a long way to go and a short time to get there, we shouldnt have stopped for a picnic.

okies...

first sign of trouble in my new arch install:

i copied over my perfectly functional (accidental pun!) xmonad.hs from my previous system (ubuntu-based crunchbang)

and i get:[code]

$ xmonad --recompile
Error detected while loading xmonad configuration file: /home/digit/.xmonad/xmonad.hs

xmonad.hs:7:7:
Could not find module `XMonad.Config.Desktop':
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.

Please check the file for errors.

[/code]

some time later, and some fiddling with cabal, and failing to get xmonad-contrib...

seems it's likely missing C libs.

so i try n get libX, libXext and libXinerama. (as the xmonad C requirements are stated here: http://xmonad.org/intro.html )

presuming libX = libX11, since simply libX alone is nowhere to be found, this one is up to date.

libXext install attempt returns (much the same for merely "libX" and libXinerama):[code]error: 'libXext': could not find or read package[/code]

so am i thinking arch has different names for these packages?

.... aaaah! lowercase "X"s.

ok, so i've updated those three now,
...and "cabal install xonad-contrib" tells me:[code]# cabal install xmonad-contrib
Resolving dependencies...
Configuring X11-xft-0.3...
cabal: pkg-config version >=0.9.0 is required but it could not be found.
cabal: Error: some packages failed to install:
X11-xft-0.3 failed during the configure step. The exception was:
ExitFailure 1
xmonad-contrib-0.9.1 depends on X11-xft-0.3 which failed to install.
[/code]
so... "X11-xft-0.3" it says. :/ some searching later, n i presume it's after "haskell-x11-xft"
...

so i install that.... where was i now?
/me feels like he's starting to contract some disease probably called something like bizantianitits. :P

ok, lets try it from the top again... or, work backwards through what i've come to at least.

the xft was needed for the xmonad-contrib, ah, that's right...

/me tries "cabal install xmonad-contrib" again.

and we have much action! yay! scrolling text! XD "nn of 180"

bkadoctaj my old friend... you're right, i am learning a lot with using arch... i'm learning it's a lot of fuss!

XD


so anyways, i started writing this in a text editor, thinking it was gonna be a forum post asking for help... but now it's looking more like my typical blog post. XD

so, i may as well elaborate on the story much more, comforted by the freedom my blog intro blurb caveat/disclaimer gives me to ramble endlessly...

...though i wont, bcause, the background jist of this is here...

i'm trying to get my perfect arch setup in 24 hours.

bkadoctaj said it takes 3 days from scrath to perfection.

___day one: scratch.
___day two: to.
_day three: perfection.

and he said it normally takes 5 days, but he was knocking a couple days off for me, percieving some level of expertise, which i think an accolade i'm worthy of.


.. but still, even with my leisserly pace through the first parts, i'm now determined to get it all up as i want in 24 hours... and that includes the 8 hours i was asleep, all the time spent dilly-dallying in chat, and all the time spent writing this load. XD

... i better get back to it.

my "cabal install xmonad-contrib" is complete, and now hopefully, when i attempt my next "xmonad --recompile" all will be well, and i'll be using my own config, rather than the more stoic default.

... i'll leave the rest of this adventure for the next post. :)