Seek clarification on sundry pre-install questions
 

Hi, I am about to try to install latest 64bit version of Arch and have many questions which I would greatly appreciate some advice on before taking the plunge.
I have posted the first 4 questions on the other Arch forum, thinking it best to break up the list (hope this was appropriate)

Thanks for any help

4. wherever in install notes I encounter reference to sda1, i assume I replace this with the partition i have selected, sda4, which is the only unused partition on my sys? (and when it mention partition flags, I have had Gparted make it "boot", is that all I need to do there?


5. "Packages being downloaded": this is the bit that freaked me out: there is mention made of pkgs exceeding 130mg: I thought I already had the main dload in the iso!
-if not, can someone estimate how much the install process is going to dload in terms of megs, as I have a monthly quota to consider.

6. When I am told to "edit my fstab using vi", I take it that I will be creating this file anew, right?
-only two lines of code are offered at this point: /dev/sda1 / ext4 defaults 0 1 and
/dev/sda2 none swap defaults 0 1
- does that look right?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Tex

Arch .iso's are net install only now. You get enough on the install .iso to get you on the network to install the rest. How much that is depends on what you install. Install intructs are on the wiki. I don't recall it could be 150MB for a base system. Also Arch is a rolling release. You'll need to update every week or so to keep up. You can't leave it for 6 months and then update. Look at the news on Arch's front page. Sometimes after not upgrading for 3 weeks, and you have libre office, tools, browsers, email clients, etc., the upgrades could be 200MB.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman

If all you set up were a root partition and a swap partition, then yes, it looks correct.

Thanks Teckk and pcguyiv both of you.
Much appreciated.

cheers,
tex