total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

miesnerd · 2008-02-18 23:43:08

Hey,
I would like to be able to concern myself with getting the internet to work after getting X working. Is there a way to do this?
Sorry if this question is answered somewhere, I didnt see it in the FAQ or as a sticky.

My thought is that after I can get X working and get into a graphical envionment, then I can decide if I want to keep arch.
Thanks

KimTjik · 2008-02-18 23:51:50

Welcome!

The Wiki is good. What fits your needs the best is possibly this guide in the Wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

miesnerd · 2008-02-18 23:57:57

that's the thing. I looked at the wiki. As I understand it, I have to use pacman (thus, the internet which is not set up) to install X. That's what my question was.

miesnerd · 2008-02-18 23:58:47

I am assuming that I cant run Xorg -configure before downloding the X packages, unless they are installed as part of the base and I missed that. My apologies if this is the case.

tigrmesh · 2008-02-19 00:09:01

miesnerd wrote:

I am assuming that I cant run Xorg -configure before downloding the X packages

You are right. You have to have a working internet connection to install anything other than the base system.

fwojciec · 2008-02-19 00:10:26

To answer your original question -- AFAIK X packages are not included on the core ISO. You could of course download them from a repo manually, put them on a separate CD and install them that way, but that would be probably more trouble than it's worth. Arch is designed to boot into a text login prompt and from then on to use network in order to install everything else, I'm afraid.

miesnerd · 2008-02-19 00:13:01

so I am out of luck, or is there a way around this?
As a side note, Im a lover of debian. One of the reasons is that I know if I need certain packages, I can pop them on a flash drive (like from getdeb.net or whatever) and go from there. Is there a similar workaround? Problem is, I bet Xorg has so many dependencies that it would take forever to troubleshoot.
Am I best off just trying out arch on my laptop (where I can get internet via campus if need be) ?
Is there a "arch full" that I can download that will install x with the base?
I tried FaunOS, and could never get it to make it through a boot, as a side note.

rayjgu3 · 2008-02-19 00:17:15

welcome to the Arch way if you chose to stay
judging arch from how the gui looks/feels is not really a good way to judge it IMO
some of the best selling features of arch arent gui, its from the CLI as stated here
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … al_Distros

arch does not setup alot of stuff like alot of other distro's it tends to let you have control
ie it probably isnt running cause you didnt turn it on, thus not using up resources on stuff you dont use or need
checkout the whole wiki
dont be afraid to ask questions, just make sure youve researched it a bit before asking, & when asking be descriptive, not just it wont work
the people here have been very helpful to me inturn i do what i can to help others when i can here (which hasnt been much lately)

give arch a few weeks or even months before making a decision about arch, if you dont want to put forth the effort to read & learn then you may find arch is not for you.
i will say this i played with several distros but have not ditched arch since i stumbled across it. i am very happy with my expierence with this community.

rayjgu3 · 2008-02-19 00:24:39

xorg isnt all that difficult provided you know your hardware
or grab hwd & run
hwd -xa
this will generate an xorg.conf file for you
it may need to be tweaked but it should work provided you have proper packages installed
i see you have several posts here this evening i recommend checking out irc channel
http://www.archlinux.org/irc/
ill sign in right now & watch for you

miesnerd · 2008-02-19 00:42:55

oh im not planning on 'ditching" arch. I see arch as the "next step" for me in my growing linux nerd-dom.
I started out with ubuntu 2 years ago and have been a huge "distro-hopper", but now my "hopping" is slowing down, as I've found a few distros that I keep coming back to. Currently, Im triple-booting on my desktop, keeping arch on there, hoping that Im able to get everything config'd right because I want to learn. However, if I cant get things after multiple attempts, that's a different story.

miesnerd · 2008-02-19 00:45:23

ray-
thanks man. I'll probably get on here in like 30 minutes. Im still at work, and the windows machines that i have to use here dont have irc installed. When I get home I'll get on.

staticvoid · 2008-02-19 07:48:31

sorry to be a party pooper, but, is your network really that hard to setup? do you have static ip or something? cause during install you can set this up, just write down your info (read the guide, its the best way) then put it in and see if it works... it might save you a lot of trouble... pacman -Syu is what you want to do before getting X working...

my 2 cents..

sv

Last edited by staticvoid (2008-02-19 07:48:50)

miesnerd · 2008-02-20 08:09:22

No, I bet its not. However, its relatively unstable and I've never set it up from a terminal. I've just always used GUI stuff to get it going. Im using a Hawking HWu8DD dish which uses the zd1211 firmware which is installed already. Its connecting to an unsecured router with the ESSID of NETGEAR.
How do I go about setting this up? Im totally willing to re-install as long as Im provided detailed info about getting this up and going.
Thanks guys.

miggols99 · 2008-02-20 16:27:17

Can you run iwconfig and tell us which network adapters appear? eth0, wlan0 etc. Setting it up after that is quite easy since you have a unsecured network. Just run

iwconfig [networkadapter] essid [essid]

Then run dhcpcd [networkadapter]

Last edited by miggols99 (2008-02-20 16:27:54)

mips1 · 2008-02-20 17:17:08

The arch installer has a section where the network is configure interactively, you can select dhcp or static. No need to use the cli from what i remember.

miesnerd · 2008-02-21 00:04:23

miggols i did what you said. eth1 dectects my usb wifi with the ZyDas driver.
I gave the input "iwconfig eth1 essid "NETGEAR"
should there not have been quotes?
I then ran dhcpcd eth1 and it timed out, stating that there wasnt a config file or something similar to that. I wish I could copy and paste it, but I cant do that given that im dual booting.

mips, I thought about reinstalling, but now that Im actually getting my hardware to at least try to connect, I figure I cant be too far off.

miesnerd · 2008-02-21 00:05:52

do you guys think im better off experimenting on an install on my laptop where I have ethernet to begin with when Im on campus. Does arch have any laptop centric issues?

Also, while Im asking questions about arch is there any easy way to config dual monitors in arch (similar to xinerama)?

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

miggols99 · 2008-02-21 17:59:57

Hmm. That's strange. Try running

ifconfig eth1 up

then

iwlist scanning

to see if your network adapter can see wireless networks.

Last edited by miggols99 (2008-02-21 18:00:17)

Doehni · 2008-02-22 00:25:22

Welcome to Arch, miesnerd!
Try the iwconfig input without the quotes. So it should look:

 iwconfig eth1 essid NETGEAR

(this should be run as root)

miesnerd · 2008-02-22 05:11:33

thanks so much for your help so far. I can confirm that my wireless device can see the access point, but I dont know the command for making it try to reconnect.
I'll probably have to do this several times over and over (as usually it takes a few connection attempts to work).

Thanks for your help. Im off to go read the wiki so that whenever my internet actually works, I can do the next step the right way.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-02-18 23:43:08

total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#2 2008-02-18 23:51:50

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#3 2008-02-18 23:57:57

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#4 2008-02-18 23:58:47

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#5 2008-02-19 00:09:01

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#6 2008-02-19 00:10:26

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#7 2008-02-19 00:13:01

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#8 2008-02-19 00:17:15

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#9 2008-02-19 00:24:39

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#10 2008-02-19 00:42:55

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#11 2008-02-19 00:45:23

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#12 2008-02-19 07:48:31

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#13 2008-02-20 08:09:22

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#14 2008-02-20 16:27:17

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#15 2008-02-20 17:17:08

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#16 2008-02-21 00:04:23

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#17 2008-02-21 00:05:52

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#18 2008-02-21 17:59:57

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#19 2008-02-22 00:25:22

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

#20 2008-02-22 05:11:33

Re: total newb to arch-- can i install x from the cd?

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