Setting Up Arch Linux

Duffy — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:54:35 +0000

First of all update your system
```
pacman -Syu
```
Install xorg
```
pacman -S xorg-server
```
If you have a nvidia graphics card then you need to install these
```
pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils
```
If you have a ati card then you need to install these
```
pacman -S catalyst catalyst-utils
```

Create your system admin user

useradd -m -G users,audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,power -s /bin/bash YOUR-USER-NAME-HERE

Now we need to set a password for that user so type the following

passwd YOUR-USER-NAME-HERE

Install some packages

pacman -S hal mesa openssh gnome gdm firefox gnome-terminal gedit file-roller gconf-editor gcalctool evince nautilus-cd-burner gnome-volume-manager gnome-power-manager ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-liberation flashplugin jre archlinux-themes-gdm numlockx alsa-utils codecs gstreamer0.10 gstreamer0.10-python gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-good gstreamer0.10-bad gstreamer0.10-ugly gstreamer0.10-good-plugins gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins gstreamer0.10-base gstreamer0.10-base-plugins gstreamer0.10-pitfdll skype rdesktop pidgin purple-plugin-pack pidgin-encryption pidgin-libnotify aspell-en nmap wireshark irssi filezilla openoffice-base gnome-themes-extras gtk2-themes-collection tango-icon-theme tango-icon-theme-extras archlinux-themes-gdm hwd sudo

Generate a Xorg Config
```
hwd -xa
```
If you have a nvidia graphics card do this aswell
```
nvidia-xconfig
```
Configuring audio run the following and set your volume levels
```
alsamixer
```
you can test you sound using
```
aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
```
and then when your happy with it run
```
alsactl store
```
and finally add alsa to your daemons line of rc.conf
```
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng !network netfs crond fam hal networkmanager alsa)
```

Enable Serial Console

Duffy — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:31:07 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to set up a serial console on a Linux system, and connect to it via a null modem cable. This is quite useful as it allows you to easily get a console on the system if there are any problems with it and you cannot access it via ssh

Check that you have a serial port and it is enabled in your bios

dmesg | grep tty

root@duffys-place:~# dmesg | grep tty
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
00:09: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

Configuring Lilo

open up /etc/lilo.conf
```
nano /etc/lilo.conf
```
Find the the serial line and change it to the following:
```
serial=0,38400n8
```

Now edit your kernel settings so they include the line

append="console=ttyS0,38400n8"

It should look something like this

default=Linux
image=/vmlinuz
        label=Linux
        append = "console=ttyS0,38400n8"
        initrd=/initrd.img

Run /sbin/lilo to apply the changes

Enable Logins

Open up /etc/inittab

nano /etc/inittab

and add the following line

T0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 38400 vt100

Testing It

Plug one end of your null modem cable into your server and the other into your computer
Open your terminal client i used putty hyperterminal works fine too

Use the following settings:

Port: COM1 or COM2(what ever your serial port is)
Bits per second: 38400
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1
Flow control: None

You should be able to see your console. If you have any issues feel free to leave a comment

Tuts4Tech » setup

Setting Up Arch Linux

Enable Serial Console

Configuring Lilo

Enable Logins

Testing It