Arch Linux

WaltzNightray

Member

From: Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Registered: 2023-12-30

Posts: 2

[Resolved]Dual Boot over existing Linux install

Hello all,

I'm trying to install Arch in a very old, legacy laptop (Celeron 2nd Gen, 1GB of RAM). I was only able to install Xubuntu 16.04 on it of all Linux Distros, but seeing as Arch can be as lightweight as I want at the same time it's updated, I'm trying for Arch.

This laptop has a few partitions and is already being dual booted with Windows XP, being:
sda1 = Windows Partition
sda2 = Unknown (won't use this one)
sda3 = Unknown (won't use this one)
sda4 = Unknown (won't use this one)
sda5 = NTFS Partition
sda6 = ext4 Linux root and home folders
sda7 = Swap

What I'm trying for is jut to format sda6 and sda7 and use them the same as before, sda6 for the entire Linux system, including home, and sda7 for swap.

I was usually using the archinstall script to install Arch (although I already did manual installs, but only with guides though). However, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to manipulate the partitions on the Manual Partitioning menu of the archinstall script, together with the Swap option (which only says "true", and not the partition it's going to install on).

Update: It seems I was able to successfully install Arch! I just had to format the partitions with mkfs, and everything worked (after some manual configuration of Grub too).

Now I'm dealing with some issues regarding my SiS Mirage 672 card, but that's a post for another day.

Thank you everyone!

So, how can I go about this? To keep the other partitions intact (and Windows being detected by Grub), while only writing Arch over the Xubuntu installed on partitions sda6 and sda7 (Swap)?

I thank anyone who pays attention to this question and provides an answer.

Last edited by WaltzNightray (2024-01-02 00:20:26)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: [Resolved]Dual Boot over existing Linux install

I don't know what "Celeron 2nd Gen" actually means, but this system sounds pretty limited. Arch isn't all that lightweight, really, something targeting more limited systems would probably be better unless this is going to be a CLI only setup or something.

Forget archinstall, follow the installation guide and you can make sure things are exactly where you want them to be.

Last edited by Scimmia (2023-12-31 00:38:03)

WaltzNightray

Member

From: Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Registered: 2023-12-30

Posts: 2

Re: [Resolved]Dual Boot over existing Linux install

I don't know what "Celeron 2nd Gen" actually means, but this system sounds pretty limited. Arch isn't all that lightweight, really, something targeting more limited systems would probably be better unless this is going to be a CLI only setup or something.

Forget archinstall, follow the installation guide and you can make sure things are exactly where you want them to be.

Hello Scimmia,

Thanks for your reply.

"Celeron 2nd Gen" meant that the laptop was a 2nd generation Intel Celeron CPU, which is what I thought it was, meaning it was in line with the i3, i5 and i7 of the 2nd generation era, as the Kaby Lake series is the 7th generation and so on... This is what I thought, but upon searching on the Intel Ark website, I saw that the CPU, which is named Intel Celeron 540, is actually much older that that, being from the Core 2 Duo era, before the i3, i5 and i7 even existed...

Summing up, yeah, it's a pretty old laptop with very limited capabilities.

It's good to know that Arch isn't that lightweight. I saw somewhere that Arch could, in theory, run on devices with as little as 256MB of RAM, so I went with it, but thinking now, GNOME 45, KDE 5, even XFCE4, or any modern browser will be heavy on any OS...

c00ter

Member

From: Alaskan in Washington State

Registered: 2014-08-28

Posts: 421

Re: [Resolved]Dual Boot over existing Linux install

I installed Arch + XFCE, then lowered my expectations to Openbox, on such a system, maybe 3 years ago. It was so severely limited that it's since been gathering dust. That was about 3 years ago. At this point, it would probably make a better handheld weapon than laptop.

The shame is that it was MY brand new laptop until my WIFE preempted it around 2009. I really loved that little machine. *sniffle*

NOTE: 30 years together on Dec. 16. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Whether you like it or not.

Last edited by c00ter (2023-12-31 01:58:28)

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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: [Resolved]Dual Boot over existing Linux install

OK, that's not quite so old, then. The second generation of Celeron would have been more in the Pentium 3 days; 1G of ram would make it later than that, but I was fearing the worst.

It can definitely run Arch, but of course you'll run into some limitations. As I said, forget archinstall and just install Arch like normal.