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Arch Linux

Configuration and usage notes.

Initial installation

  • km to change keyboard, default 8x16
  • /arch/setup
  • nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist . Uncomment a site to obtain sources
  • Update system: pacman -Syu
  • shutdown -h now . Take out CD, and reboot

    • NIC for Vostro 230ST

    Ensure you have the following entries in /etc/rc.conf: 
    MODULES=(broadcom tg3)
HOSTNAME="picasso"
eth0="eth0 192.168.0.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0)
ROUTES=(gateway)
    Link: Broadcom BCM57788 doesn't work

    New users

    Unsure you add them to groups: audio,optical,video

    X Window System

    Install X: pacman -S xorg fluxbox

    For my Vostro 230ST, I need to install the Intel drivers: 

      pacman -S xf86-video-intel
    Edit ~/.xinitrc: 
      exec fluxbox
    My locale is en_GB.UTF-8

    Temporary fix: 

      setxkbmap "gb"
    To create a proper keyboard fix for UK, create the file /etc/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf: 
    Section "InputClass"
   Identifier     "Keyboard Defaults"
   MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
   Driver         "evdev"
   Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

    SSH

    pacman -S openssh

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Resulting permissions:
~/.ssh drwx
id_rsa -rw-------
id_rsa.pub -rw-r-r--

    USB stick

    mkdir /mnt/usbstick
chmod a+w /mnt/usbstick
Assuming the USB is sdb, add the following line to /etc/fstab:
   /dev/sdb1   /mnt/usbstick   vfat   rw,auto,async,user   0   0 TODO
Mount using:
   mount /mnt/usbstick

    Windows drive

    pacman -S ntfs-3g
modprobe fuse
mksir /mnt/shared
Add to /etc/fstab:
   /dev/sda2   /mnt/shared   ntfs-3g   defaults   0   0

    Privoxy

    To ensure privoxy is started at boot, ensure that /etc/rc.conf contains the line privoxy in the DAEMONS line.

    ABS

    ABS (Arch Build System) is a 'port-like' system for building and packaging software from source code; cf pacman, which is a binary package manager. 
    pacman -S base-devel abs
abs
 

General blurb:
It has directories under /var/abs:
core, extra, community ...
 
mkpkg builds and packages software
pacman to install

    AUR

    The AUR (Arch User Repository) is a community-driven repository for Arch users.

    yaourt is a community-contributed wrapper for pacman which adds seamless access to the AUR, allowing and automating package compilation and installation from your choice of the thousands of PKGBUILDs in the AUR.

    Add the yaourt repo to /etc/pacman.conf: 

    [archlinuxfr] 
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch
    Sync and install: 
    pacman -Syu yauort

    Interesting packages

    Here are some packages that you will probably want to install:
  • menumaker - generates menus for a variety of windows managers like fluxbox, icewm, and others. Install it from pacman. Run it by calling mmaker

    Also on this site

  • pacman - package management utility

    Links to external sites

  • ABS - wiki page for the Arch Build System.
  • Installing programs from the AUR - includes how to use yaourt
    • Author:  Mark Carter
Created: 22-Nov-2010
Updated: 29-Jan-2011