So I'm about to install Arch for the first time

[TravisNewman]

What am I getting myself into? :)

Any tips for new users to Arch? I just had to see what all the hype was about.

[timberjack]

wave goodbye to what social life you currently have

[bsharp]

Follow this (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide) and nothing will go wrong.

Even if you know to do all of this already (I didn't) it is a good reference.

[Skripka]

What am I getting myself into? :)

Any tips for new users to Arch? I just had to see what all the hype was about.

Follow The Good Book of Arch already posted--if you want to KDEMod, be sure to follow their instructions for GUI and NOT those in the Good Book. If you have question there are lots of us here. Read through the entire step you sare on then do, so you understand each step.

It is much better over here-except for the fact that Arch users don't get identified as such in our User blurb on the left hand column like *buntu users :p

Have we Arch users totally assimilated the Community Cafe yet? :D

[cardinals_fan]

Follow the Beginner's Guide (does anyone actually use the regular guide?) and you will be fine. Assuming you can configure your internet connection with relatively little trouble, the rest is incredibly easy.

[TravisNewman]

Follow this (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide) and nothing will go wrong.

Even if you know to do all of this already (I didn't) it is a good reference.
After reading that, I'm not going to do this until tomorrow. Looks like the install process takes a while. Still want to do it but when I can give it my attention.

[chucky chuckaluck]

arch's difficulty is vastly overrated. install it, do pacman -Syu and go have a drink with a girl who could wreck your life in an instant.

[kerry_s]

have you ever done a base install build up?
if so, it's pretty much the same, just the wording is different and you may have to manually set some things up to run.
your best friends are:

pacman -Ss ? <to search, like "apt-cache search ?"
pacman -S ? <to install, like "apt-get install ?"
pacman -Rsn ? <to remove, like "apt-get remove --purge ?"

[kk0sse54]

wave goodbye to what social life you currently have

Let's see time spent maintaining my Arch install this week: 0 hours. I have to say you gave me a good laugh ;)


After reading that, I'm not going to do this until tomorrow. Looks like the install process takes a while. Still want to do it but when I can give it my attention.
It isn't as long as it looks because the beginners guide is just really complete and details every single aspect of the install process and some configuration afterwards. Which is good, but you'll be spending more time doing initial configuration than actually installing it.

[TravisNewman]

arch's difficulty is vastly overrated. install it, do pacman -Syu and go have a drink with a girl who could wreck your life in an instant.
Nah it doesn't look hard. Just involved at first.

[dragos240]

What am I getting myself into? :)

Any tips for new users to Arch? I just had to see what all the hype was about.

Not a tip, but i liked your other avatar :p

[chucky chuckaluck]

Nah it doesn't look hard. Just involved at first.

it's just more detailed rather than harder. it's like driving a stick.

[timberjack]

it's just more detailed rather than harder. it's like driving a stick.

I never heard it called that before :D

[crimesaucer]

Follow the ArchWiki beginners guide.


And if you want to see what the install process will look like then check out this VERY OLD GUIDE that is 10 pages long and full of pictures of each step (like all of the (old version) files you will edit in nano): http://www.raiden.net/?cat=2&aid=276

[Dr Small]

Follow the Beginners Guide (as everyone else is recommending) and you will not have a problem. I have only ever install Arch twice, and have never had a difficulty by following the guide. It is very detailed and provides alot of information in there to help you get started.

@crimesaucer, one more post and you will be 1337 :)

[Faolan84]

Agreed, Arch is actually rather simple. Just read the manual and double check it if you get stuck. Worst thing that's ever happened to me was my computer one froze during the install. But my box can be a b* sometimes.

[Skripka]

Nah it doesn't look hard. Just involved at first.

Most of the length of the guide is due to explaining everything in detail...it takes far more words and effort to explain than to do.

[myusername]

i loved arch. but once they updated xorg i had to go to crunchbang

[TravisNewman]

Not a tip, but i liked your other avatar :p
It will be back. I'm not the only one. ;)

So I'm in Arch right now. Didn't take as long as I thought, but still much longer than I wanted to put into it tonight. I like it so far. It's a lot of what I liked about Gentoo without all the stuff that I didn't like. So far, I still prefer Ubuntu, but I'm going to keep using this for a while.

[Foster Grant]

arch's difficulty is vastly overrated. install it, do pacman -Syu and go have a drink with a girl who could wreck your life in an instant.

Eh ... have dated too damn many of those already. Any other suggestions?

[darrenn]

Lost another one to Arch.

[BGFG]

For some reason, Gentoo is calling me more that Arch. I really like the idea of processor optimization and 'USE' flags.
Even though i read that the supposed speed increase isn't that much over systems like ummmmm Arch :) if any at all. But still, i WILL try Gentoo....

[PrimoTurbo]

i loved arch. but once they updated xorg i had to go to crunchbang

Is that because of Input hotplugging? It's so stupid and annoying to have to disable...

[Tmi]

I also installed Arch for the first time yesterday on a spare harddrive. Feels good to have my Ubuntu installation on the other drive (which I have mounted read-only in Arch as to make sure I don't screw it up :D) in case I break something - which I expect I might while learning.

So far I have only used the normal repositories and not AUR, so I still have a lot to explore.

Things I have discovered so far;

Pacman is REALLY fast.

Firefox is called "Gran paradiso" and has a blue icon, due to a branding issue. This is a bit annoying but seems fixable, if one just gets around to actually doing it :P

[fwojciec]

Firefox is called "Gran paradiso" and has a blue icon, due to a branding issue. This is a bit annoying but seems fixable, if one just gets around to actually doing it :P

There are various branded versions of firefox in AUR, but you have to compile them yourself (easy, but it takes time). There is also a script that changes firefox icons and name for you without recompiling: the relevant thread is here (http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=44320). The latest version of the script should be somewhere towards the end of that thread.

[handy]

The stuff on the following linked to page is essential knowledge, it can get you out of trouble really fast, when the day comes that you -Syu into it:

http://grubbn.org/otheros/showthread.php?tid=11

[PrimoTurbo]

If you are going to use AUR, yaourt is simply a must. Basiclly allows you to install anything from AUR and it's dependencies pacman style! So awesome to get software not found in pacman easily..

[smartboyathome]

If you are going to use AUR, yaourt is simply a must. Basiclly allows you to install anything from AUR and it's dependencies pacman style! So awesome to get software not found in pacman easily..

Just make sure you keep sane when using it with zsh. It can have some stuff scrambled with that. :(

[mips]

After reading that, I'm not going to do this until tomorrow. Looks like the install process takes a while.

First time I saw the guide I also thought it was going to take long but it did'nt.

There is a lot of text explaining stuff (which I think is VERY GOOD to read the first time) but could essentially just be skimmed over the second time round and just concentrate on the commands.

[liamnixon]

For some reason, Gentoo is calling me more that Arch. I really like the idea of processor optimization and 'USE' flags.
Even though i read that the supposed speed increase isn't that much over systems like ummmmm Arch :) if any at all. But still, i WILL try Gentoo....

I know what you mean. I think I'm a masochist because I enjoy Gentoo (that is, compiling from source and manual configuration) far more than any human should. \\:D/
Haven't broken anything on it yet, though! Then again, I don't use that computer everyday.

[TravisNewman]

First time I saw the guide I also thought it was going to take long but it did'nt.

There is a lot of text explaining stuff (which I think is VERY GOOD to read the first time) but could essentially just be skimmed over the second time round and just concentrate on the commands.
Yeah it only took about two hours total, only about 10 minutes of actual work (not waiting to download). The bulk of it was the hotplug issue, that one took a while since I hadn't read past where I was in the instructions ;)

[kelvin spratt]

So do we say welcome to Arch?

[Faolan84]

Well, now you go everything up good luck and enjoy. As far as desktop environments go, if you haven't already, try KDEmod. It's the gold standard for and DE in Arch bar none. Nothing comes close, not Gnome, Xfce, or their stock KDE.

[handy]

Well, now you go everything up good luck and enjoy. As far as desktop environments go, if you haven't already, try KDEmod. It's the gold standard for and DE in Arch bar none. Nothing comes close, not Gnome, Xfce, or their stock KDE.

You might just allow some leeway for other points of view & taste in the above statement. :-)

Many Arch users prefer Openbox & whatever combination of other add-ons that suit them.

Others prefer no DE/WM at all, & on it goes.

[sujoy]

somehow i dont like KDEmod, not that anything is wrong with it, i just prefer to use plain upstream packages without specific mods.

i use xmonad though.

[kerry_s]

You might just allow some leeway for other points of view & taste in the above statement. :-)

Many Arch users prefer Openbox & whatever combination of other add-ons that suit them.

Others prefer no DE/WM at all, & on it goes.

+1
some people just assume a wm can't compete with a de, there loss.
i just won me a 12 pack of brewskies, proving i can make jwm look like gnome and it will barely use ram. ;)

[Faolan84]

As far as DEs go in Arch my preference has always been:
1 -> KDEmod
2 -> Xfce
3 -> Openbox
...
Somewhere at the bottom of the stack -> Gnome

I've always found the stock version of Gnome to be nothing special. It's absolutely amazing what distros can do to a desktop environment to lift it up or turn it into a pile of crap. I've seen very poor implementations of KDE also and the stock KDE that comes with Arch isn't all that great and is quite bloated. It could just be that Xfce and Openbox have better stock versions.

But I recognize that's just my opinion.

[Faolan84]

+1
some people just assume a wm can't compete with a de, there loss.
i just won me a 12 pack of brewskies, proving i can make jwm look like gnome and it will barely use ram. ;)

AMAZING! Could you post a how-to on that one? That's gotta be one of the coolest things i've seen in a while. Also, never heard of jwm, i'll look into it.

[kerry_s]

AMAZING! Could you post a how-to on that one? That's gotta be one of the coolest things i've seen in a while. Also, never heard of jwm, i'll look into it.

thanks, but no how to is needed, all you need is 1 file, the .jwmrc:


<?xml version="1.0"?>

<JWM>

<StartupCommand>
thunar --daemon
</StartupCommand>

<Group>
<Name>gxmessage</Name>
<Name>xmessage</Name>
<Name>xpad</Name>
<Option>noborder</Option>
<Option>nolist</Option>
<Option>notitle</Option>
</Group>

<RootMenu height="0" onroot="0">
<Program icon="gnome-session-suspend.png" label="Suspend">exec sudo pm-suspend</Program>
<Program icon="gnome-session-reboot.png" label="Reboot">exec sudo reboot</Program>
<Program icon="gnome-session-halt.png" label="Shutdown">exec sudo poweroff</Program>
<Exit icon="application-exit.png" label="Exit-X" confirm="false"/>
</RootMenu>

<RootMenu height="0" onroot="12">
</RootMenu>

<RootMenu height="0" onroot="3">
<Menu icon="applications-accessories.png" label="Accessories">
<Program icon="utilities-terminal.png" label="Terminal">exec xterm</Program>
<Program icon="accessories-calculator.png" label="Calculator">exec xcalc</Program>
<Program icon="task-due.png" label="Notes">exec xpad</Program>
</Menu>
<Menu icon="applications-graphics.png" label="Graphics">
<Program icon="applications-graphics.png" label="Paint">exec mtpaint</Program>
</Menu>
<Menu icon="applications-internet.png" label="Internet">
<Program icon="web-browser.png" label="WWW-Browser">exec gxmessage " Loading..... " -center -timeout 10 -buttons , | firefox &amp;</Program>
</Menu>
<Menu icon="applications-office.png" label="Office">
<Program icon="applications-office.png" label="Docs">exec abiword</Program>
<Program icon="beta-base.png" label="Office">exec soffice-beta</Program>
</Menu>
<Menu icon="applications-multimedia.png" label="Sound + Video">
<Program icon="applications-multimedia.png" label="Media Player">exec gnome-mplayer</Program>
<Program icon="preferences-desktop.png" label="Alsa">exec xterm -e alsamixer</Program>
</Menu>
<Menu icon="applications-system.png" label="System Tools">
<Program icon="gtk-edit.png" label="Edit Menu">exec leafpad ~/.jwmrc</Program>
<Program icon="utilities-system-monitor.png" label="Htop">exec xterm -e htop</Program>
</Menu>
</RootMenu>

<RootMenu height="0" onroot="6">
<Program icon="user-home.png" label="Home Folder">exec thunar</Program>
<Program icon="user-desktop.png" label="Desktop">exec thunar ~/Desktop</Program>
</RootMenu>

<RootMenu height="0" onroot="7">
<Menu icon="preferences-system.png" label="Administration">
<Program icon="dialog-warning.png" label="Root File Manager">exec gksudo "thunar /"</Program>
<Program icon="dialog-warning.png" label="Root Terminal">exec gksudo "xterm -rv -fn 9x15"</Program>
</Menu>
<Menu icon="preferences-desktop.png" label="Preferences">
<Program icon="preferences-desktop-theme.png" label="Appearance">exec lxappearance</Program>
</Menu>
<Separator/>
<Program icon="system-log-out.png" label="Logout">exec ~/.logout</Program>
<Separator/>
<Restart icon="view-refresh.png" label="Restart JWM"/>
</RootMenu>

<Tray x="0" y="0" height="0">
<TrayButton label=" Applications ">root: 3</TrayButton>
<TrayButton label=" Places ">root: 6</TrayButton>
<TrayButton label=" System ">root: 7</TrayButton>
<TrayButton icon="web-browser.png">exec: gxmessage " Loading..... " -center -timeout 10 -buttons , | firefox &amp;</TrayButton>
<TrayButton label=" "/>
<Dock/>
<TrayButton icon="audio-volume-low.png">exec: amixer set Master 5-</TrayButton>
<TrayButton icon="audio-volume-high.png">exec: amixer set Master 5+</TrayButton>
<TrayButton icon=" "/>
<TrayButton icon="system-log-out.png">root: 0</TrayButton>
<Clock format=" %a %b %d | %l:%M ">exec cal | xmessage -g -1+32 -file "-"</Clock>
</Tray>

<Tray x="0" y="-1" height="0">
<TrayButton icon="go-bottom.png">showdesktop</TrayButton>
<TaskList/>
<Pager/>
</Tray>

<!-- Visual Styles -->

<WindowStyle>

<Font>Sans-9</Font>
<Width>4</Width>
<Height>20</Height>

<Active>
<Text>white</Text>
<Title>gray20</Title>
<Corner>gray20</Corner>
<Outline>black</Outline>
</Active>

<Inactive>
<Text>white</Text>
<Title>gray30</Title>
<Corner>gray30</Corner>
<Outline>black</Outline>
</Inactive>

</WindowStyle>

<TaskListStyle>
<Font>Sans-9</Font>
<ActiveForeground>white</ActiveForeground>
<ActiveBackground>gray30</ActiveBackground>
<Foreground>white</Foreground>
<Background>gray20</Background>
</TaskListStyle>

<TrayStyle>
<Font>Sans-12</Font>
<Background>gray20</Background>
<Foreground>white</Foreground>
</TrayStyle>

<PagerStyle>
<Outline>black</Outline>
<Foreground>white</Foreground>
<Background>gray20</Background>
<ActiveForeground>white</ActiveForeground>
<ActiveBackground>gray30</ActiveBackground>
</PagerStyle>

<MenuStyle>
<Font>Sans-14</Font>
<Foreground>white</Foreground>
<Background>gray20</Background>
<ActiveForeground>white</ActiveForeground>
<ActiveBackground>gray30</ActiveBackground>
</MenuStyle>

<PopupStyle enabled="false"/>

<IconPath>
$HOME/.icons
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/pixmaps
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/categories
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/actions
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/apps
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/places
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/status
</IconPath>
<IconPath>
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps
</IconPath>

<!-- Desktops -->
<Desktops count="3">
<Background type="command">exec xsetroot -solid gray20</Background>
</Desktops>

<DoubleClickSpeed>400</DoubleClickSpeed>
<DoubleClickDelta>2</DoubleClickDelta>
<FocusModel>click</FocusModel>
<SnapMode distance="10">border</SnapMode>
<MoveMode>outline</MoveMode>
<ResizeMode>outline</ResizeMode>

<!-- Key bindings -->
<Key mask="A" key="F2">exec: gmrun</Key>
<Key mask="" key="Print">exec: scrot %T.png -e 'mv $f ~/Desktop';gxmessage -fn "sans 18" " Screenshot Done! " -center</Key>
<Key mask="A" key="Print">exec: xterm -g 35x0-1-40 -e scrot -cd 5 %T.png -e 'mv $f ~/Desktop'</Key>
<Key mask="A" key="Super_L">exec: xset dpms force off</Key>
<Key mask="CA" key="Delete">exec: xterm -e htop</Key>
</JWM>



i did a logout script if you want that for the menu logout:

#!/bin/sh
XMESSAGE=$(which gxmessage) || XMESSAGE=xmessage

$XMESSAGE "Logout Selections" -center -buttons "Cancel":1,"Suspend":2,"Reboot":3,"Shutdown":4,"Exit X":5
case $? in
1) exit 0 ;;
2) sudo pm-suspend ;;
3) sudo reboot ;;
4) sudo poweroff ;;
5) jwm -exit ;;
esac


added gxmessage> pacman -S gxmessage <if you don't have.

[swoll1980]

I have to say that I don't get it. I installed it just for fun the other day. If your a programmer that needs every ounce of your resources to run code, I can understand how this would be a great thing. If your an average desktop user, it doesn't make much sense to me. I have a very average p4 rig with 1000.8 MiB RAM, and a vanilla Ubuntu install is extremely responsive. I'll never get the guys that go out, and buy rigs with 3 GiB + RAM, and complain if their system uses over 200 MiB. I have to say for an average user it hardly seems worth the effort.

[kerry_s]

I have to say that I don't get it. I installed it just for fun the other day. If your a programmer that needs every ounce of your resources to run code, I can understand how this would be a great thing. If your an average desktop user, it doesn't make much sense to me. I have a very average p4 rig with 1000.8 MiB RAM, and a vanilla Ubuntu install is extremely responsive. I'll never get the guys that go out, and buy rigs with 3 GiB + RAM, and complain if their system uses over 200 MiB. I have to say for an average user it hardly seems worth the effort.

i don't mind using ram as long it's for programs i'm using, programs running in the background should use as little ram as possible. anyways my laptops ancient 450mhz 256mb ram, i'm just to broke to get anything new, i can't even afford the $245 mini9 that sams club has. :lolflag:
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item_nbr=702612&iid=02-21-09_Homepage|POV|Mini

i got to play with it though. :p

[mips]

somehow i dont like KDEmod, not that anything is wrong with it, i just prefer to use plain upstream packages without specific mods.



I think you might be confused about kdemod. KDEmod 4.x has a few patches applied for branding (their chakra logo etc) thats it essentially. They release upstream code but in a more modular (hence kdemod) way. The 'mod' in kdemod does not stand for code modification.

The KDE gaphics meta package will be modularised (broken down) into individual packages like gwenview, knsapshot etc. This way you can select to only install the single package you want instead of the entire meta package.

KDEmod 3.5 on the other hand had way more patches applied. They decided not to do this with 4.x.

[fwojciec]

Unused ram is wasted ram -- it's much faster to read from ram than from a hard drive. That said, it probably makes sense to optimize reserved memory use, so that more ram can be used for caching things.

[handy]

+1
some people just assume a wm can't compete with a de, there loss.
i just won me a 12 pack of brewskies, proving i can make jwm look like gnome and it will barely use ram. ;)

Well done kerry_s... ;)

[handy]

I have to say that I don't get it. I installed it just for fun the other day. If your a programmer that needs every ounce of your resources to run code, I can understand how this would be a great thing. If your an average desktop user, it doesn't make much sense to me. I have a very average p4 rig with 1000.8 MiB RAM, and a vanilla Ubuntu install is extremely responsive. I'll never get the guys that go out, and buy rigs with 3 GiB + RAM, and complain if their system uses over 200 MiB. I have to say for an average user it hardly seems worth the effort.

If I'm reading your post right; then you have just installed Arch, & you are not impressed with what you have at this point?

It can take a little more work to get Arch optimised; having Daemons loading faster & having whatever your DE/WM optimised can make quite a difference to the responsiveness of Arch.

Beyond that, it comes down to having just what you want & nothing more, in combination with the simple to maintain design, & of course never having to reinstall until your drive dies.

Of course, not everyone values those things, & under those circumstances then Arch will be a pile of crap that wasted their time.

[sujoy]

I think you might be confused about kdemod. KDEmod 4.x has a few patches applied for branding (their chakra logo etc) thats it essentially. They release upstream code but in a more modular (hence kdemod) way. The 'mod' in kdemod does not stand for code modification.

The KDE gaphics meta package will be modularised (broken down) into individual packages like gwenview, knsapshot etc. This way you can select to only install the single package you want instead of the entire meta package.

KDEmod 3.5 on the other hand had way more patches applied. They decided not to do this with 4.x.

oh, i had only tried KDEmod 3.5
someday soon i'll give the new KDEmod a try then, thanks for the explanation :)

[RedSquirrel]

+1
some people just assume a wm can't compete with a de, there loss.
i just won me a 12 pack of brewskies, proving i can make jwm look like gnome and it will barely use ram. ;)
Nice pics. I see you like the colour grey as much as I do. :D



I have to say that I don't get it. I installed it just for fun the other day. If your a programmer that needs every ounce of your resources to run code, I can understand how this would be a great thing. If your an average desktop user, it doesn't make much sense to me. I have a very average p4 rig with 1000.8 MiB RAM, and a vanilla Ubuntu install is extremely responsive. I'll never get the guys that go out, and buy rigs with 3 GiB + RAM, and complain if their system uses over 200 MiB. I have to say for an average user it hardly seems worth the effort.
It's a hobby for some people to try to squeeze as much as they can from their hardware and to minimize the amount of extra junk that gets installed. Arch is aimed at these people, not the average user. ;)

[kerry_s]

Nice pics. I see you like the colour grey as much as I do.

hey RedSquirrel, long time no see.
yeah, just felt like a change of color, it's a compromise, grey is to grey and black is just to dark. :lolflag:

you know me though, i'll probably change it back to simple next month, i only did it for the beer, cause i knew i could. ;)
free as in beer!

[TravisNewman]

I dig arch. I put it through a lot in my short time with it. The documentation was immaculate, and the forums answered all questions I had about it without me ever having to ask.

That said, it's only my second favorite distro. I'm back on Ubuntu now. Thanks for the advice, it was definitely worth my time. I will definitely keep an eye on this every major release at least, and keep a vm around. I dig it.

[kerry_s]

I dig arch. I put it through a lot in my short time with it. The documentation was immaculate, and the forums answered all questions I had about it without me ever having to ask.

That said, it's only my second favorite distro. I'm back on Ubuntu now. Thanks for the advice, it was definitely worth my time. I will definitely keep an eye on this every major release at least, and keep a vm around. I dig it.

i finally remembered what i wanted to ask. :lolflag:

did you try the ext4? if so, your thoughts?
i haven't made the switch yet, still using jfs, but it's on my list for the next install.

[cardinals_fan]

That said, it's only my second favorite distro. I'm back on Ubuntu now. Thanks for the advice, it was definitely worth my time. I will definitely keep an eye on this every major release at least, and keep a vm around. I dig it.
"Every major release" ? ;)

[smartboyathome]

I dig arch. I put it through a lot in my short time with it. The documentation was immaculate, and the forums answered all questions I had about it without me ever having to ask.

That said, it's only my second favorite distro. I'm back on Ubuntu now. Thanks for the advice, it was definitely worth my time. I will definitely keep an eye on this every major release at least, and keep a vm around. I dig it.

You'll want to keep watch more than just every major release, as Arch is rolling release, so the releases are just more up to date snapshot ISOs with installer fixes/changes. I recommend subscribing to their news RSS feed here (http://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/) to see the major happenings on Arch. :)

[handy]

"Every major release" ? ;)


You'll want to keep watch more than just every major release, as Arch is rolling release, so the releases are just more up to date snapshot ISOs with installer fixes/changes. I recommend subscribing to their news RSS feed here (http://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/) to see the major happenings on Arch. :)

There are new releases of Arch multiple times a day!

[mips]

I will definitely keep an eye on this every major release at least, and keep a vm around. I dig it.

They don't really have major releases, once in a while the installer gets updated. Best way to keep in 'touch' would be to install it in a VM as you mentioned and just keep on updating. Enjoy :)

[jimi_hendrix]

i have not read anything but the first post but arch is amazing

you will end up with knowing how linux (and a pinch of bsd with the rc.conf file) works

the only reason i use ubuntu hardy now is that it likes my gfx card better

[TravisNewman]

i finally remembered what i wanted to ask. :lolflag:

did you try the ext4? if so, your thoughts?
i haven't made the switch yet, still using jfs, but it's on my list for the next install.
I didn't try ext4, I used jfs myself. I wasn't exactly sure how stable ext4 would be so I decided to give it some time.

[handy]

I didn't try ext4, I used jfs myself. I wasn't exactly sure how stable ext4 would be so I decided to give it some time.

I too will hold off on ext4, I'd like to see some more miles under its belt before I trust my incredibly valuable date to its keeping. ;)

[Skripka]

I too will hold off on ext4, I'd like to see some more miles under its belt before I trust my incredibly valuable date to its keeping. ;)

I'm running it here...it is quite snappy compared to Ext3....a few hiccups ("non-sequential data", a slightly buggy Amarok database-both went away after reboot").

[handy]

I'm running it here...it is quite snappy compared to Ext3....a few hiccups ("non-sequential data", a slightly buggy Amarok database-both went away after reboot").

Thanks for your feedback, it is yours & people like you that will give ext4 credibility, in the end.

Or at least for me. ;)

[Skripka]

Thanks for your feedback, it is yours & people like you that will give ext4 credibility, in the end.

Or at least for me. ;)

You're welcome ;) One annoying thing, Ext4 doesn't work with the Ext driver for Windows-so no looking at your Ext4 from Win....surprise surprise-but considering you can upgrade an Ext3 partition to ext4-I was hoping for the unlikely.

[Simian Man]

+1
some people just assume a wm can't compete with a de, there loss.
i just won me a 12 pack of brewskies, proving i can make jwm look like gnome and it will barely use ram. ;)

Yeah that looks just as good as Gnome *rolls eyes*.

[Arkenzor]

I too will hold off on ext4, I'd like to see some more miles under its belt before I trust my incredibly valuable date to its keeping. ;)

Been using it here too for 1-2 weeks with absolutely no trouble, seems a bit faster than jfs but I wouldn't give any guarantees.

At least as far as stability goes it's definitely less trouble than a filesystem that requires you to boot a live image and do a manual fsck after each unclean shutdown...



Actually I just remembered I had an account here. Hi people in the world!

[RiceMonster]

By the time I install again, I'll probably try ext4 because it should be stable enough at that time. I don't reinstall often.

[lswest]

Just make sure you keep sane when using it with zsh. It can have some stuff scrambled with that. :(
I do believe there's a yaourt-zsh build in AUR, not sure what it offers though.

[handy]

Been using it here too for 1-2 weeks with absolutely no trouble, seems a bit faster than jfs but I wouldn't give any guarantees.

At least as far as stability goes it's definitely less trouble than a filesystem that requires you to boot a live image and do a manual fsck after each unclean shutdown...



Just remembered I actually had an account here. Hi people in the world!

I use JFS also.

It is good to hear that you have no problems at this stage.

Though to my mind file systems can take some time to test & I know that I won't be doing a reinstall of Arch just for a potential speed increase via the file system.

As it stands, my Arch install is fast enough, if it gets any faster I won't be able to keep up with it! :lolflag:

[chucky chuckaluck]

nm.

[handy]

nm.

Yeh, I know, the speed of my cognitive functions is of course a variable to be taken into consideration in the above (above) statement.

Perhaps I should withdraw what I said, whatever it was?

What did I say?

[Simian Man]

nm.

Well *I* liked what you said originally :).

[handy]

Well *I* liked what you said originally :).

As I said, *I* was too slow (or ignorant) to get it.

Oh, well...

[chucky chuckaluck]

Well *I* liked what you said originally :).

thanks, but i kind of thought it to be overkill that might have been taken the wrong way.

[handy]

thanks, but i kind of thought it to be overkill that might have been taken the wrong way.

That really is the thing that I have always enjoyed so much about your input here in the forums chucky, you are just SO subtle. :-o

[Simian Man]

As I said, *I* was too slow (or ignorant) to get it.

Oh, well...

It was similar to what I said earlier about the custom JWM not looking as nice as Gnome, but his comment was funnier :).

[handy]

It was similar to what I said earlier about the custom JWM not looking as nice as Gnome, but his comment was funnier :).

Oh.

[machoo02]

I'm running it here...it is quite snappy compared to Ext3....a few hiccups ("non-sequential data", a slightly buggy Amarok database-both went away after reboot").
I just installed Arch the other day, and used ext4 for my root partition. No problems as of yet, startup time and fsck are very quick.

[dannytatom]

I just installed Arch the other day, and used ext4 for my root partition. No problems as of yet, startup time and fsck are very quick.

Ditto, have it on / and /home. Has run with no problems here, though I don't have a lot of what others are complaining about (Large music libraries, Amarok, etc.)

[lswest]

Been running ext4 on / and /home since I installed arch about 3 weeks or so ago (had been using it on and off before then, and I did a fresh install with a USB stick arch install for ext4), no issues so far, seems nice and snappy. Never used JFS so I can't compare. The only issue I had was when I wanted to resize it I had no tools to do so, since the ones I had on-hand didn't support ext4, but I got it sorted.

Might be best to wait until it's properly supported by other systems.

[chucky chuckaluck]

That really is the thing that I have always enjoyed so much about your input here in the forums chucky, you are just SO subtle. :-o

yeah, subtle.

[Faolan84]

I'm sticking with ext3 until both OpenSuSE and Ubuntu provide it as default (or at least as a stable option). A file system isn't something I want to trust to what amounts to a beta implementation. My data is just too important. If ext4 does prove to be better than ext3 that will certainly rock. I've never had a problem with ext2 or 3.

[handy]

yeah, subtle.

Well, at least to someone like me who is as thick as two short planks, anyway... :lolflag:

[RedSquirrel]

I've never had a problem with ext2 or 3.
++

I have zero interest in ext4 at this time.

[kidux]

I have to say that I don't get it. I installed it just for fun the other day. If your a programmer that needs every ounce of your resources to run code, I can understand how this would be a great thing. If your an average desktop user, it doesn't make much sense to me. I have a very average p4 rig with 1000.8 MiB RAM, and a vanilla Ubuntu install is extremely responsive. I'll never get the guys that go out, and buy rigs with 3 GiB + RAM, and complain if their system uses over 200 MiB. I have to say for an average user it hardly seems worth the effort.
It's not for the average user per se. And like all distros, there one for everyone. Arch is for users who want to use their computers, not their OS, if that makes sense. Like me, they prefer their OS to be as less intrusive as possible. It was the main complaint I had about windows. I want my OS to not obstruct my productivity with woo hoo pretty colors and designs, and fifty thousand services I have to turn off because I have no need for them.

[smartboyathome]

I do believe there's a yaourt-zsh build in AUR, not sure what it offers though.

That is just for allowing tab complete of package names when using yaourt. It actually is handy (I've been using it), but it wasn't what I was having problems with.

It is that, by default, zsh sets a few options which makes the commands in yaourt go "msg: command not found" or "error: command not found". I have fixed this, but when installing a package from AUR as a dependency to another package from AUR, the dependancy reverts back to those error messages.