User-contributions.org

Arch Linux Office Install CD does now install from individual packages same as Arch install CD, instead of installing a pre-installed copy of a complete system. With individual packages the fonts, kernel image, and permissions are properly configured. Also not an upgraded copy but latest packages. There is a visible performance difference.

With version 0.7.2.6 you will now have an “original” Arch Linux with same easy of install and post configure as in the earlier ALOI-CD versions.

Home page/download here.

It has been requested to get a guide line how to make your own install CD from Arch Linux Office Install CD i.e. to replace with different packages.

Here are the instructions. Click here.

Download Arch Linux Office Install CD here.

There is a new update in Arch Linux Office Install CD. Packages are ungraded to 17 September updates, in setup includes an additional script to select keyboard map, and configure “/etc/locale.gen”.

Screenshoots:
System Configure click here
Keymap click here

Home page/download here.

Arch Linux Office Install CD:
Documantation and download, click here.

The idea with this install CD, is to get fast and easily Arch Linux installed. Once installed user can straight a way start working with office, internet, and web development programs.I am targeting here users with no Linux experience.

End of this month (August) I am converting six Windows machines to Linux. The users have never seen Linux before, so I made one new Arch Linux installation CD 0.7.2-1 for fast and easy setup with no required configure nor post configure. Once installed the user can straight a way start working with popular Linux programs for office, internet and web development.

I removed all individual packages from the original installation CD and replaced them with three tarballs containing a ready made setup. I also included GParted Live CD image to resize and add new partitions before installation. The CD is 2 in 1. The whole setup can be installed in 20 minutes.

(F1) boot message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arch Linux Office Install CD ver. 0.7.2-1 (31-Jul-06)
For PC i686 only (e.g. Pentium III or above)

F1 - boot message.
F2 - more information.

Press ENTER or type 'arch' to boot the Installation CD.

Type 'gparted' to boot the GParted Live CD to resize or add
new hdd partitions. Or to test X (vga).
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

To use the CD's kernel to boot into your existing Arch system,
type:  'vmlinuz root=/dev/hdXY noinitrd ro' (w/out quotes)
(/dev/hdXY is your root partition)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(F2) more information:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
< << Arch Linux Office Installer CD ver. 0.7.2-1  >>>
31-July-2006

This CD installs a complete setup of Arch Linux distribution. No configure
is needed except preparing hard disk, set mountpoints, and install LILO
bootloader. Also no post configure. Once installed you can straight a way
start working with popular Linux programs for office, internet, and web
development. If you are new to Linux this installer is a good starting
place to begin.

After installation and booted in hard disk, instructions are shown how to
auto configure X (vga) and login to desktop.

This CD installs KDE desktop, OpenOffice, GnuCash accounting, Scribus
desktop publishing, Mozilla-Firefox web browser, Mozilla-Thunderbird
email client, Quanta web development, K3b CDwriter, Apache HTTP
server, PHP scripting language, CUPS common UNIX printing system,
XMMS multimedia player, Mplayer video player, Gparted hard disk
partitioning, and Acroread Adobe acrobat reader.

Developed by User-contributions.org - http://www.user-contributions.org/
Arch Linux - http://www.archlinux.org/

Press Enter to boot                                        F1 - boot message

——————————————————————————

The CD is 643MB. Will be uploaded soon. Keep in mind there are no selectable options, designed for the newbies or users liking a ready made setup i.e. only one type of filesystem “ext3″, standard kernel, one pre-setup userspace, pre-installed packages, and KDE. No headache.

PkgData contains additional Arch package information with long description, type of application, and thumbnail. Version 0.61 has 1,198 long descriptions for current and extra. 61% of all official packages. Each record has a separate file with package name and extension (dsc, app, or jpg) e.g. “gftp.dsc”, “gftp.app”, and “gftp.jpg”.

Example “alsaplayer.app”:
Multimedia :: SoundAudio :: Players :: MP3

Pkgdata is not a search engine (tool) but a library for front-end package managers. With pkgdata the front-end developers can now add new search criteria, or include a sub-category for Arch’s main categories. Example search for “Email” packages or “Video” within “multimedia” category (if abs tree is included). Or “Cryptography” or “IDE” within “devel” category.

Here is a sample in PkgInfo (ruby front-end) click here.

To keep pkgdata updated, to include new records without updating the package, it has one simple script downloading latest information.

AUR click here.
Arch package in usercb repo click here.

jimbo-62:
Seems so. Almost nobody is posting (Usercb Forum). No visible activity. Which is a shame. Archie is the only thing that makes Arch usable to anyone but a Linux geek.

z4ziggy:
as a geek, im sure u can understand me - lately i hardly have the time to even look at the forums. however, activity is not dead - on the contrary, 0.6rc3 is nearly finished, with tons of fixes and new stuff. im just perfecting the gensplash stuff (we switched from my beloved bootsplash… :sorry face:) and ensuring the xfce iso creation on mkliveiso (so users can create their own iso 1-to-1 as me). once i get this done ill release 0.6rc3 and work on the kde iso, hopefully to be released soon after.

The bottom line - Archie is not dead release should be expected within days.

What I have missed in Arch Linux is a comprehensive package information. Pacman is good when knowing the name of packages wanted to install. Same when checking at Arch home page. What’re new and alternative beside the installed packages in my machine, for last two years, I have not changed many and few new installed. Lot of new packages have been added in repos throughout the years but the packages name often don’t mean anything, “cool” names. The categorization helps to some extent but are technical names and within a category are hundreds of packages. Same type of applications in different categories making it difficult to search e.g. “graphics” apps are in office, multimedia and science. The description is short and may not give a proper idea if worthy to install.

Freshmeat.net has one of the most informative package information and is presented well what user would like to know about a program. Ubuntu’s package manager gave me the idea how to present such information. When combining these two, it become something interesting. The development is in Ruby with Glade interface.

PkgInfo (Package Information), view screenshot click here.

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