A long time Ubuntu user's review of Archlinux

[kelvin spratt]

I'm dyslexic and it took several attempts for me to install Arch Linux 2 years ago but it was worth the time and effort. its a fabulous distro. Don't get me wrong it has faults lots of faults but you can usually find a work around thanks mainly to the simple etc config files the wiki + forums, Arch get very addictive and is the most customisable distro you can build as you decide what you want nobody else.

[crimesaucer]

While I liked this review and agreed with a lot of things you said, I thought I might clarify and add a few points and tips.

"I chose to install from CD rather than FTP as I wanted to get up and running fast. The CD contains 'core' packages, sufficient enough to get a basic linux system running."

FTP should technically be the faster way.

If you know your hardware is supported and your internet connection is already working with Linux, then I would recommend trying the FTP install first.... especially if you are going to use DHCP.

The FTP install will configure your connection automatically..... if you run into problems with your connection then you can try to connect manually or just start over using the CD.

When you install using the FTP install, it installs the most recent ARCH base/base dev packages so you don't have to use pacman -Syu to catch up to the current rolling release.... thus saving more time because you don't install "twice".

"The installer automatically configured static IP for my interface. Though I didn't have to do this, I changed the config to use DHCP."

With the FTP install you could of selected the option of DHCP and had it configured automatically and then saved to your rc.conf.




Next:

"I found that DNS was incorrectly configured in /etc/resolv.conf. It had my router's IP instead of my ISP provided DNS. I changed the file with proper nameserver values..."

"I added an user account for me and then as a root changed timezone, locale and host information in /etc/rc.conf. Most of the system-wide configuration like locale, hostname, IP, kernel modules, startup daemons, etc. is centrally stored in this file. Simple and elegant."

There is a section in the install for editing files using nano or vi. It's good to know the proper info before you start the install, that way you can edit all of these important files and configure the /etc/rc.conf and /etc/resolv.conf so you don't have to go back and edit it latter.




Next:

"Arch's wiki was also useful but I advice beginners to exercise a little more care as they could be out-dated."

This is the one statement that I do not agree with. The Arch wikis are constantly updated to work with new releases of packages and kernel versions.

If the wikis aren't up to date then they are "flagged" as out of date and are soon edited to work. If a wiki page doesn't contain enough information than it is flagged as a "stub" containing partial information or possibly inaccurate info.

At the very bottom of the page in the lower left corner is the date of the latest update to each wiki page.

Once you get use to Archlinux you will also see that the forums are usually up to date with any bug/fix problems, as is the bug tracker and the comments of the AUR.




Next:

"One thing that I immediately noticed was that Arch booted quickly."

Check out these wiki pages for even faster boot:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/..._in_Background
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/...ing_the_kernel




Next:

"Arch has Arch Build System (ABS). If you are familiar with Gentoo's portage, its similar to that. But for now I decided to stick with the binary repositores."

Arch has both ABS and AUR for building packages. You can even make your own PKGBUILD to build packages. There is also the "pacbuilder-svn" app to pull and build packages from those repositories (like portage), using your custom C[XX]FLAGS/MAKEFLAGS that you edit into your /etc/makepkg.conf file.




Next:

commonly used commands:

aptitude update => pacman -Sy
aptitude dist-upgrade => pacman -Syu
aptitude (re)install <package> => pacman -S <package>
aptitude remove <package> => pacman -Rs <package>
aptitude purge <package> => pacman -Rsn <package>
aptitude search <keyword> => pacman -Ss <keyword>
aptitude clean => pacman -Scc

A couple of good commands to go with this list are:

pacman -U
pacman -Q
pacman -Rd

With "pacman -U" you can install you own ABS/AUR packages, or an old package version from your /var/cache/pacman/pkg to replace your current package (if it's broken and not working) as long as you haven't cleaned them out with "pacman -Sc" or "pacman -Scc"

With "pacman -Q" you can search for your installed packages and versions.

With "pacman -Rd" you can remove a package and skip the dependency conflicts. (this is good if you have to uninstall something like nvidia-utils to replace it with nvidia-utils-beta).... it's not recommended but sometime you need to use it. (just like "pacman -Uf")




Next:

"Impressive. You can also prioritize your mirrors by editing the files in /etc/pacman.d/ folder."

A good tip is to use the rankmirrors command to get the fastest mirrors first.

rankmirrors -v /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Then copy the order and of fastest mirrors to slowest mirrors and paste that into the /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist




Next:

"Apps load faster and feel snappier. Firefox..."

Try the AUR package called "Firefox-optimised" (edit your /etc/makepkg.conf first). It's super fast on my notebook.


Anyway, your review was a good read and I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all or anything.... I just really like Arch so I thought I would share a bit about my experience with you.

.... and I'll post my newest Arch inspired theme that I made to finish this post:


http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/r...enshot-8-6.png

[jbrown96]

Nice review. I tried Arch a few months ago, but I was busy with school and never got it working properly. I'm going to take a fresh look at it.

Crimesaucer: you said that you put that theme together; is it posted anywhere? Is that XFCE (I think the mouse is the xfce icon)? Could you share some info on how to reproduce it? It's very nice.

[kpkeerthi]

@crimesauser
Thanks. I wrote this review on November 6th, 2007. A lot has changed in Arch-Core/Installer/WIKI/ABS/AUR since then. Some of my observations in the review may no longer be valid or ceased to exist.

[crimesaucer]

@crimesauser
Thanks. I wrote this review on November 6th, 2007. A lot has changed in Arch-Core/Installer/WIKI/ABS/AUR since then. Some of my observations in the review may no longer be valid or ceased to exist.

I'm sorry, I didn't know it was an old post. It's funny, I started using Arch in Sept/Oct of 2007, and I was on a crappy notebook with a Celeron M chip..... so I really liked the i686 minimal install too, and it did feel much faster than the xubuntu distro I had been using up until that point.


Also at that time the install CD was much more difficult, and the 2007.08 CD would not boot properly for me until they fixed it with 2007.08.1..... and even better with 2007.08.2 when they changed pacman. (before that you had to install with the older 2007.05 Duke CD and then upgrade)


I also didn't know the first thing about the FTP install method back then, but I do recommend it now.


I still remember the wikis being pretty good after the install (maybe they were a little cluttered for the beginner install section..... I actually used this old guide that was easier to follow: http://www.raiden.net/?cat=2&aid=276 ).


Anyway it was a good review and I didn't mean to make it seem that it was inaccurate or anything..... and for a review back in fall of 2007 it's pretty close to the beginner experience that I had then.

[crimesaucer]

Crimesaucer: you said that you put that theme together; is it posted anywhere? Is that XFCE (I think the mouse is the xfce icon)? Could you share some info on how to reproduce it? It's very nice.

Yes, I use xfce4 and love it. Thank you for the complement.


I make my xfce4-panel transparent with a cario-patch from the xfce4 website: http://blog.xfce.org/?p=177

Dwonload the patch: http://www.loculus.nl/xfce/files/panel-cairo.patch


Be sure to edit the version number from 4.4.2 to 4.4.3, plus I edit the paths to use the exact directory path and I use the "diff -ur" command instead of "Index:" You can see how I edit the patch and the Arch PKGBUILD in this post here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...7&postcount=74


Then I use the compiz-fusion plugin called "blur" to make it look better.


I haven't uploaded/shared any of my new murrine-svn themes or emerald themes.


I have uploaded some old xfce4 and clearlooks-glossy themes, and some old emerald themes to gnome-looks and xfce4-looks.... but I haven't gotten around to sharing any of my recent murrine-svn themes or my older clearlooks-glossy themes that I've made in the last 10+ months.


As for icons, those are the hydroxygen icon pack that are on gnome-looks.org


And the screenlets are the regular screenlets with some modifications to the python script to use the same font. I also remake most of the background.svg images with Inkscape.

[handy]

There is a section in the install for editing files using nano or vi. It's good to know the proper info before you start the install, that way you can edit all of these important files and configure the /etc/rc.conf and /etc/resolv.conf so you don't have to go back and edit it latter.

The /etc/resolv.conf gets overwritten every time the network is started, so for those people that find they need to make a permanent addition to it, in Arch you edit the /etc/resolve.conf.head file, adding as many nameserver IP's as you require, like so:

nameserver ***.***.***.***
nameserver ***.***.***.***

By the way, nice review OP.

[crimesaucer]

The /etc/resolv.conf gets overwritten every time the network is started, so for those people that find they need to make a permanent addition to it, in Arch you edit the /etc/resolve.conf.head file, adding as many nameserver IP's as you require, like so:

nameserver ***.***.***.***
nameserver ***.***.***.***

By the way, nice review OP.

Or do what I do with OpenDNS: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenDNS

[handy]

Or do what I do with OpenDNS: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenDNS

I have /etc/resolve.conf.head write the address of my IPCop firewall/router/proxy server's address to /etc/resolve.conf each time that machine is booted up or it joins the network. The IPCop box is set up to automatically find/use my ISP's DNS's.

I have used OpenDNS for a while a couple of years ago, though these days I'm happy with the performance of my current ISP's services.