December 9, 2015

Arch Linux Day 0: Fact-Checking

  1. Preface
  2. What I Wanted
  3. The Process
  4. Postscript

Preface

A few days ago, I was upgrading my Fedora 20 to Fedora 21 as Fedora 20 wasn't supported. I finished my upgrade and rebooted my computer. Unfortunately, the kernel modules failed to load (for some reason or another), and I was stuck on the GNOME login screen with no mouse and no keyboard. I then opted for a fresh Fedora 20 install, but I still thought that it was a bit out of date and there was going to be not much support coming my way if anything went wrong or awry. That was when I started to think about Linux distribution alternatives that I could use.

I thought that Arch Linux would be a nice way to learn more about how a normal Linux distribution configures and installs thing at the command level. I didn't think that I would be going with Linux From Scratch, but Arch seemed like the next best challenge to me. Armed with a notebook and pen, I began scouring the Internet for information about the whole installation process, which is what I did for this day, Day 0.

What I Wanted

By the end of all this, I wanted to have Arch Linux up and running, dual booting Windows 10, with the GNOME desktop environment installed and enabled on start-up.

The Process

I took notes on how to install Arch Linux from the wiki. I also watched a video series on YouTube to double-check, and supplemented my notes with that as well.

Postscript

I was not planning to install Arch Linux on my main computer; I was planning on installing it on my spare laptop to see if anything breaks and not break my main laptop. Only after I was that confident in my ability to install it I would actually install it on my main laptop. Needless to say, I got a bit overzealous after reading the documentation over and over, then finally understanding what each command does and not blindly following orders like a , like an, ... I don't know.

Tags: installation linux arch