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I think the post title is understated, since I had a related thought: it's not hard to install most Linux distros on a laptop, and this post will intimidate peo

by neilv 2y ago

I think the post title is understated, since I had a related thought: it's not hard to install most Linux distros on a laptop, and this post will intimidate people. This post is about how one person did it on hard mode, to get it just how they want it. That's fine. I suspect that most of the people on HN could pretty easily install Debian, without documentation (just write this file raw to a USB flash drive, boot the laptop from it, and mostly accept the defaults from the menus): https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/debian-12.7.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/d...

rahimnathwani 2y ago
The article isn't about how to install a Linux distribution on your laptop. It's about installing Arch on your laptop. The fact that installing Debian is easier is true, but also irrelevant.
- neilv 2y ago
  The Debian example is relevant to my point that I think this article will intimidate people who don't already know Linux (but over the years have heard that it's a pain to get working on laptops, etc.).
nxicvyvy 2y ago
That's just a normal arch install, no hard mode about it.
- drtgh 2y ago
  Launch the guided archinstall is the comfortable mode, 2/3 of the article are done automatically through option selects at the beginning, and one installs Arch within two minutes. A configuration file can be saved also. The archinstall command/script doesn't (yet?) implement disk sector-size selection and some of the other relevant details of the article, but the introduction of this installation mode within Arch makes life easier, besides do not intimidate people. It is a notoriously big leap in the direction of usability, IMHO this is a path to follow (one of the paths to follow). PS: The article uses yay to install the DE. I think the article should have commented the difference between Core, Extra and AUR packages.
  - drtgh 2y ago
    > disk sector-size At least in the case of NVMe disks, changing the LBA format does not seem to increase performance, and more importantly, in some cases could degrade the random read-write speed for just increasing sequential a little (bad thing, random read-write it is more important that sequential for a SO). In theory the mainboard will select the appropriate format for the NVMe disk. https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/setting-4k-sector-size-on-nvme-ssds-does-performance-actually-change.289757/ https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/setting-4k-sector...

by neilv 2y ago

rahimnathwani 2y ago

The article isn't about how to install a Linux distribution on your laptop. It's about installing Arch on your laptop. The fact that installing Debian is easier is true, but also irrelevant.

neilv 2y ago
The Debian example is relevant to my point that I think this article will intimidate people who don't already know Linux (but over the years have heard that it's a pain to get working on laptops, etc.).

nxicvyvy 2y ago

That's just a normal arch install, no hard mode about it.

drtgh 2y ago
Launch the guided archinstall is the comfortable mode, 2/3 of the article are done automatically through option selects at the beginning, and one installs Arch within two minutes. A configuration file can be saved also. The archinstall command/script doesn't (yet?) implement disk sector-size selection and some of the other relevant details of the article, but the introduction of this installation mode within Arch makes life easier, besides do not intimidate people. It is a notoriously big leap in the direction of usability, IMHO this is a path to follow (one of the paths to follow). PS: The article uses yay to install the DE. I think the article should have commented the difference between Core, Extra and AUR packages.
- drtgh 2y ago
  > disk sector-size At least in the case of NVMe disks, changing the LBA format does not seem to increase performance, and more importantly, in some cases could degrade the random read-write speed for just increasing sequential a little (bad thing, random read-write it is more important that sequential for a SO). In theory the mainboard will select the appropriate format for the NVMe disk. https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/setting-4k-sector-size-on-nvme-ssds-does-performance-actually-change.289757/ https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/setting-4k-sector...