Arch Linux

[dedanna1029]

(Sorry, I am a stickler about reading thoroughly and printing out the Beginner's Guide and Installation Manual. You will get more out of them than anything.)

[viking60]

I got a reminder of why Arch is not for everyone today:
After upgrading to kernel 3.3.1 My wireless was gone because I use wpa_supplicant and wp2 enkryption. After pulling my hair for a while I came over the bug:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/index.php?do ... k_id=29340

So I had to connect a cable and downgrade the kernel to 3.2.14-1. Arch has fantastic tools for doing this like downgrade It has the history back to 2009!

But a reminder that you have to be able to dive in when using Arch.

[rolf]

40 pages, woot!

Yeah, I was reminded of sometimes Arch bumpy roads, last week.

I like it for an alternative to try to get things working that I can't do in Mandriva, and for possible jumping ship backup. It's pretty nice, overall.

[viking60]

Yes Arch gets under your skin. It has been rock solid for a year now but since the signing thing has been implemented there have been some hickups, that required manual intervention.
But it is all on the Arch websites so it is no big deal.
Overall Arch is solid and stable.And it can be built to your liking - that is the best part.

[viking60]

Since this was my wifes lap and I get the blame for everything that does not work in the most dynamic ways I decided to install the Long Time Service Kernel.
This is the first time a kernel update has let me down and she is a typical amateur user - It must work without any technical hickups.
So I installed linux-lts and edited the /boot/grub/menu.lst

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# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux-lts root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/226749ce-2acb-4353-a4c1-d4185c5d52ab ro acer_wmi.disable=1
initrd /initramfs-linux-lts.img


It used to look like this:

Code: Select all

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/226749ce-2acb-4353-a4c1-d4185c5d52ab ro acer_wmi.disable=1
initrd /initramfs-linux.img


so I only added the -lts.
Works fine and gives peace of mind, which I prefer to getting a piece of my wifes mind (and she is right; an OS should serve a purpose, not be the purpose).
Don't get me wrong though Arch has been rock solid for here, and she would have killed me if it were Windows - and she is an excelent cook

[rolf]

so I only added the -lts

Well, it looks here like vmlinuz-linux-lts might be a symlink in /boot to a versioned lts kernel, like vmlinz-desktop in Mandriva, e.g.
Does it show something with 'ls -l /boot' ?

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[rolf@localhost ~]$ ll /boot
total 41662
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      26 Apr 11 16:57 config -> config-3.1.10-desktop-2mib
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  119480 Nov  4 03:03 config-2.6.39.4-4.2-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  119480 Jan  4 06:56 config-2.6.39.4-5.1-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  125559 Mar 22 16:44 config-3.1.10-desktop-2mib
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  505856 Jan  6 17:04 gfxmenu*
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     672 Mar 23 20:36 grub/
-rw------- 1 root root 8628408 Jan  6 17:06 initrd-2.6.39.4-4.2-desktop.img
-rw------- 1 root root 6575578 Jan 11 16:39 initrd-2.6.39.4-5.1-desktop.img
-rw------- 1 root root 4946130 Apr  6 21:29 initrd-3.1.10-desktop-2mib1.img
-rw------- 1 root root 4946054 Mar 23 20:23 initrd-3.1.10-desktop-2mib.img
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      31 Apr  6 21:30 initrd-desktop.img -> initrd-3.1.10-desktop-2mib1.img
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      31 Jan 11 16:39 initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.39.4-5.1-desktop.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  212054 Mar 22 16:44 symvers-3.1.10-desktop-2mib.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      30 Apr  5 18:23 System.map -> System.map-3.1.10-desktop-2mib
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2047793 Nov  4 03:03 System.map-2.6.39.4-4.2-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2047793 Jan  4 06:56 System.map-2.6.39.4-5.1-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2023774 Mar 22 16:44 System.map-3.1.10-desktop-2mib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      28 Jan 11 16:39 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.39.4-5.1-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3436208 Nov  4 03:03 vmlinuz-2.6.39.4-4.2-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3436944 Jan  4 06:56 vmlinuz-2.6.39.4-5.1-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3420176 Mar 22 16:44 vmlinuz-3.1.10-desktop-2mib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Mar 23 20:18 vmlinuz-desktop -> vmlinuz-3.1.10-desktop-2mib


Good job staying away from the frying pan!

[viking60]

Yeah I would make lousy Pannekake material
Only adding the -lts was a very popular and inaccurate description. What I really did was adding the initramfs-linux-lts and vmlinuz-linux-lts to menu.lst

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[thomas@heidi-lap ~]$ ls -l /boot
totalt 35M
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1,1k 2012-04-12 00:06 grub/
drwx------ 2 root root  13k 2012-04-12 00:06 lost+found/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12M 2011-08-09 13:06 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2,9M 2012-02-07 12:56 initramfs-linux.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12M 2012-04-12 00:06 initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2,9M 2012-04-12 00:05 initramfs-linux-lts.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3,2M 2012-04-09 19:57 vmlinuz-linux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3,1M 2012-04-12 00:05 vmlinuz-linux-lts


It is the 3.0.27-1 Kernel that is LTS
No symlinck afaict.

[rolf]

Yes, Arch would seem to be more Spartan about kernel names than Mandriva.

[viking60]

Yes they are keeping is "simple", but conky is your friend:

And since I still have the "old" Kernel the right thing would be to add the LTS to the boot options, not edit the existing one:
/boot/grub/menu.lst

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# (0) Arch Linux LTS
title  Arch Linux LTS
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux-lts root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/226749ce-2acb-4353-a4c1-d4185c5d52ab ro acer_wmi.disable=1
initrd /initramfs-linux-lts.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/226749ce-2acb-4353-a4c1-d4185c5d52ab ro acer_wmi.disable=1
initrd /initramfs-linux.img

# (2) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/226749ce-2acb-4353-a4c1-d4185c5d52ab ro
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img

# (3) Windows
#title Windows
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
#chainloader +1


[dedanna1029]

*sigh

I guess I'm not going to be happy until I install it again... Ugh.

[viking60]

I always seem to do something stupid like installing splash screens when my Arch runs fine. So far I have tried Fbsplash and that worked well for a while until some update fubared it.
Then I tried splashy and that did never work at all.
Now I have tried the Fedora project Plymouth - and wonder of all wonders it works perfectly fine.
So now I only have to wait until it crashes....
It sure looks good though

[dedanna1029]

I rather like it when things crash. It always turns out to be a learning experience of some sort.

That being said, I like the text boot - can watch for errors.