Dire Need of Arch Advice

vsk · 2008-05-29 00:28:57

I am very confused about how to use Arch.
Forgive me for sounding vague, but I'm used to a different way of doing things and Arch is catching me off guard!

First issue:
When I installed firefox 3 (sudo pacman -S firefox3), everything ran smoothly but when I tried to launch it, I got a missing file message...
I ran updatedb as root, and tried to locate firefox | grep /usr/bin but I got nothing...
So I uninstalled and tried firefox 2. When I launched that, I got something that looked like a firefox browser called Bon Echo that lags like crazy!!
My whole system comes to a crawl when using it!

edit: I have double-checked my /etc/hosts file, it's set up correctly.

Second issue:
A continuation of the first - whenever I install anything with pacman, 2 things dont happen!;
a) It is not added to my Gnome menu
b) It looks like it didn't install at all!
I keep on getting 'cannot find specified file' errors, even after I install, cd to /usr/bin, and ./yakuake or ./amarok.

Third issue:
So after installing all of my favorite applications (wireshark, xdrawchem, opera-devel, gimp, pidgin, vlc, amarok, yakuake)... None of these binaries are ANYWHERE to be found on my computer.. Most of them didn't even get placed on the gnome menu - and those that did (gimp, geany, vlc, opera etc.), only a couple have icons beside them...

Fourth issue:
Gnome...
Gnome panels wont let me reduce the size below 22 pixels... why??
Whenever I delete something in nautilus, I think it gets rm -rfd because my trash can is always empty.
Nautilus is the same version as the nautilus in Ubuntu, however this nautilus does not have several features the Ubuntu version has (no side pane, and it always opens new directories in another window!! maddening!)

Last issue:
So after not being able to use my favorite applications, I had to uninstall them.
This is proving very problematic - especially for Amarok.
Seeing as it is a KDE app, installing this on Gnome took a LOT of dependencies. When I uninstalled it with sudo pacman -R amarok-base amarok-engine-xine, I believe it didn't get rid of the amarok dependencies that no other package uses...
Why waste this space? How do I track what was installed?

Any advice on how to fix my slow comp and how to work with pacman would be GREATLY appreciated.

ps: Ubuntu boots 10 seconds slower than Arch, and is nowhere near as snappy as Arch is - but if I can't get functionality like a working package manager I might have to go back ..
Also, would anyone know a good thread that talks about beautifying Arch?
Default GNOME icons, gtk theme, and wallpapers are just plain ugly - reminds me of win95.

Please forgive me if my post sounds insulting, I really don't mean it like that, it's just that I am a bit frustrated.

/edit: Following aren't issues, more like questions;

Why is there a /home/ftp folder?
Can apt be installed on Arch?
Is there a thread devoted to Arch speed tweaks?
Is there a thread devoted to Compiz Fusion? --- I wrote a post on my blog (http://vglob.blogspot.com/2008/05/linux … m-git.html) about building and updating it from git, but is there an easier way to do this on Arch?
Seriously what's up with this Bon Echo browser? Why is it so much slower than opera?

Last edited by vsk (2008-05-29 00:40:35)

bender02 · 2008-05-29 00:36:39

vsk wrote:

Last issue:
So after not being able to use my favorite applications, I had to uninstall them.
This is proving very problematic - especially for Amarok.
Seeing as it is a KDE app, installing this on Gnome took a LOT of dependencies. When I uninstalled it with sudo pacman -R amarok-base amarok-engine-xine, I believe it didn't get rid of the amarok dependencies that no other package uses...
Why waste this space? How do I track what was installed?

man pacman wrote:

REMOVE OPTIONS
-c, --cascade
Remove all target packages, as well as all packages that depend on one or more target packages.
This operation is recursive, and must be used with care since it can remove many potentially
needed packages.
-s, --recursive
Remove each target specified including all of their dependencies, provided that (A) they are not
required by other packages; and (B) they were not explicitly installed by the user. This operation is
recursive and analogous to a backwards --sync operation, and helps keep a clean system without
orphans.

EDIT: As for not finding installed programs, there are two things that can cause some of that:
1) Some packages (eg firefox3) install into /opt/ - and in order to get your PATH variable updated, you need to log out and then log back in.
2) Getting file not found error sounds to me like you're installing i686 packages on x86_64 architecture (but I'm not at all sure about this).

Last edited by bender02 (2008-05-29 00:39:43)

vsk · 2008-05-29 00:46:22

Thanks for the pacman trick...
So I would have to;
$ sudo pacman -Rc amarok-base
?

Nope, uname -a shows that I'm running on i686, and I've only enabled i686 repos...

Well, wow, I found where all my my KDE junk is!!
/opt/kde/bin

Will logging out and back in solve the not found problem, or do I need to add /opt/kde/bin to my PATH (and if so, how?)

Last edited by vsk (2008-05-29 00:46:43)

bender02 · 2008-05-29 00:46:44

vsk wrote:

Can apt be installed on Arch?

It most probably can, but if you're going to use it, you're going to mess up your system quite a bit.

vsk wrote:

Is there a thread devoted to Arch speed tweaks?
Is there a thread devoted to Compiz Fusion?

Plenty, just search the forums.

bender02 · 2008-05-29 00:48:33

vsk wrote:

Thanks for the pacman trick...
So I would have to;
$ sudo pacman -Rc amarok-base

Actually, in your case you probably want both switches, but the other one is more important
$ sudo pacman -Rsc amarok-base

vsk wrote:

Well, wow, I found where all my my KDE junk is!!
/opt/kde/bin
Will logging out and back in solve the not found problem, or do I need to add /opt/kde/bin to my PATH (and if so, how?)

It should.

czar · 2008-05-29 00:54:33

vsk wrote:

I am very confused about how to use Arch.
Forgive me for sounding vague, but I'm used to a different way of doing things and Arch is catching me off guard!
First issue:
When I installed firefox 3 (sudo pacman -S firefox3), everything ran smoothly but when I tried to launch it, I got a missing file message...
I ran updatedb as root, and tried to locate firefox | grep /usr/bin but I got nothing...
So I uninstalled and tried firefox 2. When I launched that, I got something that looked like a firefox browser called Bon Echo that lags like crazy!!
My whole system comes to a crawl when using it!
edit: I have double-checked my /etc/hosts file, it's set up correctly.

First problem: firefox3 isn't in any of the standard repositorys
Even if you were using yaourt it would be yaourt -Sy firefox3-bin. I'm not sure what you've downloaded
bon echo would be correct for firefox 2 however, don't know why you're having lag problems its always worked great for me! try a lighter browser maybe (not sure what your specs are)

vsk wrote:

Second issue:
A continuation of the first - whenever I install anything with pacman, 2 things dont happen!;
a) It is not added to my Gnome menu
b) It looks like it didn't install at all!
I keep on getting 'cannot find specified file' errors, even after I install, cd to /usr/bin, and ./yakuake or ./amarok.

sounds like a gnome issue. I don't use yakuake but i know that amarok is put into /opt/kde/bin which isn't in your PATH by default which is why you can't find that one. (try find / -name PROGRAM-NAME)

vsk wrote:

Third issue:
So after installing all of my favorite applications (wireshark, xdrawchem, opera-devel, gimp, pidgin, vlc, amarok, yakuake)... None of these binaries are ANYWHERE to be found on my computer.. Most of them didn't even get placed on the gnome menu - and those that did (gimp, geany, vlc, opera etc.), only a couple have icons beside them...

i'm just going to assume you're still looking in the wrong place unless pacman err'd out. Again, thats a gnome issue if they aren't popping up on the menu.

vsk wrote:

Fourth issue:
Gnome...
Gnome panels wont let me reduce the size below 22 pixels... why??
Whenever I delete something in nautilus, I think it gets rm -rfd because my trash can is always empty.
Nautilus is the same version as the nautilus in Ubuntu, however this nautilus does not have several features the Ubuntu version has (no side pane, and it always opens new directories in another window!! maddening!)

Arch packages are vanilla which means that they arn't changed at all from upstream. Ubuntu programs are usually patched quite a bit to meet their personal needs which sounds great at first but then you have to rely on the patchers to fix all your probs instead of the, most likley more dedicated, upstream team. Maybe you could use the ubuntu bin?
I don't use gnome but maybe its default that you can't go smaller than your icons?

vsk wrote:

Also, would anyone know a good thread that talks about beautifying Arch?
Default GNOME icons, gtk theme, and wallpapers are just plain ugly - reminds me of win95.

there are tons and tons of gnome themes
a good place to start is here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gn … gle+Search

vsk wrote:

Can apt be installed on Arch?

I'd imagine it could be done, but i dont' imagine there is anybody who will do the work for you.

vsk wrote:

Is there a thread devoted to Arch speed tweaks?

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=47962
(found it by searching "tweaks" in this forum with "topic subject only")
and yea there is a thread devoted to compiz and a repository that is working quite well, but i'll leave that search for you

edit: damn, when i started writing that bender hadn't handled it all already. nice job :-p

Last edited by czar (2008-05-29 00:55:41)

Zerathidune · 2008-05-29 01:11:18

Regarding Bon Echo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#Tr … ogo_issues

to update your path, as bender02 said, you can log out and back in, OR you can run the command:

source /etc/profile

a hint on the file not found errors:

pacman -Ql packagename will list all the files belonging to a package.

As to some of your questions:

apt: I bet you *could* install it, but it wouldn't be particularly useful if you still want to use the arch repos, as all the packages in them are built for pacman. I'd give pacman some time though, see if you can't get used to it. I find it to be quite powerful.

speed: well, there's this wiki article:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tun … _for_Speed

but it doesn't really seem all that complete.

Compiz fusion :

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

bender02 · 2008-05-29 01:24:02

czar wrote:

First problem: firefox3 isn't in any of the standard repositorys

A small correction: firefox3 is in [unstable].

czar · 2008-05-29 01:49:39

ahhh thanks bender, i don't have it on and forgot all about it! I'm glad that's the only correction needed .

edit: and in this case i suggest trying firefox3-bin in Aur as it's been working great for me sans small slow downs here and there.

Last edited by czar (2008-05-29 01:51:13)

Misfit138 · 2008-05-29 02:09:05

vsk wrote:

whenever I install anything with pacman, 2 things dont happen!;
a) It is not added to my Gnome menu
b) It looks like it didn't install at all!

Sounds like you never put the fam daemon into the DAEMONS= array of /etc/rc.conf.
Try adding fam. It should fix what you are describing

vsk · 2008-05-29 02:33:53

Logging out and back in fixed most of the menu issues, and getting a new icon and gtk theme from gnome-look fixed the borken icons.

I am in the process of removing Bon Echo and replacing it with the firefox3 from yaourt, seeing as the [unstable] isn't as recommended.

Thank you for your patience! - I've beautified Arch now and I'll add the programs not on the menu with alacarte.

All of your responses have been great for finding solutions, and I definitely will not be going back to Ubuntu..

edit:: very happy to say that ffb5 works perfectly!!!

Last edited by vsk (2008-05-29 02:49:04)

vsk · 2008-05-29 04:08:07

I'm going to go through the script I have on my blog and convert it to meet pacman syntax, and I'll post it here tomorrow.

I tried the [compiz-fusion] git repo at dreamz-box but I must say, nothing compares to actually building it yourself.

alex_anthony · 2008-05-30 01:45:58

the panels thing is based on your application font size. The smaller you set that, the smaller your panel can be.
Nautilus is in the REAL default mode, spatial. To put it in browser mode (like ubuntu), just go to edit>>preferences and click always open in browser window

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-29 00:28:57

Dire Need of Arch Advice

#2 2008-05-29 00:36:39

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#3 2008-05-29 00:46:22

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#4 2008-05-29 00:46:44

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#5 2008-05-29 00:48:33

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#6 2008-05-29 00:54:33

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#7 2008-05-29 01:11:18

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#8 2008-05-29 01:24:02

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#9 2008-05-29 01:49:39

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#10 2008-05-29 02:09:05

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#11 2008-05-29 02:33:53

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#12 2008-05-29 04:08:07

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

#13 2008-05-30 01:45:58

Re: Dire Need of Arch Advice

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