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16
Codazed
6y

So I ended up installing Arch Linux as the primary OS in my laptop, and to be honest, I'm not very crazy about it. Because I'm someone who likes an elegant UX, I spent three days and over 50 reboots and 5 reinstalls just trying to get Plymouth to work correctly (in the end, I just said screw it and gave up.) I know, I probably messed something up in the installation or configuration, but I didn't really want to deal with it anymore.

I'm not a big fan of the pacman package manager; I prefer apt. There were several applications I couldn't get to work properly, such as Steam, the Tor Browser, and Wine. All in all, I've basically wasted a week trying to get Arch Linux to work as the daily driver on my laptop, but I guess it's just not the distro for me.

I'm going to give Arch one last shot with the Manjaro distro. I'm hoping that Manjaro's simplified installation and configuration will produce a more usable (in my case) OS, and if not, I'll probably be going back to something Debian-based.

I'm not at all saying Arch is a bad distro. I know many people use it as their daily driver, and I have absolutely no problem with that. I'm not writing this to debate which distro is better, I'm just writing about my experience with it. Arch just may not be the distro for someone like me. At least I gave it a shot, right?

rant

linux

arch

manjaro

i tried
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Comments
  • 3
    6y
    It's completely fine, don't worry. Like you said, you tried and you learned something!
    If you haven't already installed Manjaro, take a look at Antergos. I think you can install it with Steam fairly easily.
  • 2
    6y
    @Jilano Caught me at the right time. Was just about to write the Manjaro image to USB. I'll take a look at Antergos.
  • 1
    6y
    @BaconatorNoVeg I'm glad, then! Good luck!
  • 2
    6y
    @BaconatorNoVeg Antergos is a better fit if you want an elegant Arch sans the hassle, and Manjaro is Arch with more features and more support (they have separate repositories).

    Arch is a distro that can be made into anything so it can be frustrating initially. If you don't like it but want a faster repository Debian testing might be a better fit IMO.
  • 2
    6y
    @starrynights89 I'm going to install both on separate partitions and see which one I like more. One of the main reasons I'm going to give Manjaro a try is because it's #1 on DistroWatch right now.
  • 2
    6y
    @theNSA @starrynights89 @Jilano Was unable to get either to work. Manjaro installs, but the display manager will never start (even though it says the service has started.) I can't even get through the Antergos installer because it hangs after the desktop environment selection. I'm starting to think these issues may have to do with the Nvidia GPU in my laptop.
  • 0
    6y
    @BaconatorNoVeg Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. It does sound weird that none of them were able to work in the end. What laptop do you have exactly?
  • 1
    6y
    @Jilano Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming
    Intel Core i5-7300HQ
    GTX 1050ti
  • 0
    6y
    @BaconatorNoVeg Okay thanks! It's a tad late now, but I'll try to see if I can find anything (known error with this model or better, s solution to your issues).

    Edit: I just found that https://forum.antergos.com/topic/...

    I hope it'll help, otherwise I'll look for more tomorrow.
  • 1
    6y
    @Jilano I appreciate it. I did some of my own Googling before, of course, but I couldn't find a decent solution.
  • 0
    6y
    I usually recommend LARBS if you’re still trying to setup. Check it out @ https://github.com/LukeSmithxyz/...
  • 1
    6y
    Nvidia is a hit and miss on Linux without the drivers. On my old gaming desktop I ran the native drivers from my AMD chip and then installed Nvidia's stuff. Your laptop may only be able to run a bootloader with the Nvidia chipset as the display driver overriding your CPu.

    Unless your heart is really set on Arch I'd suggest trying a distro that already has the Nvidia drivers pre-installed. When I first started with Linux I went for Ubuntu and Linux Mint as they had these propetiary drivers pre-installed.
  • 2
    6y
    @starrynights89 Yeah, I'm giving up. As much as I really wanted to give Arch a fair trial, the Nvidia GPU in my laptop won't let me. I guess I'll just go back to Ubuntu.
  • 0
    6y
    @BaconatorNoVeg I can understand that, can't spend weeks just to set up a workstation. May I suggest Debian instead of Ubuntu for a less bloated distribution?

    (Or did you have any issue with it too?)
  • 0
    6y
    @Jilano I've found that Ubuntu's new minimal installation is slim enough.
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