Will update every so often
Started using Arch a year after windows 10 launched.
Early August
Initially upgraded my old Lenovo B575 to windows 10 to see the new OS, was pretty disappointed with the performance of OS on old hardware.
Reverted back to windows 7, but installed a bad iso I did not download from the microsoft website(side note finding an iso for their OS’s is wierd).[/details]
September to Early November
With two bad OS’s I thought what the hell, let’s throw Linux to see if it can make my already 4-5 year old laptop last longer. Installed Arch with the Arch Anywhere installer. The B575 lasted until November when the sata connection on the motherboard no longer recognized my SSD. Until I got a new laptop, I ran a live cd environment of Manjaro XFCE off of a 16gb usb drive.
[details=November to Late Febuary]Eventually I found a Thinkpad E570 on black friday asked what the forum thought about it, and bought it. Initially the Thinkpad came with windows 10 preinstalled, so I kept it on the laptop until late March (in the event where I wanted to play Overwatch or needed windows). At the same time, I took the SSD from the B575 and put it into the Thinkpad with Arch Linux via Arch Anywhere.
March to April
In the first couple weeks of using arch via Arch Anywhere, I tried to figure out how to get the dedicated scroll button on the laptop to work and asked the forum. During my attempts to solve the issue, I accidentally uninstalled dependencies for other packages and accidentally broke the GUI.
At the time, I had no idea how to access the terminal from boot, so I decided to try installing Manjaro. I was unable to install Manjaro(b/c the live installer did not boot to desktop), so I tried Antergos. Antergos booted and installed perfectly.
I tried running Overwatch on the Thinkpad and found the performance unbearable compared to my main machine, so I took the pci ssd(which had Windows 10) from the laptop and threw it into my main machine.
Initially I tried to install Manjaro (again) on my desktop, but faced the same issue I did when installing it onto the Thinkpad. Wiped the PCI SSD clean and installed Arch Linux via Antergos. Antergos worked, and I have been using it when I am not playing Overwatch.
After installing Antergos, I wanted to use my one terabyte mechanical hard drive as a mass storage drive between Windows and arch. I asked the forum (again) and solved the issue.
April to May
On my Thinkpad, I kept trying to find a solution to my problem and I accidentally uninstalled dependencies for other packages again.
However, this time I was not at home during the weekend, so I could not just wipe the drive clean and reinstall via Antergos. I had to get down and dirty.
In the first couple of hours, I learned how to access the terminal before the laptop booted to the desktop GUI, from internet searches. After a couple searches, I decided to reinstall GDM as that was recommended. I learned how to switch Display managers from that experience. I felt really good learning how to fix it afterwards instead of reinstalling Antegros (even though it ate threw 4-6 hours of my time)
At the current time of writing, I am trying to find a alternative for a desktop background switcher.
June to July
Got a background switcher, still trying to find window tiling app, keep getting issues like this the monitor would not work (I documented it in September of 2017)
July to August
In an effort to find a desktop environment that works similar to windows, I decided to try XFCE, KDE, and Budgie. I didn’t feel like researching into display scaling in either KDE or XFCE, so I tried Budgie.
I was able to move the top panel to the bottom, and my desktop finally looks like windows. Now to find a window tiling app. I tried posting to look for it in this thread I wasn’t able to find an alternative, so I guess I will have to manually resize the windows
CHALLENGE COMPLETE
I am still having the same monitor issue (again) Arch Linux Crossover 289k not displaying desktop after login I was not able to solve the issue. I got annoyed manually resizing the windows, so I tried this afternoon (9/12/17) to make XFCE work. As I explained in my post in the post your desktop thread, https://forum.level1techs.com/t/official-post-your-desktop-mobile-screenshot-thread/74865/617?u=bedhedd
In an desperate attempt to have a perfect taskbar, I signed back into Gnome(to see if the grass was greener on the other side). While browsing the extensions list, I decided to do a search on the list for “windows taskbar”, and found the extension Dash to panel which was the perfect solution.
I feel like I took a journey through the various Desktop environments. Started with Gnome, switched to budgie, tried to use XFCE and KDE, and now I am back with Gnome. I switched to Budgie, XFCE, and KDE as standins for Windows.
I thought budgie was the answer and I should wait for window tiling, boy was I wrong. Annoyed with the wierd issue Arch Linux Crossover 289k not displaying desktop after login I decided to try XFCE to see if it would solve my issue. It did not, and I spent an afternoon tweaking XFCE to have a task bar the same as Windows. I got the appearance correct, but I couldn’t figure out how to rebind the caps key to super or how to pin items to the pannel.
So… after wandering around the various DEs I ended up in with the same one I started from. I guess this went full circle. I now have a four corner tiling with shell tile and a perfect taskbar with Dash to panel. My desktop finally feels complete.
keyring error solution(happens if you don't update for a while)
s: signature from Antergos Build Server (Automated Package Build System) <[email protected]> is invalid
:: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/antergos-desktop-settings-1.7-1-any.pkg.tar.xz is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)).
Do you want to delete it? [Y/n]
error: failed to commit transaction (invalid or corrupted package) Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.use this
sudo pacman -Scc
sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys
sudo pacman -Syu