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Most of the learning curve on Arch is front-loaded. Once you have a system how you like it, the odds that a broken package will make it unbootable are small. T

Most of the learning curve on Arch is front-loaded. Once you have a system how you like it, the odds that a broken package will make it unbootable are small. That being said it probably took me 3-4 evenings to set up an encrypted disk and boot loader correctly, and another few weeks to tweak the window manager and various configs to be exactly how I like them. The best part, however, is that once you’ve got it there, the system really feel like yours.

Latty 6y ago
> The best part, however, is that once you’ve got it there, the system really feel like yours. This is it. There is an up-front cost to configuring your system, but once you have, you know what is there and how it is configured, so if something does go wrong, you know roughly where to look and how to deal with it. Things that "just work" tend to have more "magic" going on that becomes a big pain when it breaks or doesn't do what you want. It really depends on how you use your system, for me, Arch is perfect, but for some, it's just going to be an annoyance to set up for little gain over something where it is done for you.
- estebank 6y ago
  I think part of the appeal of Arch is the "Ikea effect"[1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect
odiroot 6y ago
> That being said it probably took me 3-4 evenings to set up an encrypted disk and boot loader correctly, What was hard about that part? Is it something you have to do by hand?
- diggan 6y ago
  Don't think it's about something being "hard", just "unknown" when you first come from Ubuntu et al into Arch, so you have to spend some time learning things. Also took me a few days to become knowledgable enough to be able to setup the system as I really wanted it. Encryption is definitely something you want to learn enough about to be comfortable with before diving into it and encrypting your entire system. Great starting point what you need to understand: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_...
- cweagans 6y ago
  There is no installer and you really have to understand how all the pieces fit together to be able to get something up and running. For instance, how does your bootloader know how to mount an encrypted boot partition, load whatever needs loaded, and then mount other encrypted disks as necessary. Where do you even _store_ your bootloader if the boot partition is encrypted? Which specific encryption method do you use? I've been using Linux since 2010 and when I went through this process, it took me several evenings to get it right as well, but now I have a much better understanding of how my system actually works under the hood. It's a valuable exercise, but comparing it to the polished install experience that e.g. Ubuntu or Fedora have, it's a pretty fair amount of work required.
spekcular 6y ago
For anyone interested in this, I was able to set up an install with an encrypted root using this guide: https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/31915e3d73a4ae45adc0efa9ba458b07 https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/31915e3d73a4ae45adc0ef... The same user has a guide for an install with an encrypted boot partition (which I have not used): https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/ee3041c04165926fca02deca675effe1 https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/ee3041c04165926fca02de... IMO these guides are superior to what is on the Arch wiki.

Latty 6y ago

> The best part, however, is that once you’ve got it there, the system really feel like yours. This is it. There is an up-front cost to configuring your system, but once you have, you know what is there and how it is configured, so if something does go wrong, you know roughly where to look and how to deal with it. Things that "just work" tend to have more "magic" going on that becomes a big pain when it breaks or doesn't do what you want. It really depends on how you use your system, for me, Arch is perfect, but for some, it's just going to be an annoyance to set up for little gain over something where it is done for you.

estebank 6y ago
I think part of the appeal of Arch is the "Ikea effect"[1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect

odiroot 6y ago

> That being said it probably took me 3-4 evenings to set up an encrypted disk and boot loader correctly, What was hard about that part? Is it something you have to do by hand?

diggan 6y ago
Don't think it's about something being "hard", just "unknown" when you first come from Ubuntu et al into Arch, so you have to spend some time learning things. Also took me a few days to become knowledgable enough to be able to setup the system as I really wanted it. Encryption is definitely something you want to learn enough about to be comfortable with before diving into it and encrypting your entire system. Great starting point what you need to understand: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_...
cweagans 6y ago
There is no installer and you really have to understand how all the pieces fit together to be able to get something up and running. For instance, how does your bootloader know how to mount an encrypted boot partition, load whatever needs loaded, and then mount other encrypted disks as necessary. Where do you even _store_ your bootloader if the boot partition is encrypted? Which specific encryption method do you use? I've been using Linux since 2010 and when I went through this process, it took me several evenings to get it right as well, but now I have a much better understanding of how my system actually works under the hood. It's a valuable exercise, but comparing it to the polished install experience that e.g. Ubuntu or Fedora have, it's a pretty fair amount of work required.

spekcular 6y ago

For anyone interested in this, I was able to set up an install with an encrypted root using this guide: https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/31915e3d73a4ae45adc0efa9ba458b07 https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/31915e3d73a4ae45adc0ef... The same user has a guide for an install with an encrypted boot partition (which I have not used): https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/ee3041c04165926fca02deca675effe1 https://gist.github.com/HardenedArray/ee3041c04165926fca02de... IMO these guides are superior to what is on the Arch wiki.