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Hello!
I would really like to find a simple, straightforward set of instructions for installing the newest ArchLinux32 (32-bit) version onto my 'supercharged' Pentium 4.
Ref. my PC spec's: Pentium 4 dual (533mhz) processor at 3.4Ghz, 4gb (533mhz) RAM, w/ a 120 SSD and PCIe nVIDIA GeForce GT730 video card. This runs my quad-boot system actually fairly fast (WinXP SP-3, DreamStudio, ZorinLite 15.1, and Linux-Gamer from 2011). These OSs are 32-bit, three are "blasts from the past", that I want to maintain for many lovely software packages, although I would really like to upgrade the Linux-Gamer to ArchLinux32 and install Steam for all same (and more) games. I am currently attempting to install ArchLinux32 on a separate 40GB SATA then, if successful and stable, just clone it over the old Linux-Gamer (LG) partition and hook up grub... (I had originally created the partition and forced an install of LG from its Live-only CD as there was no HD install...)
I downloaded and burnt to CD archlinux-2020.01.20-i686.iso, and I booted it and use "pacman -Syy" (hoping to install on a single 40GB SATA) and loaded the certificates for Pentium 4s, but then I am stuck. What next...? I have used many linux distros with GUIs and have my hands in terminal half of the time but I am not 'fluent' with these distros without some kind of GUI. Please can anyone point me to a complete A-Z toward getting a bootable HD, then lead me to choosing installation of one of the basic GUIs (I prefer KDE but, hey, at this point anything that works...)
I did get a little further than "pacman -Syy" but it just got messy each time. Once I get to try the update with "pacman -Qqn | pacman -S -" it really runs into trouble. The update gets about 1/3 way through then 'craps out' w failing to retrieve files during the update phase... "expected download exceeded" or "Failed writing body ([filesize] != [filesize]" (yields multiple pages of these errors). Hey, there's plenty of disk space... and my hunch is it's running some kind of file sychronization checking existing files against new and it "trips up" (and where it shouldn't?). Idk- any ideas?
Note: I've tried all 3 ArchLinux version ISOs: 64-bit, "dual" (supplying both 64 & 32), and 32-bit just to see if something works. Yes, while my Pentium 4 can run 64-bit I am trying to maintain all 32-bit OSs on this quad-boot system.
Please advise re clear, concise ArchLinux32 installation instructions. Thanks,
Alice
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The general process is outlined in the upstream installation guide.
Note, that you generally do not want to run
pacman -Syuinside the iso, but rather in the chrooted new install.
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Yes, while you're running the iso it's running some kind of union fs of the iso backed by a ram disk. If you try to write too much to that filesystem you'll probably quite quickly find your ram limit.
40GB should be plenty for archlinux32. On my system my boot partition is a few dozen megabytes, while my big partitions are /var at 4GB and /usr at 8GB and I left 4GB in / for anything I forget, but so far that's only 3% used, the rest is my home partition. Note a separate /usr partition is a bit of a ball ache to install and configure, so I recommend you don't farm that out and leave it in your / root partition. My /var partition does require a clear out every few months, but that's usually no biggie. My 8GB for my /usr tools is a little tight especially if you're not as frugal as I am.
Architecture: pentium4, Testing repos: Yes, Hardware: EeePC 901+2GB RAM+OS half on the SD card.
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Your NVIDIA card may be supported or not, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA.
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Okay, thanks much for pointing me in the direction. I actually weeded through the above link "the upstream installation guide" (and all its associated links within to establish partitions, grub, network, ... along the way) and installed it. Now I would like to add a GUI however I found that the network wasn't set up other than for the minimal (127.0.1.1 for DHCP) which should work as it was working for the install... but it's not. So, then I went to check/edit hosts... a found I may have no editors -nano, vim, edit, vi are not installed- yet how can I pacman them when I have no network? I think there's a lot to be desired within the installation instructions and this is critical= esp for nooobs like me. Otherwise, grub boots fine into a text mode but.. then what? Is there another editor...?
Please advise. Thanks,
Al
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vi is in the base group. I may be misrembering but I thought the instructions told you to sync the base group as the first step to building your file system.
Architecture: pentium4, Testing repos: Yes, Hardware: EeePC 901+2GB RAM+OS half on the SD card.
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https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide
"The base package does not include all tools from the live installation, so installing other packages may be necessary for a fully functional base system. In particular, consider installing:
userspace utilities for the management of file systems that will be used on the system,
utilities for accessing RAID or LVM partitions,
specific firmware for other devices not included in linux-firmware,
software necessary for networking,
a text editor,
^^^^^^^^
packages for accessing documentation in man and info pages: man-db, man-pages and texinfo.
"
This has changed lately with the introduction of the base group. This makes creating LXC/Docker images easier, as you
install only things which are really necessary for a container (which doesn't need editors and linux per se).
For networking there is a nice guide at:
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … figuration
I would go either for a netctl profile (if you do something crazy) or use systemd-networkd/systemd-resolved (if your configuration is standard and simple).
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Thanks abaumann, levi, deep42thoughts ! Well guys, after a few more hours struggling, I have had to make the "executive decision" to abandon this- at least the 32-bit project. My Pentium 4 system has been the 'museum' for many great packages, from Linux-Gamer for its great little games through many business and other pkgs like a mid-generation (free to me) AutoCad on XP, but I think it's time for me to drop maintaining LG- or a newer ArchLinux32 -for essentially 32-bit posterity. I may have gotten close to installing this but it probably makes more sense to just reduce this quad-boot system to a tri-boot. I just think if I am going to pursue another very different flavor (and manually intensive one) of Linux like Arch, then I may pursue it later with a full 64-bit, up-to-date rolling version on much better hardware.
Thanks again for your input- I just got "too many candles burning" all the time.
Al
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Interesting; has that propagated locally? Doing of packman -Sq base gives vi as the last entry at least, even after upgrading my package lists using a sudo pacman -Sy
But yeah, I also use netctl. I've not investigated whether systemd can take care of my networking demands - that must be something that's come in since my last install. Having already got it working in the iso, porting it to another system felt a step to far maybe at the time.
Architecture: pentium4, Testing repos: Yes, Hardware: EeePC 901+2GB RAM+OS half on the SD card.
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