ArchLinux stopped working properly, I need help to uninstall and install a different distro
 

Hello, I know very little about computers and have only worked with Windows. A friend installed Arch in my old Dell computer last year but I cannot apply the updates any longer, they're accumulating..
In the Arch Linux forum they did not help me solve the problem, they said that if I don't know enough of Arch Linux I should install another distro. Can you please help me get rid of Arch and install another distro, maybe Mint or Ubuntu. Thank you!

you do not "uninstall" a distro; you simply use the hard drive partition for something else.
choose a distro, go to their website and look for instructions on how to create a bootable medium (usb usually) and how to install. then simply discard the partition containing archlinux, i.e. install the new distro there.
if archlinux is the only distro, you can usually choose "use the whole drive" in the installer.

keep in mind that all data on the drive will become unusable, so save what you need beforehand.

PS:
i cannot understand how your friend thought it might be a good idea to install archlinux for you, and then leave you alone with it.
it's a little sad, because you get the wrong impression of both linux in general (which can be quite easy to get around, depending on the distro you choose) and archlinux in particular, which is actually a really good distro - if you know how to use it.

Hi, thanks for replying. I went to Ubuntu's page. What is a bootable medium? Can I just click on the download button or it will conflict with what I'm using now? Complete newbie as you can see...

usually you "burn" the .iso to a USB stick. a CD or DVD is also possible.
simply downloading something doesn't "do" anything, no worries.
just follow the instructions on ubuntu pages, i'm sure you'll get around just fine.
keep in mind that
a) you want to use an LTS version!
b) vanilla ubuntu is quite heavy; if you have an old machine, you might want to try Xubuntu or Lubuntu instead.

Ok... I've just googled 'LTS' and Xubuntu, I see what you mean. Now I'll google 'burn the .iso', then I'll go back to Ubuntu's page to see if I can at least find the right downloading instructions.
Thank you for trying to help, the Arch Linux forum didn't feel very welcoming...
I'll go back to the forum if I get badly stuck. Bye for now

To download the install iso file, you click the big "Download" button on the web page.

Linux is about choice! Different distros are designed for different user populations. Arch is a much loved distro with a fiercely loyal user base, but it definitely is not suitable for newbies. Your friend should have been aware that what works for him would not necessarily work for you.

I think you are right about the Arch forum too. Because Arch is regarded as an expert's distro, the forum expects its users to be fairly familiar with Linux in general before they start out on Arch. I used Arch for a short time but I quickly came to dislike it, and part of the reason was this intense community vibe. There is so much stress on doing things "the Arch way" and I prefer to do things my way.

If you haven't resolved your problem, you might take a look at the Ubuntu link below, particularly the general principles section which 'might' apply. You gave no indication of which of the many releases of windows you might be using so I don't know if it will be helpful?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

you said "older dell laptop" - what people mean by "older" varies wildly, but i'll assume you mean something older than 5 years.
in that case i recommend xubuntu:
https://xubuntu.org/download/
installation instructions should be the same as for Ubuntu:
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutoria...ubuntu-desktop

Hey thanks all of you for the replies! what a difference between this forum and the other one!!
I managed to make the updates work again in my Arch Linux system, thanks to instructions I got in the Antergos forum, so I may stick to Arch after all. But before that, following the advice of all of you, I read a lot about other distros. My dell is very very old (almost 15 years and still working poor thing!), if I have problems again, I'd go for Xbuntu, yes. I only use this laptop to experiment with Linux. It is thanks to the support of people like you that I continue to persevere with Linux -and to enjoy it. Bye for now

You might also want to consider AntiX. It's based on Debian as Ubuntu is, but it's specifically designed to run well on old hardware.

i really don't recommend it, unless your much less computer illiterate than you give the impression to be.

ouch, that's ancient.
a rolling distro like archlinux (and anything based on it, really) is pretty pointless here.
you need something consrvative, based on debian stable probably.
also you are going to have performance problems with Ubuntu, definitely, and maybe also with Lubuntu or Xubuntu.
Go with AntiX, it checks all the points i mentioned.

How, is that a 32 bit machine?
Arch dropped support for 32 bit a while back. You can't run
arch on a 32 bit machine now and keep it updated. Unless you
are using some unofficial repo from somewhere.

https://www.archlinux.org/news/phasi...-i686-support/

Yup, they expect you to be able to read the wiki and manage your
own machine. If you ask a question that is clearly answered in
the wiki you may be flamed. Arch is for the experienced user.
Another reason not to use arch if you are new. But after saying
that, if can read a wiki and manage your own box then you can
use arch ok. The forum is for new problems that there is no wiki page
for yet, I guess. And the wiki is top notch.

Yup, even the file tree is the arch way. But pacman, pkgbuild, abs, sure does work well, and it has huge repo's.

oh, thanks for pointing that out, i completely missed it.
yes, that is 100% the case.

so, dear op, you cannot update archlinux anymore, at least not in its pure form.

You might try this to stay with 32bit Arch? After that, many of the other packages are still available in 32bit, else in the AUR. I expect it will be a challenge.
If you switch to another distro, may want to backup your /home directory first to keep your data. Another thing to consider is to generate a pacman package list so if you decide to go to another distro, you can refer to the list to reinstall same or similar packages in new distro. If you get a newer 64bit pc, try the Arch Wiki install instructions, the Arch Forum is helpful to people willing to learn - there are some other more newbie friendly forums that also can help learn Arch, I might get slammed for this but don't care, its all just 0's and 1's right? but Manjaro forums, and LinuxQuestions come to mind...