SBLinux.org

"SilverBear tries his hand at Archery"

That's the title of my new article --or the beginnings of an article-- that just went online at SBLinux.org. It joins 2 others, written by Archers who have been at it a little longer than I have, and who are helping me get my bow strung, so to speak.

I installed Arch last week, but only the Core. Last weekend I had another opportunity to work on it, and I got Xorg up and running. Monday I installed KDE [the Arch package, not KDEmod]. I'm still in Arch on Friday night, almost midnight, not having had to reboot all week since I got KDE working.

So far, so good!

SilverBear wrote:"SilverBear tries his hand at Archery"....So far, so good!

Glad it works for you, SilverBear. I tried arch a while back but didn't care for it very much although I don't remember why. Perhaps it (or myself) has improved since my attempt at archery. I will keep up with the posts here and maybe give it another go at some point. Thanks.

I'm back and itching to have a read at how SilverBear is getting on with Arch. Am looking forward to learning some new things myself. Hope to get a chance later today to make some comments. A bientôt!

Well, inspired by all the excitement over Archlinux here, I gave it another shot last week. I ran an ftp install which, of course, configured my internet connection automatically (I would recommend that to all). Using the online installation guide, the install went fairly well -- just time consuming. Arch does not "hold your hand" during the install process so you have to stay on top of things. The whole process, from partitioning to command prompt, took about 45 minutes. I chose fluxbox initially because of my familiarity with it, but I also tried openbox, blackbox, ratpoison and xfce. I decided, though, to return to fluxbox.

With help from the beginner's guide, I was able to get everything working except for one thing. My cdrom, while it would read data cds, would not read / play audio cds. I downloaded the common codecs from pacman along with win32codecs (from source) but still no audio cd. I consulted the wiki and sought help on the forum but to no avail. Regardless of the package (xmms, vls, etc) I tried audio cds refused to play. That's an issue for me as I use this machine as my office "entertainment center."

Well, to make a long story short, I put Archlinux back on the shelf and reinstalled the os I was running on this machine before: Antix. Call me lazy but, hey, "it just works." I may well give Archlinux another go on another machine in a few days so if you have any suggestions concerning my audio cd issue please let me hear them. Meanwhile, thanks for your interest. DM

morux wrote:Well, inspired by all the excitement over Archlinux here, I gave it another shot last week. I ran an ftp install which, of course, configured my internet connection automatically (I would recommend that to all). Using the online installation guide, the install went fairly well -- just time consuming. Arch does not "hold your hand" during the install process so you have to stay on top of things. The whole process, from partitioning to command prompt, took about 45 minutes. I chose fluxbox initially because of my familiarity with it, but I also tried openbox, blackbox, ratpoison and xfce. I decided, though, to return to fluxbox.

With help from the beginner's guide, I was able to get everything working except for one thing. My cdrom, while it would read data cds, would not read / play audio cds. I downloaded the common codecs from pacman along with win32codecs (from source) but still no audio cd. I consulted the wiki and sought help on the forum but to no avail. Regardless of the package (xmms, vls, etc) I tried audio cds refused to play. That's an issue for me as I use this machine as my office "entertainment center."

Well, to make a long story short, I put Archlinux back on the shelf and reinstalled the os I was running on this machine before: Antix. Call me lazy but, hey, "it just works." I may well give Archlinux another go on another machine in a few days so if you have any suggestions concerning my audio cd issue please let me hear them. Meanwhile, thanks for your interest. DM

Sorry that I didn't know about your struggles, Morux. I'm guessing it was a fluxbox config problem, since I'm on Arch KDE desktop right now listening to Chris Isaak's "Baja Session" in the CD drawer with no probs.

Since it's gone, we can't run any diagnostics to find out what the source of the problem really was. But let us know here at the SBLinux forum when you're ready to try again.

Q: in antiX, are you OK with the CD-player in fluxbox?

There are a few things I can think of to try if it works in antiX fluxbox but not Arch fluxbox.

Also, if I come up short, anticapitalista might help you config Arch fluxbox. He's a member here at SBLinux, and is a very helpful man in general --and knows fluxbox inside out, IMO.

But since you needed it to work for you now, you can't go wrong with antiX, that's for sure!

I also installed Arch at the weekend (in Virtualbox) and this time it went better than previously (I had a problem with udev events taking ages on boot).

I also chose fluxbox, surprise eh! and just a few apps. My setup is still pretty basic, but the final result is fast to boot and responsive.

I'll work on it, but like morux, I'm still not 'convinced' that I gain more with Arch than using antiX-base plus Debian Sid. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Arch 'philosophy' and have tried to incorporate it to some extent into antiX-base and antiX-kdelite. antiX is so much easier to start from, and I'm sure someone with knowledge of Arch could trim antiX-base down a bit.

I'll keep Arch and work on it, and I'll probably install it to hard-drive one of these days.

SilverBear

Q: in antiX, are you OK with the CD-player in fluxbox?

Yes, indeed, sir. It works great with Antix. Thanks for the offer to help and I'll be sure to let you know if the problem continues with my next install. You may be right about the fluxbox config....didn't think of that. Fluxbox 1.0.0, if memory serves. I'll pay closer attention on my next go 'round. Thanks.

Anticapitalista

I'm still not 'convinced' that I gain more with Arch than using antiX-base plus Debian Sid

I agree, of course, but it's become a challenge now. It's just hard to beat Antix, though.