Slackware and openSUSE get my nod of approval. Debian quality does not seem to be what it once was and they are so automated that you have to fight the internals at times.

Stick with parent distros if you are looking to learn more, child or offspring distros will only simplify things as much as possible, which actually means make things more difficult if you want to change them.

I've been wondering about arch for some time. This page might convince me.

http://lifehacker.com/5680453/build-...in-the-process

I real beginners guide - well sort of.

The reason I wonder is purely down to playing with the innards. I don't think any distro is as simple as it could be in the area before a desktop actually pops up on a screen. Desktops - they are configurable on their own to some degree.

What I would like to do is have say arch as a boot up option alongside what opensuse offers. Then I could go play with it when I wanted to and also be sure to be able to use my machine without any problem when needed.

It might finish up with 2 grubs installed

LOL should mention that the link is out of date - xdg settings are used a lot now but they do have defaults. Then there are things like sddm which look after that area when some one logs in.

John
-

Did u notice the date ? ? ?

totally new installer btw !

and why wouldn't you let the real thing convince you?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

Because when the links on that one are followed things look a lot more complicated - as the old guide points out. Too many choices mentioned. What the old one attempts to do is similar to a default install of many distro's. Given that changes just need people to pick up detail in particular areas one at a time rather than trying to sort out what they need the first time they install it. When I look at that page I start following links and it's too much to take in one go. Far too much.

Actually it wouldn't surprise me if the old guide still more or less works.

I mentioned xdg. There shouldn't be any need to worry about it. Desktops use it and it has defaults for if it's not explicitly set up so they will use those. There's no need to know anything about it until some one wants to change what it does. Many areas are like that. I assume that when a desktop is installed on arch it comes with something to start it. Maybe something has to be typed - fine. if some one wants to change that they can look at the log in options pick one and get to grips with it. Arch might just pick one for people though - as distro's usually do. Still more or less the same - don't like it then change it later.

Trying to do lower level work on usual distro's is similar - too much to take in and possibly convolute because of the flexibility they offer.

John
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that's the beauty of archlinux - YOU decide what it becomes.
i learned that when the wiki "suggests" something, it really means: "unless you know exactly why you don't want to do it like this, you should do it".
and what is "the old guide"?

http://lifehacker.com/5680453/build-...in-the-process

John
-

This guide in combination with the Arch Wiki got me through my first install:

https://www.ostechnix.com/install-ar...atest-version/

The follow up guide is handy too:

https://www.ostechnix.com/arch-linux...-installation/

Thanks. That helps. It just leaves me needing to find out a bit more about multi booting different distro's

Glad to see nano is mentioned on the 2nd link so may even be about for use in the first one.

John
-

Multi Booting distributions really isn't all that hard.
The bootloader (Grub) basically does all of the work.

You may not be able to boot into an os due to a kernel upgrade at times but that is easily taking care of by running "update-grub" with root privileges.

Generally when Grub boots it will show you all of the distro's installed on your machine giving you a choice as to which os you want to boot into. Just use the arrow keys to select the os you want and hit Enter.

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub.html

I've done it, just with an lxde opensuse install at the moment along with the same but kde. Update-grub sorted it out. I used a common /home, tmp and swap but a /var for each of them. I run these an a separate disk to / so fits in with how I install. I just used a different user name for the lxde install. This way I get a real lxde. Just installing alongside kde in a single user account gives a mix of what ever desktop the user has installed.

John
-

Glad to hear that you had success ajohn.

I like lxde too.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Kunal3363

Have we answered your question?

hello, I am Daniel and I have installed Slackware 14.2 my favorite window manager is xfce and fluxbox and my favorite applications are Terminal, Emacs, Qt and GCC.

You can check some of my works in this links:
1) kmatrice.sourceforge.net
2) kalcula.sourceforge.net
3) fpcalc.sourceforge.net (canceled)

Best regards,

+========================================+
| Daniel Arroyo ダニエル　アロヨ
+========================================+

Greetings Daniel! welcome

I fear you will soon hear from someone about a couple of issues with this post. They will probably provide pointers to the rules, guides, and help for this site and group. Good reading.

#1 Your post really belongs as a NEW post in the newbie's forum. This is not really the correct place for it.
This would be more an issue for YOU, as it results in your post not being seen by the people interested in greeting and helping new members.

#2 you have hyjacked an existing thread with something that has NOTHING to do with the topic. This is a little rude, and I am sure you did not intend to be rude.

#3 Fluxbox? Really? There are not that many of us fluxbox fans, but I like a small, simple, fast desktop that gets out of my way so I can get more work done and it fits. Good to see another fluxor join! Check out screen (possibly with screenie). If you do any work in remote sessions (over ssh or mosh perhaps) you will fall in love with it.

Welcome to the jungle.

This was my third post, I do not know the rules of presentation in this forum, thanks for the welcome. I am currently preparing a video about the installation of freOffice SoftMaker in Slackware 14.2.
1) I use fluxbox and xfce because my netbook is too old
2) My other two post are in the SoftMaker forum for testing his PDF editor on Slackware 14.2

Best regards,

Daniel