Arch Linux notes (Dec 2006)

I am a long term Slackware user, but thought I'd try out this Archlinux distro. Supposedly Arch is a bit like slackware but with a package manager similar to more mainstream distros. Notes below relate to my install on an old Thinkpad 600X (and also a T42)

I downloaded the 0.7.2 base CD (about 150MB iso) and the larger 550MB+ iso
I actually just did a base install in all cases so the bigger CD is probably a
waste.

That base install gives you a 500MB root fs that has a 2.6.16 kernel and
gcc but no Xorg. I mainly used the guide here:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gavins_quickguide_for_dummies_like_me

Key things during the install:

• The Thinkpad 600x required me to do a 'modprobe yenta_socket' and 'modprobe 8139too' to get the lan card recognised (I have some Belkin rtl8139 based lan card). The t42 just required a 'modprobe e1000'


• I didn't create a filesystem in swap


• I just used ext3 for root

I just chose the base bundle and preselected everything in it
/etc/rc.conf changes involved setting hostname, ip address etc, and removing the exclamation in front of gateway

Now that guide suggested doing a pacman -Syu straight after install. That does
a full update of all packages including the kernel. I made sure I added the following
to /etc/pacman.conf:

IgnorePkg = kernel26

That means it won't autoupdate your kernel when you eventually do upgrade (NB: I have since tried to use the latest and greatest 2.6 kernels that Arch provides ... 
but generally things break since I'm using it on two laptops. My preference is to compile my
own kernels and sort out the power management issues).

Once it was up I added xorg

pacman -S xorg

Then added the module for the video card:

tp600x : xf86-video-neomagic
t42: xf86-video-ati

Then ran xorgconfig

Then added twm in and xterm

I could never work out what the xclock package was.

I added icewm in later and set up my .xinitrc to run it.

Some other stuff I've added

alsa-lib alsa-utils
mesa
gconf
xmms
xfce4
ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera
openssh
mrxvt
opera
mozilla-firefox
mozilla-thunderbird
tightvnc
iptables
mplayer
laptop-mode-tools
libstdc++
skype
remind
portmap (for NFS mounts)
beryl (T42)
beryl-plugins-svn (T42)
wpa_supplicant (T42)

I waited until I was ready to download 100MB and then did the pacman -Syu
It asks some questions about mkinitcpio etc. I think its best to say Yes to these.

Some of the ones above are part of other repositiories (see pacman.conf). I had to enabl
e the unstable one (for beryl) and the community one (skype and remind)

There is a good page on setting up beryl here:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beryl

I tried the 'without a window manager' way but ended up using xfce4 and got it
all going.

NB: the ipw2200 wireless stuff on the t42 requires the firmware files in /lib/firmware

I measured the LCD screen on teh T42 and put in the dimensions (in mm) into xorg.conf
and that improved the fonts on thunderbird

Putting in a different kernel

(NB: This is not the right way to do it in Arch) 
There are some notes about using something called ABS. No idea what that is.
I just made backups of /boot/vmlinuz26 and /boot/initrd26.img, then extracted
linux-2.6.17 under /usr/src. Created the symlink for /usr/src/linux. Copied the .config
in the old source directory (and yep its a cut down source .. the old one that is).

cd /usr/sr/linux (ie. my new one)
make oldconfig and answer questions
make menuconfig
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

Now do a mkinitrd kernel_version=2.6.17-ARCH
Copy the bzimage into /boot/vmlinuz26. The new initrd will be called
/boot/initrd-2.6.17-ARCH.img

NB: You can play with /etc/mkinitrd.conf to leave out the SATA and SCSI modules in the
initrd.

I also think mkinitcpio is used from kernel 2.6.18 or 19

Put something like this in /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Arch Linux - New
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda7 ro acpi_sleep=s3_bios video=radeonfb radeon_force
_sleep=1
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.17-ARCH.img

NB: I also patched the ibm_acpi module to allow level control. I'll need
to patch the radeonfb module as well.

HAL

hal is some weird hw abstraction thingy that looks like its used by lots of
desktops (gnome/kde) for better detection of devices when you plug them
in.

You have to add it to the DAEMONS list in /etc/rc.conf. It should go before 'network':

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng !hotplug !pcmcia hal network netfs crond acpid alsa laptop-mode sshd
paul)