just installed Arch for the first time! wanting to learn more about customization!

smooth_buddha

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Finally! after many previous failed attempts i finaly got Arch installed! something ive wanted to try for a while now to try and learn more deeper aspects of linux and customization. Next step is to try and get xorg installed , desktop enviroment, login screen and window manager. Im looking forward to learning more about how all of this stuff fits together
arch_finally.jpg
 


i'm certainly going to try this within the next couple of years...sounds juicy and technical. Anything of note regarding the installation?
 
Goodonyer, Buddha ;)
 
i'm certainly going to try this within the next couple of years...sounds juicy and technical. Anything of note regarding the installation?

I would recommend following along installation with arch wiki install guide and also with a youtube follow along install video. I got mine installed following along with this video from distrotube. This video will get you a base system of arch installed. However there is still no desktop enviroment or gui yet. But the arch wiki has “ recommendations guide” that helps you set up those things. I will be using that guide alongside another youtube video that covers installing a desktop enviroment or window manager


Its great to follow and he doesnt just make you copy commands like a parrot he also explains each step of whats happening during install and what each command you use is doing. You can learn a Lot just from the install process.

*Make sure you use a virtual machine to practice this before installing on real hardware

*dont get disheartened if you mess it up. I messed up a few times trying this install but each time i did i leaned something new.the repetition is how we get better at this stuff.

*also get a pen and paper and make your own install notes. I made my own install list so i can follow each command from my own notes and have the confidence to re install arch again succesfully when i inevitably break it again! For now i have made clones of my arch install in virtual box to play around with it. Eventually i may look into making an install script that will automatically set up for but im not at that stage yet.

*dont be afraid of Arch install its not as difficult as it is made out to be but admittedly it doesnt set its self up for you like ubuntu or mint either, it requires you install using commands . But this is where the power is , it gives you more customizable options and you can build your own system exactly how you want it

Hope this helps
*
 
couple of things you want to check , does command sudo work ? I found you need to install base-devel for that
Now at the time I installed my Desktop it read somewhere to match your drivers : Options depends on :

Code:
sudo lspci -v | grep -A1 -e VGA -e 3D
//or 
sudo inxi -G

Intel: sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel mesa
amd: sudo pacman -S xf86-video-amdgpu mesa
nvidia sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils

But i just checked and now i seem to have

Code:
[andrew@darkstar:~]$ sudo pacman -Qi xf86-video-ati                       (12-31 10:15)
Name            : xf86-video-ati
Version         : 1:19.1.0.r9.g5eba006e-2
Description     : X.org ati video driver


Any way as i think you said , you need a Desktop, a Desktop manager and a greeter ,so you can log in :

Code:
An example :
# pacman -S xorg
#pacman -S cinnamon gnome-terminal kitty lightdm lightdm-greeter
// in the above i'm going for cinnamon, get two terminal emulators , lightdm and lightdm greeter.
# systemctl enable lightdm
# systemctl enable NetworkManager
Now you can actually install all xfce, budgie, gnome and cinnamon then just choose which session at startup. I tried all then minduful the more stuff you have the bigger the download updates went for cinnamon. xfce has its own terminal , that went when i got rid of xfce so had to install alacritty.


As time goes on you will notice a build up of pkgs in /var/cache/pacman/pkg

so from time to time run :

sudo paccache -rk 2
//you need to install pacman-contrib
 
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couple of things you want to check , does command sudo work ? I found you need to install base-devel for that
Now at the time I installed my Desktop it read somewhere to match your drivers : Options depends on :

Code:
sudo lspci -v | grep -A1 -e VGA -e 3D
//or
sudo inxi -G

Intel: sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel mesa
amd: sudo pacman -S xf86-video-amdgpu mesa
nvidia sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils

But i just checked and now i seem to have

Code:
[andrew@darkstar:~]$ sudo pacman -Qi xf86-video-ati                       (12-31 10:15)
Name            : xf86-video-ati
Version         : 1:19.1.0.r9.g5eba006e-2
Description     : X.org ati video driver


Any way as i think you said , you need a Desktop, a Desktop manager and a greeter ,so you can log in :

Code:
An example :
# pacman -S xorg
#pacman -S cinnamon gnome-terminal kitty lightdm lightdm-greeter
// in the above i'm going for cinnamon, get two terminal emulators , lightdm and lightdm greeter.
# systemctl enable lightdm
# systemctl enable NetworkManager
Now you can actually install all xfce, budgie, gnome and cinnamon then just choose which session at startup. I tried all then minduful the more stuff you have the bigger the download updates went for cinnamon. xfce has its own terminal , that went when i got rid of xfce so had to install alacritty
Thank you so much for that captian! Yeah when i ran sudo i was pulling my hair out as to why it wasnt running. I downloaded base-devel and also nano and networkmanager and i also eventully installed

Pacman -S sudo

I cant wait to try out those different desktop enviroments. Thanks for this guide i will try it out this will help out a lot
 
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Because im running virtual box i used this

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-fbdev

i tried to get cinnamon working but when i rebooted after install and after systemctl enbale lightdm i would reboot and it kept bricking my arch, lukily i have several cloned copies in vurtual box. I tried XFCE4 and it worked fine
i ran

echo "exec startxfce4" > ~/.xinitrc

i also pacman'd xorg xorg-xinit xorg-server

sudo pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils
rebooted and now have a semi functional working Arch based system.

Am i correct in saying that the hardest part is getting the install and desktop enviroment set up then the other configuartions are not as bad???? I feel like i can breathe again nowi have a gui destop enviroment lol


arch_gui.jpg
 
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i think an even more interesting question is: does arch allow such full blown customization to the point that you don't even need password authentication for anything?
yes you begin with just a root but its good practice to add a seperate user accuont for yourself so that your not running in root all the time (which is risky and )

arch wiki recommends setting up a user account that you can operate from and and that account to the list of "sudoers" so that any command requiring root privalage can be run using the sudo command instead of staying in root.
 
i think an even more interesting question is: does arch allow such full blown customization to the point that you don't even need password authentication for anything?
You can configure any distribution to automatically login without password, and you can configure sudo not ask for a password if you want but you shouldn't do that in most cases.

@smooth_buddha Awesome that you installed Arch! In the end you will find that Arch isn't much different than the other popular distributions, the only difference is the way you install and the package manager.
 
You can configure any distribution to automatically login without password, and you can configure sudo not ask for a password if you want but you shouldn't do that in most cases.

@smooth_buddha Awesome that you installed Arch! In the end you will find that Arch isn't much different than the other popular distributions, the only difference is the way you install and the package manager.

I don't think so: I can keep ubuntu from logging in when i start my computer, yet when it powers off my screen it always asks me for my password, which is why i set "screen blank: never". Of course i could change this with some programming, but I was wondering if with any of these highly customizable distributions (arch, gentoo, etc.) they make any sort of authentication optional. Not that entering a password is a huge deal...but i also don't think viruses are really that big of a deal either. There's always the delete button and zero out your hard drive applications if you're really afraid of what your information or code might do.
 
I don't think so: I can keep ubuntu from logging in when i start my computer, yet when it powers off my screen it always asks me for my password, which is why i set "screen blank: never"
I used to have a media-center pc which ran Ubuntu and I configured it to login without password, after which it would automatically startup Kodi without me doing anything. I disabled screen-lock so that when it went idle after x minutes (when not doing anything) it would switch to screensaver. So that I wouldn't need a password after becoming un-idle when moving around in Kodi again with my remote. From within Kodi you can tell your system to power-off and it would shut down without asking for a password. Later after I switched over to Arch on all of my systems, I migrated that same media-center to Arch and configured it to do the same.

The only difference with Arch(and Gentoo) is that you get to configure your system to your liking from the start during installation and with all other popular distributions you get a sane default with a few configurable options during the installation when going through the installer. Also last the last time I shutdown an Ubuntu system as well as Mint it didn't ask me for a password.
 
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Ive had quite an afternoon. I installed lxdm for my display manager and i really like this one, it picks up all desktop enviroments ive installed. it seems to work well i had issues i think with lightdm only seeming to like xfce



lxdm_desktop_enviroments.jpg
 

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