General Linux Chat and Small Questions v. I broke my Arch Install - Hardware & Software

[QUOTE=Rayjingstorm;43027035]It also makes the point that arch values doing things the [i]correct[/i] way over doing them the easy or backwards-compatible way.[/QUOTE] So does Gentoo, and shit doesn't randomly become unbootable when you do a deep world update. Curious thing, that. [editline]4th December 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Mega1mpact;43036171]use ; instead of &&[/QUOTE] Depends really. If you use ;, then the commands that are placed after it run regardless of whether the commands before returned OK. Whereas if you use &&, and the commands before it screw up, the commands after won't run. For something like this, ; is fine, but I still prefer && for most tasks.

Fedora 20's live image feels so much faster than Ubuntu GNOME's. And all this terminal talk makes me sort of itching to make better use of my currently-installing system. What are some good uses for shell scripting and some good resources to learn better shell scripting? [editline]e[/editline] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/H5vzBf1.png[/IMG] [editline]e[/editline] Maybe this was a mistake. GNOME 3.10 won't let me move the window controls to the left on anything and I hope they add an option for the client-side decorations. As much as I hate to say it, this is [i]the[/i] biggest turnoff to staying on Fedora and an up-to-date GNOME and is pushing me back to Unity.

[QUOTE=lavacano;43067819]So does Gentoo, and shit doesn't randomly become unbootable when you do a deep world update. Curious thing, that. [/QUOTE] Arch's updates are transactions, so a full update will never break your system. Either it fails and does nothing or it succeeds. Whenever someone says "Arch broke again", it's almost always one of these cases: 1. They rebooted in the middle of a "manual intervention required" update. What would you expect? This is like powering off Windows when it's updating. This is probably the most common problem: someone doesn't understand what manual intervention needs to be done, so they do it incorrectly, then reboot, and surprisingly their system is broken. 2. They implemented some hacky workaround that their system depends on and which pacman couldn't possibly know about. Again, what would you expect? Solutions: 1. Only do a manual intervention update when you have the time to figure out what you're doing. Make sure the manual intervention was completed successfully before rebooting. 2. Don't implement hacky workarounds that your system depends on. Spend the time to figure out how to do things right. tl;dr don't say "I did a full upgrade and now Arch won't boot." when you really mean "I did a full upgrade, which failed. Then I tried to get the update to work but I didn't know what I was doing and now Arch won't boot".

If you have to do anything manually outside the package manager, I would argue that's broken by design. apt will ask me about configuration file changes once under the blue moon, but you can't miss it doing that in any way.

Oh cool, someone submitted a patch last month that adds full support for the Asus Xonar DG. It adds front panel, microphone, and hardware volume support. [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069104.html[/url] [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069105.html[/url] [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069106.html[/url] [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069107.html[/url] [editline]4th December 2013[/editline] Also there's no headphone amp on this card as advertised. Just half-assed hardware volume control that they hacked into a pseudo-amp on their windows driver. Oh well, can't beat the price.

[QUOTE=nikomo;43074386]If you have to do anything manually outside the package manager, I would argue that's broken by design.[/QUOTE] That standpoint makes sense for some OSes, but it goes against [URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way#Code-correctness_over_convenience"]the Arch way[/URL]. It's not "broken", it's an intentional decision made by the Arch team. And let's be honest here, even distros that are supposed to have frictionless updates [URL="http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=333"]can break[/URL].

I managed to get my computer running Arch with KDE, but I have a problem: it's really ugly. I just want some kind of flat, simple, preferably dark-coloured theme. Anyone have any tips?

[QUOTE=AlphaGunman;43078473]I managed to get my computer running Arch with KDE, but I have a problem: it's really ugly. I just want some kind of flat, simple, preferably dark-coloured theme. Anyone have any tips?[/QUOTE] Don't use KDE if you want something pretty. Try Gnome with Numix or even XFCE has a nice xfce-dusk theme built in.

[QUOTE=Naelstrom;43078698]Don't use KDE if you want something pretty. Try Gnome with Numix or even XFCE has a nice xfce-dusk theme built in.[/QUOTE] Numix looks neat, thanks.

[QUOTE=Naelstrom;43078698]Don't use KDE if you want something pretty. Try Gnome with Numix or even XFCE has a nice xfce-dusk theme built in.[/QUOTE] What is different between KDE with Numix, and GNOME with Numix?

[QUOTE=danharibo;43078876]What is different between KDE with Numix, and GNOME with Numix?[/QUOTE] Oh whoops, nothing apparently. [editline]asdf[/editline] I don't like KDE, OK ??

[QUOTE=IpHa;43074397]Oh cool, someone submitted a patch last month that adds full support for the Asus Xonar DG. It adds front panel, microphone, and hardware volume support. [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069104.html[/url] [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069105.html[/url] [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069106.html[/url] [url]http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-November/069107.html[/url] [editline]4th December 2013[/editline] Also there's no headphone amp on this card as advertised. Just half-assed hardware volume control that they hacked into a pseudo-amp on their windows driver. Oh well, can't beat the price.[/QUOTE] Fuck yes, no need to use onboard audio for the mic anymore

Any suggestions for an inexpensive laptop that can run Arch competently, no real issues if it is new or used, though new is preferred due to battery life. Preferably a small device that's fairly lightweight, and power isn't essential, anything fancy will be done on my desktop, and I might even set up VNC or X forwarding for it. I have been looking at some of the chromebooks, namely the Acer C720, however it only has 2GB of RAM on the UK model, which sucks.

[QUOTE=ben1066;43080792]Any suggestions for an inexpensive laptop that can run Arch competently, no real issues if it is new or used, though new is preferred due to battery life. Preferably a small device that's fairly lightweight, and power isn't essential, anything fancy will be done on my desktop, and I might even set up VNC or X forwarding for it. I have been looking at some of the chromebooks, namely the Acer C720, however it only has 2GB of RAM on the UK model, which sucks.[/QUOTE] I've got the C720, the touchpad and x86_64 doesnt work on Arch yet but it's really damn good with chrubuntu, easily plays source games. The 2GB RAM does cause some issues, though not often. Only really happens to me when I'm browsing image heavy pages like tumblr.

[QUOTE=Larikang;43078338]but it goes against [URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way#Code-correctness_over_convenience"]the Arch way[/URL].[/QUOTE] You know what I've also noticed seems to go against the Arch way? Any sort of notice that a package might need something more. This makes sense (sort of) for things like the init system, and would make sense for udev if their version numbering scheme wasn't sloppy, but what if I install, say, mpd, and the service file or whatever it ships with to work with systemd causes catastrophic meltdown on next reboot? Most distros would correct this (though a bug report may need to be filed first), or at the very least provide some sort of warning about the file. Arch doesn't say anything, even when they're fully aware of it, they just plop it in vanilla and hope people expect a non-system package to potentially cause the system to be unbootable.

[QUOTE=lavacano;43081700]You know what I've also noticed seems to go against the Arch way? Any sort of notice that a package might need something more.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure there is a notice. If you've made changes to a file that is being upgraded it says something like "foobar installed as pacnew". That means you should run pacdiff to see if any significant changes were made that you need to attend to. A system breaking change that isn't handled by pacman or by creating a pacnew file would be the definition of a "manual intervention required" update, and should show up on the Arch website. I agree that pacman should have some mechanism that notifies you that something about manual intervention was posted on the Arch site, so you should pay attention.

[QUOTE=Larikang;43082400]I agree that pacman should have some mechanism that notifies you that something about manual intervention was posted on the Arch site, so you should pay attention.[/QUOTE] Basically this. Doesn't Gentoo have some kind of notification system?

[QUOTE=Jookia;43083918]Basically this. Doesn't Gentoo have some kind of notification system?[/QUOTE] postinst messages and the news module in eselect. generally postinst messages are special install instructions that portage couldn't (or wouldn't) automate or things like "if you want feature x install app-misc/optional-dependency", and the news module is for things like "udev 200 and up have a new network interface name scheme, go here to figure out what it will change your interface name to before you update"

Does it usually take a while to partition a hard drive with crunchbang? Arch did it in a snap, but crunchbang is stuck on erasing data at the moment. [editline]5th December 2013[/editline] It's making progress now, it's just slow. I'm building a new computer which will have arch on it so I figured that I could check out some other distros on my laptop in the meantime.

[QUOTE=Phycosymo;43085881]Does it usually take a while to partition a hard drive with crunchbang? Arch did it in a snap, but crunchbang is stuck on erasing data at the moment. [editline]5th December 2013[/editline] It's making progress now, it's just slow. I'm building a new computer which will have arch on it so I figured that I could check out some other distros on my laptop in the meantime.[/QUOTE] sounds like it doesnt use quick format by default?

[url]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Enhancing_Arch_Linux_Stability[/url] [quote]given Arch's rolling release system and rapid package turnover, an Arch system may not be suitable for a mission critical, commercial production environment.[/quote] [quote]However, Arch is inherently stable due to its commitment to simplicity in configuration, coupled with a rapid bug-report/bug-fix cycle, and the use of unpatched upstream source code[/quote] Here are two quotes saying Arch might not be right for a "mission critical" system and that Arch is inherently stable. I think there's something to say for both opinions. I tend to shift towards the former, more. [quote]Finally, it is extremely unwise to ever run any AUR helpers[/quote] Really? I used to use AUR helpers all the time because they made everything easier. Aha! [quote]Before upgrading Arch, always read the latest Arch News to find out if there are any major software or configuration changes with the latest packages. [b]Before[/b] upgrading fundamental software, such as the kernel, xorg, or glibc to a new version, look over the appropriate forum to see if there have been any reported problems.[/quote] Don't just look at the Arch website! Look on the forums too! Seriously, though, this page is very helpful if you're running Arch. I never knew of Pacmatic. [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] Welp, I guess I now know why Arch broke all the time for me. The things you have to do to keep it stable are quite strict though...

Alright, I got Numix working, but all of my fonts are kind of weird. I installed ttf-ms-fonts from AUR, but I don't actually know how to replace fonts. Does anyone have any tips on making fonts look better?

And then I broke my Arch install. I couldn't boot into either KDE or GNOME due to some kind of Nvidia driver errors. Installing Nouveau fixed it, but Dota 2 runs terribly on Nouveau. [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] the nvidia error was something about it failing to load a nvidia kernel module

[QUOTE=AlphaGunman;43090149]And then I broke my Arch install. I couldn't boot into either KDE or GNOME due to some kind of Nvidia driver errors. Installing Nouveau fixed it, but Dota 2 runs terribly on Nouveau. [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] the nvidia error was something about it failing to load a nvidia kernel module[/QUOTE] How did it break? pacman -Syu?

[QUOTE=FPtje;43090392]How did it break? pacman -Syu?[/QUOTE] Prob'ly a nvidia driver update, considering it's the driver erroring?

[QUOTE=AlphaGunman;43090149]And then I broke my Arch install. I couldn't boot into either KDE or GNOME due to some kind of Nvidia driver errors. Installing Nouveau fixed it, but Dota 2 runs terribly on Nouveau. [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] the nvidia error was something about it failing to load a nvidia kernel module[/QUOTE] How broken is it? GDM not starting broken? If you try going into another tty try doing sudo systemctl retstart gdm.service . If that fixes it it may be the same issue I had. I fixed it by adding a file /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf with the contents of nvidia to load the module on boot.

[QUOTE=FPtje;43090392]How did it break? pacman -Syu?[/QUOTE] I think so, yeah. [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=ben1066;43090899]How broken is it? GDM not starting broken? If you try going into another tty try doing sudo systemctl retstart gdm.service . If that fixes it it may be the same issue I had. I fixed it by adding a file /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf with the contents of nvidia to load the module on boot.[/QUOTE] It was hanging at boot on "[ X ] Reached target Graphical Interface". [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] Xorg.0.log told me this: [code][ 11.991] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your [ 11.991] (EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages. [ 11.991] (EE) No devices detected. [ 11.991] (EE) Fatal server error: [ 11.991] (EE) no screens found(EE) [ 11.991] (EE) [/code] [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] In my desperate fumbling attempts to repair it I probably reinstalled the nvidia drivers five times, uninstalled GNOME and installed KDE.

Script Time! For those of you with an Asus Xonar DG sound card, I wrote a script that will automatically patch and install the new modules. [code]#!/bin/bash _kernver=$(uname -r | cut -d- -f 1) _basever=$(uname -r | cut -d. -f -2) [ -e "linux-${_basever}.tar.xz" ] || wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-${_basever}.tar.xz [ -e "patch-${_kernver}.xz" ] || wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/patch-${_kernver}.xz [ -e "xonar-01.patch" ] || wget https://gist.github.com/ipha/7831385/raw/69e172eb9336f9371a8fab6300ff2cbeaf622851/xonar-01.patch [ -e "xonar-02.patch" ] || wget https://gist.github.com/ipha/7831385/raw/c23e88245d8ee3ea09fe5607496ee2d833aa3053/xonar-02.patch [ -e "xonar-03.patch" ] || wget https://gist.github.com/ipha/7831385/raw/25d4d2a55eac9f64b84eb36bf41428f499f9a8bb/xonar-03.patch [ -e "xonar-04.patch" ] || wget https://gist.github.com/ipha/7831385/raw/47c0206fa8a3451ed0bd99aa97b0adb288346631/xonar-04.patch [ -d "linux-${_basever}" ] && rm -r "linux-${_basever}" tar xf linux-${_basever}.tar.xz cd linux-${_basever} xzcat ../patch-${_kernver}.xz | patch -Np1 patch -Np1 -i ../xonar-01.patch patch -Np1 -i ../xonar-02.patch patch -Np1 -i ../xonar-03.patch patch -Np1 -i ../xonar-04.patch cd sound/pci/oxygen make -C /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M="$(pwd)" modules find -name "*.ko" -exec gzip {} \; [ -d /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates ] || sudo mkdir /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates sudo cp *.ko.gz /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/ sudo depmod -a pulseaudio --kill sudo rmmod snd-oxygen sudo rmmod snd-oxygen-lib sudo modprobe snd-oxygen pulseaudio --start [/code]

[QUOTE=AlphaGunman;43091566]I think so, yeah. [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] It was hanging at boot on "[ X ] Reached target Graphical Interface". [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] Xorg.0.log told me this: [code][ 11.991] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your [ 11.991] (EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages. [ 11.991] (EE) No devices detected. [ 11.991] (EE) Fatal server error: [ 11.991] (EE) no screens found(EE) [ 11.991] (EE) [/code] [editline]6th December 2013[/editline] In my desperate fumbling attempts to repair it I probably reinstalled the nvidia drivers five times, uninstalled GNOME and installed KDE.[/QUOTE] Use Ctrl+Alt+F2 to drop into a text mode shell, login, then do as I said before. If sudo systemctl retstart gdm.service or whatever the KDE equivalent (probably kdm.service) is brings up the X server, then add the file in /etc/modules-load.d/

[QUOTE=ben1066;43091999]Use Ctrl+Alt+F2 to drop into a text mode shell, login, then do as I said before. If sudo systemctl retstart gdm.service or whatever the KDE equivalent (probably kdm.service) is brings up the X server, then add the file in /etc/modules-load.d/[/QUOTE] Alright. What should the "nvidia.conf" file contain?