Hasty noob in Arch Linux trouble

[DJ_OJ_1980]

I set up my Pi yesterday with Debian using Element 14's "Getting Started" document, everything went smoothly.

As an absolute noob, I started following the training videos at:
http://www.element14.com/community/docs ... ing-videos

Having followed tutorials 1&2 on my laptop, I figured that tutorial 2 could be done directly on the Pi.

Realising I didn't have virtual box (and so no access to Linux Additions), I decided to skip that part and go on to installing Synaptic.

On opening aptitude and pressing 'g' to install Synaptic, I had a message advising that I wasn't logged in as a root user - I was logged in as the standard 'pi' user.

A bit of Googling led me to conclude that I needed to download ARCH Linux ARM - I unzipped this and copied the image to my SD Card (Already containing the Debian software) using Win32DiskManager. I then put the card back in the Pi and booted up.

I was presented with a command screen with:
"Arch Linux 3.1.9-20-ARCH+ (tty1)

alarmpi login:"

I was unable to login as 'Pi' but the 'root' login worked fine. However, when I type 'startx' to get to the main screen I see "-bash: sudo:command not found"

I'm not sure what to do next. Can anyone spot my obvious mistake(s)??

Many thanks

Owain

[Super-Nathan]

You have made no mistakes, other than being hasty.

Arch linux is a distribution aimed at users who know what they want and are willing to build it from the console up. It does not come with a GUI by default you have to choose and install your own. startx did exactly what it is supposed to do, nothing. because the fresh image does not have any installed.

You have 2 options:

1) switch back to the Debian Image. Debian has tons of pre-installed software and is relativly easy for new users.

2) There is a really helpfule guide here: http://www.mybiteofpi.com under the "guides" section that will take you from a new arch user into a working desktop. Full disclosure, I wrote the guide, so feel free to email or message me with problems or questions.

[Super-Nathan]

If you switch back to Debian:

You did not have root user powers because the root user can do ANYTHING! So distributions like Debian make you sign in as a regular user. If as a regular user you want to do something that requires root powers like install synaptic

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apt-get install synaptic

would become

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sudo apt-get install synaptic

Sudo means Super User DO. It temporarrily gives you root powers. If you type a command and it says that you must be root, you do not have to retype the whole thing with sudo in front of it. you can either hit the up arrow, which goes back in your command history to get to the command and then move the curser to the begining of the line to type or sudo, or simply

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sudo !!

this means: execute the last line with sudo in front of it.


Now if you want to log in to the root account you need to make a root user, which is blank by default in Debian. to do this

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sudo passwd

this will assign a root password.
now you can log in as root like this

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su

or from the main login screen with "root" as a username.

[DJ_OJ_1980]

Thats great, thank you.

In the end I removed Arch from the SD card, formatted it and reinstalled Debian. The Pi started up OK but I get a message during startup saying "Starting NFS common utilities: statd failed!"

Everything seemed to be working OK so I'm going to crack on and take a look at that error another time. It may become the subject of my second thread...