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#1 2009-11-02 20:14:19

Furuno
Member
Registered: 2009-10-15
Posts: 3

Switching Question

Hello, I'm an Ubuntu user that want to switch to Arch because Karmic has audio h/w problem (no sound in front panel) bad stability (at least for me), and bloated (lots of useless apps).

I've been trying installing Arch in my VM for testing and I think I have some grip on it. But I still have some questions about stuffs that I don't know yet :

1. My only method to connect to the internet is a WCDMA EvDO USB Modem, in Ubuntu, configuring this modem is very easy from nm-applet. How can I do this in Arch? I suppose that pacman -S pppd require an internet connection?

2. FP Audio will work right? I hope... It works on Jaunty...

3. I wonder if I can create an installation image that contains all the package I've installed on my VM installation?

Thanks before smile


Linux is not Windows/MacOSX, and should never be...

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#2 2009-11-02 21:06:51

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
Website

Re: Switching Question

Furuno wrote:

1. My only method to connect to the internet is a WCDMA EvDO USB Modem, in Ubuntu, configuring this modem is very easy from nm-applet. How can I do this in Arch? I suppose that pacman -S pppd require an internet connection?

You can install NetworkManager, and nm-applet under Arch and then it should work the same way.

Furuno wrote:

2. FP Audio will work right? I hope... It works on Jaunty...

If it works in one Linux, then it can be made to work in other Linuxes wink  It's just a matter of how difficult it *might* be. It *might* just work OotB (Out of the Box)

Furuno wrote:

3. I wonder if I can create an installation image that contains all the package I've installed on my VM installation?

You can look into Larch, however I'd strongly recommend doing a fresh install:
1) you can fix / eliminate any small errors you made or decisions you didn't like.
2) it will familiarise yourself with Arch more, which will help down the track if you want to change something, or need to fix something.

And welcome to Arch smile

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#3 2009-11-02 21:43:56

pseudonomous
Member
Registered: 2008-04-23
Posts: 349

Re: Switching Question

(1) Here is my suggestion; if you don't already have a copy of the archlinux installer, get one and boot off it, following the instructions in:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beg … install.29

and see if you can succesfully connect to the network, you will have to, at least during the install process, configure your connection via that commandline, I have personally never done this becuase my modem is also an ethernet router  The relevant files for pppoe seem to be in the /etc/ppp directory, most likely you will have to modify the /etc/ppp/pppoe.conf file to suite your purposes.

You probably shouldn't install before you can get this working, becuase if you do, you'll be stuck without an ethernet connection, and you won't be able to install anything.  After you install the base system, you can install the nm-applet.  Although, if you use kde, there are issues with kde-network manager frontends right now.  There are, of course, oter network managment frontends you can use besides the nm-applet. (Edit: installing new packages without a network connection is not impossible, it's just a bit involved)

There is an alternative; see if you can expose your modem directly to your arch vm (I don't know anything about VMware, I know VirtualBox can do this), see if you can configure it; if yes, then it should work fine in arch, but you'll have to install packages without a network connection.

(3) There is probably a way to do what you want to do, but it will be AFAIK theh'ere no simply utility to do it.  What I'd suggest doing instead is using:

pacman -Qs | grep local | cut -f 1 -d" " | sed s%local/%% | while read line do; echo -n "$line "; done >> pkglist.txt

(I'm not so good w/ sed and regexp, there's probably a cleaner way t o do that, but that works)

To save a list of installed packages.  Save the files in "/var/cache/pacman/pkg" to extenal media.  after you install the base system, copy your "/var/cache/pacman/pkg" to the new "/var/cache/pacman/pkg", then do something like:

pacman -S `cat pklist.txt`

to install all those packages; you won't have to download them since you've already got the packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg, you'll just have to upgrade them, which should take something like 5-15 minutes, depending on what you have installed.  It won't work for packages in the aur, you'll have to delete those from your list.  Also, delete anything you don't want incdstalled.

You can also save any config files you modified in your vm installation and use those; not all of them will be appropriate (almost certainly /etc/fstab and /etc/rc.conf will need some modifications.)


If you're installing completely without a network connection you'll also have move your pacman database from the vm to external media

I think it should be suffiction to copy /var/lib/pacman/sync to external media and then copy to /var/lib/pacman/sync after your install.

If you've got enough diskspace, and you're gonna do an, "install without a network" connection installation, I'd try a dry run in another VM before actually doing the install onto disk.

Last edited by pseudonomous (2009-11-02 21:47:11)

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#4 2009-11-02 21:44:47

Furuno
Member
Registered: 2009-10-15
Posts: 3

Re: Switching Question

fukawi2 wrote:

You can install NetworkManager, and nm-applet under Arch and then it should work the same way.

And for installing that, I need to be connected first right? So how can I configure my connection (dialup from ppp0) at fresh install?

EDIT : Just read pseudonomous's post (appear after I reply neutral)
Nice post, will try! Thank you!

Last edited by Furuno (2009-11-02 22:06:44)


Linux is not Windows/MacOSX, and should never be...

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#5 2009-11-02 22:50:31

pseudonomous
Member
Registered: 2008-04-23
Posts: 349

Re: Switching Question

My post is a bit of skeleton sketch of what you'll need to do; I would think that between the beginner's guide, wiki, and instructions given by the arch installer you'll be able to flush it out and get what you want to do done, but if you need any help I'll try and assist.  (except for with ppp configuration; I can't help with that)

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#6 2009-11-02 23:09:49

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
Website

Re: Switching Question

Furuno wrote:
fukawi2 wrote:

You can install NetworkManager, and nm-applet under Arch and then it should work the same way.

And for installing that, I need to be connected first right? So how can I configure my connection (dialup from ppp0) at fresh install?

EDIT : Just read pseudonomous's post (appear after I reply neutral)
Nice post, will try! Thank you!

Whoops, chicken and egg issue huh? lol. Sorry, early morning posting FTL tongue

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#7 2009-11-03 11:02:45

Furuno
Member
Registered: 2009-10-15
Posts: 3

Re: Switching Question

Okay, I've been searching everywhere and still has no luck for a how-to guide to connecting my EvDO modem directly after installation sad

Basically I just need to enter my ISP number (#777) and username & password to connect in nm-applet. I've checked the /etc/ppp/pppoe.conf but have no idea where to put all of these info. And what command to use for connecting?

I'm currently dualbooting Win7 + Ubuntu Karmic. I've see in arch that there's already "semi-automatic" GRUB configuration for windows option (entry for windows is commented). I suppose this will work right?


Linux is not Windows/MacOSX, and should never be...

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#8 2009-11-03 11:11:37

sHyLoCk
Member
From: /dev/null
Registered: 2009-06-19
Posts: 1,197

Re: Switching Question

Furuno

Seen this?


~ Regards,
sHy
ArchBang: Yet another Distro for Allan to break.
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