

Thanks in advance

Regards from Chile

allen875 · 2012-02-26 15:30:33

Response to question 1: Gnome 3.2 is still somewhat a work in progress, the Gnome environment shouldn't be your deterrent from using Arch full time, try some other Desktop Environments and see if you like those better.

Response to question 2: Virtualbox does a great job for me.

jstoik1 · 2012-02-26 16:07:23

sewa2k wrote:

Im using Gnome 3.2, im kind used to it, but sometimes it refuses to start (because gdm wont start, or because extensions (i have only enabled themes)) and things like that, i want to have arch as my main OS but with that bugs its kind unussable sometimes, someone have a tip for that?

How are you launching GDM? I had occasional trouble with GDM crashing when it was listed in the daemons section in /etc/rc.conf, but after switching to the /etc/inittab method, it has worked perfectly. In regards to general GNOME stability, as allen875 pointed out, it is sort of a work in progress. But that said, I use it daily and the only instability I have experienced in 3.2 has been due to errors in extensions/themes I have elected to add to it, and fixing those errors or removing the troublemakers fixed GNOME. Anyway, check back in early April as 3.4 will be out and things should be smoother still.

sewa2k wrote:

And, for you, what's the best virtualization suite to have installed with arch, and to have windows as guest? (Windows 7, or XP?)

Another vote for Virtualbox. Also, if your programs will run on XP, I recommend that over 7 as the resource requirements are much lower, which will make virtualization a lot smoother.

Avant-texte · 2012-02-26 16:52:14

sewa2k wrote:

Im using Gnome 3.2, im kind used to it, but sometimes it refuses to start (because gdm wont start, or because extensions (i have only enabled themes)) and things like that, i want to have arch as my main OS but with that bugs its kind unussable sometimes, someone have a tip for that?

If GDM is the problem, why not try switching DMs.

I've been playing with GNOME lately and that's what I found myself doing. I GNOME works just fine for me. GDM on the other hand (in my opinion) proved to be way too instable.

kc3 · 2012-02-28 17:10:25

1.- Gaming (not pro, mainly gta3 and some fps, amnesia, something like that)

Ya know at least GTA San Andreas plays great on wine Also they have Doom 3 and Quake 4 natively for Linux, just need a PC cd key and data from the CDs. My FAVORITE software for Virtualization at least while on Windows is virtualbox, haven't really messed with it since I switched to Arch from Slackware though.

fsckd · 2012-02-28 18:17:06

moderator action: This should have been placed in a technical forum. Moving from Arch Discussion to Newbie Corner.

RichAustin · 2012-02-28 19:13:39

I had a number of bugs with Gnome3 - the extensions issue in particular was a problem. I gave up on it and moved to Openbox, and recently I've moved again to Xmonad. You could always setup Gnome and another system like Openbox and switch over whenever you can't get Gnome to work. I have Openbox, Xmonad and DWM on my system at the moment.

For me Virtualbox works brilliantly running Windows 7. I previously ran it with XP and in both cases, XP and Win7, it is actually quicker than standalone on the same box. I give Win7 1gb of memory out of the 3 gb I have available and it works fine even though typically I'll be running Visual Studio 2010, IIS and SqlServer. I installed bug.n http://code.google.com/p/bugn/wiki/bugn on Windows which makes it work almost like DWM and thanks to Xmonad Win7 works great fullscreen.

Last edited by RichAustin (2012-02-28 19:16:28)

DSpider · 2012-02-29 08:07:11

Nah, it just feels quicker maybe if you run it in windowed mode (the cursor moves quicker from edge to edge because it has less room to move). There's always an overhead, something like 2-3% - and higher if your CPU doesn't do VT-x/AMD-V acceleration, as opposed to running it on bare metal.

VirtualBox is pretty cool. For completely sandboxing single programs (a web browser, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, antivirus software, etc) you can use MicroXP in a 1 GB .vdi container and put the VM in Seamless Mode. Well, maybe enable NTFS compression on the drive, depending on the program. Windows 7 would take much, much more space. For iTunes I use TinyXP with an Apple-ish theme all inside a 2 GB .vdi container. Works fine for me. The best part is the quick 3-5 second start for the VM - as opposed to something like 45 seconds for dual booting. Closing the VM (suspending to disk) depends on how much RAM the VM was using at the time (and MicroXP/TinyXP uses a heck of a lot less than a full-blown Windows 7), but it's still within acceptable limits, typically something like 5-8 seconds. From a HDD, mind you.

Even if you won't "visit" it very often, my advice is to keep Windows around for dual booting just in case you screw up Arch during an update. At least you'll have a working computer to do your school work. 5 GB should be enough for TinyXP, Office 2010, Foxit Reader, etc. I don't know how much this "Oracle Crystal Ball" takes up but you probably will not need to enable disk compression.

RockNess · 2012-02-29 14:45:22

I've switched from dual booting Windows/Linux about 3 years ago, starting from Fedora, then Suse and Ubuntu, but found them too unstable / bloated

No problem with Arch in the last 2 years( read since the first installation date)
No problem either with Gnome3 or GDM, apart a little issue after resizing a virtual machine disk; but I think was my fault extending partitions.

I mainly use my PC for sysadmin, python programming and some forensic (<- I admit I use DEFT for that ), and arch was always Up and Ready To Work

sewa2k wrote:

And, for you, what's the best virtualization suite to have installed with arch, and to have windows as guest? (Windows 7, or XP?)

I've some experience with Xen, Kvm, VMWare( <-very little) and Virtualbox, I definitely prefer the last for desktop use.
Simple( if you manage it with gui), stable, and good features.
Don't like Seamless mode too much, but it can be perfect for you.

Thumb Up for Xp over 7,I definitely HATE bloated OSes (specially as guest)

Last tip (ok, I know it's pretty obvious) use LVM on bare metal and dedicate an LV to virtual machines (Iso, Disks and definition), you can grow LV as Vms number increase, and preserve them in case of system crash / format...

sewa2k · 2012-03-03 15:42:23

Hi, everyone thanks for your replies, im happy to say that im having arch as main os, without dualboot

Im using Xfce 4.8, and for my win software im using windows xp over virtualbox with Vt-x

Thanks again!

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-26 14:39:48

Keeping arch as main OS

#2 2012-02-26 15:30:33

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#3 2012-02-26 16:07:23

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#4 2012-02-26 16:52:14

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#5 2012-02-28 17:10:25

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#6 2012-02-28 18:17:06

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#7 2012-02-28 19:13:39

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#8 2012-02-29 08:07:11

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#9 2012-02-29 14:45:22

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

#10 2012-03-03 15:42:23

Re: Keeping arch as main OS

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