[clue-tech] Arch Linux (Was Gentoo)

[dennisjperkins at comcast.net]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Ash" <wizardofki at gmail.com> 
To: clue-tech at cluedenver.org 
Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 11:36:28 AM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain 
Subject: Re: [clue-tech] Gentoo 

Dennis Perkins wrote: 
> Arch Linux ... You need to install X11, etc, yourself. There are guides to help you set everything up. 

Does Arch Linux automatically sort out the dependencies for X11 and 
KDE or Gnome and update them (guess I should look at the guides, too)? 


It sorts out dependencies. Updates are done manually, altho I suspect someone has written a program to automate it. 

pacman -Sy updates your system's package database. 
pacman -Su updates any installed packages 
pacman -Syu updates your system's package database and update any installed packages 

There are a few GUI interfaces to Pacman. 


Definitely read the documentation and prepare yourself. Installation doesn't require as much work as Gentoo does, but it is definitely not as automated as Ubuntu. Pay particular attention to networking. I had to build the wireless driver for two systems. My LAN connection made that easy. 

After installation, you have a command-line system. Run "pacman -Syu" and after it has updated everything, you can install X11 and your desktop of choice. I would also install ABS (Arch Build System) because you might want packages that are not part of the official system. (That is not an issue. Users vote for packages they like, and if they reach a certain level of popularity or some other criteria, they get added to the official system.) 

One of the maintainers has taken some of the documentation and written a slim book that you can buy at Amazon. I think you can get a PDF of it instead. 


If you want to install it during the installfest, I can help you if you need it. I don't think I will be in North Dakota until the week after the installfest. 
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