Arch Linux Office Install CD

From UsercbWiki

This project started: 31-July-2006
Last update: 17-December-2006
Latest version: arch-office-install-0.7.2.6

Contents

Introduction

Office and Internet

thumb_aloi-office.jpg

(click to enlarge)

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, Gimp image manipulation program, Mozilla-Firefox web browser, KMail client, BlueFish 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. (appx. 2.5GB)

This CD also includes GParted Live CD, fast, small in size (~30mb), and use minimal resources to get that disk partitioned the way you want it. GParted LiveCD uses Xorg, the lightweight Fluxbox window manager, and the latest 2.6 Linux Kernel.

Kernel 2.6.18.3 for IDE/SCSI systems.

Package list:
http://user-contributions.org/projects/aloi-cd/package.list

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

Arch Linux
http://www.archlinux.org/

GParted Live CD (ver. 0.3)
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

More information: rasat (at) user-contributions (dot) org

Download and Howto

1. Download it here (arch-office-install-0.7.2.6.iso) 695MB:
http://user-contributions.org/projects/aloi-cd/download/

Md5sum: 1417515caf4ed1cece95528682abf469

Note:

KMail is missing. To install either....
run in root: pacman -Sy kdepim
or
download and run: pacman -A kdepim-3.5.5-3.pkg.tar.gz

2. Burn the iso image in 695MB CD.
3. Boot your computer from the CD and wait until you see the boot prompt.

Note: To boot from a CD you must to set your computer's bio setting in "1st bootable device" to CDROM.

Boot prompt:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arch Linux Office Install CD ver. 0.7.2.6
(Arch Linux 0.7.2 packages upgrade 17-Dec-06)
For PC i686 only (Pentium III and above)

F1 - boot message.
F2 - more information.

Press ENTER or type 'arch' to boot the Install 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)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HD Partitioning

Welcome

thumb_welcome.jpg

(click to enlarge)

To install the CD content you need two Hard Disk partitions, preferable three. (1) swap partition 512MB, (2) root "/" partition min. 4.5GB. If you have more space add (3) home "/home" partition min. 3GB.

If three partitions, then root contains system and applications, and home your personal data (email, documents, etc.)

1. At CD boot prompt type: gparted
2. Wait until asking to set your keyboard, language, and vga driver (select "vesa" if you don't know). Select screen resolution (1024x758 if you don't know).
3. With Gparted application do the partitioning. Resize existing partitions. Create new partitions and format with ext3 filesystem.

Arch Linux Office Install

Main Menu

thumb_main-menu.jpg

(click to enlarge)

1. At CD prompt press Enter or type: arch

2. At boot prompt type: /arch/setup

3. Press "Ok" in wellcome dialog box.

Prepare Hard Disk

Prepare HD

thumb_prephd.jpg

Partition view

thumb_fdisk.jpg

In MAIN MENU select "1. Prepare Hard Disk"

1. Select "1. "Partition Hard Drives" to view the partitions (device numbers).

   Name       Flags    Part Type FS Type        [Label]       Size (MB)
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   hda1       Boot      Primary  W95 FAT32                      2640.32
   hda2                 Primary  Linux ext3                     5749.48
   hda3                 Primary  Linux ext3     [home]          5231.28
   hda5                 Logical  Linux swap / Solaris            542.87
   hda6                 Logical  Linux ext3     [work]          8389.79
   hda7                 Logical  Linux ext3     [save]          4194.90
   hda8                 Logical  Linux ext3                     3684.93
   hda9                 Logical  Linux ext3                     3158.51
   hda10                Logical  W95 FAT32                      7386.31

Quit and returns back to "Prepare Hard Disk" menu.

2. Select "Set Filesystems Mountpoints"

1. Select the partition to use as swap e.g. /dev/hda5 as shown in the partition view.
When asked: "Would you like to create a file system on /dev/hda5" press "Yes".

2. Select the partition to mount as / e.g. /dev/hda2

3. Select the filesystem for /dev/hda2. There is only one fs, select "ext3".
When asked: "Would you like to create a file system on /dev/hda2" check press "Yes".

4. Select any additional partitions to mount under your new root (select DONE when finished). If you select an additional partition e.g. /dev/hda3, when asked: "Enter the mountpoint for /dev/hda3" keep the /home and press "OK".

Select "Return to Main Menu".

Select Packages

In MAIN MENU select "2. Select Packages"

This will install three (3) packages, total 2.5GB.
Please be patient for appx. 14 minutes.
"Installing package 1, hold on ... (appx. 1 min.)"
"Installing package 2, hold on... (appx. 7 min.)"
"Installing package 3, hold on...(appx. 6 min."
"Installation complete."

Configure System

Configure thumb_config.jpg
Keymap

thumb_keymap.jpg

(click to enlarge)

In MAIN MENU select "3. Configure System"

1. Keymap "Select your keymap"

After selecting "keymap" a message appears:

Select your keybord map. If not listed press Cancel, and configure manually
in /etc/rc.conf or later.

2. Select "/etc/locale.gen Local languages"

After selecting "/etc/locale.gen" a message appears showing how to edit.

 In the list of supported locales (languages) uncomment the ones you need.
 Default settings: 

 en_US.UTF-8	UTF-8 (US English) <br>
 en_US	ISO-8859-1

Set locales you want to include in the system. A small portion of the default configure is shown here:

# Configuration file for locale-gen
#
# lists of locales that are to be generated by the locale-gen command.
#
# Each line is of the form:
#
#     <locale> <charset>
#
#  where <locale> is one of the locales given in /usr/share/i18n/locales
#  and <charset> is one of the character sets listed in /usr/share/i18n/charmaps
#
#  Examples:
#  en_US ISO-8859-1
#  en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
#  de_DE ISO-8859-1
#  de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15
#
#  The locale-gen command will generate all the locales,
#  placing them in /usr/lib/locale.
#
#  A list of supported locales is included in this file.
#  Uncomment the ones you need.
#
#aa_DJ.UTF-8	UTF-8
#aa_DJ	ISO-8859-1
#aa_ER	UTF-8
#aa_ER@saaho	UTF-8
#aa_ET	UTF-8
#af_ZA.UTF-8	UTF-8

Save, press "Ctrl o", to exit: "Ctrl x"

3. Select "/etc/rc.conf System Config"

After selecting "/etc/rc.conf" a message appears:

Edit here locale, keymap, network and other configures.
If unsure, keep default settings and configure later.

This is the main configuration for Arch Linux. A small portion of the default configure is shown here. You need to edit is: TIMEZONE="Asia/Singapore" to your location.

Save, press "Ctrl o", to exit: "Ctrl x"

# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#

LOCALE="C"
#LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="Asia/Singapore"
#KEYMAP="us"

#Below keymap installed by ALOI-CD.
KEYMAP="fi"

CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#

rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux.

4. Select "/etc/fstab Filesystem Mountpoints"

Fstab directs the mounting of HD partitions.
After selecting "/etc/fstab" a message appears showing how to edit."

Check if partitions in /etc/fstab are as shown here below:

Swap partition is /dev/hda5
Root '/' partition is /dev/hda2

A small portion of the default /etc/fstab configure is shown here.

# Below lines installed by ALOI-CD.
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 / ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 /home ext3 defaults  0 0

Save, press "Ctrl o", to exit: "Ctrl x"

fstab - static file system information.

Select "Return to Main Menu".

Install Bootloader

In MAIN MENU select "4. Install Bootloader".

When you turn on the computer LILO bootloader appears. Select the operating system you want to boot. In this sample only Arch Linux will appear.

Follow the instructions.

 Before installing LILO, you must review the configuration file.
 You will now be put into the editor.  After you save your changes
 and exit the editor, LILO will be installed.
 Check if root in /etc/lilo.conf is as shown here below:

 Root partition is root=/dev/hda2

A small portion of the default /etc/lilo.conf configure is shown here.

image=/boot/vmlinuz26
	label=ArchLinux
	root=/dev/hda2
        initrd=/boot/initrd26-full.img
	vga=788
	read-only

## Uncomment below lines for Windows.
#other=/dev/hda1
#	label=Windows

Save, press "Ctrl o", to exit: "Ctrl x"

lilo.conf - LILO bootloader configure.

Exit Install

Web and Media

thumb_aloi-web-media.jpg

(click to enlarge)

In MAIN MENU select "5. Exit Install".

To reboot the computer, type: reboot.
Before rebooting remove the CD.

Note: At first boot, the startup stops for a while enabling a recovery journal. Be patient.

Good luck!!

Hint & Tips

  • Hint&Tips - Useful hints to do things easier or get it work.

What's Linux

http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/

Help

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://bbs.archlinux.org/

Make your own install CD

How to make an install CD with your own packages. Read Make Install CD.