Post Installation - What do you do?

ibendiben · 2007-10-25 15:01:04

With Archlinux you build your system from ground. You choose whatever you're going to install. Great thing... but what if you're new to (arch)linux and don't really know what's around? If you want a system that forfills all your needs, what do you need, where do you start?

I think it'd be nice if there was a wiki with an overview of popular packages and links to the installation/manual pages. I made some categories, and filled in what you should think off:

-Desktop environment... 3d, eye-candy, styles, fonts...
-Office... wordprocessor, spreadsheet, presentation, finance...
-Internet... webbrowser (addons!), pdf, mail, messenger, filesharing, editors (xml, php, java...)...
-Multimedia... audio/video-player, codecs, library, ripper, burner, editor, converter...
-Graphics... editor, scan, library, slideshow...
-Security... firewall, antivirus, fileprotection...
-System(tools)... powermanagment, networkmanager, devicemanager...
-Development...

What are the low-end alternatives? What's more easy to use? It's interesting to know what other users pick, what they prefer. What are their recommendations? Post installation - What do you do? Could be a great help to newbies.

update Ok, in this topic I actually wanted to know what you do to make your archlinux best first thing after base-install. Sometimes I read about users who have boottime of 10 seconds... and than I'd like to have that too... So what's the first thing you type? Something like the beginners guide mentions, or are there things you always do that are not stated there?

Last edited by ibendiben (2007-10-26 14:31:51)

Cerebral · 2007-10-25 15:08:13

Have you seen the Beginner's Guide?

ibendiben · 2007-10-25 15:35:10

Yes I have... It's great.

Misfit138 · 2007-10-25 16:24:09

ibendiben wrote:

Yes I have... It's great.

Thank you.
Hehe. Freigeist deserves so much credit for starting that guide. I have also spent a whole lot of blood, sweat, tears and time on the guide as well.
If you notice, there is a link in the Beginner's Guide to Post Installation tips: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pos … ation_Tips

Please feel free to add to it if you feel something is lacking.

Last edited by Misfit138 (2007-10-25 16:24:38)

WyoPBS · 2007-10-25 16:26:49

ibendiben wrote:

With Archlinux you build your system from ground. You choose whatever you're going to install. Great thing... but what if you're new to (arch)linux and don't really know what's around? If you want a system that forfills all your needs, what do you need, where do you start?

I agree. What I'd like to see is a pacman front end like you get when you first install arch... it shows the groups (core, office, games, etc.) and the packages in each group, and you can get a short description of what that package is for. Then you can check off all the packages you want to install, and pacman does the rest.

{added after some googling}
Like, for example, pacmenu.

Last edited by WyoPBS (2007-10-25 16:36:40)

ibendiben · 2007-10-26 09:56:23

WyoPBS wrote:

I agree. What I'd like to see is a pacman front end like you get when you first install arch... it shows the groups (core, office, games, etc.) and the packages in each group, and you can get a short description of what that package is for. Then you can check off all the packages you want to install, and pacman does the rest.
{added after some googling}
Like, for example, pacmenu.

Well exactly! That pacmenu would just do the job.
I know of the big pacman-GUI discussion, but what's the deal in maintaining such a nifty menumaker? I say, include it in the base arch install, or at least in the [extra] repository!
Everybody who doesn't like it can just do it their (pacman -S abiword acpid alsa-utils bash-completion codecs cpufrequtils dvd+rw-tools firefox flashplugin ghostscript gimp gnumeric jre k3b kdemod-kde-i18n-nl kdemod kdemod-kdegraphics-kghostview kdemod-kdegraphics-kpdf kdemod-kdegraphics-ksnapshot mplayer python samba synaptics ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu ttf-ms-fonts vlc wireless_tools xf86-input-keyboard xf86-input-mouse xf86-video-intel xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-utils xorg-xauth xorg-xinit xorg-xkb-utils) way. But I wonder what'd be quicker

Ok, in this topic I actually wanted to know what you do to make your archlinux best first thing after base-install. Sometimes I read about users who have boottime of 10 seconds... and than I'd like to have that too... So what's the first thing you type? Something like the beginners guide mentions (like above only than in the right order), or are there things you always do that are not stated there?

Last edited by ibendiben (2007-10-26 11:40:00)

buttons · 2007-10-26 10:57:42

The first thing I do is install yaourt.

foxbunny · 2007-10-26 11:47:12

I don't need a pacman frontend. Never needed it. Haven't even tried yaourt, although it looks good.

What I do when I install Arch is I immediately create aliases for pacaman:

pacup = "pacman -Syu"
pacinst = "pacman -Sy"
pacrm = "pacman -Rn"
paca = "pacman -A" #for use with makepkg
pacfind = "pacman -Ss"
pacseek = "pacman -Sl | grep"

etc.

I also download and install aurbuild, although I only needed it for very few packages.

Also, I have some very simple scripts that are basially install commands for pacman, and I keep those on a USB stick, so I can reinstall packages on a fresh Arch install (I do the fresh install once in a while when I try out different distros, like the time when openSUSE trashed my Arch's home directory with a wrong mount option). You could put in a script sometihng like what ibendiben mentioned in #6:

#!/usr/bin/bash
su -c 'pacman -S abiword acpid alsa-utils bash-completion codecs cpufrequtils dvd+rw-tools firefox flashplugin ghostscript gimp gnumeric jre k3b kdemod-kde-i18n-nl kdemod kdemod-kdegraphics-kghostview kdemod-kdegraphics-kpdf kdemod-kdegraphics-ksnapshot mplayer python samba synaptics ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu ttf-ms-fonts vlc wireless_tools xf86-input-keyboard xf86-input-mouse xf86-video-intel xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-utils xorg-xauth xorg-xinit xorg-xkb-utils'

or whatever you like, save it on a USB stick as post-install.sh or something like that.

For speeding up the boot, you may want to background some daemons:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dae … ng_on_Boot

Use the '@' char before a daemon's name in rc.conf to have it start in the bg. This means that daemons that follow a bg'd daemon don't wait for the previous daemon to successfully start. Chain the bg'd daemons together and it should speed up the boot. Also, try different kernels, or compile one yourself. I've noticed a rather quick boot with -kamikaze kernel.

Last edited by foxbunny (2007-10-26 11:52:14)

ibendiben · 2007-10-26 12:00:57

Thanks, I'll try what you suggested

ibendiben · 2007-10-26 13:32:06

foxbunny wrote:

For speeding up the boot, you may want to background some daemons:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dae … ng_on_Boot
Use the '@' char before a daemon's name in rc.conf to have it start in the bg. This means that daemons that follow a bg'd daemon don't wait for the previous daemon to successfully start. Chain the bg'd daemons together and it should speed up the boot. Also, try different kernels, or compile one yourself. I've noticed a rather quick boot with -kamikaze kernel.

Aahh
That makes some difference! I'm about 20 seconds now

More of that? It's still 10 seconds slow
About the modules:

MODULES=(tg3 ipw3945 snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore acpi-cpufreq evdev psmouse)

Do I need all these? Is cpufreq(daemon) autoloaded by hal? Udev autoloads too?
One more question, can you install everything (like two posts upwards) alphabetically, is the order in which you install the apps unimportant?

Last edited by ibendiben (2007-10-26 14:36:34)

hybrid · 2007-10-26 15:30:50

The order in which packages are installed does matter. Let's say package b depends on package a, then of course package a must be installed before package b can be installed. But pacman resolves that automatically (and usually correct) so the user doesn't have to worry about guessing the right order.

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-26 20:00:18

1. nano /etc/pacman.conf : enable wget
2. pacman -S bash-completion mc
3 check logs for errors
4. setup video/ X

foxbunny · 2007-10-27 00:37:21

ibendiben wrote:

More of that? It's still 10 seconds slow

Build a reeeealy fast 20-processor system, and port Arch Linux to that? Haha, sry, couldn't resist.

ibendiben · 2007-10-27 19:13:32

foxbunny wrote:

Build a reeeealy fast 20-processor system, and port Arch Linux to that? Haha, sry, couldn't resist.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-10-25 15:01:04

Post Installation - What do you do?

#2 2007-10-25 15:08:13

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#3 2007-10-25 15:35:10

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#4 2007-10-25 16:24:09

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#5 2007-10-25 16:26:49

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#6 2007-10-26 09:56:23

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#7 2007-10-26 10:57:42

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#8 2007-10-26 11:47:12

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#9 2007-10-26 12:00:57

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#10 2007-10-26 13:32:06

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#11 2007-10-26 15:30:50

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#12 2007-10-26 20:00:18

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#13 2007-10-27 00:37:21

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

#14 2007-10-27 19:13:32

Re: Post Installation - What do you do?

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