Archlinux channel FAQ

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Contents

Boot

Q: Cannot boot arch because a daemon/gdm/kdm gets stuck

A: Single user mode to the rescue.
  1. Boot to single user mode by appending 1 or s to kernel line in grub.
  2. Then edit the daemons array in rc.conf and remove the daemon which caused the problem.
  3. telinit 3 to go back to multi user mode .
  4. Then try to track down the issue by running the daemon manually.

Xorg

Q: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace doesn't exit X

A: New xorg disables zapping with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace by default. You can enable it by adding the following lines to xorg.conf
Section "ServerFlags"
        Option	"DontZap" "false"
EndSection
For more configuration options, read the Xorg page.

Q: ZOMG where is ATI Catayst driver

Q: Keyboard and mouse not working

A: Input hotplugging is enabled by default in new xorg.
  1. Make sure xf86-input-evdev is installed
  2. Make sure hal and dbus are installed and added to daemons array in /etc/rc.conf
  3. Make sure hal and dbus are running
  4. For configuration, copy files from /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/ to /etc/hal/fdi/policy/
  5. Important policy files are
    1. keyboard and mouse drivers 10-x11-input.fdi
    2. keymap 10-keymap.fdi
    3. synaptics 11-x11-synaptics.fdi

If you want to revert to old way of using xorg conf then add this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "ServerFlags"
     Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection
Read xorg and Xorg_input_hotplugging for more details

Q: Synaptics touchpad not working

A: # Have you installed xf86-input-synaptics
  1. Have you configured synaptics as described here http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Configuration
  2. Checking whether your configuration is correct
    1. Restart hal
    2. Check output of lshal. It should have the options you added in 11-x11-synaptics.fdi
Read more about Synaptics

Q: Setting Keymap

A: # copy /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/10-keymap.fdi to /etc/hal/fdi/policy/ and change it according to your layout
Read this and this for more info

Q: Xorg doesn't start

A: # Check if your system is completely updated.
  1. Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for any errors. Errors start with (EE) and warnings start with (WW)
  2. If you are using "startx", check if ~/.xinitrc is correct

Pacman

Q: Filename exists in filesystem

A: Read this

Q: Failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)

A: Check /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist and make sure atleast one mirror is uncommented. You can choose the best mirror using rankmirror

Q: How can I install an older version of a package/How can I downgrade a package?

A: This is how you do it
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