by Moss Bliss
This little distro is an Arch newcomer, and there were some surprises in store.
I downloaded the ISO and burned the stick. I installed the stick in my Lenovo ThinkPad T540p. The installer was simple to use once you figured out that there wasn’t a Continue button to hit, just an arrow. There was a choice of many desktops, including a phony Pantheon which was actually a themed Cinnamon. I chose the UKUI desktop mostly because I never used it. I was tempted to try Mate.
I was then prompted to select features, which are groups of applications. There are a number of different browsers I could select, as well as a number of different offices, including LibreOffice, FreeOffice and WPS office, perhaps others. I can choose my office package and my browser; otherwise I got a selection of types of packages and selected the category, not the individual software. When I was done selecting software, I got a disclaimer about the AUR. I then goet a recommendation to use additional cache because the installer needs to download a ton of packages. I selected None.
Let the system sort mirrors, leave them as they are, or manage them manually from a graphical list provided. I let the system sort the mirrors itself.
At this point it asked how I would like to proceed, with the default being erasing the whole disc and installing. Since I have two discs, and since it did not give me the option, I chose the manual option. I selected sdb1, with boot on sda. I assume I will have to use bios to get to the distro I have installed on sda1 to reset GRUB.
Instead of proceeding with the installation it asked me to set up my user. Most distros either have you do this earlier, later, or wait until you finish the install and boot into it to get this task done. It’s a fairly common looking screen. Unlike some, it did not try to create my username from my real name, which I found refreshing.
Then it presented me with a checklist to show that yes I’d done everything, I hit the “next” arrow and was asked for confirmation to continue the installation.
While it is installing it lets you know the six themes that they have created.
The installation started at 1:21 and soon started fetching software and cycling through its promo screens, of which there are three.
Power management attempted to turn the screen off even though my computer was plugged in, I had to keep moving my mouse to keep it from going to sleep. I would hope that it would continue installing, but I have had Arch installations which did not. I was able to set the power profile while it was installing, and also found an easy switch for turning off my touchpad.
Firefox 93.0.1
Linux kernel 5.14.9.arch2-1
Downloading finished at 1:57 and installation started. Installation finished at 1:59, and configuration and cleanup commenced, which completed in less than a minute and then I rebooted.
It booted directly to the OS and the boot was fast. Updating was not necessary as it installed the latest packages. I just have to install packages that did not offer me and configure things. Plus I am happy to report that the installer copied my Wi-Fi information to the finished installation.
But it would not use my Wi-Fi. I had to physically turn off a message that Ethernet was not connected before it would start using my Wi-Fi.
I could not get the forum page to finish loading, and tried again over the next few days. If I can’t get my wifi working and can’t get help for it, that’s the end of my review.