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Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

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Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#101

Post by 3np »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #85
3np wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know you're not propagating bitrot over time? Feels like a binary here and there may accumulate mismatching checksums over the years from bad hardware or some filesystem error... Not to speak of malware. All it takes is once... Feels a lot safer to do the system- and package installation from scratch and then rsync/dd only /home and /etc.

ZFS is how.

Over almost 20 years, on Linux? I doubt it.

There've been a bunch of integrity-impacting send/receive bugs in zfs over the years.

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#102

Post by prmoustache »

I am not sure I understand the point of using TPM + PIN to decrypt the drive for a single user system.

I am fine just using the passphrase and I just configure my graphical login manager to log straight to my preferred user on start in order to not have to type crefentials twice at boot time.

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#103

Post by imtringued »

scandox wrote: post #28
semiinfinitely wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

these days I ask chatgpt for help to install arch instead of using the docs which are designed as a gate keeping mechanism to discourage the uninitiated by making them feel stupid. chatgpt just tells you how to do and turns out its really not that hard.

I really think that's unfair. The install docs are quite long but they try to give people options. It's not gate keeping to provide a lot of detail.

I haven't had that feeling. In fact, installing Arch Linux is easy. The hardest part is the bad partition editor UX and that you need to have an understanding of how UEFI booting works. There is also the problem of GRUB being a terrible bootloader, but that is another story for another day.

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#104

Post by drtgh »

nxicvyvy wrote: post #64
neilv wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the post title is understated, since I had a related thought: it's not hard to install most Linux distros on a laptop, and this post will intimidate people. This post is about how one person did it on hard mode, to get it just how they want it. That's fine. I suspect that most of the people on HN could pretty easily install Debian, without documentation (just write this file raw to a USB flash drive, boot the…

That's just a normal arch install, no hard mode about it.

Launch the guided archinstall is the comfortable mode, 2/3 of the article are done automatically through option selects at the beginning, and one installs Arch within two minutes. A configuration file can be saved also.

The archinstall command/script doesn't (yet?) implement disk sector-size selection and some of the other relevant details of the article, but the introduction of this installation mode within Arch makes life easier, besides do not intimidate people.

It is a notoriously big leap in the direction of usability, IMHO this is a path to follow (one of the paths to follow).

PS:

The article uses yay to install the DE. I think the article should have commented the difference between Core, Extra and AUR packages.

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#105

Post by krick »

If the disc is encrypted (and otherwise nothing would save you anyway), why do I need the Secure Boot, really? What harm it can do for somebody to boot my device from an unauthorized drive?

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#106

Post by BrandoElFollito »

Keppl8R wrote: post #3

ArchWiki: your source for Arch Linux documentation on the web. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_page

ArchWiki: your source for Linux documentation :)

Outside of the pacman part (relevant to Arch only) the "how to configure your app" is wonderful.

This is really a fantastic documentation

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#107

Post by AlphaJack »

krick wrote: post #105

If the disc is encrypted (and otherwise nothing would save you anyway), why do I need the Secure Boot, really? What harm it can do for somebody to boot my device from an unauthorized drive?

The threat model is the Evil Maid Attack. I found Secure Boot + UKI + TPM PIN (God forbids automatic unsealing) + FDE to be great for both security and usability.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_maid_attack

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#108

Post by AlphaJack »

prmoustache wrote: post #102

I am not sure I understand the point of using TPM + PIN to decrypt the drive for a single user system. I am fine just using the passphrase and I just configure my graphical login manager to log straight to my preferred user on start in order to not have to type crefentials twice at boot time.

I found TPM + PIN to be more secure than TPM automatic unsealing, and faster than typing my long passphrase. I haven't tried pam_autologin yet, but I see the convenience of it.

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#109

Post by AlphaJack »

SadTrombone wrote: post #36

If people want Arch with a GUI installer I would recommend EndeavourOS instead of Manjaro. EOS offers a much more native/close-to-Arch experience while Manjaro has many more of its own repos/packages/OS modifications (and issues) and is more of a Linux Mint to Ubuntu situation.

I have a friend which is really happy with EndeavourOS, I am hearing only good stuff about it. Back when I switched to Linux, the choice was either Manjaro or Antergos, and Manjaro had a far wider community.

Antergos was eventually archived, and from my understanding EndeavourOS become its spiritual successor.

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a Laptop

#110

Post by zamadatix »

Foomf wrote: post #60
Keppl8R wrote: post #3

ArchWiki: your source for Arch Linux documentation on the web. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_page

I'm getting some mixed messages in this thread alone. Who do I believe? https://imgur.com/a/ylkWLfQ

The Arch wiki is the 1st party official place for developers, maintainers, and users to maintain updated reference material. Whether one considers it up to date "enough" will be a personal judgement call but there is no better place to go in the long run.
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