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My First Arch Linux Installation Experience

Posted on October 31, 2010 by robbychen

I first heard Arch Linux two years ago when I also discovered Linux from Scratch project. At that time, I didn’t have any experience on GNU/Linux nor the command line. I have finally chosen Ubuntu 8.04 because its good reputation on the Internet. However, I’m not interested in Ubuntu anymore since I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10 and downgraded back to 10.04. Because my GNU/Linux skills have increased during the past years, I have decided to try Arch Linux.

During the installation process, I followed the installation instruction on the Arch Linux wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners’_Guide

After transferring to USB using UNetBootIn, I have to change the USB drive label to ARCH_201005, otherwise it will display the following message:

(Click to enlarge)

To change the label, type “palimpsest” (without quote) in the terminal. Select the USB device on the left. Make sure to unmount the driver first, and then click the “Edit Filesystem Label” button to change the drive label to ARCH_201005.

And since I have both 64-bit laptop and 32-bit netbook, I downloaded the dual ISO which contains both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the OS. After I copied the files to the USB drive through UNetBootIn and booted into the boot menu, the 32-bit and 64-bit selection items have no effect. The only option that works is the first “Default” one which is the 32-bit version. Because I want to install it on my 64bit-based laptop, I tried to figure out how to install the 64-bit version of Arch Linux. After looking into the boot options by press the tab key at the boot menu, I found out that all of the boot image files for each architecture are in the /boot folder. I also noticed that the working “Default” one is based on the two files in the root directory: ubninit and ubnkern. I think that these files are the same as the ones in the /boot/i636/ folder. Therefore I renamed these files with .32 extension and copied the only two files in the /boot/x86_64/ folder to the root directory with the same names as the ones with .32 extension. I then copied and renamed these files to the root directory with .64 extension for backup purpose. In the end, here is my current files in the root directory of the USB device:

(Click to enlarge)

Note that the two files without any extension (ubninit and ubnkern) are 64-bit files. I could delete them and replace with the .32 extension files in the near future once I decide to install Arch Linux on my netbook.

Since I was installing on the laptop, I have no wired Internet connection. I had to first connect to the Internet by using ifconfig, iwconfig, and dhcpcd utilities before the installation. Also, according to the wiki, I have to execute “dmesg | grep firmware” command in order to find out and install the appropriate wireless firmware during the installation.

Once I installed Arch Linux, I needed to solve the wireless auto-connection issue. Thanks to the netcfg wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_Profiles#Connecting_automatically), I quickly solved the issue. One last thing that I’ve done is to remove the network daemon in the DAEMONS section of /etc/rc.conf file since I have loaded net-profiles daemon and I think the net-profiles daemon has the same usage as the network daemon.

After I installed GNOME and Compiz, I noticed the title bar on all the windows were missing once I enabled Compiz through fusion-icon. Thanks for the tip on the Arch Linux forum (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=96991), I was able to regain the title bar. The solution is easy: open the ccsm (CompizConfig Settings Manager) and enable the Window Decoration plugin under the Effects section (make sure to enable Move Window and Resize Window plugins under Window Management section as well since they are basic window interaction elements). I also noticed that unlike Ubuntu and other similar distributions, all the Compiz plugins in Arch Linux are disabled by default since I installed GNOME from scratch.

The following are the reference sources that helped me during the installation:

If you have other tips on the Arch Linux installation and configuration process, please share them in the comments below.

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My First Experience with UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix)

Posted on April 30, 2010 by robbychen

As yesterday’s release of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, I thought I would gave Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 a try since I was going to reinstall Ubuntu on my netbook anyway. I downloaded UNR ISO image and created an USB installer through UNetBootIn. After I booted into the new Ubuntu live USB, I immediately clicked the installer to install onto the netbook. Surprisingly, the installer will minimize itself when installing after I entered required information. I found the windows selector at the top panel once I knew the installer is working. I clicked the installer icon to restore its window and found out that the interface is very compact compare to the desktop version of Ubuntu. The title bar for each window is near the windows selector.

After the installation was finished and rebooted, I first set up my GMail account through Evolution. The setup process was smooth without entering the details of IMAP gmail server. I then opened Firefox and installed Configuration Mania extension to change the way Firefox functions. The main reason I first installed this extension is because it helps me to configure the Firefox to select all when clicked on the address bar and to enable other useful features more easily. I noticed that Gwibber was not in the Favorite list. Because this app is one of the applications that I use most often, I added Gwibber into the Favorite easily from Internet list.

This is my first time use UNR. I usually had installed Ubuntu desktop edition onto my netbook. But because of this new version is the long term support release, I think that it’s more stable and more easier to use with the UNR LTS. In the end, I’ve already familiar with the UNR interface once I started to using it perhaps because I like its compact UI.

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My Experience with upgrading from Ubuntu Karmic to Lucid

Posted on April 29, 2010 by robbychen

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx was released today and I was very excited to try to upgrading from Karmic to Lucid through update-manager using the following command:

sudo update-manager -d

Fortunately, the download speed during the upgrading process was normal. The update-manager finished download the necessary files and start upgrading within 2 hours. However, the updates installation process is more time-consuming. I had to wait almost three hours in order to complete the upgrading process. After the upgrading was completed, I noticed that the Compiz Fusion effects were no longer working and my computer became slower than before the upgrade. I decided to download the ISO image and reinstalled Ubuntu Lucid.

I used this method to update my Ubuntu box before. I used on the netbook when it’s still in beta. The upgrade process was smooth. It took me almost as same time as this time. However, when I restarted the netbook, the boot process was broke possibly by upgrading to the latest version. This problem was solved also by downloading the beta version of Ubuntu Lucid at that time and reinstalled it onto the netbook.

Overall, you need to update Ubuntu by reinstalling rather than upgrading in order to have a clean OS. I used UNetBootIn which is available in the Karmic’s repository to create an USB installer disk to install Lucid rather than burn onto the CD. Through this way I installed the newest version of Ubuntu within half an hour compare to the 5-hour upgrade process. I recommend to reinstalling Ubuntu for each new release in order to enjoy the benefits of new features in each release. Just remember to backup your /home directory to an USB drive or external hard drive before the reinstallation.