Well ... that was ...

OK. I've done it! Proud of myself! Clap on the shoulders.

So, I've installed Arch with the basic setup I ... well. I would have needed to do all the things that I've done. Things I spent time on. Which is now one clear advantage of aged experience.
Oops - a few things are still missing.

But yea, first I was stuck figuring out how to setup the network. And I guess this is where that Chromebook of mine came in as a saving-grace "hail mary" type of investment.
I mean, it was cheap. And since it stands out as like ... "the one" that linux wouldn't run on - yea, maybe that's why. - We may now then ponder the deeper lessons learned from matters of security, access rights and privilege.

So, it was a real DIY moment. Something that could be done in like 30 minutes was done in like ... within a day or so. And sure, "reading the card explains the card" - except when it's one of those things you're just supposed to know. I'm telling you, they're doing it on intention and the Arch Linux base is infested with trolls and bitter swine.

But well, cheers to betterment.

The reason I'm comfortable with Arch Linux is ... well, manifold. That it's very much a DIY Operating System of sorts (some don't like to call it that. It's technomancy, but by all accounts it's a distribution and what you end up with is an Operating System.) But while fiddling around today and having some problems I realized why, oh why, Arch Linux is truly the best. Because of the DIY-ness of Arch, and how they approached it, Arch ended up being the possibly best Linux Wiki there is. To the point where Arch is effectively like a Wiki for Linux. Because, I started up being naive, staring at distrowatch.org with big eyes - thinking of it as of an expression. Have a Linux System that does what an OS needs to do, theme it, the end. Do stuff with it.

Hence, generally, for using arch you want to approach it like studying up on the thing you're working with. You'll usually get instructions on what to install and how to get started. The individual steps of the install guide can generally be taken as isolated challenges towards getting it to run the way you want it to run. You'll thus have to familiarize yourself with the options you have - if you care about them, or glance past them; Which is ... why this can also be a bit much at a time.

From outside in, taken on any attempt to install Linux, here's what you're generally looking at:

> installing a bootloader
> partitioning the hard-drive
> installing the base system
> installing additional packages

For new users it may be useful to experiment with other distributions first. Arch Linux isn't different in that its installation medium is a live environment - but "normal" distributions have a live environment that's usually closer to a demo of the base system. Ubuntu is the go to recommendation because, well, from what I recall it has a simple graphical installer that does all the things from within the live environment. Some also add as an advantage that it is 'debian based'. I never cared enough about that. When thinking 'debian' - Minecraft comes to mind. But I suppose that whetever seal of quality that's supposed to be is in competition with the advantages that arch offers. So, "arch based" would be as much of a seal of quality - at this point. Arch thereby distinguishes itself somewhat rightfully so, in that its approach on packaging is a bit more low level or granular or open or raw than what 'debian based' should entail.

And compared to how it used to be, arch also has become a lot simpler to user.

Mint also gets mentioned; And here perhaps too because on a first vibe-check cinnamon got the win. I never had fun trying mint - it always ran slow. It's a hardware thing I suppose and whatever they're on wasn't what I was on ... and so. He was a [mint] boy and she was an [arch] girl.
Gentoo ... to me is a distribution of myth and legend. But I'm certainly not in the loop anymore.

So ... "back in my days" ... .

And that's where the "fun" begins. For what I wanted to do I would usually run into issues. I know or understood that the Linux system could or should be able to do this or that, but because every distribution is built different, sometimes a solution to some of the things is hard to come by. And because in arch linux barely anything ever works unless you made it work - sotospeak - while once it works is also just works - you're more likely to know what the issue is. Well, because you kind of caused it yourself.
Except when you didn't.

Like, the whole systemd issue ... I mean. This is like the third time I had to wrap my head around it.

But yes. It isn't necessary or required. That you use arch. If something works it works.

Other than that ... well. So, for ... the setup.

So, in case you do want to use arch - here's some ... guide to the guide.

First up you need to get an installation medium. The installation guide walks you through some steps that allow you to make extra sure that the image is authentic. Technically though ... it's not. Well, so ... what we'll need is to start with RAM from wires and transistors.

A program to then get the acquired image to the targeted device that I found useful is called Rufus I guess. It certainly works like one such program should work - along with the features that only make sense to the initiated - and more I cannot say.

At the point where it mentions optional stuff you might want to install before telling you to "pacstrap" - that's one of those traps.
I mean, if you know what you're doing this is fine. And in case things go wrong, the hints are there. Here's the solution

So, as part of this, we have:

dosfstools
exfatprogs
exfat-utils
ntfs-3g
e2fsprogs (?)
iwd
nano
mc

As bootloader I used grub. Here it needs to be noted that when following this setup and using genfstab to create fstab, the partitions are indicated by UUID rather than their device path (/dev/sdXY) - so, you'll have to adjust them (recreate fstab) if you play around with your partitioning; And possibly also recreate the grub config that it tells you very adamantly about.

As for the networking - this is ... I felt like a cat chasing it's own tail sometimes. I had it all installed, all the options, and still it wouldn't work - and from trying everything got lazy perhaps? Well - using iwd what you'll want to do BEFORE DOING ANYTHING WITH IT, is call 'systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service' and 'systemctl enable systemd-reserved.service'. It sure tells you about it somehow, somewhere, somewhy - as it is very brazen in telling you that this is implied knowledge. So ... when you're told to start something it might not work because you first have to enable it.
At this point I still need to call 'systemctl start iwd.service' after rebooting - I'm sure I've been missing something. But - it's fine. I also only plug my router in when I want to use it - so, that level of access is OK.

As for what we'll need beyond that, I for now have installed gcc and sdl. I'm not sure if I'll need more.

Other than that, for now I haven't touched anything in the AUR, so - without any of that:

dolphin (filesystem)
kate (editor)
libreoffice (office)
vlc (video) | + vlc-plugin-ffmpeg
gimp (paint) | + gwenview (viewing)

As for window managers and such:

XOrg of course.
Here ... well. I'll just be real: You'll be fine. I suppose. I'm currently getting used to i3, which ... . I had problems with my second screen - the resolution it was asking is somehow malfunct so it just showed black. I could have noticed because if it's off there's an energy saving icon on the screen. But - i3 wasn't responding because it was asking me to set it up on the other screen. This and not finding the solutions in the docs got me a bit mad. It's strange how often ... . I mean, properly communicating complex concepts seems to be an art in and of itself. Anyway. Now I'm trying to dig into how to spice it up. The color scheme is horrendous and I'm still getting some missing features indicated.
Well - it depends ... I mean ... with darkmode ... . Hmm ... but anyway ...

Well, I guess it depends. But "ricing" things up is like a science on its own anyway. There's like ... two different popular systems that are in use - and so, some program will rely on this, others on that, some have their own thing - and so it all ... uhm ... only ever looks awesome in controlled environments. Which i3 can do I believe. Its promises sound right. For what I want out of a linux system, that's the winning arrangement of words.

Alternatively you might prefer cinnamon perhaps - and that line of software. Like, if you're fine using chrome ... which I perhaps would be if I didn't have to hardline it somewhat ... .

General: ... You might want to have several partitions for various linux installs. For this ... somewhat minimal install ... not counting efi/boot ... I'd recommend at least 10 GB. So, I'm at 7.4 GB now.

So - I'd say 12 to be sure, 24 to make it sound like something and 32 to be that little bit extra. But in seriousness ... looking at it ... 16 gigs would be already a steep ask, so, locking in on that might be a good choice. I mean ... ugh ...
I don't know why but something about the whole of KDE makes me wanna 'argh' start tearing out my hair. Like, dolphin is fine. But - Konqueror used to be top-notch. Was it because Microsoft was like "nuh uh" or is it a "let's not do it like Microsoft" type of thing? Now it's just a browser and if I recall correctly not a good one. And KDE to me just seems to be like a lot of bloat. But when it comes to their software - it's also just good. If Konqueror were like the old conqueror or if some of that file-tree to window navigation could be added to dolphin, that'd be swell.

Unless ... we'll make it to something reasonable first. I mean, I have to first get some regular use out of this. But I'll get to it when I get to it.

If you're reading this message, that means I have successfully installed Arch Linux and setup working operations (almost there) and am currently doing (whatever). Else ... well, ... . Well. But am probably tinkering with the system before moving on to anything meta related.

So ... yea, there's still some things I want to try - and some time I want to take ... and, up until then you must assume ... well ... something. But yea, first some "rice" (oh my, a silly term for making linux desktops look like something) and then we can ta...OK. This ... what is ~this~? Why am I here ... and not ... ? ... error ...

Oh. More discussion topics:

Ha - oh well. For once I'm cooked out right now. I need to lay low on the sweed Mary Jane - dwell ... and fiddle around and maybe do some code - ahg. Well. So, there's a lot scraping my mind right now.

But yea. The graphics thingies - both of them - they're no good either.
I mean ... I just opened filezilla and how is it that on a 1900x1000 pixels this thing looks like it runs on a toaster? But uhm ... yea.

I guess, that's a good point in this discussion to ... have a discussion about.
And it links in with what ... so.

Language. Agreements. It's the bane of what's going on here - and that is a byproduct of how the winner ought to take it all. Well - sort of. For they can't take it all - there's always that. And yea. Some may like it this way.
Agreements ... . From my coding adventures I feel privileged to say, that in how some things can taken in different ways, different people come to have different implied ideas when it comes to certain things and therefore how they are to be designed.

Speaking of Rufus for instance. It talks something about "size of the persistent partition" - and whatever it means by that is not what I understand by that. I understand, by having a persistent partition, that the remainder of the flashdrive is partitioned for use. What the Linux Tech Guy probably means is that due to the standards and traditions of backdoor tinkering it can create a shadow partition and wire it into the system somehow - or the size of the iso is adjusted to be of the specified size rather than the size implied by the image. [shrugs].
And I don't care enough to find out.

For what I care about, direct binary access is the next step from basic.

But - so: when speaking of standards, this whole thing would or should ultimately only serve one thing. And yea ... uhm ... this is stage one. Settling in ...