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#1 2007-06-20 18:10:03

ionflux
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-06-20
Posts: 18

xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Hi,

I recently converted to Arch from Ubuntu and this is my first post.

First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to all the developers for such an impressive work.
This distribution looks exceptional and seems to fit exactly what I was looking for.

I have a couple of questions (please forgive me if they are too simple - I don't have much experience with Linux).

1) How do I generate a good xorg.conf file? I noticed that there are several ways of doing this, each giving different results.
Which one is the best? I need to use two LCD displays in Merged Framebuffer mode.

2) A question about pacman: if I understand correctly, the command "pacman -Syu" will upgrade every package in the system to its most current state.
I read in some post (I cannot remember where exactly) that there have been cases in which the latest version of a package contained a bug that completely broke the Arch installation.  I was wondering: Is there a way to tune pacman to a desired level of stability when performing upgrades?
For example: let's say one chooses to only upgrade packages when they have been proven to be highly stable.  Is there an automated way of doing this?

Thank you so much for your time and for your help!

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#2 2007-06-20 18:23:15

soundwave
Member
Registered: 2007-05-25
Posts: 11

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

ionflux wrote:

Hi,

I recently converted to Arch from Ubuntu and this is my first post.

First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to all the developers for such an impressive work.
This distribution looks exceptional and seems to fit exactly what I was looking for.

I have a couple of questions (please forgive me if they are too simple - I don't have much experience with Linux).

1) How do I generate a good xorg.conf file? I noticed that there are several ways of doing this, each giving different results.
Which one is the best? I need to use two LCD displays in Merged Framebuffer mode.

Personally when I configured my Xorg system I download HWD. From what I have seen this seems to work well for me and most of the other machines I have put together for my family and friends.

1) Do a pacman -Sy hwd
           This will download hwd.

2)Then run hwd -xa
            This will run hwd and overwrite your Xorg file with the one is created. Caution though it will over write your old             xorg file. Or you can use hwd -x just to generate one without over writing the original.

ionflux wrote:

2) A question about pacman: if I understand correctly, the command "pacman -Syu" will upgrade every package in the system to its most current state.
I read in some post (I cannot remember where exactly) that there have been cases in which the latest version of a package contained a bug that completely broke the Arch installation.  I was wondering: Is there a way to tune pacman to a desired level of stability when performing upgrades?
For example: let's say one chooses to only upgrade packages when they have been proven to be highly stable.  Is there an automated way of doing this?

Thank you so much for your time and for your help!

For the most part I have no experienced the problem with my arch system. Mainly because I do not use any of the servers that have experimental packages on them.

IF anyone finds anything wrong with what I have said please feel free to correct me.

PS: Boston rocks!!!!

Last edited by soundwave (2007-06-20 18:24:21)

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#3 2007-06-20 19:11:02

Leigh
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2004-06-25
Posts: 533

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Welcome to Archlinux,
Personally I just use xorg -configure and then manually edit/tweak the generated xorg.conf as I need to for my system. There's some good example xorg.conf files in the wiki, as well as lots of great info about xorg in general...
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg

Your /etc/pacman.conf file controls which repositories pacman will use when installing/upgrading. Current and extra are safe to use. I think community is also safe. Even so, Every time I do a pacman -Syu, I look at the list of files that pacman wants to upgrade. pacman will ask you if you want to proceed or not. before selecting yes, especially if it's a long list of upgrades, I'll check the forum and announcements before committing to the upgrade, to see if there's a problem with any recent package upgrades. I haven't had a upgrade problem in a long time. I think arch does a great job balancing stability and bleeding edge.


-- archlinux 是一个极好的 linux

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#4 2007-06-20 19:25:49

ionflux
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-06-20
Posts: 18

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Soundwave and Leigh:

Thank you SO much for your prompt and kind replies.
I am absolutely impressed! This is such a friendly and knowledgeable community.

Regarding pacman and xorg: this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you!

I have to say I find this distribution spectacular.
From what I have experienced so far, the feeling is that of driving a Ferrari: essential, lightweight and fast!

Thank you so much once again!

Talk to you soon.

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#5 2007-06-20 19:52:54

slackhack
Member
Registered: 2004-06-30
Posts: 738

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

generally also if there ever *is* a problem with a specific package, it's very easy to downgrade it to the earlier version until it's fixed. rarely (if ever) is the entire system "broken." it's all well tested beforehand, but occasionally minor bugs will come through, naturally, which is to be expected with any OS or distro. but i can't ever remember any upgrade that "broke" arch in any major or serious way.

so the short answer is: i wouldn't worry about it too much. wink if it does happen rarely, it's usually easy to fix. as far as automation, not really, though you can add any package you want to the Ignorepkg line in pacman.conf so it doesn't get upgraded until you remove it or install the package manually. otherwise, you are pretty much on your own. Leigh described what also seems to me to the best method: just check the website, forum, etc. if you are ever unsure or concerned about any package or major upgrade. smile

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#6 2007-06-20 22:09:37

ionflux
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-06-20
Posts: 18

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

OK Slackhack, thank you!

A curiosity: does your username imply you also use Slackware?
If that is the case, how would you compare the two?
I was also considering Slackware, but eventually opted for Arch.

Thank you for your help!

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#7 2007-06-20 22:50:00

ataraxia
Member
From: Pittsburgh
Registered: 2007-05-06
Posts: 1,553

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Well, I'm (obviously) not Slackhack, but I use both also. I like Slackware quite a bit, since it's so extremely stable and flexible, but you end up having to track down many more packages, since Slackware's repository isn't as large. I also find Arch's rolling release system to be an extreme improvement upon using either Slackware stable or current.

Basically, I consider Arch to be the only distro that actually out-Slackwares Slackware and actually makes it better.

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#8 2007-06-21 12:35:39

soundwave
Member
Registered: 2007-05-25
Posts: 11

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

You very welcome! smile

I just hope that you remember how you were treated here and treat others the same way.

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#9 2007-06-21 14:18:44

ionflux
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-06-20
Posts: 18

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Good morning Ataraxia and Soundwave:

Thank you so much for your help!
I am very happy to be a member of the Arch community smile

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#10 2007-06-21 17:56:44

Mefju
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2006-07-12
Posts: 104

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

If you want to securely upgrade your system, you can refresh package list with "pacman -Sy" at first and then check possible upgrades with "pacman -Qu" before making full upgrade - "pacman -Su". It's not as convenient as "pacman -Syu", but works well when extreme stability is needed.

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#11 2007-06-21 21:34:28

slackhack
Member
Registered: 2004-06-30
Posts: 738

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

ionflux wrote:

OK Slackhack, thank you!

A curiosity: does your username imply you also use Slackware?
If that is the case, how would you compare the two?
I was also considering Slackware, but eventually opted for Arch.

Thank you for your help!

i feel pretty much the same as ataraxia. i really like slackware -- the simplicity, the stability, the feeling of security. i've found that arch is just more convenient for a desktop or laptop computer, especially if you like to keep things more on the current side. of course you can make slack pretty much as current as you want, but it's a *lot* more work. at this point i'd rather use my computer than keep having to tinker with it and upgrade it. just too busy for that anymore. 

i've consistently found arch faster on the desktop, too -- which isn't really saying anything against slack, because slack is very fast -- but arch seems subjectively faster than *any* other distro i've tried. slack is preferable to me for a server, but for my day to day desktop, at this point i strongly prefer arch. smile

so welcome,  i think you're really going to like arch. almost everyone who tries it seems to become a "convert." lol

Last edited by slackhack (2007-06-21 21:37:30)

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#12 2007-06-22 09:46:47

eyolf
Member
From: Copenhagen
Registered: 2005-11-29
Posts: 339
Website

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

The only serious problem I've had with Syu was some upgrade of the initscripts I think it was, when grep was needed before the non-boot filesystems were mounted, and since I had /usr/share on a separate partition, nothing would work.  Of course, it happened while I was on the road over the weekend, so I was forced to use Windows for three days... but when I got home, it was (a) easy to fix, thanks to very detailed help from someone in the forum, and (b) already a new version of the offending package in the repos, both of which confirm the very positive impression of a friendly community and efficient bosses.
Other than that, I've had problems occasionally, once with a new kernel version which didn't like my setup somehow, with major upgrades to the x-server, the switch to mkinitcpio, etc. In all those cases, there has been a warning on the web site, which I have failed to see. Hence, I strongly recommend scrolling down to the Latest News before you upgrade essential packages. I have also put kernel26 in the ignore list in /etc/pacman.conf.
I think I was using the testing repo at the time, which I don't any more.
Anyway - welcome, it's a great distro!

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#13 2007-06-22 15:43:05

soundwave
Member
Registered: 2007-05-25
Posts: 11

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Actually Arch was the distro that was taught with in my school. Which is a good and bad thing. So I have been using Arch since day 1 for me. haha. Still tried others and I am not a fan of many others.

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#14 2007-06-22 16:00:13

ionflux
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-06-20
Posts: 18

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Hi Guys,

Thank you!

I am going to finish the installation over the weekend.
Will bug you again if issues arise, but hopefully not smile

I am immensely grateful for your help!

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#15 2007-06-24 09:37:04

Leigh
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2004-06-25
Posts: 533

Re: xorgconfig or Xorg -configure?

Your welcome ionflux. I think you'll have fun tweaking your system. It can be time consumming to get everything just the way you like it, but the best part is that you learn so much while doing it.

Also, like slackhack said, very rarely is there a major problem with upgrades. So I wouldn't worry about it. The little problems that do arise from time to time doesn't seem to effect most people, even so, they always seem to get fixed rather fast. smile

Last edited by Leigh (2007-06-24 09:37:42)


-- archlinux 是一个极好的 linux

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