Linux Format forums

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:53 am

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:53 am

Ahh, thank you. I should've just had a look there

I assumed it would do something along those lines (though I kinda assumed it'd read from whatever database pacman keeps rather than going through pacman) but just wanted to be sure.

Thanks!

Um, not sure, but ...

Farcry — Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:51 am

Author: Farcry

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:51 am

Spangwiches wrote:

One thing I'm not clear on - when I use aurget to upgrade all packages, does this include stuff I installed via makepkg + pacman before using aurget?

Good question, and I'm not sure about the answer. Must say I never do global updates of AUR packages myself. However, I've had a quick browse of the aurget script and in the upgrade() function, it looks as though it tries to upgrade all packages manually installed via 'pacman -U'. (The while loop there is fed from the ouput of the command 'pacman -Qm').
This might help a bit.

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:49 am

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:49 am

Farcry,

Just got round to trying aurget and it's perfect - thank you.

One thing I'm not clear on - when I use aurget to upgrade all packages, does this include stuff I installed via makepkg + pacman before using aurget?

Thanks again for the recommendation, this is exactly what I was after.

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:55 am

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:55 am

Yeah I definitely want to keep AUR and pacman slightly separate so I don't get lost with what's coming from where, at least 'til I'm more familiar with things.

So aurget sounds ideal, thank you, I'll give that a pop

AUR helpers

Farcry — Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:50 am

Author: Farcry

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:50 am

Spangwiches wrote:

And yeah, the AUR is great. Can you recommend a frontend for that btw (not GUI, I prefer command line for this - just something which does it in a pacman-like way. I've seen a few but it's difficult comparing them)?

Yes, the range of AUR helpers is quite daunting. I currently use aurget which is only for AUR packages (tweak its configuration at /etc/aurgetrc and 'aurget --help' to see its options). If you want to be more daring and try a wrapper for both pacman and the AUR, packer seems to be a front-runner. (I used to successfully use clyde, but it's no longer developed; yaourt is one of the oldest and creakiest maybe.) With aurget, I set my build and package directories to /tmp in the config, then simply run:

Code:

aurget -Sb <packagename>

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:31 am

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:31 am

I kinda went the other way. Started with KDE about... ten years ago (though I didn't use Linux a great deal then). Then went all out minimal and used blackbox (one of the boxes anyway, I get them mixed up) on both Linux and Windows. Then didn't use Linux for a long time. Then gnome and through to gnome 3.

Still loving Arch. Sorry, this is becoming a diary.

It's very elegant. And yeah, the AUR is great. Can you recommend a frontend for that btw (not GUI, I prefer command line for this - just something which does it in a pacman-like way. I've seen a few but it's difficult comparing them)? I'm fine using makepkg but that could get tedious if I do it a lot.

And man it boots fast. I counted this morning and it's 27 seconds from power on to a working Gnome Shell (and 7 secs of that is getting to grub). Fedora/Ubuntu and even Debian were at least twice that (after grub).

Good on you becoming an Archer

Farcry — Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:17 pm

Author: Farcry

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:17 pm

Spangwiches wrote:

I did have a look at archbang but thought if I'm going to do this I may as well do it properly ... Anyway! I've installed Arch! ... I rate this distro: seven pieces of eight out of a possible tasty malt-loaf.

Excellent work and glad you found the wiki very good. I've been using Arch seriously for about 3 years now, and have gone through various evolutionary steps: KDE, Gnome, Openbox, Awesome, Icewm ... and now finally back to Openbox + Fbpanel (on 10 systems)! You learn a lot, sometimes a bit painfully and slowly, but there are a lot of resources to help and the AUR is pretty excellent too. And as for speeding things up and keeping memory low, you can tweak things till your heart is well and truly content ...

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:08 pm

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:08 pm

I did have a look at archbang but thought if I'm going to do this I may as well do it properly. Also wasn't sure how compatible archbang is with arch itself, and presumptions about such things is what usually gets me into trouble

Anyway! I've installed Arch!

Was actually really easy. The wiki is as amazing and people say.

It took me two days to do, but that was mainly because I was working out how I want to handle wifi and reading up on the choices and just reading up on the config stuff.

The actual install went without a hitch, far easier than I was expecting. Then had Xfce and Gnome3 installed in no time at all. And it boots so lighting-fast (not that I care about that, I do it once a day. But it's a nice indication of how light it is).

So far, I love it. It's nice to feel in control and understand what's going on underneath it all. Oh and pacman is as great as people say it is and so fast after yum.

I rate this distro: seven pieces of eight out of a possible tasty malt-loaf.

ArchBang will give you a taste of Arch

Farcry — Mon Sep 26, 2011 4:21 pm

Author: Farcry

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 4:21 pm

If you're wary of Arch but want a taste of what it can do, try ArchBang. You can play around with the live image or install it and hack it about to tailor Arch to what you fancy. Less work than starting from scratch!

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:51 am

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:51 am

Thanks, that's interesting.

I've been playing with Arch in a VM and I'm enjoying it. I've only got as far as installing a WM but I've learnt a ton already.

Quote:

I keep meaning to document my thoughts as I go along on the distro's I am using, and I think my inability to answer your question has convinced to me start.

That'd be cool, I'd be interested in reading that. There's plenty of info about comparing distros of course but after you've got your head round roughly what each distro is about, it's nice to read something a bit more subjective and anecdotal.

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Brian Hunter — Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:46 am

Author: Brian Hunter

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:46 am

Spangwiches wrote:

Brian, if you don't mind could you tell me what you were dissatisfied with in Arch? And why/how Sabayon is better?

(I realise of course that our preferences and expectations will be different, but it's interesting anyway I think)

I don't think I was unsatisfied with Arch, I am just a distro hopper and I like to try new things.

Sabayon just took me by surprise. Being Gentoo based (which I had never used before) I thought it was going to take as least as much configuring as Slackware and Arch to get my usual tasks running (auto mounting, dual screens, that kind of thing), but it's been as easy as any debian based distro I have come across.

I keep meaning to document my thoughts as I go along on the distro's I am using, and I think my inability to answer your question has convinced to me start.

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

ScannerDarkly — Fri Sep 23, 2011 3:58 pm

Author: ScannerDarkly

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 3:58 pm

Install Gentoo, stage 1.

Or Linux From Scratch.

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Spangwiches — Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:15 am

Author: Spangwiches

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:15 am

Brian, if you don't mind could you tell me what you were dissatisfied with in Arch? And why/how Sabayon is better?

(I realise of course that our preferences and expectations will be different, but it's interesting anyway I think)

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

Brian Hunter — Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:57 pm

Author: Brian Hunter

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:57 pm

I gave Sabayon a go a few months ago, and to tell you the truth I haven't looked back. I was really surprised, it's been a joy to work with, and that's even using KDE!

Equo is a really nice package manager.

But hey, I am a serial distro hopper, what do I know! I used Arch previously, it was fun to mess about with too. I'm really happy with Sabayon though.

Re: A Bit of Distro Advice

nelz — Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:37 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:37 am

Spangwiches wrote:

Gentoo: I can't be arsed waiting for things to compile. I am an impatient gentleman. Also people seem to use this primarily so that they can brag that they use it, I'm not into that (I'm 100% sure this doesn't apply to any Gentoo users here, I've clearly just met the few annoying ones)

That is one of Gentoo's killer features, so few annoying users