Need Some Information About Arch Linux

linux4life88 · 2008-03-23 22:44:15

I'm new to Arch Linux and have never used it before. Although, I keep hearing great things about it. The reason why I've never tried it is that I keep hearing that is an advance user only Linux distro. I've been using Linux for around 5 or 6 years and have used the following OS's before:

Mint
Puppy Linux
Sabayon
Ubuntu (this one is the one I have the most experience with)

Although none have really impressed me. I want something that is light and fast. That is why I'm looking at Arch Linux. It is light, fast and I also like the roll-over update feature. My question is what do I need to know most before installing Arch? I've skimmed over the wiki. I'm planning on installing Arch on a laptop (Gateway MX6454, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50, ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 Graphics, 2gb ram, Broadcom BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI, ATI SB450 HDA Audio). I do know some programming and I'm not knew to computer, although I still consider myself new to Linux. The OS's I've used are not difficult to understand at all. Is Arch Linux really that hard to use?

bender02 · 2008-03-23 22:45:15

Why don't you try it out?

linux4life88 · 2008-03-23 22:52:18

Why don't you try it out?

This is my plan to just give it a go and see what happens. I can just back up all my files on my laptop to my external hard drive and no harm no foul if it doesn't work. I was just wanting to know what are some of the major pitfalls for new people.

tehanomaly · 2008-03-23 22:53:40

Arch was pretty much my first distro, and only others only lasted a few hours under my testing wrath! Arch is nice a clean, and relatively easy to configure and use once you get a grasp of where stuff is. The wiki is a godsend!

My biggest difficulty personally was getting wireless to work (but even then it wasn't horrific by any sense!) - so I'd recommend ensuring that your broadcom card either has kernel drivers or a package you can download before install, or even windows drivers that are known to work under ndiswrapper (the method I had to resort to with my netgear usb wifi stick *shudder*) - if you've got arch installed and a working internet connection you're laughing a print out of any wikipages that may be useful (eg the install guide or ones linked to your hardware or use/software requirements) is often handy.

Good luck, and welcome to Arch !

linux4life88 · 2008-03-23 23:06:09

My biggest difficulty personally was getting wireless to work (but even then it wasn't horrific by any sense!) - so I'd recommend ensuring that your broadcom card either has kernel drivers or a package you can download before install,

Trying to get Broadcom chips to work under Linux is a nightmare. I got the chip to work under Ubuntu using bcm43xx-fwcutter, although I've heard of ndiswrapper. I have an article out of the December 2007 issue of Linux Journal that discusses ndiswrapper. I can probably get it to work. I plan on following the Wiki very closely. It is very detailed and I love details.

bender02 · 2008-03-23 23:06:47

Yes, make sure that after you install, you can connect to the net. Have a cable ready...
And be aware that setting up X might take a bit of effort too, but with the help of wikis and forum search it should be doable.
Good luck!

eerok · 2008-03-23 23:44:46

Really I think the "difficulty" of Arch gets inflated. It's not hard if you know where the wiki and the forums are ... it's just more work to get it all set up than some distros, but then it ends up suiting your tastes better because you've done more of it yourself.

It takes work to optimize/customize any distro, but few people consider that when they say that Arch is hard.

linux4life88 · 2008-03-23 23:50:21

eerok wrote:

Really I think the "difficulty" of Arch gets inflated. It's not hard if you know where the wiki and the forums are ... it's just more work to get it all set up than some distros, but then it ends up suiting your tastes better because you've done more of it yourself.
It takes work to optimize/customize any distro, but few people consider that when they say that Arch is hard.

I've located this wiki article http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Off … _Procedure and it seems to walk you through everything. I plan on using it to help me.

Misfit138 · 2008-03-23 23:52:44

linux4life88 wrote:

eerok wrote:
Really I think the "difficulty" of Arch gets inflated. It's not hard if you know where the wiki and the forums are ... it's just more work to get it all set up than some distros, but then it ends up suiting your tastes better because you've done more of it yourself.
It takes work to optimize/customize any distro, but few people consider that when they say that Arch is hard.
I've located this wiki article http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Off … _Procedure and it seems to walk you through everything. I plan on using it to help me.

Alternatively, you may find this useful as well: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

Sigi · 2008-03-23 23:53:22

linux4life88 wrote:

eerok wrote:
Really I think the "difficulty" of Arch gets inflated. It's not hard if you know where the wiki and the forums are ... it's just more work to get it all set up than some distros, but then it ends up suiting your tastes better because you've done more of it yourself.
It takes work to optimize/customize any distro, but few people consider that when they say that Arch is hard.
I've located this wiki article http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Off … _Procedure and it seems to walk you through everything. I plan on using it to help me.

The Install Guide is great! Report back if you have any questions...

Redroar · 2008-03-24 00:00:35

A little OT, but I used the mac80211 'b43' (instead of bcm43xx) driver on Gentoo....wondering if Arch has the same? Just thinking about installing it on my ibook.

Also, I think that if you are comfortable at a terminal and can follow the wiki, Arch isn't hard at all. The configuration files are very well commented and straightforward. It's a pretty reliable distro, and hwdetect has even made it so that you don't even have to know the model numbers of every component in your system. And once you have it set up, it stays that way. It is really good in that respect.

TigerBenedict · 2008-03-24 00:02:30

I would say that Arch-linux gives you control from the bottom-up, and a distro like Ubuntu gives you control from the top-down. i.e. With Arch, you will start with the minimum and you will build your system as you like it. With Ubuntu, it will start you with a fairly good, complete system, and then you can work your way down to the lower details and customize it as you see fit.

I chose Arch because I wanted experience in this level of detail, plus I like the control it gives me over my system. If you're even *more* of a control freak, though, then I'd recommend something like Slackware, since it doesn't resolve dependencies (letting you do the work so you know exactly what's on your system), or Gentoo, since you have to compile the source yourself.

I would say Arch is easier than Slackware/Gentoo for the reasons that it gives you precompiled binaries and resolves dependencies, while still allowing you to be master of your system. I'm new, by the way--it's just my opinion.

dyscoria · 2008-03-24 00:11:08

TigerBenedict wrote:

since it doesn't resolve dependencies (letting you do the work so you know exactly what's on your system)

Well actually, pacman tells you exactly what packages its going to install before it installs anything, and if you want to install without any dependency checks you can do "pacman -d", or even edit the PKGBUILD for even more customization of what dependencies to install.

I think arch is pretty much on par with gentoo on the customizability front, only it allows more choice of what to customize and what is automaed. Gentoo forces you to for example compile everything, whereas in arch you actually have a choice to do so.

kazuo · 2008-03-24 00:46:07

Redroar wrote:

A little OT, but I used the mac80211 'b43' (instead of bcm43xx) driver on Gentoo....wondering if Arch has the same? Just thinking about installing it on my ibook.

Yes it have, the modules come per default but you need the b43-fwcutter from aur.

On topic, I installed Arch this week and I got it working pretty easy and works great! I have the same linux experience time, 5-6 years, and Arch is not hard at all (my linux history is a little different, first slackware and next gentoo, now Arch).

Last edited by kazuo (2008-03-24 00:47:10)

ph0tios · 2008-03-24 01:31:54

I personally think arch is only hard for people who aren't willing to read or think. I guess you could say that about anything really, but especially for Arch. One thing that makes Arch amazing is that it can be rather simple to manage with binaries from pacman, and then once you get more comfortable you can step it up a notch with AUR and ABS. Many people have said it before, but Arch gives you a huge learning curve, and is not nearly as intimidating as say gentoo would be to a new user.

Some critics say the bleeding edge aspect of the rolling release system makes them uncomfortable because they don't want to deal with bugs. But it's really unwarranted. There are very few bugs if ever, and most everything is tested by many users not just developers.

Give it go.

cerbie · 2008-03-24 03:35:07

I don't get an internet connection out of the box. I happen to think this is a major flaw, and something that could easily be dealt with. Wikis are generally easy to browse in Links.

Other than that, it's pretty nice. I'm on my first successful Arch install (the installer never liked my old mobo, which blew up late last year), and being on my 4th attempt to get PulseAudio working like it should accounts for my worst problem. OTOH, my other distro is SMGL, though I'm technically coming from Ubuntu 7.10.

My question is what do I need to know most before installing Arch?

That you have another PC with an internet connection and GUI web browser handy (which should be the case for any new OS install). Next, know that there will be tedious text file editing, and it may be a few hours before you're really up and running. The good part, of course, is that next time, those hours will be more like ten minutes. It's not hard, you'll just have different details to learn than in other distros.

Is Arch Linux really that hard to use?

No. If you're afraid of the command line, don't bother. If you're not, it's quite easy. IMO, far easier than Ubuntu. Also, for ease of use with AUR and other repos, I'm really liking yaourt.

linux4life88 · 2008-03-24 13:32:49

I'm trying to install Arch and I'm stuck. I'm at a file with green lettering and it says in a white bar at the top of the screen GNU nano 2.0.6 File: /mnt/etc/rc.conf. I'm stuck, please help.

schivmeister · 2008-03-24 13:39:10

In short:

If you can Read, you can Arch.

linux4life88 · 2008-03-24 13:44:11

I failed, my first attempt at installing Arch failed. I really don't think I'm going to get this to work but I will give it a second shot.

schivmeister · 2008-03-24 13:53:11

It looks like you are afraid of the command line, better luck next time

linux4life88 · 2008-03-24 14:04:16

schivmeister wrote:

It looks like you are afraid of the command line, better luck next time

I'm not too afraid of it, I just screwed up.

Another question, should I use DHCP?

linux4life88 · 2008-03-24 14:25:49

I got it installed but it keeps asking for the arch login. What is the arch login? Is that my root password because I tried my root password and it did not work.

linux4life88 · 2008-03-24 14:34:27

I was able to log in finally but now I can not get the internet to work. I tried to ping google without a wire and wit a wire and neither worked. So I tried to edit my /etc/rc.conf file and I got Permission denied. What am I doing wrong?

ph0tios · 2008-03-24 14:39:05

linux4life88 wrote:

I was able to log in finally but now I can not get the internet to work. I tried to ping google without a wire and wit a wire and neither worked. So I tried to edit my /etc/rc.conf file and I got Permission denied. What am I doing wrong?

make sure you are editing it with root.

Ashren · 2008-03-24 14:40:34

You can only edit files in /etc with root permissions. So in order to do so, write "su" and login to root and then write nano /etc/rc.conf.

Check that your eth0 settings looks like this:

eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

Afterwards write "dhcpcd eth0" at the command line and your internet should be up.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-23 22:44:15

Need Some Information About Arch Linux

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