I LOVE this distro!

KENTOSI · 2005-04-17 23:48:47

Hi all,

For the past few weeks I've been hanging around this forum to get the feel of what it would be like installing ArchLinux. See, I'm a Fedora user. Not coz I'm a (total) newbie, but because I run in to hardware problems with just about every distro I've tried. And that's what's been stopping me from installing ArchLinux all this time.

Anyways, I got bored last weekend and thought to myself "why not!!". So I downloaded the ISO, bought a new HDD (didn't wanna erase existing stuff) and got the thing installed.

In one word: WOW!

OK, I had a few problems getting networking working, but after pulling my hair for an hour I finally got that working. Needless to say I learnt how kernel modules and those /etc/rc.d/* scripts work!! I can now set my network up in just about any distro with my eyes closed. Thanks AL ! 8)

Next was getting xorg, mouse, gnome and sound working. Had a few small quirks here, but then someone here mentioned this thing called hwd. It was so easy after that that I almost wet myself :oops: So at the end of the day I had a stable, lean, good-looking Linux distro running, and the best part is that it's......

....soo......

... damn ...

.....FAST!!!!

:shock: :shock: :mrgreen:

darkcoder · 2005-04-18 00:03:22

1st to say, welcome to the party

ozar · 2005-04-18 00:04:50

Welcome to Arch Linux - glad to hear it suits your fancy! 8)

hdo781 · 2005-04-18 01:06:50

Kentosi,

Your comment about the speed of ArchLinux was absolutely correct. Everything about this distro is fast: booting up, opening applications, package updates, installing packages with pacman. The only thing that was so slow for me was the installation. I'll admit, it took a whole week for me to get the system the way I wanted, but I learned so much. I no longer need to go distro hopping. I had to read the wiki, read these forums, and go to the IRC chat just to install Arch. I've learned that there is no perfect distro, it's just that some distros are easier to fix than others when you run into problems. Because Arch is minimalistic, there are less places where the problems could be. Having almost all the configuration options in one file (rc.conf) was genius.

-hdo781

shadowhand · 2005-04-18 02:09:53

I'm still getting things how I want them.

Tonight I'm cleaning up my Openbox menus and adding programs, organizing them better, and future proofing them. Maybe I'm a little OCD about organizing my computer? Nahhhhh....

"One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection." - Chuck Palahniuk - "Fight Club"

Meshuggin · 2005-04-18 03:44:51

hdo781 wrote:

Everything about this distro is fast: booting up, opening applications, package updates, installing packages with pacman.

You're so damn right!, when i installed AL for the first time, it blew me away!!!, the boot process ... i never saw it so fast before that day.

hdo781 wrote:

Having almost all the configuration options in one file (rc.conf) was genius.

Yeah!, genius!

Welcome to the speedway KENTOSI

Cam · 2005-04-18 11:39:59

Fantastic distro, I've been continually impressed with it and the contributions form the community are great. Anything you could want, somebosy has done.

jerem · 2005-04-18 16:04:08

I've used Gentoo before Arch and I feel Arch is faster for everything.

However, it could be more tested, because I often have "Missing file or directory" messages for some packages (procps,psmisc, etc...) when I do a massive upgrade.

And wireless support is very light in Arch...

phrakture · 2005-04-18 16:47:58

jerem wrote:

And wireless support is very light in Arch...

we're working on it!

jerem · 2005-04-18 22:21:43

I know you're working on this and I thank you for your contribution in the Wiki.

However, I think that such a popular feature as wireless networking should be a priority and should be "officially" put in the initscripts.

Till now, I've used rc.local to set up my network because it is the simplest way I've found, though not very a "proper way".

But hey, the AUR has just been released and devs only have two hands...

Sader · 2005-04-19 05:34:53

The whole issue of installing Linux at my work place was a matter of wireless support. I had several distors when I first tried to do an install...but the first one was Knoppix with all it's utilities to configure wilreless connections.... then gentoo(with no luck - probably did not looked into in a proper way... :oops: but I still do not accept several principles of this distro) and then slackware with BSD style init scripts & simplicity which I had all working. But getting wlan0 to be ready on boot is a whole issue there...

But guess what - the first distro I've got my wlan0 properly working at startup was Arch !

this is what I'm staying with at the moment both at the work place & at home & like it the most !

sml · 2005-09-25 03:49:28

QUOTE: "But guess what - the first distro I've got my wlan0 properly working at startup was Arch ! "

I have read the wiki and forum posts but still struggling. Maybe you could share your simple how-to with us Sader?

kensai · 2005-09-26 01:28:27

The only distro that boots faster than arch linux which I know off is h3knix and is a matter of nano seconds I think you don't even noticed it. You have to be a speed freak like me to see the difference. But I love arch a lot. I'm a Gentoo lover but I'm using arch now. I find myself switching between them.

sml · 2005-09-26 03:29:10

kensai ... my arch also boots very fast except for hotplug. I think I could have my system booted in 15 seconds to a GUI if it wasn't for hotplug !

kensai · 2005-09-26 03:39:48

sml wrote:

kensai ... my arch also boots very fast except for hotplug. I think I could have my system booted in 15 seconds to a GUI if it wasn't for hotplug !

Thats why I don't use a modular kernel I compile my kernel to be monolithic so I don't have to use hotplug since all modules are built in kernel. This makes arch boots in less than 12 seconds.

Snowman · 2005-09-26 04:33:36

sml wrote:

kensai ... my arch also boots very fast except for hotplug. I think I could have my system booted in 15 seconds to a GUI if it wasn't for hotplug !

To get rid of hotplug at boot time:
Boot with hotplug, then do lsmod to get a list of loaded modules. Add these modules to the MODULES array of rc.conf then comment out hotplug in the DEAMONS array.

shadowhand · 2005-09-26 06:40:04

Or you can use hwd (replacement for hotplug) that is much faster than hotplug.

dtw · 2005-09-26 07:25:45

sml wrote:

QUOTE: "But guess what - the first distro I've got my wlan0 properly working at startup was Arch ! "
I have read the wiki and forum posts but still struggling. Maybe you could share your simple how-to with us Sader?

And this months ancient thread resurection award goes to...

kensai · 2005-09-27 02:36:37

shadowhand wrote:

Or you can use hwd (replacement for hotplug) that is much faster than hotplug.

Or you can compile your own monolithic kernel which is faster than hwd

Arch Linux

#1 2005-04-17 23:48:47

I LOVE this distro!

#2 2005-04-18 00:03:22

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#3 2005-04-18 00:04:50

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#4 2005-04-18 01:06:50

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#5 2005-04-18 02:09:53

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#6 2005-04-18 03:44:51

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#7 2005-04-18 11:39:59

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#8 2005-04-18 16:04:08

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#9 2005-04-18 16:47:58

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#10 2005-04-18 22:21:43

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#11 2005-04-19 05:34:53

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#12 2005-09-25 03:49:28

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#13 2005-09-26 01:28:27

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#14 2005-09-26 03:29:10

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#15 2005-09-26 03:39:48

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#16 2005-09-26 04:33:36

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#17 2005-09-26 06:40:04

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#18 2005-09-26 07:25:45

Re: I LOVE this distro!

#19 2005-09-27 02:36:37

Re: I LOVE this distro!

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