First steps with EndeavourOS (and a bit ArchLinux) and beyond

[Stan`]

1 hour ago, Ceres said:

BTW, can 0ad be run with a "write-to-root" option like under Windows? Thus, I could keep settings and config of 0ad for playing separate from testing. Else, I wouldn't know how to put the "for testing" (svn) 0ad on that second SSD without suddenly having all settings under my user account.

Yes the option doesn't care about the OS.

[Ceres]

Very cool, thank you, @Stan`

 

@YekaterinaDo you have a recommendation how to (at this stage, i.e. when the system is already set up) make use of my 2nd SSD? Space on the 1st one ran out earlier than I thought. Can I now still create an lvm, or would I lose data on the 1st SSD? Should I rather create /home on the 2nd SSD and mount it there, or are there other/better alternatives? Thanks once more!

 

[Freagarach]

55 minutes ago, Ceres said:

Space on the 1st one ran out earlier than I thought.

You're running out of space already? What are you doing on that? Compiling 0 A.D.?

[Ceres]

I have not yet looked closer, but it seems that EnOS only uses one drive (30 GB). I installed the base system, xfce, a few packages for xrdp, 0ad (not from svn but the available Arch package) and rvgl (a re-volt port). There are also lots of assets. Anyway, I have to investigate on this. Maybe I'll even start over again, ensuring that both drives are used like a JBOD (lvm or something else - raid did not really work). I also have a spare HDD here which I could add.

[Ceres]

For users of ArchLinux/ EndeavourOS, who are interested in RAID, especially Intel Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST, a firmware-based RAID solution, which I have on my Intel board):

https://medium.com/@pmarrapese/arch-linux-and-intel-rst-fake-raid-cece10b61ac3

https://blog.ironbay.co/intel-raid-and-arch-linux-8dcd508354d3

Edited September 28, 2021 by Ceres

[Ceres]

Now I was able to install EndeavourOS even on GPT/UEFI and Intel RST RAID1 (striped).

The solution was abondoning Rufus and instead using USBwriter, see there:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_flash_installation_medium#Using_USBwriter

It seems that writing the EndeavourOS ISO image to my thumbdrive (32 GB Verbatim USB stick) via Rufus made me using GPT/UEFI and Intel RST RAID impossible. The USBwriter tool is much simpler than Rufus, i.e. it just asks for the image file and the target, and it works.

That does not mean that Rufus is not good. I'm sure that it has advantages (additional setting possibilities etc.) but it simply did not work in my case/setup.

[Yekaterina]

@Ceres if you want to mount things separately it is easier to install pure arch instead :/

However, you can install EnOS anywhere, although SSD is preferred. With KDE, you can change the directory of your desktop folder to another drive if that's what you want. 

right click on your desktop, click configure and you will be presented with some settings.

[Ceres]

Yeah. I'll have to revisit this anyway, because I'm still struggling with some problems. It seems that GPT/UEFI is not the way to go. And I have to find out if this alone, its combination with my wish of (software) raid, or the latter alone is the showstopper.

Currently (with GPT/UEFI but without raid), the EnOS installer tells me shortly before its end that it could not install the bootloader. The log was not very helpful. I'll investigate this further.

I wish that a Linux distribution could be installed without hassle including raid. The EnOS does not consider this, so I'll have to use the CLI (mdadm etc.).

[Ceres]

@Yekaterina

I've attached a 2 TB HDD that appears as /dev/sdc in the installer, and I want to install the complete EnOS there. I will only use EnOS on that PC, i.e. no dual-boot.

Now I plan this:

1. Select /dev/sdc
2. Tick that the whole drive should be deleted (nothing on it)
3. Select to use a swap file (Currently, I have only 2 GB RAM but have ordered 2x 4GB already; until then, I will need swap, I guess.)
4. Select to format with btrfs

So far, so good, or would you recommend something different?

Besides, I'm not sure where to install the GRUB (as I abondened GPT/UEFI) bootloader to:

1. Master Boot Record of /dev/sda (1st SSD drive that I would like to keep)
2. Master Boot Record of /dev/sdb (2nd SSD drive that I would like to keep)
3. Master Boot Record of /dev/sdc (the HDD, which sounds right to me, but maybe it's not?)
4. System partition (/) (This would be on /dev/sdc, right?)
5. Do not install a bootloader (Which does not make sense to me.)

So which of the first 4 options is recommended? I assume it's the same for pure ArchLinux and for EndeavourOS.

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts!

From a post in StackExchange I understand that installing the Linux (e.g. EnOS) bootloader to the boot partition has some advantage. So it would be /dev/sdc in my case, right? And I would have to set the correct order of drives in the BIOS, too, I assume.

Quote

If you write the boot code to the boot partition (in contrast to MBR) then this code can be started if the boot code in MBR is able to do chain loading. This is also the preferred technique, in case when GRUB does not know how to handle the operating system. It just loads the boot code from the other (native) boot loader and executes it. When grub itself knows how to start the system, it does not need to use chain loading.

PS:

This did not work, i.e. the installation failed with the message:

Quote

Bootloader installation error

The bootloader could not be installed. The installation command

grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --force /dev/sdc1

returned error code 1.

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Ceres

[Ceres]

Oh my, this was a steep learning curve for me. Now it's up and running. Here's what I did:

I disconnected the 2 SSDs and only kept the 1 HDD connected. I also reordered (for good measure) the SATA ports to which the drives are connected (SSDs reconnected after EnOS installation), i.e. the HDD to SATA0, the 2 SSDs to SATA1 and SATA2 (it was the other way around first, but I don't know if it makes a difference). Furthermore, I went to the Intel BIOS settings => Advanced => Drig Config => Configure SATA as: AHCI and => Boot => UEFI boot: Enable (yes, UEFI enabled). Then I booted with the thumbdrive (32 GB USB stick) that contains the EnOS image and started the installer (with non-free Nvidia drivers selected). As only the HDD was connected, the following steps were easy, i.e. I selected this drive, enabled a swap file, and selected btrfs as file system. There was no question about where to store a bootloader etc. After the installation successfully completed, I shut EnOS down, switched the PC off, and reconnected the 2 SSDs. Then I restarted EnOS. Via the partition manager (gparted), I can now format the 2 SSDs and will try if I can make a software raid0 (striped) of them.

I know that this thread might be a bit boring for many (please ignore it in that case) and maybe of interest for just very few users (then I'm happy). To be continued...

PS: I renamed this thread, as it now seems to be more EndeavourOS-related.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Ceres

[Yekaterina]

Of course you can install it on a HDD but the performance will be poor. 

My approach would be, connect all drives, then somehow free up 30GB of space on one of the SSD. Let's call it /Dev/SDA1. So install base system and grub here. But when formatting disks, do it manually and mount root folder on Dev/SDA1/. Then, format Dev/sdc (big HDD) as ext4 as well and mount it as /home. That means your files will be stored in Dev/sdc but system program will be on Dev/SDA1.

This way you get fast performance and big storage.

[Ceres]

Yes, that's a good point. Indeed SSDs are faster. I'll try to change this as you suggested. Thank you.

I told the installer to use neither a swap nor a swap-with-hibernation partition, but to use a swap file. My understanding is that this has some (performance) advantages. However, I now wonder if it is really in use and how to check it.

Another topic for me is the many different flavours of a same package, e.g. pamac (a GUI for pacman). How would I know which one to use (-all, -all-git, -aur, -aur-git) and which of the following selections (1, 2, 3) is good for me?

$ yay -S pamac-all
:: There are 3 providers available for xdg-desktop-portal-impl:
:: Repositoryextra
    1) xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 2) xdg-desktop-portal-kde :: Repositorycommunity
    3) xdg-desktop-portal-wlr 

Enter a number (default=1): ^C
$
$ yay -S pamac-all-git
:: There are 3 providers available for xdg-desktop-portal-impl:
:: Repositoryextra
    1) xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 2) xdg-desktop-portal-kde :: Repositorycommunity
    3) xdg-desktop-portal-wlr 

Enter a number (default=1): ^C
$
$ yay -S pamac-aur
:: There are 2 providers available for pamac-aur:
:: Repository AUR
    1) pamac-aur 2) pamac-classic 

Enter a number (default=1): ^C
$
$ yay -S pamac-aur-git
:: There are 2 providers available for libpamac>=11.1.0beta:
:: Repository AUR
    1) libpamac 2) libpamac-aur

I understand that the 0 A.D. forum might not be the ideal spot to ask these many EnOS/ArchLinux/AUR-related questions.

[Yekaterina]

@Ceres 

If you use KDE, I think you can create a system monitor wideget on the desktop to monitor it constantly. You can also install neofetch and neofetch some stats. That way you can show swap memory, system load and temperature.

[Yekaterina]

Another point: stick with the default flavour unless you know the difference between other flavour and default. Git is all source code for sure so will take a bit longer to compile and download. But it is more likely to work even if teh default aur one or repo one is broken.

I recommend yay helper instead of pamac. Idk what pamac is lol.. I use pacman as default repo fetcher then yay for Aur.

[Ceres]

Pamac is a GUI for pacman, but I don't really need it (was just an example), as I'm confident in using pacman on CLI. BTW, doesn't yay not also work for ArchLinux repo (and Aur)? With regard to the desktop environment, I'll stick to xfce, as it's extremely performant even on my old PC with (at the moment) only 2 GB RAM. KDE is (to my recollection of several years ago) too much cluttered with too many settings possibilities and drawing on the resources, but maybe this has changed since then. For the time being, I'm quite happy with EnOS (thanks a lot to you for pointing it out in the beginning, besides pure ArchLinux!) and will set everything up, so I can test 0ad from svn etc. I'm typing this from Firefox 92.0.1, which I find cool as with Debian I was always used to live with some older v78 LTS of Firefox.

Cheers!

[Yekaterina]

2GB ram will struggle a bit... Xfce will run fine but not sure if 0ad will...

KDE is equal to XFCE in ram consumption by default. However, there are more settings and widgets which can increase or decrease the ram and CPU consumption.

[Yekaterina]

Yay works with everything at all times.

 

[Ceres]

Fortunately, 0ad already runs with 2 GB. I patiently (more or less ) wait for the ordered SO-DIMMS (yeah, old stuff, but ok) to arrive.

[Ceres]

For people interested in using a GUI for SVN on Linux, I just installed RabbitVCS, i.e. the package with integration in Thunar (there are integrations available also for other Linux file explorers like Nautilus etc.).

I had to install this first: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/thunarx-python/

Then this: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rabbitvcs-thunar/

I created an empty folder '0ad' on my software-raid (2 SSDs) that is mounted under /run/media/<myusername>, right-clicked on that folder and selected 'RabbitVCS SVN => Checkout...', and put 'https://svn.wildfiregames.com/public/ps/trunk/' into the URL field (see also 'Getting the code'). The rest is quite self-explanatory. Further instructions etc. are available for Windows users but should be applicable for Linux users as well:

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Ceres

[Loki1950]

For a graphical front end for svn on Linux I have used ksvn though it is now not used as Dolphin the KDE file browser now has context activated svn access similar to TortoiseSVN on Windows.

Enjoy the Choice