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So a friend of mine is fed up with Ubuntu. He complains he is stuck with out of date versions of software from the repository. I recommended Arch Linux to him and explained the differences. He was interested but thought setup would be too difficult to handle. I thought of some ways to automate this for him. Here is what I came up with.
1. Write a script which asks what packages he would like to install and automate that process
2.Install it for him
3.Create a customized Arch Linux live CD
I was leaning toward #3 on that list although there would be major issues with that option. Lets face it, Arch was not meant to be installed like Ubuntu. It has a manual type of installation process which would be hard to modify. unless of course you were willing to put a lot of time into it. Another issue would include the rc.conf, hosts, mirror lists and so on.. All I really want to do is have pre-installed software on a custom Arch live CD.
Is there any way I can do this or should I stick to the first two options? Ubuntu has a program that does this for you and lets you select various themes, software and fonts. Would it be possible that there is such a program for Arch? I know Ubuntu is completely different but something like this for Arch would not be impossible (though totally not the point of Arch).
Let me know if you have any solid answers to this. I would be curious if anything at all.
Thanks!
~Silvernode
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Perhaps you can try the live flash install of Faunos. It loads 600 packages of archlinux and includes pacman.
It is easily installed and configured . It has kde on the desktop.
As it stands now, it is an older kernel but has good performance and is of course very stable.
There is no development pending and the forums are closed to new entries following the demise of the administrator.
It is easily tried and may give you sufficient performance in archlinux packages to satisfy your friends needs.
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So a friend of mine is fed up with Ubuntu. He complains he is stuck with out of date versions of software from the repository. I recommended Arch Linux to him and explained the differences. He was interested but thought setup would be too difficult to handle. I thought of some ways to automate this for him. Here is what I came up with.
1. Write a script which asks what packages he would like to install and automate that process
2.Install it for him
3.Create a customized Arch Linux live CDI was leaning toward #3 on that list although there would be major issues with that option. Lets face it, Arch was not meant to be installed like Ubuntu. It has a manual type of installation process which would be hard to modify. unless of course you were willing to put a lot of time into it. Another issue would include the rc.conf, hosts, mirror lists and so on.. All I really want to do is have pre-installed software on a custom Arch live CD.
Is there any way I can do this or should I stick to the first two options? Ubuntu has a program that does this for you and lets you select various themes, software and fonts. Would it be possible that there is such a program for Arch? I know Ubuntu is completely different but something like this for Arch would not be impossible (though totally not the point of Arch).
Let me know if you have any solid answers to this. I would be curious if anything at all.
Thanks!
~Silvernode
we support automatic (unattended) unstallations. but I don't think you really need this
with dpkg --get-selections or something like that you can get a list of all installed packages. with some editing you can use this list later to (automatically or manually) install the same packages again.
I think the easiest way will be to just get a list of all installed packages, maybe make a backup of /etc, then do the arch installer, overwrite everything except /home (in fact you can just reuse the existing /home). once arch is installed, install all your packages and apply tweaks from your old /etc into your new one if relevant.
< Daenyth> and he works prolifically
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silvernode wrote:So a friend of mine is fed up with Ubuntu. He complains he is stuck with out of date versions of software from the repository. I recommended Arch Linux to him and explained the differences. He was interested but thought setup would be too difficult to handle. I thought of some ways to automate this for him. Here is what I came up with.
1. Write a script which asks what packages he would like to install and automate that process
2.Install it for him
3.Create a customized Arch Linux live CDI was leaning toward #3 on that list although there would be major issues with that option. Lets face it, Arch was not meant to be installed like Ubuntu. It has a manual type of installation process which would be hard to modify. unless of course you were willing to put a lot of time into it. Another issue would include the rc.conf, hosts, mirror lists and so on.. All I really want to do is have pre-installed software on a custom Arch live CD.
Is there any way I can do this or should I stick to the first two options? Ubuntu has a program that does this for you and lets you select various themes, software and fonts. Would it be possible that there is such a program for Arch? I know Ubuntu is completely different but something like this for Arch would not be impossible (though totally not the point of Arch).
Let me know if you have any solid answers to this. I would be curious if anything at all.
Thanks!
~Silvernodewe support automatic (unattended) unstallations. but I don't think you really need this
with dpkg --get-selections or something like that you can get a list of all installed packages. with some editing you can use this list later to (automatically or manually) install the same packages again.
I think the easiest way will be to just get a list of all installed packages, maybe make a backup of /etc, then do the arch installer, overwrite everything except /home (in fact you can just reuse the existing /home). once arch is installed, install all your packages and apply tweaks from your old /etc into your new one if relevant.
I may give that a try. Although I like to know all my possibilities.
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@silvernode
You could try my livecd called archiso-live. Links are in my blog below in my signature. My livecd doesn't kde but it has xfce for default desktop. You can install it. There are also build scripts that you can use to build your own livecd too.
PS Fanus is more than likely older than ubuntu 8.04 by now i think. It hasn't being updated in a very long time.
I'm working on a live cds based on Archlinux. http://godane.wordpress.com/
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@silvernode
You could try my livecd called archiso-live. Links are in my blog below in my signature. My livecd doesn't kde but it has xfce for default desktop. You can install it. There are also build scripts that you can use to build your own livecd too.PS Fanus is more than likely older than ubuntu 8.04 by now i think. It hasn't being updated in a very long time.
Wow I would really like to know more about this. I was reading the blog but I seem to have missed where the build scripts are available. I need gnome instead of xfce since my friend is used to use gnome in ubuntu. I am sure I can edit your iso if I need to.
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