Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

OmniCloud · 2008-02-01 05:20:45

Hello all, don't flame, but I didn't go through and read everything before making this post. But the little research that I did do honestly scared the heebie jeebies outta me:( Arch looks fantastic, but it just seems like it doesn't do ANYTHING for you.

But, I felt the same way about Fedora, and it has been the most stable Linux I've ever used. Now my interest in Arch is that it can be even more stable/fast/and effective than most other distros, and that's what has gotten me hooked.

I'm using an ISO CD to install, I tried to just do the automatic Hard-disk partition that erases everything but got an error message:rolleyes: It says something about check tty for details?? Yeah--i'll have to get back to that later....;)

Anyway, I have a Pentium 4 Dell PC, and I believe 512MB of Ram. My memory says 932MB when looking at the system monitor and I have a wired connection with one main router. Doesn't sound too hard to set up with a little help I guess.

The one thing that I did want to know before taking the plunge is the available software. There's a few programs that I had to do a little digging to get up and running on Fedora like Limewire/Frostwire/Winff(the graphical interface for FFmpeg that's a lifesaver!) PSPVC/Wine and a few others. Are you guys up and running these applications with no problems? I mainly use my computer for media playing/web surfing/and recreation in general, I don't need any server setups or wireless devices or anything, I just need some multimedia software to work--and work well.

I guess I'm kinda rambling on, so I'll stop here, gonna go and make a different ISO CD to make sure the first one wasn't a buggy burn. Tks in advance for the help, now some1--POINT ME TO THE LIGHT PLZ:D

jacko · 2008-02-01 05:40:25

now some1--POINT ME TO THE LIGHT PLZ

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page

Last edited by jacko (2008-02-01 05:40:50)

Sigi · 2008-02-01 05:46:36

Welcome to the Arch Forums! To check the tty error message during the install, change to the right tty (I think you have to go to tty5) with ctrl-alt-F5. Please report back with the error message if you need help.

edit: typo

Last edited by Sigi (2008-02-01 05:46:54)

veek · 2008-02-01 05:54:23

er based on your post, not sure if you need help with anything,
but to answer your question I run and have run a bunch of media applications.
I don't really use Limewire much but I've installed and used it in the past no problem.
Don't know about Frostwire, Winff. I use wine regularly with no problems installing.

There're many options for playing audio and video. Shouldn't take any special
effort to get them working aside from making sure you have your sound and video
drivers installed.

Last edited by veek (2008-02-01 05:55:27)

el_zoona · 2008-02-01 06:01:36

OmniCloud wrote:

I'm using an ISO CD to install, I tried to just do the automatic Hard-disk partition that erases everything but got an error message:rolleyes: It says something about check tty for details?? Yeah--i'll have to get back to that later....;)

Hi, when says "check tty" it means check the console. In order to do that, press Ctrl+F4 (i guess is 4, if not, check tty[F1-F7]), you'll fin the error message there.

OmniCloud wrote:

I guess I'm kinda rambling on, so I'll stop here, gonna go and make a different ISO CD to make sure the first one wasn't a buggy burn. Tks in advance for the help, now some1--POINT ME TO THE LIGHT PLZ:D

Instead of burning a diferent CD or ISO, try to check the error message. About the software you ask, Frostwire is in the official repo, Limewire is in AUR and there is a small tutorial to install WinFF in Arch here.

As my first message here, wanna say "hello" to everybody :-P.

bionnaki · 2008-02-01 07:36:07

I know habits are hard break, but you should use bittorrent + private trackers instead of limewire. the quality is 100x of what you'd find on limewire and it's much faster as well. I recommend rtorrent: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RTo … ent_client

Rumor · 2008-02-01 12:47:42

OmniCloud wrote:

Anyway, I have a Pentium 4 Dell PC, and I believe 512MB of Ram. My memory says 932MB when looking at the system monitor and I have a wired connection with one main router. Doesn't sound too hard to set up with a little help I guess.
I guess I'm kinda rambling on, so I'll stop here, gonna go and make a different ISO CD to make sure the first one wasn't a buggy burn. Tks in advance for the help, now some1--POINT ME TO THE LIGHT PLZ:D

Welcome to Arch! You won't get flamed here, as a rule. You might feel a warm breeze or two, but . . .

How big is the HD in this computer? The default settings in the auto-prepare use about 89 gigabytes.

Others have pointed you to the wiki and I will too. I would highly recommend you read / print the beginner's guide to aid your install: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

Good luck!

Misfit138 · 2008-02-01 16:05:39

Welcome to Arch!
Print out the beginner's guide: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

OmniCloud · 2008-02-02 05:45:21

tks for the tips fellas...there's still a lot of reading I have to do before I actually begin changing my computer over to Arch. For instance, many of the partitioning/internet configuring and just basic services in the beginners guide I flat out have NO CLUE what it's referring to. This will be a real homework project for me and I'll come back to this thread on an on-going basis for your support!!

tks in advance...I hope one day I'll be able to go into a terminal and CONTROL my OS like you guys can!

bionnaki · 2008-02-02 06:01:32

how are you connecting to the internet?

OmniCloud · 2008-02-03 04:29:38

Cable modem

blu3ness · 2008-02-03 04:35:27

Archwiki is really thorough, I started Arch too only with some Ubuntu experience, it made me gained a whole new insight into how linux is put together.

So yeah, welcome aboard, just don't hesitate to wiki stuff and read documentation, you'll sail through and be comfortable in no time. (took me 3 hours to get a working GNOME system, then took me about a week to get it to where I feel comfortable (openbox, custom kernel, wifi, suspend+hibernate, etc.))

HyperBaton · 2008-02-03 17:16:46

The Arch Wiki is indeed really REALLY good. By the way, use the FTP iso to install, it saves you the hassle of upgrading packages after you have installed the operating system.

ProfessorTomoe · 2008-02-15 06:49:44

HyperBaton wrote:

The Arch Wiki is indeed really REALLY good. By the way, use the FTP iso to install, it saves you the hassle of upgrading packages after you have installed the operating system.

Seconded on both counts. The Wiki is your friend. Just make sure you check the permissions on your /tmp directory if you use the FTP ISO. I ran into a problem that others have reported - I got an error trying to login to KDE because the /tmp directory permissions weren't set properly. I suspect it may have had something to do with the fact that I put my /tmp directory on its own partition. In any case, doing this...

chmod 1777 /tmp

...fixed the problem.

I'm also in the process of moving from Fedora to Arch. My first Linux install was FC6, right after it was released. I upgraded to Fedora 8 and wasn't all that impressed - too much going on behind the scenes. I also didn't like having to go through the recommended "erase and reinstall from scratch" upgrade procedure.

So far, Arch is living up to its reputation as a very fast distro. It's much peppier than Fedora, and the Pacman system is easy to adapt to for anyone who was used to using Yum. The ABS system is an added bonus.

Believe it or not, I've actually had difficulty getting used to the fact that services aren't being started by default in Arch. Fedora's install makes a lot of assumptions about what you'll be doing with your system and sets up a lot of programs to run without asking if you want them. You have to go in and turn off a lot of things to customize your system, and you risk breaking things if you disable the wrong service. Arch is the opposite: it runs practically nothing unless you specifically tell it to in your rc.conf or xorg.conf files. In fact, you might want to read up in the Wiki on firewalls and other security measures before finishing your installation - otherwise, you might leave something out that could expose your system to security risks.

Another big difference between Fedora and Arch is in where things get started. You could never be absolutely sure of what was being loaded where in Fedora, which is why the chkconfig program was a big necessity. Pretty much everything in Arch seems to get started in rc.conf (with xorg.conf loading a few necessities of its own), so there's really no need for chkconfig.

I bought my first 80286-12MHz system back in 1992, and in the years after that when DOS ruled I would spend hours fiddling with my config.sys and autoexec.bat files. I even got into contests with co-workers when I worked in tech support over who could load the most stuff into upper memory and free up the most conventional memory. Arch Linux reminds me a lot of those days, since a few tweaks of rc.conf will do most of what you need.

Finally, I really like the idea of a rolling release schedule. The Fedora delete/reinstall dance was bad enough the first time, and I have no intention of going through it again. I'm willing to put up with a new install one last time to get Arch installed, for the sake of never having to repeat the procedure.

Put simply, I'm getting closer and closer to reformatting my Fedora drive and using it to store more useful data.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-02-01 05:20:45

Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#2 2008-02-01 05:40:25

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#3 2008-02-01 05:46:36

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#4 2008-02-01 05:54:23

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#5 2008-02-01 06:01:36

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#6 2008-02-01 07:36:07

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#7 2008-02-01 12:47:42

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#8 2008-02-01 16:05:39

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#9 2008-02-02 05:45:21

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#10 2008-02-02 06:01:32

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#11 2008-02-03 04:29:38

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#12 2008-02-03 04:35:27

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#13 2008-02-03 17:16:46

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

#14 2008-02-15 06:49:44

Re: Overwhelmed and Excited, my trip from Fedora to Arch

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