Published at LXer:

I think Arch Linux, Slackware and maybe in a slightly different level Gentoo, are some kind of advanced Linux distribution, or better said for intermediate to advanced Linux user. I like to say that those distributions are for Linux lovers, people who is not afraid of the command line. I’m that kind of person, I like to be in control of my Operating System, and one thing I really like about Slackware and Arch Linux is that you need to enable the daemons, this way no matter how many of them you install in your computer it is still running light weight. Of course if you use Fedora or Ubuntu you can disable the daemons, but I prefer to be the one that enable them, and not the other way.

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My two personal favorites Slackware and Arch.

I have yet to try Slackware, but I have tried Arch and it was a real pain to configure. Especially since the initrd has hook support and the USB hook isn't configured by default, which breaks netbooks.

I don't think, distributions like Slackware, Arch or even Gentoo are __better__ for advanced users. For example, Linus Torvalds likes distributions like SuSE, Fedora and Ubuntu and you cannot say, he's not advanced. He probably could do everything from the CLI and manually edit the config files of his systems but he doesn't want.

It is probably just the taste of oneself, what he or she prefers and what not. For me, it's Slackware because I don't really like GUIs to edit my config files since I'm still learning how everything works.

you realize all three of those distros do not run vanilla kernels. why do you think he runs them?
Get slack it works it is so simple many of my people are over 55 and hated windows since 3.0.

My experience with Arch has been opposite. All my hardware was recognized and configured. Of course, this is from a desktop. I've never installed Arch on a laptop or netbook since I don't own one.

BTW, if you ever going to try slack I hope you understand there is compiling of software and the handling of dependencies yourself.

Slackbuilds.org makes this easier for people new to slackware.

My problem was that either from an external CD or DVD drive *or* a USB key it does *not* run by default. When you try to perform one of those actions, what you get is a ramfs shell.

The reason for this is that so-called "hooks" are *hard-coded* into the initrd in order to basically turn it into another kernel, and if any device isn't recognized by those "hooks" then the computer fails to boot. That pretty much breaks anything that doesn't have an *internal* CD or DVD drive.

You have very smart friends. Anyone who hates window$ is alright with me.

That's weird. Most distros would boot from an external drive if the usb module is loaded first.

I wish I had an answer. But I don't have an external DVD drive to test this issue you're having.

Do you have a USB flash drive to test? The same thing will happen.

Sure.

I'll give it a try, and I'll report back whether it worked or not.

This problem only occurs from the ISO image, so that's what you need to write to the USB drive.

Well, I'm going to test this issue now.

later...

That's not been my experience at all. I've installed Arch on a couple of Asus EEE netbooks, 900 and 1000 series, and on a Dell Mini 9, all from USBs, have never once changed the default hooks, and never had a single problem.

What ISO build of Arch did you use? I know the latest (2010.05 if I'm not mistaken) didn't work on my Acer Aspire One at all since it doesn't support USB at all. The USB hook isn't enabled by default.