howto crunch'arch (Page 1 of 2)

hi #!ers
as some of you already knows, "i'm on arch now "
but i miss my #! too much... so, after playing a little with wmfs, i've finally crunched my arch !
so, how to do that ?
in fact, it's quit easy because corenominal have already done all the job
#! is made of applications but the most important thing in #! (i think), are the scripts and config stuff made by corenominal. and even if arch doesn't use apt, most of apps used by #! are available on arch repositories.

***so , if you want to crunch your arch, you "just" have to take all corenominal scripts&apps and adapt it to arch. you can make it this way:
-make a backup of your own /usr/bin/crunchbang & your /home/$USER/.config ( or any file/directory you want to keep, ie .bash.rc) and copy it to your new home/$USER/bin or /usr/local/bin, or /usr/bin, or in /usr/bin/crunchbang (like the original #!)

/!\ make sure to modify your .bashrc by adding

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/crunchbang/
PATH=$PATH:/$HOME/bin/

or, get the crunchbang-bin-scripts.deb, open it with file-roller and find the /usr/bin/crunchbang directory: sudo copy it in your /usr/bin

***the login: i suggest you to use slim as login manager. it works very fine & fast in arch but you have to create/modify your ~/.xinitrc
here is mine :

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)


DEFAULT_SESSION=wmfs

case $1 in
openbox)
    exec ck-launch-session /usr/bin/openbox-session
    ;;
pekwm)
    exec ck-launch-session /usr/bin/pekwm
    ;;
*)
    exec ck-launch-session $DEFAULT_SESSION
    ;;
esac

and adjust it to fit your needs, to choose your session from slim, just hit F1 at login time.
this xinitrc works without login manager too (when using startx from tty)
you could use the omns #! slim theme available on devart

if you choose gdm, nothing to do, gdm reads your /usr/share/xsessions directory and openbox.desktop should be there when you install openbox ( pacman -S openbox )

***the logout with gdm/slim/startx : oblogout works!! just download the sources from the launchpad and install it with

sudo pacman -U /path_to_oblogout.pkg.tar.gz

***the "bad thing" (or the Very Good Thing for some of us   ):
as arch is not ubuntu-based, the 'out-of-the-box'#! feature isn't here to say "welcome" at first boot... you have to install/load/enable many things like:
install & loading hal & evdev if you want hardware-automatic-detection..
install alsa-utils and maybe tweak it a little to make your soundcard work properly...
but if you use archlinux, you already know that, and if you enjoy archlinux, you don't think it's a bad thing

***some differences:
conky-all doesn't exist .... too bad... but we have conky-lua , so yaourt'it

yaourt -S conky-lua

conkyforecast is available on AUR Kaivalai repositories , to install it:

yaourt -S conkyforecast-bzr

exit gnome-network-tool or nm-applet, just install wicd, and read the doc on arch wiki ( i've posted my /etc/rc.conf at the end and my file doesn't respect arch wiki recommandations... just because i don't really need/use nm-applet or wicd: i only use eth0 interface   )

phatch is not available but you can download it from the phatch download page and run it as standalone apps directly from the phatch directory (you can make a link to your ~/bin folder   )

***the bonus:
#! try to get free of heavy gnome depedencies... and it's easier to do with a non-ubuntu based distro : gdm is not buggy in arch, so pacman'it, tint2 is available too, lxpanel, wicd (no gnome depedencies), gpodder....

the global config file for archlinux is /etc/rc.conf  here is mine

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Paris"
KEYMAP="fr-latin1"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=()

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="thinkarch"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# 
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#

#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
 
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond cups acpid laptop-mode hal wicd fuse hddtemp slim)

***the graphics parts:
#! comes with a specific look, so if you want it, make a backup of your own themes files or get the crunchbang-theme or the crunchbang-wallpapers from the repositories, open the deb with file-roller (or xarchiver) as any archive, and search the theme.... so, now, you know how to steal all crunchbang stuff !!   (but i'm sure you've already knew it   ).

***the end
it was really fun to tweak arch like crunchang. very easy too, in fact... as i said before: corenominal already did all the work for us !!

i think archlinux & crunchbang can 'collaborate' very well and , i know it'll be VERY difficult to make a crunch'arch'live that could be run from any computer but, if you have a day off, some curiosity, and if you want to free yourself from ubuntu/debian cycle releases.... come on the #! rolling release: crunch'arch! 

this is not an exhaustive howto (as you can see   ) , so, for all #!apps you want to install, i recommend to take a look at the arch wiki page because depedencies are sometimes different from ubuntu repositories... and also because arch wiki is one of the best source of info on the net (talking about linux apps of course...   )

if you're still here, thx

Last edited by arpinux (2009-12-10 00:25:34)