The Steps

Whew................

Finally after all this time I have been able to install and configure Archlinux on my 1900 MHz,256 MB RAM PIV. It took lot of patience,googling and even consulting their IRC channel. But one question could have come to your mind, Why Archlinux? The answer is because Archlinux is based on the philosphy of showing the user what happens beneath the GUI we widely use.

To get an idea what follows now you should consider reading Archlinux Beginners Guide. The steps given are what i used to install archlinux on my PC, you can also create your own way. Finally here it goes:

1. First download the archlinux iso from archlinux website. I used core version(means basic packages are availible in iso) but you can use netinstall version if you've got a faster internet connection.

2. Burn the iso on a cd or you can use a USB Flash Drive if your BIOS support USB booting. You can use Unetbootin to make flash drive bootable. For some earlier P4s which support only USB 1.0 boot you can use PLOP boot manager to load USB 2.0 drivers.

3. Configure your BIOS to boot from the respective CD drive or USB drive.

4. When the iso is booted up it will ask for username type "root" and you will logged in as root.

5. Run /arch/setup

6. Now select UTC in clock option and after it will ask you to partition the harddisk in my case i partitioned my 40 GB harddrive with a 27 GB partition, another 8 GB partition which i mounted as / directory and 800 MB swap space.

7. Then select packages you wish to install and then select install packages

8. Then comes configuring the system most of the files you do not need to edit.

9. After that configure the GRUB Bootloader and you are done. You've got youreself a basic system to work with.