You Don't need Arch to use the Arch Wiki, it is my main source of information for setting up Ubuntu!
Posted by _HT03@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 68 comments
Just wanted to say that you can use the Arch Wiki to setup and troubleshoot your system on most distros without problem, the only big difference is the way to install a package, instead of the Arch repos and the AUR use your distro's way of installing that package...
I setup almost everything on my Ubuntu system using the Arch Wiki and I had no problem, it feels like the official Linux documentation!
ANewMind@reddit
Even after I stopped using Arch, their documentation has still been a regular resource for me. Even with other distros having repos that install packages for me, when tracking down errors or knowing how software can or should work, the Arch Wiki is still a great source of information.
TheLinuxITGuy@reddit
What did you move to?
ANewMind@reddit
Mostly Fedora. I like that it seemed to have packages that just worked out of the box and had most packages already available, and they seemed reliable. I already used CentOS a lot for servers, so it was the most simple thing.
Recently, I've been using Ubuntu because most of the guys at work are using it and a lot of the community is focusing on Ubuntu images after CentOS went Stream. My experience with Ubuntu has been unimpressive. I've been using zsh a lot more, which is nice, but that's not OS specific. The worst thing for me is that I can't seem to find a decent clipboard management that works in Ubuntu, and that's very important to me. So, I'll probably end up switching back to Fedora.
MustangGT089@reddit
Can confirm. Use it for Debian stuff all the time.
Groundbreaking-Life8@reddit
I had some trouble mounting my SSD parition with w*ndows still in it for the occasional windows exclusive needs, so I went searching for solutions, found a reddit post with the same issue but for Arch, someone gave a command, slapped it on Mint's terminal and poof, problem solved! really makes you think, huh.
tomradephd@reddit
the arch community always gets a bad rap. They're actually super helpful, and that shows by how the wiki is not only a great resource for arch users but also for everyone else.
I no longer use arch, but I'll always have a soft spot for it
taicy5623@reddit
There is a trap for brand new users, who don't know what to search, and they end up on the arch forums, WHERE PEOPLE ARE RUDE TO THEM.
Its that initial hump that people need help getting through.
Once you're past that you're golden though.
0riginal-Syn@reddit
Yeah, they do, and I think it more because people got tired of the meme/cringe worthy "I use Arch, btw". I just laugh at that now. When we were building some security IOT devices, I had a lot of good help from the community and will always be thankful. Like any community, you do get the ego-driven asshats, they had no more than any other distro.
VALTIELENTINE@reddit
We come off as unfriendly for directing people to the wiki, and reinforcing the idea that Arch users should be consulting the wiki before answering questions there.
For all the reasons in this post, the arch wiki can almost always answer the poster's question better than I can. Especially since people asking questions never provide the needed info
tomradephd@reddit
rtfm is rude, but rtm is just good advice
VALTIELENTINE@reddit
It's not rude when it comes to arch though, that's just how arch was designed:
If people don't want to rtfm then Arch is not the right distro for them. It's not at all rude to direct someone to the proper resources for their issue
FryBoyter@reddit
Unfortunately, the problem is that some people do not refer to a proper resource like https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman but only to httpshttps://wiki.archlinux.org.
VALTIELENTINE@reddit
wiki.archlinux.org is all they need. If they can type a question about pacman they can also type pacman into the search bar at the top of the page
FryBoyter@reddit
The page with pacman was an example, which I think should be obvious.
Often you simply have no idea what exactly you are looking for. For example, a few years ago I started creating my websites with Hugo (a generator for static websites). Hugo uses Go templates, which I had no knowledge of at that time. At some point I had a problem that I couldn't solve even after several hours of Google-Fu. And yes, I can and want to use a search engine. I was only able to solve my problem after someone else told me what to use, for example .Paginate $pages.ByTitle. If he had only referred me to https://gohugo.io/documentation/, I would not have been able to solve the problem back then.
VALTIELENTINE@reddit
That’s a good question then…
RTFM is used when people ask questions easily found and answered if they just searched the wiki.
If you’ve already searched and come with info and context then you don’t fall into that camp
CrazyKilla15@reddit
Thats not what they said.
If you had actually read their comment you may have noticed the difference, but i'll spell it out for you. Read The Fucking Manual (RTFM) vs Read The This Space Intentionally Left Blank Manual (RTM).
VALTIELENTINE@reddit
Then they didnt read what I said "We come off as unfriendly for directing people to the wiki,", I believed they were referencing my comment, as it was a direct reply to my comment
CrazyKilla15@reddit
there extremely clear and easy to understand comment was about how people are directed to the wiki. Rudely, insultingly, or professionally, reasonably.
VALTIELENTINE@reddit
But I don’t say “rtfm”, read my comment, I direct them to the arch wiki
Telling people to rtfm is not rude, that’s just the arch philosophy. If they think it’s rude then it’s likely not the right distro for them
adamkex@reddit
It doesn't need to be rude, one can rtfm very politely. Just ask if they've read the article on the wiki (or other resource) or a specific chapter of the article, link the page and then say you're willing to help if they still don't understand it
0riginal-Syn@reddit
Agreed, it is annoying when people as without the minimal research. I am an old school nerd from the Unix days, so it would have been a dream to have something like the wiki back then. The first thing I do is check the wiki or other online sources before asking. Unfortunately, many just go straight to asking without the basic research.
For fun, I actually had my LLM, running locally, train on the wiki for me. Works great for finding specific documents.
25x54@reddit
Yes, I am a 15-year Gentoo user, and Arch Wiki has helped me a lot
CreepyDarwing@reddit
While it's great that you've discovered this Linux Rosetta Stone, you've also stumbled upon a deeper truth: distros are just fancy wrappers around the same core. Arch Wiki, like the kernel itself, doesn't discriminate. Helpful information often applies broadly, regardless of your specific setup.
Next revelation: man pages aren't just for filling up terminal space. Who knew?
rockmetmind@reddit
I feel like the Arch wiki is still built around pacman but it is pretty useful for everyone
czerilla@reddit
The (native) app repository is usually one of the few major differences you'll run into between the major distros. But other than that (and maybe systemd), Arch isn't really too opinionated in ways that could get in the way of people from different distros looking for insights for their setups.
Sirius707@reddit
Yeah, i feel like that was a big part of what made me stop distro hopping, once i realised i could change the things i don't like.
Aside from the Arch wiki, i still come back to the Gentoo installation guide from time to time to look up low level stuff.
coyote_of_the_month@reddit
You really don't want to be a salmon swimming upstream though if it's something major like "I want to use Fedora but I don't want to use systemd."
ThomasterXXL@reddit
You won't know if jumping off a cliff balls first will hurt until you try it.
afb_etc@reddit
I think I can live with the uncertainty.
rockmetmind@reddit
I would switch to gentoo if it didn't take 2 hours to install
I'm fine without a quick install script but there checklist still isn't that helpful I think.
mWo12@reddit
It only takes two hours if you don't know what you are doing or are arch user.
drunkenblueberry@reddit
I feel like the installation would pale in comparison to periodic software updates
rockmetmind@reddit
yeah but by the time it is on your system you can update in the background and then just reboot 8 hours later when it is done
Rocktopod@reddit
While this is mostly true, you do have to be careful. I accidentally installed something from the ubuntu repos on my wife's Mint laptop and now you have to use aptitude to update it instead of apt or else cinnamon breaks and won't load the desktop.
Shap6@reddit
this is what drives me crazy about "distro hopping". 99% of the time people just want a new DE and don't realize that they can just install whatever one they want to try on whatever distro they already have installed.
dinithepinini@reddit
That’s not necessarily true. Each distro carries with it a philosophy. It’s going to be hard to use a different init system than systemd on arch, just like it’s getting harder to get away from snaps on Ubuntu.
Each distro has a different package manager, philosophy, release cadence. There’s so many different variables that there is a use case for all of the distros.
When I hear someone saying “they’re all the same”, I just feel like those people haven’t explored the freedom of Linux enough.
fellipec@reddit
Yes, the Arch Wiki is a treasure for the Linux community as a whole.
My thanks and respects for all the folks that maintain it.
Necropill@reddit
Aint an Arch user but ArchWiki is Awesome ngl
Mr_Lumbergh@reddit
Oh yeah, the Arch Wiki is a treasure trove.
bikingIsBetter_@reddit
The Arch wiki is freakin awesome! (I don't use Arch BTW)
Just wanted to say that the Gentoo wiki is pretty good too!
mWo12@reddit
Same. I thought that Arch wiki was good, until I saw Gentoo wiki. I'm Gentoo user btw.
DarthPneumono@reddit
It's also worth using the Red Hat knowledge base. You can get access with a free account and they have a lot of weird and esoteric things covered (as well as 'normal' stuff but for that I usually go to the Arch wiki too)
adamkex@reddit
Is there a catch with the free account?
DarthPneumono@reddit
No "catch" beyond giving your info to another company.
himawari6638@reddit
Yeah, I also consult it every time I set up my Debian because it just has more info than Debian's own wiki in some cases.
wchmbo@reddit
besides I’m wiki contributor, I always have a bookmark in my browser for consulting . it’s a knowledge treasure
dotJGames@reddit
I used it for the PCI passthrough with OVMF/QEMU since the Gentoo docs were out of date. Really saved my hair lol
renaneduard0@reddit
I'm interested in PCI passthrough to a new instanced VM or containerized application. Is this available on arch wiki?
NvFBC-Relay@reddit
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
renaneduard0@reddit
thank you you are a bro
dotJGames@reddit
Yup, the wiki page is fantastic.
101fulminations@reddit
I thought pretty much anybody starting linux... if they raise their hand at all they're introduced to the Arch Wiki early on.
JuanPabloVassermiler@reddit
Similar to how you don't need to be a Firefox user to use the MDN.
not-hardly@reddit
Aside from package managers which packages are default for certain functions, Linux is just Linux and it all should just work.
SexBobomb@reddit
The Gentoo and Arch wikis are great for that
thelastasslord@reddit
I'm a mint user and I love the arch wiki. Probably the most helpful and informative resource for Linux users.
FormerSlacker@reddit
I've never used Arch but have consulted the wiki for so many things, it's an invaluable resource.
NaoPb@reddit
That's a lot of words to say "I use Arch Wiki btw"
amdjed516@reddit
First, I don't think that Ubuntu is so difficult to download and use that you will need to read a wiki, and If you encounter a problem, the solution will be available in Ask Ubuntu, You are only making things more difficult for yourself + Let's say you want to setup a server. I didn't find anything related to preparing servers in the Arch wiki.
dryroast@reddit
As a kid I saw the Archwiki come up when googling issues/customizations I wanted to make. I stupidly thought, well I'll mess up my system by applying arch instructions to an Ubuntu box! But I just couldn't find any other resource that was as succinct so I tried it and I realized I was just being dumb.
johncate73@reddit
Unless it relates to pacman, you are almost always fine using their information no matter what distro you run.
johncate73@reddit
I have consulted it many times with issues and I have never run Arch in my life. It's a great resource and the best thing Arch does for the Linux community as a whole.
meong-oren@reddit
Most of the time. But sometimes it doesn't work, like starting/stopping apache service (apache2 in ubuntu and httpd in arch) or switching default java version using archlinux-java is only in arch
RootInit@reddit
The arch wiki is my main source of philosophy and a fount of general wisdom in a flawed world. I consider it to be holy scripture and regularly peruse it when I find my self troubled by world events, the stock market, or my wife's boyfriend.
OrseChestnut@reddit
Arch Wiki has often popped up at the end of a web search with pertinent information on whatever I'm trying to fix or research. Excellent resource.
I don't use Arch, BTW.
0riginal-Syn@reddit
While Arch is not something I use to run my business, I have a lot of respect for how well documented it is as well as the tooling around the distro itself is. We do use it in some of our purpose built IOT security devices. It is a great distro with a multitude of uses.
thekiltedpiper@reddit
When I started using Linux I had an issue with Discord. I solved it with the Arch wiki.
citizenswerve@reddit
I was doing the same until I eventually just made the switch after understanding the wiki