Ubuntu -> Arch

Jedimind · 2008-02-15 16:00:22

I used windows for many many years and one day when I was bored I decided to try out Ubuntu linux, after hearing lots of good stuff about it. I installed it and it was nice and now I can't stand to use windows. Who manages without screen, mpd and all the other goodies?

Anyway I heard about archlinux that it would be "better" that Ubuntu and to find out I tested it on my laptop. And it was brilliant, it was so much more enjoyable than Ubuntu since it gave me more control. Now I'm thinking about changing from Ubuntu to ArchLinux on my stationary computer -- so I was wondering if there is some way to migrate my install from ubuntu to archlinux without howing to reinstall everything? Or is the best way to just save the config files for the software/tools I use and do a complete reinstall?

How would you do? Ubuntu works but I prefer a system that is more up to date

Last edited by Jedimind (2008-02-15 16:02:18)

venox · 2008-02-15 16:04:30

You have to do a complete reinstall. Just backup your important config files and use them on your fresh Arch Linux install.

Also, since Ubuntu packages are sometimes kinda old, you can find some config files that are not compatible with newer versions of your software, be aware of that.

Last edited by venox (2008-02-15 16:05:21)

Cerebral · 2008-02-15 16:05:39

As far as I know, there is no automated migration from Ubuntu to Arch. Your best bet is to backup your configs, then do a clean install of Arch - this way would generally be better than a migration from Ubuntu anyway, because I bet you have many installed apps on Ubuntu that you never use.

Jedimind · 2008-02-15 16:27:35

Cerebral wrote:

As far as I know, there is no automated migration from Ubuntu to Arch. Your best bet is to backup your configs, then do a clean install of Arch - this way would generally be better than a migration from Ubuntu anyway, because I bet you have many installed apps on Ubuntu that you never use.

Yes, loads of them. And other things that I'm not sure what it is ... on the laptop I know what is installed and why. On my stationary computer I don't have as much control ...

One fun thing with Ubuntu when being bored is to open up a terminal window and press one letter like 'a', 'b' and press tab and see if I find something that I have no idea what it does

I guess I'll have to reinstall then, of course it will take some time but I guess it will be worth it

Misfit138 · 2008-02-15 16:39:02

Jedimind wrote:

One fun thing with Ubuntu when being bored is to open up a terminal window and press one letter like 'a', 'b' and press tab and see if I find something that I have no idea what it does

Tab completion works fine on Arch. Check out post-installation tips in the wiki, if it is not working by default on your system.

Jedimind · 2008-02-15 16:44:39

Misfit138 wrote:

Jedimind wrote:
One fun thing with Ubuntu when being bored is to open up a terminal window and press one letter like 'a', 'b' and press tab and see if I find something that I have no idea what it does
Tab completion works fine on Arch. Check out post-installation tips in the wiki, if it is not working by default on your system.

That was not what I meant, maybe my skills in the English language is a bit bad but what I meant wasn't to say that there are loads and loads of packages that I don't know what they are. I know the tab completion works fine on Arch aswell, it's just that on this computer that are like 3000 or so files in /usr/bin ...

PJ · 2008-02-15 16:48:38

Misfit138 wrote:

Jedimind wrote:
One fun thing with Ubuntu when being bored is to open up a terminal window and press one letter like 'a', 'b' and press tab and see if I find something that I have no idea what it does
Tab completion works fine on Arch. Check out post-installation tips in the wiki, if it is not working by default on your system.

It doesn't work in exacly the same way, ubuntu's tab completion is also doing a search for stuff in the package database. I know it because I have used this feature at my work where I have kubuntu installed.

brebs · 2008-02-15 17:09:08

Install the bash-completion package (/var/abs/extra/system/bash-completion). Then, add to ~/.bashrc

. /etc/bash_completion

(Yep, that's a dot as the first character.)

The huge /etc/bash_completion file has some interesting tab-completion stuff for e.g. insmod, and pacman is tab-completed via /etc/bash_completion.d/pacman

Last edited by brebs (2008-02-15 17:39:21)

jacko · 2008-02-15 21:11:37

Arch doesn't install a lot by default, so you may not as fun on your tab completion hiatus. But, you could always search the AUR instead to find out about programs for linux.

http://aur.archlinux.org

Last edited by jacko (2008-02-15 21:11:50)

B-Con · 2008-02-15 21:19:02

brebs wrote:

Install the bash-completion package (/var/abs/extra/system/bash-completion). Then, add to ~/.bashrc
. /etc/bash_completion
(Yep, that's a dot as the first character.)
The huge /etc/bash_completion file has some interesting tab-completion stuff for e.g. insmod, and pacman is tab-completed via /etc/bash_completion.d/pacman

Ie, what he's saying is that since pacman doesn't have the tab completion that you're used to on Ubuntu you can edit the bash_completion file to add the capability. You likely already have tab-completion enabled, you just need to manually add an extension for pacman.

PJ · 2008-02-15 21:49:24

B-Con wrote:

Ie, what he's saying is that since pacman doesn't have the tab completion that you're used to on Ubuntu you can edit the bash_completion file to add the capability. You likely already have tab-completion enabled, you just need to manually add an extension for pacman.

Actually, there is already an extension for pacman. If you are using sudo with pacman and are missing tab completion then it might be a good idea to enable tab completion for sudo users:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sud … sudo_Users

Some more information on how to enable bash_completion:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bas … Completion

My earlier post was a bit unclear. What I meant to say was that if the bash completion (in kubuntu and most probably ubuntu too) can't find a matching program which is installed in the regular paths then it will look in the package database. A bit different behavior compared to archlinux.

peets · 2008-02-15 23:04:40

I didn't know about tab-completion extensions. Sounds useful.

OT, one feature of Ubuntu that I liked was that it supports so many peripherals by default (printers and other gadgets). In arch they must be set up explicitly. This is not bad thanks to the wiki and forums, but it does take some time. Some stuff works magically in Ubuntu. Until it magically breaks. And if it doesn't work in the first place...

Anyway, if you're depending on a lot of extra gadgets, you may want to read the relevant wiki pages to get an estimate of how much work it will be to get them set up properly before getting rid of Ubuntu and its magical powers.

floke · 2008-02-15 23:28:14

If your hard drive's big enough you could always keep ubuntu and put Arch in a new partition.
My old ubuntu came in handy tonight when I borked my Arch (removing dhcpd and filesystem to fix non-recognition of cd-rom) - had to use it to chroot back into arch to reinstall packages.

Apart from that, I haven't missed it.

Jedimind · 2008-02-16 11:37:17

I decided to install Arch yesterday, first I had a little bit of trouble and then I couldn't get the sound to work. I just couldn't understand what was wrong ... until I remembered that I accidentally unplugged my headphones. Hehe.

Anyway I got X + Sound + mpd + apache + other things up and running now. I would say it's working fine. I just need to fix things like /etc/fstab and some other minor things. But everything else works, dvd-playback etc. I would say that if you DO follow the guides it isn't very hard, now I know more on how to configure my computer I guess I could have a decent running computer in ~30min (ie that is useable).

Jedimind · 2008-02-16 19:57:38

Now I've run into one problem. I really need to run wine, however I'm afraid I will destroy the system with the guide on how to chroot. Can I just use the guide on how to use chroot and put it on a usb memory instead? However this seems unsmooth. Another way is just use vmware/virtualbox/qemu to boot up windows98, but this is doesn't integrate into openbox/xmonad all that nicely ...

Or maybe it's easier for me to just install the none x64 version? I don't use all the power of my hardware anyway. Hmm, or are there free alternatives for wine that runs on arch x64? I know cedega and crossover exists, but they cost money ...

a1ex · 2008-02-16 21:33:19

well you can try this guide and in case you dont get it to work still switch to 32bit arch. no reason to be afraid if you think about switching anyway imho. you probably even still have your backups.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … bit_system

using 32bit isnt a real drawback as of now, since most apps arent available or optimised anyway. most likely you will only notice a difference when encoding some video stuff...

Last edited by a1ex (2008-02-16 21:34:10)

staticvoid · 2008-02-17 16:30:14

i'm moving from ubuntu to arch as well. i went to arch, and got scared and went back to ubuntu.. but now i want in again i went through the ftp install... with a slow net connection... wrong server... internet going off and on throughout... and then i rebooted and couldn't get into my system, then i downloaded the "base archlinux" which went smoother, i did the partitioning myself this time.. then... my net was iffy... and i'm no cli expert so i winged it with my little knowledge of dhcpcd eth0 (still not sure what this did) and ifconfig and stuff.... i can cd, ls, pwd like a pro though, lol
anyway, i finally got pacman -Syu to work... but then i ran the command again i guess to check on things? well, it downloaded a ton of stuff... and i'm impaciant : /

anyway... this time i would like to copy config files as ya'll suggested, but what config files do i need to copy and where are they..? if you can help me i think i'll make a script to get all the neccasary config files.

thanks!

sv

p.s. how do i get eth0 or wlan0 to connect at boot anyway? it was in a config file i know it....

Jessehk · 2008-02-17 16:53:29

staticvoid wrote:

anyway... this time i would like to copy config files as ya'll suggested, but what config files do i need to copy and where are they..? if you can help me i think i'll make a script to get all the neccasary config files.
thanks!
sv
p.s. how do i get eth0 or wlan0 to connect at boot anyway? it was in a config file i know it....

Read the beginner's guide here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide
That's what it's there for.

staticvoid · 2008-02-17 17:08:42

i've read it.

no just kidding, i've read most of it and used it thoroughly during install. all i know is that i should copy my xorg.config file i currently have in ubuntu... and use hwdetect for everything else..

sv

xdeusx · 2008-02-17 21:37:56

where is the fun of a new system without configuring it first?

bionnaki · 2008-02-17 22:41:21

exactly

MoonSwan · 2008-02-17 23:38:17

I'd suggest copying your /etc/rc.conf file, locale.gen, xorg.conf, net-profile file (if you have wireless, it will be named whatever you want...mine is just ath0), wpa_supplicant.conf if you use wpa, any keymap fil

Arch Linux

#1 2008-02-15 16:00:22

Ubuntu -> Arch

#2 2008-02-15 16:04:30

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#3 2008-02-15 16:05:39

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#4 2008-02-15 16:27:35

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#5 2008-02-15 16:39:02

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#6 2008-02-15 16:44:39

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#7 2008-02-15 16:48:38

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#8 2008-02-15 17:09:08

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#9 2008-02-15 21:11:37

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#10 2008-02-15 21:19:02

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#11 2008-02-15 21:49:24

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#12 2008-02-15 23:04:40

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#13 2008-02-15 23:28:14

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#14 2008-02-16 11:37:17

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#15 2008-02-16 19:57:38

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#16 2008-02-16 21:33:19

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#17 2008-02-17 16:30:14

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#18 2008-02-17 16:53:29

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#19 2008-02-17 17:08:42

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#20 2008-02-17 21:37:56

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#21 2008-02-17 22:41:21

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

#22 2008-02-17 23:38:17

Re: Ubuntu -> Arch

Board footer