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View Full Version : Finally got a GUI setup on arch!



Nerd King
November 2nd, 2009, 09:04 AM
Christ it's hard work! I've managed quite successfully to get CLI up and running but until now no luck with GUI. Finally I've installed Gnome and KDE on there. Gotta admit gnome-vanilla is pretty damn ugly, so I guess we should appreciate how good the ubuntu guys make our version look! KDE though is a different beast, and out-of-the-box it looks gorgeous. I'm tweaking it of course, but I must admit, this little baby could find itself on my triple boot.

NoaHall
November 2nd, 2009, 04:47 PM
Hehe, how long since you started on Arch? got mine up on the first day.

mivo
November 4th, 2009, 09:03 AM
What troubles had you run into with setting up the GUI? The Beginner's Guide (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide) features a section dealing with the various DEs and how to install them. I still refer to it. :) The LXDE package seems a little half-baked currently, but installing Xfce4 worked beautifully out of the box (for an older laptop). With Midori, Mousepad, the calendar app and htop running, RAM usage was at 69 MB. And I hadn't even tweaked anything yet. :)

ZankerH
November 4th, 2009, 09:36 AM
If you like KDE4 on arch, you might want to look into KDEmod (and chakra project).

handy
November 4th, 2009, 10:25 AM
Installing Arch is hard work if:

You don't follow The Beginners Guide to the letter. (done finished)

You don't know how to follow really good instructions. (al la The Beginners Guide)

You happen to be one of the very few that have a lack of hardware support.

You happen to have some kind of unusual setup desire & you haven't looked in the Arch wiki for a solution.

You looked in the Arch wiki for a solution, found none & haven't yet searched for the answer in the Arch forum.

You haven't after all else failing posted the question in the Arch forum.

mikeize
November 4th, 2009, 10:31 AM
dang! from the title of the thread, I thought you meant there was like, an "install wizard" for Arch now. :lolflag:

good luck to you!

-mikeize

handy
November 4th, 2009, 10:40 AM
dang! from the title of the thread, I thought you meant there was like, an "install wizard" for Arch now. :lolflag:

good luck to you!

-mikeize

The Chakra project (http://chakra-project.org/) may be what you are referring to/looking for?

Though most Arch users would say it is not a good way for an initiate to install Arch, as you don't learn how Arch works, the way you do, do if you install Arch the old fashioned way... :)

Pasdar
November 4th, 2009, 12:58 PM
The Chakra project (http://chakra-project.org/) may be what you are referring to/looking for?

Though most Arch users would say it is not a good way for an initiate to install Arch, as you don't learn how Arch works, the way you do, do if you install Arch the old fashioned way... :)

Does the "chakra" give the users the same installation options it does to those installing arch via terminal?

dragos240
November 4th, 2009, 01:23 PM
Well. I say it's pretty easy to set up an arch system. I love it. Every bit of it.

snowpine
November 4th, 2009, 01:51 PM
Does the "chakra" give the users the same installation options it does to those installing arch via terminal?

Chakra has a simplified graphic installer similar to Ubuntu (last time I checked).

Eisenwinter
November 4th, 2009, 03:46 PM
It's really easy.

Just download xorg, then run "Xorg -configure" as root.

This should detect your graphics card and set up X properly, which will save you some time editing the config file by yourself.

I still prefer to use the open source radeon driver, so I have to get an extra package called ati-dri, and change the driver parameters in xorg.conf.

Dimitriid
November 4th, 2009, 03:54 PM
Installing Arch is hard work if:

You don't follow The Beginners Guide to the letter. (done finished)

You don't know how to follow really good instructions. (al la The Beginners Guide)

You happen to be one of the very few that have a lack of hardware support.

You happen to have some kind of unusual setup desire & you haven't looked in the Arch wiki for a solution.

You looked in the Arch wiki for a solution, found none & haven't yet searched for the answer in the Arch forum.

You haven't after all else failing posted the question in the Arch forum.

Aye, there was not a single issue I couldn't resolve following this exact troubleshooting path. Maybe add the arch irc channel on freenode.

Muppeteer
November 4th, 2009, 03:58 PM
I agree that people shouldn't install Chakra just because it's easier. I first switched to arch over a year ago, and while following the instructions, it was very easy. And now i'm comfortable with how Arch works and could probably install it without needing the manual.

Pasdar
November 4th, 2009, 04:01 PM
For some people, like me, its not an issue of whether I can install it. I know I can, I can even install Gentoo. The question is whether it can be done fast, without too many troubles and whether the OS provides enough advantages over the one I'm using now to even consider installing it in the first place.

From the benchmarks at Phoronix I conclude its not worth my time. Spending a day installing it while there is minimal to no difference in speed between the two (Arch and Ubuntu).

Skripka
November 4th, 2009, 04:07 PM
From the benchmarks at Phoronix I conclude its not worth my time. Spending a day installing it while there is minimal to no difference in speed between the two (Arch and Ubuntu).

The thing to remember is that regardless, Phoronix benchmarks of linuxes are by-and-large worthless. Especially when they are comparing a fixed and a rolling release--that are not even using the same kernel (nevermind that all the packages are different versions). I'm about to say the same thing in the Gentoo Vs. Ubuntu benchmarks thread....

Throw in some text blurbs, and some bar graphs and BAM you have enough column inches to keep your website looking alive and running.

mivo
November 4th, 2009, 04:09 PM
Spending a day installing it while there is minimal to no difference in speed between the two (Arch and Ubuntu).

The time spent on the initial installation may be the same, or Arch may even take you a couple extra hours (in exchange for a cleaner, slimmer and better performing system that you know inside out), but consider that Arch is a rolling release distro, so you don't have to do this every six months like with Ubuntu (we all know how well the dist upgrade works ...).

You'll spend much more time on installing and re-installing Ubuntu over a period of time. This was one of the reasons why I switched my desktop to Arch.

handy
November 5th, 2009, 12:37 AM
Like a broken record I say:

Arch is by far the easiest system to maintain I have come across in 24 years of being addicted to computers.

Most users find the installation process to be fun.

Without The Beginners Guide it would not be fun for most users, particularly on their first install.

On my machine, my Arch setup is much faster than Ubuntu, or any other system I have tried on it, including OS X.

handy
November 5th, 2009, 12:39 AM
Does the "chakra" give the users the same installation options it does to those installing arch via terminal?

Read the link supplied in the post before you posted the above?

wojox
November 5th, 2009, 12:44 AM
Chakra takes 99% of the fun out of it.