I'm planning on installing Arch Linux on an old laptop that was abandoned because of a simple virus in which I gleefully removed in a simple installation of MalwareBytes and a long wait. Anyway, nobody uses it, and neither do I since I have a desktop, and I wouldn't even consider using it as the way it is, not only is it overloaded with crap, but it uses VISTA! I have no Win7 Installation CD that came with my Desktop to install, but I do have a WinXP one, but I'd much prefer Linux to WinXP. Anyway, back to the main topic, I already did a proper installation of Arch Linux in a Virtual Box, I set up the X Server and GNOME3 with the "Xinit /usr/bin/gnome-session" command, but I want to know if there is a way to make "Start x" as "Xinit /usr/bin/gnome-session" instead of something without a desktop environment. Another thing, I need a list of packages that I should have on it to make using it that much easier. Once again, this is an old laptop, and I'm sure nobody would care for it, as long as it worked. Also, I'm not used to the "pacman -S" command, I'm used to "apt-get", but I suppose there's no way to change the package manager. I just want a list of "MUST-HAVE" packages, a list of commands which will come in handy, etc.

I am still a beginner, only been using Linux for about 2 months now, but I'm interested in many distributions. Also, this has been copied and pasted into this section because I didn't know they had certain sections for certain distros.

The Arch Beginner's Guide is a good resource. All the info you need to get started in in there.

Not sure what you mean by "make "Start x" as "Xinit /usr/bin/gnome-session" instead of something without a desktop environment". The command startx will use the file .xinitrc. You can certainly use the gnome-session command there. If you're using gnome, though, you might want to just use gdm to start your session.

As for essential packages, it's impossible to say. There's a lot of options and everyone likes different things. If your laptop is fairly underpowered, you might consider more lightweight apps. (Though in that case, I don't know about going with gnome. Though if it runs Vista, gnome should be fine.)

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I tried gdm but it had a warning and an error, perhaps the tutorial didn't cover enough.

Startx without specifying gnome-session

But I tried "startx /usr/bin/gnome-session" and it worked like Xinit did, but I want to eliminate the path and just make gnome-session as startx.

For startx, put this in the file ~/.xinitrc

Now if you just type startx, it'll launch.

I don't use gdm, but if you describe more what you tried, we may be able to troubleshoot.

Didn't work. When I used the code, it just logged me off of root and sent me back to log in screen. When I tried it in the GUI, it said "Invalid Bus" or something. I think I messed up the installation. Also, most of the time it says "Warning ***: Cannot open display"... Man, what did I do wrong?

I followed this guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjTTl_9aUXc

First, don't do it as root. Create a user first. That might be the problem or more likely you're missing some xorg component or driver. Really, it's best to just take the beginner's guide step by step when starting out.

Actually, could you give me the exact file path? I can't find ~/.xinitrc, is it in /usr/bin?

~ is a shortcut for the current user's home directory. If you're root it expands to /root. If you're user is named theif, for example, and you were logged in as such, it would expand to /home/theif, or in this case /home/theif/.xinitrc

The file may not exist by default, in which case just create it.

Never mind, I made "Start" the alias for "startx /usr/bin/gnome-session", but I have a feeling that this won't be okay and I should do a reinstall and properly install it, but it seems fine now, though, will this be okay enough or should I do a reinstall? Also, another question, how I do I install GNOME2 instead of GNOME3, I don't like the look that much.

Official continuing support for gnome2 is probably not going to happen. Someone may create their own gnome2 packages and make them available at some point, but no guarantee.

You might consider looking at xfce if you don't care for the direction gnome is moving in.

The alias isn't really a problem, certainly doesn't need a reinstall. I still think you should go through the beginner's guide step by step and just make sure everything is in order. It'll help you learn the system as well.

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Thank you for the advice, I shall bookmark the guide and get to it once I am done with my homework, I've been putting it off for a bit lately XD