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Build a Killer Customized Arch LinuxInstallation (and Learn All About Linuxin the Process)

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operating system with just the features you want. Arch Linux can make it

happen: it lets you build your own personal, killer Linux distro from the

ground up.

If this article looks familiar, it's because we've posted it before! However,

Arch recently changed its installation process quite a bit, making our old

guide outdated. Due to the popularity of this guide, we've updated it to work

with Arch's new process, so we can all keep getting our Arch fix (and

hopefully introduce a few new users to the OS of their dreams).

Here's why you may want to use Arch Linux, followed by how to set it up.

Who Is Arch Linux Good For?

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Linux is popular for a number of reasons, but high on that list is the fact

that, with Linux, you have a lot more power to tweak your OS to your

liking. You also have the opportunity to learn more about the way

computers and operating systems work. While Ubuntu certainly fits this bill

(when compared with Windows or Mac OS), intermediate Linux users may

be itching to try something new. Arch Linux is a great distribution for

intermediate users looking to dig into Linux a bit more and essentially roll

your own fast, stable, super-personalized distro.

The key part of this explanation is

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"intermediate users." Arch Linux is

not for Linux beginners; there's a

lot of manual configuration and

command line work involved that

Linux rookies probably aren't

comfortable with. If you are a

rookie, that's awesome—welcome

to the wonderful world of Linux—

but you won't want to start here.

Check out our guide to getting started with Linux first, and when you've

used something like Ubuntu or Mint for awhile, come on back here for

some serious Linux action. If you're familiar with something like Ubuntu

and are comfortable with the basic ideas of command line work and

configuration files, read on, because Arch Linux is a great next step.

This guide has two parts. The first half describes the philosophy behind Arch

Linux and its benefits as a distro, while the second part is a (very simplified)

guide on setting up your first Arch install. I won't go through some of the

more basic explanations since, as Linux users, you probably know how to

burn an ISO image to CD, what the difference between 32- and 64-bit

operating systems is, and so on.

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Bear in mind that while this guide should get you started, this is by no

means a one-stop-shop for all Arch Linux knowledge. I highly, highly

recommend you also browse the Arch Linux Wiki, especially the Beginner's

Guide, before you actually begin. The forums are also a great source of info,

so check them out as well. If you just follow the steps in this guide and go

"ta-dah!", you'll miss the point of what Arch Linux has to offer. The

Beginner's Guide can be a bit overwhelming, since it incorporates so many

different possibilities that many first-timers won't deal with, so I've created

this guide to inspire you and help show you that it isn't as nerve-racking as

it may seem—but you'll still want to use multiple resources when you go to

install your system.

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As Arch is definitely not for Linux beginners, you may be wondering what

its advantages are. While it's pretty popular among developers and the like,

it's also pretty popular among general tweakers and geeks that like to really

get at the nuts and bolts of a system. If you've been a Linux user for a little

while and you'd love to get a bit deeper and learn about how it works—so

you can more properly and openly configure it to work for you—Arch is the

perfect next step in your journey.

The philosophy behind Arch is what's known as The Arch Way: simplicity at

its finest. Specifically, Arch aims to be an efficient, user-centric, open,

elegantly coded distribution that doesn't sacrifice anything for convenience.

That is, when faced with a choice between more efficient code and a simpler

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experience for the average computer user, Arch will always choose the

former.

However, while this may seem like a burden to some, it's actually one of

Arch's biggest advantages. Instead of configuring the distribution to be idiot-

proof, Arch forces you (politely) to learn what each configuration file and

important terminal command does early on. Thus, when something breaks

or when you want to configure something beyond what KDE or GNOME

has options for, you pretty much already know where to go and what to do.

Note that I'm not trying to say that idiot-proofing is a bad thing. In fact,

being simple to use is one of the best characteristics a modern OS can have

—for the average PC user. Once again, this guide is not for those people.

This is for those of us that love tinkering with our operating system's insides.

Why, as an Ubuntu User, You May Want to Switch

Of course, if you're already a Linux user, you're probably pretty happy with

all the options your distro of choice gives you. Here's what Arch really offers

that makes it worth trying.

You'll Know What's Really Going on Behind the Scenes

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For the record, I like Ubuntu. It's

easy to install, works out of the box

on tons of hardware, and has

actually made some interesting

innovations on the desktop

(whether you love or hate Unity as

a whole). I've also used it to

repurpose some old PCs for my

mother around the house and it's

easy enough for even non-geeks to

use. If you use Linux solely

because it's free, open, and easy to use, you don't need to complicate your

life for no reason. However, if you've used Linux for a little while and would

like to take the next step, Arch is where you want to go.

While Ubuntu works out of the box with a lot of computers, and provides a

lot of user-friendly configuration for certain things, it's a nightmare to

configure for others. It provides no way of teaching you where the correct

config files are for your eighty button mouse or your three monitor setup,

and I hate to say it, but in my experience the Ubuntu forums have been less

than helpful. Again, not to hate, but that's just what I've experienced.

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Arch's installation doesn't really have a graphical interface. It's mostly done

through the command line, and consists of you using a guide like this and

the fabulous Arch Wiki to partition your drive, install a minimal base

system, and go through each command and configuration file to get things

set up, and you'll know how the base system works. That way, down the

road, when you want to automatically mount another hard drive when

Arch boots, you'll know you need to add something to the options

column of /etc/fstab , and you won't be intimidated by that fact. And,

when you don't know what to do, Arch has one of the best documentations

and communities I've ever seen.

You'll Always Have the Newest Software

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Unlike other popular operating systems, Arch doesn't have a big update

every two years, one year, or even six months—Arch updates whatever it

wants, whenever it wants, which means you're constantly on the bleeding

edge of both the OS and the software you use.

Note that in this instance,

"bleeding edge" does not mean

"ridiculously unstable". Lots of

testing goes into these packages

before they get added to the

repositories, and you aren't going

to find your PC crashing every day

because you're always getting the

newest updates. What it really means is that you'll get software updates as

soon as they're ready to use, not as soon as Ubuntu gets around to updating

their repositories. If Thunderbird releases an update, you'll get that update

the next day—not the next month.

You Build a Killer Operating System that Fits Your Needs andWants

Since you start off with a minimal

install and build up from there, you

won't have any unnecessary

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packages bloating up your system.

You have complete control over

everything that goes into your

setup, and you can make it as

small and minimalistic or as big and powerful as you want—you essentially

build your own, fast, stable, super-customized Linux distro from the ground

up. And who wouldn't love that?

How to Install Arch Linux

If all this sounds like your dream come true, then it's time to move on to the

next step: actually installing Arch. While the Arch Wiki has a great

Beginner's Guide (have I mentioned that you should read it?), I found I still

ran into a few hiccups along the way, and the wiki is so full of (great)

information that it can be a bit overwhelming for an Arch first-timer. For

example, the beginner's guide goes through lots of different possible

situations—i.e., if you're using a static IP, if you require wireless internet

from the get-go, etc. Instead of trying to sift through all that and ignore the

more advanced stuff that may not apply to you, I've created this guide that

should get you up and running without your brain exploding.

This guide contains the methods I found work best and were easiest for me,

and they should work with most PC builds without a problem. If you do run

into any problems, or have any specific needs that aren't fulfilled by this

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guide (like if you are using a static IP), you can probably find more detail in

the corresponding section of Arch's Beginner's Guide, so head over there

when necessary.

Step One: Get Yourself an Arch Linux Install CD

You can install Arch many different ways, but we're going to use your basic

CD installation. If you don't have an optical drive, you can always install it

from a USB flash drive, too. Head over to the Arch download page,

download the Arch Linux ISO, and burn it to your installation medium of

choice before you continue.

Step Two: Set Up Your Partitions

While you could always partition your drive from the Arch Linux

installation CD, it's much easier to do from a Linux Live CD like Ubuntu or

GParted, which you probably already have (because you're no Linux

slouch!). Assuming you already know how to partition drives, go ahead and

make one for your OS (around 15GB is safe) and one for all your

documents and apps (which can be as big as you want). If you use an SSD,

you can just make one partition on the SSD for your boot drive and one on a

bigger HDD for your files. You can also make a nice 1GB swap partition for

good measure, but if you have a lot of RAM, this probably isn't necessary.

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Format them as ext4, and note the names of the two you'll be using (i.e.

/dev/sda1 as the OS partition and /dev/sda2 as your data partition),

as that's how you'll have to refer to the partitions during the install process.

Now that you've created your partitions, boot up from your newly-burned

Arch Installation CD and choose "Start Arch Linux" at the prompt. Make

sure you choose the right architecture for your CPU (32-bit or i686 vs 64-bit

or x86-64). When it finishes booting, you'll get a command line prompt.

Start by seeing if you have an active internet connection. I recommend

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plugging your computer in via Ethernet, since that'll make installation a lot

easier, even if you plan on using Wi-Fi later. To see if you have a

connection, just ping Google with the following command:

ping -c 3 www.google.com

If you get an error that says unknown host or anything like that, you'll

need to set up your network manually.

Next, mount those partitions you just created. If you aren't sure the names

of your partitions, run the following command:

fdisk -l

You'll see a list of your drives and partitions, with the same names we saw

before (like /dev/sda1 . Make note of the partition(s) you want to use for

Arch.

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Again, we're using two partitions here—one for the OS and one for our

personal files. So, we're going to need to mount them as such. Mount your

drives using the following commands:

mkdir /mnt

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

mkdir /mnt/home

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

In this example, /dev/sda1 is our root partition for the OS, while

/dev/sda2 is our home partition for our files.

The last thing you need to do before starting is select a mirror for

downloading your packages. Run:

nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Scroll down to your preferred mirror (the closer to your location the better),

press Alt+6 to copy the line, then scroll back up and press Ctrl+U to paste

that line at the top of the list. US users should already have a good server at

the top of the list. When you're done, press Ctrl+X to exit, and save with Y

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and Enter if you made any changes.

Step Three: Install the Arch Base System

Now it's time to start the installation. You can do so with the following

command:

pacstrap -i /mnt base

If you want to tweak any packages during the process, you can do so when

prompted, but the default settings should be fine.

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Next, you'll need to create and edit some config files. Here are the ones you

want to worry about:

/etc/fstab: Fstab stands for File Systems Table. This file lists your available

drives and partitions and decides how you'll use each one. To create one for

your drive, just run:

genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

You can then view and edit it with:

nano /mnt/etc/fstab

The columns, in order from left to right, list the drive's name(s) and UUID,

mount point, file system, and boot options. You probably won't have to do

anything here at the moment, but if you have a lot of partitions on your

drive, you'll probably find yourself back here soon. You may also want to

clean up the columns a little bit so they line up better, but that's up to you.

Check out the Fstab wiki entry for more information.

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/etc/locale.gen: This file determines certain location-based settings, like

time and date formats, alphabetic tweaks, and other things. For this and the

other configuration files, we'll need to chroot into our newly-created

system. Essentially, we'll be running a terminal on that system without

having booted into it yet. To do this, just run:

arch-chroot /mnt

Next, create the locale files by running:

nano /etc/locale.gen

By default, everything has been commented out with a # , but you can

scroll down and uncomment the line for your locale(s) by deleting the #

symbol. For example, US users would uncomment the en_US.UTF-8 line.

Again, press Ctrl+X to exit, then Y and Enter to save it.

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You should also create a locale.conf file with the following command

(for English-speaking US users):

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

If you speak another language, tweak this command accordingly.

Time Zone and Clock: Next, we'll set our time zone. To view the available

zones, run the following command:

ls /usr/share/zoneinfo

You can view sub-zones by picking a category and running:

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ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/America

Find the zone you want, then run the following command, replacing

America/Los_Angeles with your time zone:

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime

Then, set the clock according to your chosen zone with:

hwclock —systohc —utc

That's all you should need for now in the realm of miscellaneous

configuration files. The next few steps will be a tad more pointed.

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Step Four: Set Up Your Network

At this point, you have network access from the live CD, but you'll need to

set up your network for the actual Arch installation.

If you have a wired connection, with a dynamic IP address, all you

need to do is enable the wired networking service on your new setup. To

enable a background service like this one, you'll need to use the

systemctl command. In this case, run:

systemctl enable dhcpcd@eth0.service

If you connect using Wi-Fi, you'll need to install a few packages first. To

start, install Arch's wireless tools with:

pacman -S wireless_tools wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond dialog

Then, run the following to connect to your network:

wifi-menu

This will create a profile in /etc/network.d named after your network.

Lastly, enable the wireless service with systemctl :

systemctl enable net-auto-wireless.service

Now, your network should be all set up and ready to go when you finish

installing Arch.

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Step Five: Configure Your Package Manager

Arch Linux uses a package manager called Pacman, and it's pretty darn

awesome. Before you can use it in your new installation though, you'll need

to do a few things. Start by editing its configuration file with:

nano /etc/pacman.conf

Scroll down to the "Repositories" section. The [core] , [extra] , and

[community] repositories should already be uncommented, but if you're

on a 64-bit machine, you should also enable the [multilib] repository, which

lets you install both 64- and 32-bit programs. To do so, add the following

lines to the bottom of the config file:

[multilib]

Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

If you're on a 32-bit system, you shouldn't need to edit anything in here

right now, but it's a good idea to take a look around, since this is where

you'll add any extra repositories in the future. When you're done, go ahead

and exit, saving any changes you might have made.

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When you're done, run the following command to refresh your repository

list (if you made any changes):

pacman -Sy

We'll talk more about how to use Pacman in a little bit. For now, head to

the next step.

Step Six: Create a User Account

Now it's time for a few finishing touches before we actually boot into our

Arch system. First, set the root password by running:

passwd

Type in your desired password when prompted. Now, as an intermediate

Linux user, you already know you don't want to use the root account for

regular computing, since that can be dangerous. So, create a user account

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(and a password) for yourself by running:

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash johndoe

passwd johndoe

Of course, replace johndoe with your desired username. The string of

comma-separated terms contains the groups to which your user belongs.

The ones listed should be fine, though they aren't the only ones available. If

you have a floppy drive or scanner, for example, you'll want to add

floppy and/or scanner to the list. For a full list, check out the Groups

wiki entry.

Now would probably be a good time to install sudo too, so your new user

can perform administrative tasks. To do this, use the aforementioned

Pacman package manager:

pacman -S sudo

That's how easy adding a package is in Pacman. If you wanted to see a list

of packages pertaining to a search term, you could type:

pacman -Ss sudo

This would search the repositories for "sudo", returning to you a list of

packages containing that name. Of course, you could also search the

database on Arch Linux's web site.

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Once you've installed sudo , you can allow your new user to run it by

editing your sudoers file:

EDITOR=nano visudo

Scroll down until you find this line and uncomment it:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Save the document and exit the editor. This tweak will allow all members of

the wheel group—to which your new user belongs—to use sudo , which

will be handy when you finally boot into our new OS.

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Step 7: Install Your Bootloader

Next, you'll need to install a bootloader that can boot you into your Arch

installation. For this guide, we'll be using the ever-popular GRUB, though

you can use something else if you desire. If you're installing Arch on a

UEFI-based motherboard (instead of a BIOS-based motherboard) or if

you're dual-booting, you may want to do some extra reading before

continuing, as everyone's setup is going to be a little different.

To install GRUB, run the following commands, replacing /dev/sda with

the drive (not the partition, /dev/sda1 ) that holds your Arch Linux

installation:

pacman -S grub-bios

grub-install —target=i386-pc —recheck /dev/sda

cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo

/boot/grub/locale/en.mo

If you're dual booting, run the following:

pacman -S os-prober

Then, whether you're dual-booting or not, run:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

This will create a config file for your bootloader (which you can edit if you

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want different options when booting into Arch or another OS).

Lastly, exit from chroot, unmount your partitions, and reboot your

computer:

exit

umount /mnt/home

umount /mnt

reboot

Obviously, if you mounted other partitions at any point, include them in the

commands above. You should also remove your Arch Linux Installation CD

at this time.

Step Eight: Get Your Desktop Up and Running

When you reboot, you should find yourself at a simple login prompt, just

like when you first started. However, this time, you're actually logging into

your new Arch installation! You now have a very basic system from which

you can build up a working desktop with sound, video, and more.

To start, let's get sound up and running. To do this, you need to install

alsa-utils with the following command:

sudo pacman -S alsa-utils

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Then, start up alsamixer:

alsamixer

All your channels will start muted, so use the M key to unmute the channels

you need. Then, use the arrow keys to turn them up or down. You'll

definitely want to unmute the Master channel, and the PCM channel if you

have one. Depending on your speaker setup, you may also need to unmute

others like Front Speaker or Headphone. Raise their volume up until "dB

gain" equals "0" for each. This will ensure that you don't get any sound

distortion. Press ESC when you're done.

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To check and make sure your speakers are working, just run:

speaker-test -c 2

Change 2 to the number of speakers you have (for example, 8 if you

have a 7.1 surround system). If you hear the static it generates, you've got

working audio! If not, head back to alsamixer and try tweaking your

channels to make sure everything's properly unmuted. To stop the speaker

test, press Ctrl+C.

Next, it's time to get some graphics up and running. First, we'll install the X

window system with:

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-server-utils

If you want 3D support, you'll also want to install mesa :

sudo pacman -S mesa

Now comes what, in my experience, is always the most troublesome part of

a Linux installation: video drivers and configuring X. The video driver you

need will depend on your graphics card and what you want to get from it, so

see the corresponding entry in the Beginner's guide for more information.

You'll use Pacman to install those drivers, a process with which you're

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probably familiar. For example, if I wanted to install the proprietary

NVIDIA drivers on a 64-bit system, I'd run:

sudo pacman -S nvidia lib32-nvidia-utils

Again, your commands will differ. Do some research to find out what

drivers you need.

Most desktop computers should be able to use their mouse and keyboard out

of the box. If you're on a laptop, though, you should take this time to install

some drivers for your trackpad:

sudo pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

We're in the home stretch! Biw it's time to see if you can get a graphical

environment up and running. First, install the default environment:

pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm

Then, to test X, just run:

startx

If it works, you should be able to interact with a very basic windowed

environment and run commands in xterm. You can exit by typing exit

into xterm and hitting Enter.

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It is here where I learned I used the wrong video drivers my first time

around, so I had to uninstall the old ones and reinstall a different package.

To remove a package in Pacman, just type:

pacman -Rns package_name

The n flag removes all the configuration files related to a package, while

the s flag removes any dependencies that are now unnecessary. I

generally always use n and s when removing a package, because I like to

keep my system clean of cruft.

If you're having trouble with your video drivers and testing X, there's more

information on troubleshooting it in the Beginner's Guide.

Stay with us, we're at the last step! All that's left is to install your desktop

environment of choice. First, install a few fonts:

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sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu

Then, pick your favorite desktop

environment and install it (you can

see lots of good choices here). Your

commands will differ depending on

what you choose, but it should be

simple. For example, to install a

GNOME desktop, you'd run:

sudo pacman -S gnome

This could take awhile, depending

on how big of an environment you

want. Once it's done, you can turn on a display manager to give yourself a

graphical login to your new desktop. GNOME comes with the gdm display

manager, so to enable its service (remember those?) we just need to run:

sudo systemctl enable gdm.service

Now, reboot your system with sudo reboot and you should find

yourself inside a new desktop on your new Arch system! Hooray!

WTF DesktopEnvironments:GNOME, KDE, and

More Explained

You can customize nearly every last

inch of your Linux installation to fit

your liking, and it starts with

choosing the right desktop

environment.… Read…

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Going Further: Using Pacman, Installing Other Apps,and More

Congratulations on setting up your first Arch desktop. There's a lot more to

learn, but that's pretty much where this guide ends. Here are some things

you may want to read up on to get started:

How to Use Pacman: You already know how to install a package

with Pacman, but this'll show you how to remove packages, update

your repositories, and update your system with the newest versions of

all your apps. Memorize this, it will be your bible.

Install Other Apps with the Arch User Repository: One of my

absolute favorite parts of Arch is the Arch User Repository, or AUR.

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That's it for now! There's a ton of

other information out there, and

lots of cool things to do, but this

will get you up and running. If you

This is a special repository that combines apps that aren't in the official

repositories, managed by Arch's user. It basically contains every Linux

app you could possibly imagine. Read up on the AUR and install an

AUR helper like Yaourt or Packer—they'll help you install apps from

the AUR as easily as you install apps with Pacman. Seriously, do this.

Install Browser Plug-ins: You'll probably want (however

begrudgingly) to install Adobe Flash, and this wiki page will help you

do so.

Use the Forums: They'll be your greatest source of help. Of course,

make sure you Google and search the forums before you go and start

asking questions.

Compiz: Because who doesn't like cool desktop effects? Alternatively,

KDE users can also use the built-in Kwin just by going to System

Settings.

Our Lifehacker Pack for Linux and our App Directory: For

finding all the best apps to get your new system started.

Five Best LinuxDistributions

There are many,

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have any questions, Google and

the Arch Forums are your friends,

but so are we! Arch is a pretty

popular distribution among

Lifehacker readers, so hit us up in

the comments of this post or in our weekly open thread if you've got

questions.

Title image remixed from somchaij (Shutterstock).

many Linux distributions, and a lot of

unique reasons to like them. Read on

to see which open-source operating

systems inspired our… Read…

DiscussL

K

Author is participating1 @

BishopBlaize U Whits…

Since I built my first Hackintosh I

realized how useful is to have a

fully tested list of hardware to

choose from before you build and

add the OS. Linux has good

1 L

Author is participating1 @

installgen2 U Whitso…

Maybe this is just me projecting

my bad experiences with Arch, but

if you wanted a really customized

Linux distribution, why not go

with Gentoo? Compile times are a

1 L

Like 1.6k

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Whitson Gordon

compatibility, but not perfect, and

the reason I left was because of

one too many updates that took a

weekend to get my soundcard

working again. I wonder if

someone might link to such as list

for people wanting to do a linux

build? 12/06/12 8:35am

Whitson Gordon U Bi…

Ubuntu has a pretty good list of

compatible hardware:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Hardwar

eSupport 12/06/12 8:50am

1 L

majorsquirrel U Whit…

So can I use that list for my Arch

install? Would that work well?

12/10/12 9:50pm

1 L

pain, but I've found Gentoo to be a

lot less fussy than Arch. In all

honesty though, I'd just go for a

minimal install of Debian testing

or Ubuntu. 12/06/12 11:20am

nickthename U instal…

I've found that doing a minimal

installation of ubuntu and a bit of

messing around in the command

line allows you to gain plenty of

knowledge of linux without having

to end up with a rather unstable

setup. Also, much of the

knowledge you pick up when

installing a distro from near-

nothing is distro specific, so it's nice

to make your distro specific

knowledge be on something that is

very common. 12/06/12 3:53pm

1 L

freddy_young U insta…

Fussy in which way?

1 L

1

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donniezazen and 2 others...

Fussy in which way?

Actually I couldn't stand Gentoo

because of its compile times.

Arch just works 12/07/12 5:35am

Author is participating1 @

zomeburner U Whits…

I was wondering if switching to a

non-debian-based distro would

make some softwares

uninstallable. Could that be the

case ?

For examples, games, drivers, and

so many others apps ? It's just that

I don't often see an Arch package

available... I know there is the

compiling possibility, but... ?

12/06/12 9:50am

1 L

Whitson Gordon U zo…

This is why I love the AUR.

Chances are, if there's an app you

want, someone's already compiled

it and you can install it with a

package manager like Yaourt or

Packer. In fact, I've probably had

1 L

Author is participating1 @

myrddyn U Whitson …

I appreciate your articles, so I

turned off my AdBlock...

... only to find you don't have ads

on here. Is that intentional or is

something else blocking them?

7/11/13 8:56pm

1 L

Whitson Gordon U m…

First of all: Thank you!

Second, yes we do have ads,

though not a ton of them. Usually

1 L

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freddy_young

to compile LESS from source on

Arch than I did on Ubuntu!

12/06/12 9:52am

srzbble U zomeburner

I've been using Arch for more than

one year and I never had to

compile.

If it's not here:

https://www.archlinux.org/packa

ges/

Then it's here:

https://aur.archlinux.org/

12/06/12 2:52pm

1 L

only one or so is visible at a time,

so maybe you're just missing it?

Although something else could be

blocking them. Maybe FlashBlock?

7/11/13 9:49pm

3 participants @

The Moss U Whitson …

I just installed Arch on my laptop

as I was upgrading to Win 8. I

dual boot with it using the Win 8

bootloader (instead of GRUB).

Took a bit more reading and a few

1 L

@

estebanrules U Whit…

I ran Ubuntu and then other

1 1 L

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trials, but got it up and running

now and loving it!

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.p

hp/Windows_and_Arch_Dual_Bo

ot#Using_Windows_boot-loader

The tricky thing with this one is to

make sure there's a /boot partition

for GRUB to reside on and an

FAT-32 partition so Windows can

see it. The bootloader looks like

this, fyi 12/06/12 9:16am

akshay2000 U The …

Do you mean to say that you are

using only Windows 8 bootloader?

Why? I mean, yeah, it looks good,

really good. But usually, people

load Windows bootloader via

GRUB by chainloading. No?

12/12/12 12:11am

1 L

The Moss U akshay2… 1 L

Debian-based distros for years and

years. I still really like Debian, but

I think that might be because I'm

most comfortable in the Debian

environment.

When I decided to "step up" to a

distro that required some more

know-how and work, I tried out

both Gentoo and Arch. Gentoo is

great, but the compile times really

weighed down on me and I felt like

I was always "fixing something"

instead of just working in a stable

environment.

Today I dual-boot Ubuntu and

Arch. I still love the ease and the

Debian-base of Ubuntu (and truth

be told I like Unity) but I primarily

use Arch. Arch is very fast, stable,

and I've learned a ton more about

the inner-workings of Linux from

using Arch.

Anyway, this is a great install

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Well I guess that's a good question,

as I've asked myself that a few

times too.

The reasons that lead me down

this road was to try something else

and that it looked really good. It's

weird though because it goes

through BIOS, loads the Win8

bootloader, I select my OS... but

when I pick my Arch Partition, it

basically restarts by going through

BIOS and all, and then pulls up

GRUB (so there's no chainloading

needed for this).

It's fairly cool and visually

appealing to be doing it this way,

but it is very slow and not very

practical. I've been contemplating

switching back to chainloading

with GRUB since that's much

faster, and easier to deal with too.

12/12/12 9:07am

Anyway, this is a great install

guide. One thing to mention

however is that there is an issue

with setting up ethernet.

You can find a resolution to that

issue here.

Have fun ;) 5/17/13 9:22am

@

donniezazen U Whits…

I like the direction and leadership

Ubuntu has which is lacked in

Arch. In Arch, most decisions are

made by Desktop Environments.

For example, power menu in

Gnome is decided by Gnome, they

also removed delete key function,

etc. 12/07/12 10:26am

1 L

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akshay2000 @

Mplicit U Whitson Go…

For those who find their network

card doesn't work on reboot into

the installed system, have a look at

this post -

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopi

c.php?... 5/26/13 2:55am

2 1 L @

serpent5 U Whitson …

My first experience of Linux was

Arch, many years ago when I had

no idea what this Linux idea was

all about. I didn't stick with it for

long and ended up running mostly

Ubuntu since, with the odd foray

into Fedora Core and Mint. I came

across this article when searching

Google for alternatives to Ubuntu,

Fedora and Mint and the idea of

somewhat building up my own

customised Linux system from

scratch really pulled me in. I

gained a lot of Linux knowledge

from using the more "user-

friendly" distributions but, as this

article suggests, I've picked up

much more since diving back into

1 1 L

@

Ishaan Bahal U Whit…

For those people who connect to a

wifi which is secured by a wep key

and are facing problems, a simple

solution is to

1. Go to wifi-menu.

2.Connect to your wifi AP.

3.When prompted Connecting

1 1 L

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much more since diving back into

the world of Arch and I will never

look back. 6/06/13 2:25pm

failed, save the profile.

4.Go to /etc/netctl and edit your

AP profile and add \" before the

key

Example : Key=\"1234567890

7/09/13 5:10am

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