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I started using Arch some months ago and I really enjoying it. Coming from a released based distro, it feels really nice been able to choose exactly what you want to run in your system and always have the packages up to date. For a while I have been planning on running ubuntu in my transformer but I just don’t feel too comfortable with ubuntu , so decided to run arch in my transformer. I couldn’t find a tutorial so I scavenged the net and found bits and peace that I put together to make this tutorial. What I like about arch is that I am in control of my system and  I can run exactly what I want, thanks awesomely documented Arch!

This is a tutorial that will show you how to run Arch Linux in a chrooted environment within your Asus Tarsnformer. I will not provide a simple script that if you run it will do everything for you, instead I will teach you how to make your own installation by grabbing all necessary elements.

You will need:

Arch Live image: Go to http://archlinuxarm.org/developers/downloads and grab the omap 3/4 package.

Install environment: It can be your internal storage or a sd/micro card. Here I will show how to use the micro sd card.

Script for starting the chroot: I grabbed mine from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1517993&highlight=chroot and did some modifications. Thanks-miska-

Rooted Asus Transformer(Prime?) with Terminal: You need root to mount the file system and loop devices. In theory this should work in the Prime too.

Linux Machine

Step 1:

For installing arch in a (micro)sd card (I prefer micro as I don’t need the dock for using it), first you need to format the card and make two partitions. (I used gparted) Make one partition fat and assign a small amount of space(I have a 4gb micro and assigned 128mb to the fat partition), then make the rest ext4. Make sure the fat partition is first and the ext one is second.

Step 2:

Now as root you need to extract the package in the ext partition of your card. REMEMBER to be root, I got stuck thinking there was something wrong with the package I downloaded but it was that I was unpacking as normal user.

# tar -c /path/to/extpartition -xzf  ArchLinuxARM-omap-smp-latest.tar.gz

Now you have a arch environment in your (micro)sd card.

Step 3:

In your asus transformer create a folder called ‘arch’ in the root of your internal storage.

#mkdir /sdcard/arch

Or use a file manager.

Now place this script somewhere in your transformer, I usually keep it in /sdcard/Downloads

#!/bin/sh

# Modify this according to your needs
DEVICE=”/dev/block/mmcblk1p2″
LOOP=”no”

# Maybe this as well
MNT_PATH=”/mnt/sdcard/arch”

# Modify only if you know, what are you doing
BINDS=”dev dev/pts proc sys mnt/sdcard”
ANDROID_BINDS=” /system /data ”
TMPS=”tmp var/tmp var/log var/run”

MY_MOUNTS=”"

unset PS1

# Helper functions

die() {
echo ” $1″
exit 1
}

safe_mount() {
mkdir -p “$MNT_PATH”"$2″
if [ "$3" ]; then
OPTION=” $3 ”
else
OPTION=”"
fi
if [ -z "`mount | grep " $MNT_PATH$2 "`" ]; then
mount $OPTION “$1″ “$MNT_PATH$2″ || die “Can’t mount $2!!!”
fi
MY_MOUNTS=”$MNT_PATH$2 $MY_MOUNTS”
}

# Real work

[ "`whoami || echo root`" = "root" ] || die “You must be root first!”
LOOP_ARG=”"
[ "$LOOP" = "no" ] || LOOP_ARG=” -o loop ”

safe_mount $DEVICE “” “$LOOP_ARG -t ext4 ”

for i in $BINDS; do
safe_mount “/$i” “/$i” ” -o bind ”
done

if [ -d /Removable ]; then
for i in /Removable/*; do
[ -d "$i" ] && safe_mount $i /mnt$i ” -o bind ”
done
fi

for i in $ANDROID_BINDS; do
safe_mount $i /mnt/android$i ” -o bind ”
done

for i in $TMPS; do
safe_mount none /$i ” -t tmpfs ”
done

mount -o remount,ro “$MNT_PATH”
chroot “$MNT_PATH” /sbin/fsck.ext2 -y “$DEVICE”
mount -o remount,rw “$MNT_PATH”

# Tweak configuration of the chroot during first start

#if [ \! -f "$MNT_PATH"/etc/profile.d/tweak.sh ]; then
#mkdir -p “$MNT_PATH”/home/opensuse
echo ‘nameserver 8.8.8.8′ > “$MNT_PATH”/etc/resolv.conf
#echo ‘net:x:3003:root,opensuse’ >> “$MNT_PATH”/etc/group
#echo ‘opensuse:x:1000:100::/home/opensuse:/bin/bash’ >> “$MNT_PATH”/etc/passwd
#echo ‘opensuse:$1$joWqOQdr$YsapocP32UtdiR3PKBXVM1:15395:0:::::’ \
# >> “$MNT_PATH”/etc/shadow
#sed -i ‘s|^root:.*|root:$1$joWqOQdr$YsapocP32UtdiR3PKBXVM1:15395:0:::::|’ \
# “$MNT_PATH”/etc/shadow
#echo ‘#!/bin/sh
#export TERM=linux
#export LANG=”en_US.utf-8″
#export EDITOR=”busybox vi”
#alias vi=”busybox vi”
#precmd() { :; }
#if [ "`whoami`" = root ]; then
# export HOME=/root
# export USER=root
# hostname -F /etc/HOSTNAME
#fi
#if [ -z "$CHROOTED" ]; then
# export CHROOTED=yes
# export HOME=”/home/opensuse”
# export USER=”opensuse”
# su opensuse
#fi
#’ > “$MNT_PATH”/etc/profile.d/tweak.sh
#fi

export PATH=”/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/system/xbin:/system/bin”

# Chroot

chroot “$MNT_PATH” /bin/bash
#chroot “$MNT_PATH” /root/init.sh

# Cleanup

echo “Umount everything”
for i in $MY_MOUNTS; do
umount -l $i
done

 

Step 4:

Chmod +x the script and run it as root.

su
#chmod +x scriptname.sh
sh scriptname.sh

The script will mount the ext partition of your (micro)sd card in /sdcard/arch and will chroot into it. It also does other really nice things, such as mounting your android partitions to /mnt so you can access them from within your arch environment. I have disabled some lines that are used to set up a some environment variables, but you should still be able to get a fully functional command-line environment and you can enable them and modify them as you want.

Step 5:

The rest is completely up to you,  now you have arch running in your transformer. But what!? You need X?! really???? Ok, so lets create a vnc server so we can remote into it.

Your network connection should work, so the first thing to do is an update

#pacman -Syu

Now install xorg

#pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm

Now install a vncserver

#pacman -S tightvnc

And now this is the tricky part(And I spent a lot of time in this).

I grabbed this script from the UbuntuInstaller post. This is the script they use for setting a resolution at each boot. What I did was to remove the resolution prompt and fix the resolution to 1280×752(fullscreen) and remove some ubuntu stuff. I also added an export for HOME and USER that will allow you to run ‘vncserver’ as root.

#!/bin/bash
#############################################
# Asks User to screen size and saves as REZ #
#############################################
#echo “Now enter the screen size you want in pixels (e.g. 800×480), followed by [ENTER]:”

#read REZ

###########################################
# Tidy up previous LXDE and DBUS sessions #
###########################################
#rm /tmp/.X* > /dev/null 2>&1
#rm /tmp/.X11-unix/X* > /dev/null 2>&1
#rm /root/.vnc/localhost* > /dev/null 2>&1
#rm /var/run/dbus/pid > /dev/null 2>&1

############################################################
# enable workaround for upstart dependent installs #
# in chroot’d environment. this allows certain packages #
# that use upstart start/stop to not fail on install. #
# this means they will have to be launched manually though #
############################################################
#dpkg-divert –local –rename –add /sbin/initctl > /dev/null 2>&1
#ln -s /bin/true /sbin/initctl > /dev/null 2>&1
###############################################
# start vnc server with given resolution and #
# DBUS server, (and optionally an SSH server) #
###############################################
export HOME=”/root/”
export USER=”root”
vncserver :0 -geometry 1280×752
dbus-daemon –system –fork > /dev/null 2>&1
/etc/rc.d/sshd start
#echo
#echo “If you see the message ‘New ‘X’ Desktop is localhost:0′ then you are ready to VNC into your ubuntu OS..”
#echo
#echo “If VNC’ing from a different machine on the same network as the android device use the 1st address below:”
##########################################
# Output IP address of android device #
##########################################
ifconfig | grep “inet addr”

#echo
#echo “If using androidVNC, change the ‘Color Format’ setting to 24-bit colour, and once you’ve VNC’d in, change the ‘input mode’ to touchpad (in settings)”

#echo
#echo “To shut down the VNC server and exit the ubuntu environment, just enter ‘exit’ at this terminal – and WAIT for all shutdown routines to finish!”
#echo

###############################################################
# Spawn and interactive shell – this effectively halts script #
# execution until the spawning shell is exited (i.e. you want #
# to shut down vncserver and exit the ubuntu environment) #
###############################################################
/bin/bash -i

#########################################
# Disable upstart workaround and #
# kill VNC server (and optionally SSH) #
# Rename used xstartup to its first file#
#########################################
vncserver -kill :0
/etc/rc.d/sshd stop

 

Place this script in /root/, give it the name ‘init.sh’ and make sure it is executable(chmod +x). Now in the previous script comment the line:

chroot “$MNT_PATH” /bin/bash

and uncomment the line

chroot “$MNT_PATH” /root/init.sh

 

Step 6:

Now you should be able to start a vncserver with twm as your window manager and a xterm.

You can now go to

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_Environment

or

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Window_Manager

and set up the desktop environment that you like the most.

Remember that you need to set up the graphical environment to start manually and not at boot. In a normal environment you would usually use ‘startx’ which will read the .xinitrc file and run the programs from there. In our case put everything that needs to go into .xinitrc into ~/.vnc/xstartup. An example of my ~/.vnc/xstartup

#!/bin/bash

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
exec startfluxblox

This will start an empty fluxbox window manager.