i just installed Arch 7.1 noodle and when i rebooted i was sent to a command prompt saying my localhost. upon hit enter i was logged in as root. did I make some mistake or is this right. if this is right what is the next step.

most answers can be found on the arch-wiki pages or on the arch forum.

did you do a base install? if yes:

a) password for root b) add user account c) activate internet connection, for me it was d) update base installif there's a kernel panic after rebooting, change your lilo/grub config-file (initrd=/boot/kernel26.img instead of initrd26.img)

e) install x11 f) configure xorg.conf don't forget to rename xorg.conf.hwd to xorg.conf in /etc/X11

g) install nvidia (or ati) drivers. check wiki for ati-drivers, for nvidia it is h) update xorg.conf with nvidia don't forget to include "nvidia" in /etc/rc.conf. check wiki for ati

i) install kde to autostart kde on startup, change 2 lines in /etc/inittab:
id:5:initdefault:
x:5:respawn:/opt/kde/bin/kdm -nodaemon
in /home/[username_here]/.xinitrc uncomment the line
exec startkde

k) install more programs...

thanx chilebiker thanx. this was exactly what i needed... just a thought i see what the big deal is about. i think you guys have found your newest arch convert.

@thebiggiantmouse
you're welcome!

i myself recently switched from mandriva to arch, and i know what it means to install this distro - it took me close to three evenings to finally get it working but i must say it was well worth all the trouble, i just love it!

you shouldnt really use the 0.7.1 installer. its almost a year old and the changes are humongous since then. try the latest 0.8 isos available. they should solve many potential problems

Where can I download this LQ downloads only goes to

The 0.8 iso is still only alpha, but it's available here . Since arch using a rolling release, 0.8 cd is just what's in the stable at the time of release. I don't know if the alpha cd is only stable, or if it also includes things from the unstable repository that they expect to have ready by the official release. The biggest concern would be if the installer is still buggy. There's a discussion about the cd on the arch forums here

Since it sounds like you have arch working now, there's no reason to reinstall with the 0.8 cd anyway though. Like I said the rolling release means if when you update you're installed packages you have everything just the same. The differences between releases are only significant for what you get when you first install.

Can you easily upgrade from version to version, like distros like ubuntu you can use the distro upgrade util to upgrade from say breezy to dapper, can you do this with arch?

Many thanks.

It's even easier than with ubuntu.

There really isn't separate versions in arch, more like versions of the install. Once it's installed the regular update process (pacman -Syu) will update everything to the repositories. Each version is just what's in the repositories at the time it's released.

Ah i see thanks for that bit of info, might give this a shot sometime then mabye.