Does archlinux have a GUI installer?
 

Does archlinux have a GUI installer?

With arch it is a low-res gui type of thing. You select a few options and it holds your hand as you go hrough each. I think 6 options in all, like 'select packages', 'configure system', 'select kernel', 'install bootloader', and a few others. Most of it is pretty straight forward. The scary part fro some is the 'confiugure system' part where you edit fstab, lilo.conf, rc.conf, hosts. the only thing you really need to do is make sure the bootloader is ok (basic part done automatically) and installed and that the hosts file has an entry for the local host name chosen in rc.conf. To get the network and sound going you can configure and load modules in rc.conf too. You need to know a little about linux configuration. Once installed, pacman can be used to get kde, gnome, or xfce. I think it comes with kde, but yoiu need to select it in 'install packages' or whatever.

Sounds too hard for me. What about slack does that have a simple GUI installer?

Slackware does not have a GUI installer, but the installation is very easy

GUI is not always simple... But Slackware installer is much simpler than Archlinux.
In Arch partitioning part is very anoying. :)

If you want GUI's use distros like Fedora, Mandrake, and SuSE.

Arch has a curses interface which is pretty basic but the partitioning bit might take a few goes for it to click what you're actually doing there :p Isn't stated as clearly as it might be.

I partitioned before installation which made it very easy. you can use the knoppix live cd for this.

hotplug is waaaay too slow to fire up, but I'm still a bit confused as to which modules to put in rc.conf. Is there some easy way to find out which module does what exactly and whether it would be of general benefit to have them in rc.conf? It would be pointless to have stuff I don't need starting up.

Yeah i´m still a linux newbie so im sticking with GUI distros till i can learn a bit more.

DesyphER - I would make the jump to either Slack or Arch if I were you. Prior to using Slack I, like you, spent most of my time with "GUI distros"... problem is I didn't learn squat from them. When I moved to slack I encountered several small problems/anoyances, however, trolling around the boards here I found answers to almost everything. When I couldn't find an answer, I just posted a question and invariably was able to work my way through everything with the help of the great people here.

I have since moved on to Arch and love it.... but Slack, in my opinion, is a great learning distro as everything is set up as it should be and the amount of support you can find on the boards here is awesome. I learned more in 1 month of using Slack than I did in the previous year of using Mandrake.

Confront your fears - you may come to discover they were unfounded.

Not to mention sometimes you cant run GUI distros on old machines when you want to run a webserver or anything. Its a nice feeling when things work too :)

Arch Installer
 

The Arch installer is very similar to the slackware installer aside from the fact that for partitioning you are actually dumped in cfdisk. Personally I like this option more that most installers partitioning schemes... it gives you complete control... just remember that Arch uses udev (not devfs) by default so the disks aren't hda per say... they are /dev/discs/disc0/part1... etc. Another difference is that you have to manually edit a few configuration files... nothing extremely difficult... if you've "looked under the hood" of any linux before the Arch wiki does a great job of explaining things and making some suggestions for values. All in all arch is great for somone looking for "Gentoo without all that compiling" or "Slackware with [ACTUAL] package management" I like it so far... there are a few bugs... but it is great for a distro that is on version 0.7... I can't wait until version 1!!!!

Authentic Arch Linux GUI Installer
 

Thought you may find this interesting. A GUI installer project for authentic Arch Linux. The FU-Arch (for users Arch) project.

http://www.jeffstory.org/wordpress/

and when you didn't learn anything getting it installed how do you propose the new morons you just created fix something when it breaks?

If you're going to necro a 9 yo thread maybe it should be for something that helps the community

Lol .... By all means then you should stay with your Arch derived distro. Nothing wrong with that. Simply don't use my GUI installer.

As for your other comments, I have used the real Arch Linux for 5 years pretty much exclusively. Long before there were any Arch based easy to install derivatives like you use.

What I learned is there is a demand for something to bridge the gap between an authentic Arch, and the current derivatives. The GUI installer is going to install a base Arch install. Not a full GUI desktop, so you see Genius_chris, you would still need to learn how to use the command line to install everything else, and configure it.
I think Arch is one of the best distros out there, I just can't align myself with the “the Arch way, principles, and philosophy” part of the requirement.

You're sounding like you want to be kinda elitist, but don't you actually have to be able to use Arch to exhibit that behavior?

As for being useful, I'm offering to fund this project. What have you done other that your feeble attempt to be elitist?