Arch Linux

[viking60]

Yes you should fix it on your own in the Arch world. But the documentation to do so is usually great. There is a tendency to Linux elitism over there though - and that does not always look to good.
Those manual interventions were not that frequent before so Arch was easy. Lately it has become more of a hobbyist distro you need to invest time where other distros simply are the foundation of your work. A lot of devs use Arch so then it actually is work
Doing it like this enables Arch to move fast.

A lot of changes are going on in the Linux world and if you want to be on top of it - Arch is the distro. And f you want all the latest software it will be in Arch.
But Manjaro is close and I bet it will pass Arch on the Distrowatch list soon.
What makes Arch really great is the pacman package manager - it is the best.

[dedanna1029]

I thought they had done away with pacman about the time that I had to quit with Arch (desktop PC had to go in storage)? Did they revive it, or ? It was in a bit of trouble at the time, I'm sure I remember that.

[viking60]

No they have never done away with pacman.

[dedanna1029]

Just went back through this thread, keyword "pacman". I may be thinking of the yaourt/powerpill disaster, but I also remember a lot of pacman-color stuff on updates, and a possible time when there were going to be maintenance issues with it, at the last pacman-color update that borked.

Has there been any more of the issues with pacman-color?

[viking60]

it's gone!

[dedanna1029]

So no more pacman-color? Oh, goodie!

[viking60]

Lately there have been some dependency problems when updating Arch.

It is mostly not going through because Pacman 4.2 is a dependency of some packages - mostly packagekits.
Arch will tell you what programs that need Pacman 4.2.

So the solution (that works for me) is to remove all packagekits and programs that do require it, since the current Arch runs Pacman 4.1

In my case it was:

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sudo pacman -R packagekit-qt2 python-packagekit packagekit harfbuzz

So now that they are gone I can do the good old

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pacman -Syu

and get my update.

Hopefully the update will update Pacman to version 4.2 and then I can re-install the programs I deleted above.
...
After the update I tried another update:

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sudo pacman -Syu

..and got a database version error. so I updated the database:

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sudo pacman-db-upgrade

And that updated my pacman to version 4.2.

Life on the bleeding edge .....

[dedanna1029]

Yes. That is similar to things I'd remembered previously about it.

Problem is, I'm not sure where the posts are hiding about these things still.
To have an actual computer again... Sigh.

[viking60]

In general most posts about Arch are archeology after one month .

I have used it for years so I am "Archefied" and mostly everything is fine. I have had more trouble with other so called "stable" distros.
But you have to know your way around Linux ot be willing to learn by reading. Asking questions in the Arch forums about something that is documented is not going down well over there.

There is always one insecure sole who likes to demonstrate his level of expertise by telling people who ask dumb questions off. And then there are the gurus that are simply tired of it. There are a lot of knowledgable people over there.

I like Arch but I think the forums can have a touch of negative elitism that not always is sympathetic. That does in no way hinder me from using Arch though.

If you have met the classic Arch "elite prick" in their forums you can always ask here

We believe that there are no dumb questions only dumb answers.... (as our answers might be compared to the knowledgeable people over in the Arch forums)
(Don't take this as an excuse for laziness though )

[dedanna1029]

Exactly. How well I know about how their forum is. All these people with great knowledge, who don't want to share it with those who need it most. I pretty much left there because of it.

Have used it for years as well, except for the last few, of which you know why. It is, has been, and always will be my distro of choice.

[dedanna1029]

Also... Ever notice that every single installation of Arch you learn something about Linux from? Doesn't matter how many times you've installed it previously, you will learn something. Every. single. time.

[viking60]

Yes I have come to the point that I wonder what all those automated easy install processes do. I feel I need to know if I want to be in control.
That is a good thing.

Makes me understand my computer and makes us buddies