Arch Forum Registration Problem "Incorrect Answer"

I am having problems registering for the Arch Linux Forum. When I enter in the challenge code located on the forum registration page, I am receiving a message saying the answer is incorrect. I downloaded the Git Bash terminal to my Windows 10 (I don't have Linux installed on my machine yet, hence my need to join the Arch forums) and the response from the terminal is not passing the challenge.

The challenge is: date -u +%V$(uname)|sha224sum|sed 's/\W//g'

My terminal responds : a1492f2de8c86d97ad120d7ba35da8bc8ae594938ecfadc279745247f64a3789

I have already read through the forums and have read there may be some potential time zone issues as the Arch Linux Forum server is in Germany. I have set up my time zone on the registration page as Mountain time as that is where I live and I have tried toggling on and off the Daylight Savings option.

I also want to make sure that the Git Bash terminal is the correct tool for the job in lieu of having Linux installed on my machine. I don't think there should be any problems with that but I would appreciate confirmation regarding this.

Thank you for your time and responses I greatly appreciate it.

First read man uname to find out why it's failing, (then carefully read man date to find out why timezone isn't relevant).

If you have installation problems (with Arch, or any distro), you can ask them on LQ - but you might also want to consider whether Arch is the right distro for you - i.e. it's explicitly a DIY distro, and some people don't want that hassle.

I have read in the past that registration on the Arch forums can be a headache for some.

You do not need to register on their forum prior to installing or downloading the ISO file. Go to their download page and pick a US mirror and select the ISO file. As stated if you are totally new to linux then Arch might not be the distribution to install nor will the Arch forums be the best site to ask basic questions.

I don't have Linux installed on my machine yet, hence my need to join the Arch forums

That registering was meant to be done from an arch machine. They want you to have arch installed to use the forum.

You may not like arch for a first time linux install. You have to do everything yourself.

Archers are suppose to figure this out themselves. As well as most everything else.

man date
...
%V     ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53)

date -u +%V$(uname)
14Linux

echo 14Linux |sha224sum|sed 's/\W//g'
30322df8fe4268c801cd5c4acef09b2165b0dad2ae4d81c67d753221

It used to break for people sufficiently far into the future (like us Aussies ), and woe betide a daylight saving change - like happened to lots of us over the weekend. I used to run it around 14:00 to cater for its deficiencies - although I heard it had been fixed a while back after all the complaints.

I wouldn't recommend Arch. If you want something that's explicitly newbie-friendly, use Ubuntu or Mint. If you want something more mainstream, use Debian (or if you don't like the idea of systemd startup, use Devuan, which is very similar).

Arch is not only very much an experts' distro but it has a rather exclusive user community. At least I found them a bit cultish during the brief period when I used Arch. And Arch is bleeding edge, which means frequent updates and a high chance of temporary breakages.

Thank you to everyone for all of the replies. They have been very helpful. In response to the suggestions to use something very newbie friendly, my concern is that something that is set up out of the box will not teach me a lot since its mostly ready to go. Also, I want to work on customizing my distro for privacy and security... it seemed like Arch was the way to go for that. If anyone has a better suggestion that would allow me to work towards those goals please let me know.

Regarding uname -boughtonp, I read the manual page regarding this. I understand why date command is not an issue regarding time zone (it is standardized due to the -u command). Am I not getting the correct machine and os inform uname because I'm running it from Bash instead of an installed linux command line? Or, is it because I did not know to break the first part of the code from the second part at |sha224sum|sed 's/\W//g' ?

Also - I'm reading about echo and trying to figure out how it works. I understand it is a text display command, but I don't understand the output it produces. Any hints on what direction to research. Thanks.

If you really want a distro that will teach you the internals of Linux, then Slackware is a possibility. It's not usually recommended to newbies because you are expected to do quite a lot of the work yourself, but you certainly learn a lot by doing so.

Slackware has the advantage of being internally very simple and therefore very stable, which is not possible in a highly automated system. The software is also stable and not bleeding edge. Things have to have been around for a while before Patrick puts them into Slackware.

The two main disadvantages for a novice are:
1) You don't have a live disc image to try out and then install from. Slackware has a very old-fashioned, non-graphical installation procedure which requires you to do the work of partitioning and setting things up the way you want them.
2)The package management system does not resolve dependencies. Unless you are a real expert, you are supposed to do a full install of everything on the installation disc, and all dependencies will then be accounted for.

But once you have it set up, Slackware "just works".

The echo command is very simple: it just echoes its argument (which is often a variable or the output of another command) to standard output.

Originally Posted by mellamo In response to the suggestions to use something very newbie friendly, my concern is that something that is set up out of the box will not teach me a lot since its mostly ready to go.

I dislike the term "newbie friendly", both because it's looking at things from the wrong angle and gives the wrong impression. With some tools, being suitable for new/inexperienced users can reduce the usefulness for advanced users, but that isn't really the case with Linux-based OSes.

In addition, it's good to have a system that is simply ready to go, so you don't get frustrated when you just want something to work, and find yourself being forced to spend time yak shaving before you can get to the task you want to be doing.

There's also plenty of general things to learn irrespective of which distro you use - having an already working system is not a hindrance to learning. But to be clear I'm not suggesting you can't also have a separately installed distro that you build/customize yourself, and/or one you can trash and re-install on a whim. (Deliberately breaking and fixing things can be a good way for some people to learn, but again, better to do on a non-essential system.)

Also, I want to work on customizing my distro for privacy and security... it seemed like Arch was the way to go for that. If anyone has a better suggestion that would allow me to work towards those goals please let me know.

If those are your priorities, I would recommend a non-systemd distro, because systemd reduces security and privacy.

If you're really set on Arch, then Artix is Arch without systemd, but otherwise Gentoo and Slackware are both commonly listed (alongside Arch) as "advanced distros" (e.g. see DistroWatch Major Distributions).

(I personally use Devuan - Debian without systemd - but there's plenty of options.)

Regarding uname -boughtonp, I read the manual page regarding this. I understand why date command is not an issue regarding time zone (it is standardized due to the -u command). Am I not getting the correct machine and os inform uname because I'm running it from Bash instead of an installed linux command line?

It's not because you're running it from Bash, but because you're running it on a non-Linux-based system, i.e. either MinGW or MSys2 (whatever Git for Windows calls what it uses to provide GNU tools these days) on Windows. i.e. If you enter "uname" on its own and you'll get something like "MINGW64_NT-6.1" instead of "Linux".

Understanding shell commands is definitely something you'll be learning if you're more than just a casual user...

Or, is it because I did not know to break the first part of the code from the second part at |sha224sum|sed 's/\W//g' ? Also - I'm reading about echo and trying to figure out how it works. I understand it is a text display command, but I don't understand the output it produces. Any hints on what direction to research.

Yes, learning Bash is a good place to start - particularly piping (the "|" bit) and redirections (stdin/stdout/stderr), but the first three chapters of the GNU Bash Reference Manual has a lot of info.
BashFAQ is also a good resource, and ShellCheck a useful tool for identifying bugs.

If you're going to be customizing any distro you'll spend plenty of time on the shell (may be Bash, may be another), so the sooner you're familiar with at least the basics then the more productive you can be.

Thank you for your responses. I will review everything suggested in depth before I proceed. Thank you again for the very detailed info.