Many (but not all) initial and common issues with Antergos (or many other systems) can be solved with the instructions and ideas shown in this thread.

Often the problems relate to booting, graphics, or hardware drivers. But the problems vary quite a lot, so precise answers are challenging to provide. Well, let’s try!

The more solutions we have, the better for all Antergos users!

Installation tips

• download the latest “full” ISO: https://antergos.com/try-it/
• “burn” the USB installer stick the right way: https://antergos.com/wiki/uncategorized/create-a-working-live-usb/
• UEFI vs. BIOS legacy systems require different methods related to booting, be sure to understand the main differences
  • UEFI systems require an EFI partition (may already contain Windows stuff!), in vfat or FAT32 format. Disk has gpt partition table.
  • BIOS legacy systems uses MBR. Disk has msdos partition table.
• partitioning
  • optional: you may check (and even create) disk partitions with gparted program before installing
  • advanced: terminal command lsblk -fm shows all partitions in detail
  • many things to consider; easy start is to use and only one ext4 partition for Antergos (and an EFI partition in UEFI systems). Low RAM systems may need swap space, e.g. a swap file
• file systems: use ext4 if other alternatives don’t seem to work. Note that Linux cannot be installed on FAT32
• Sometimes Arch devs move official packages to AUR and that can create problems for the installer. As a workaround:
  • check this for more info and a helper script
  • edit /usr/share/cnchi/data/packages.xml and remove the problematic package reference
  • restart the installer as root:

cnchi -p /usr/share/cnchi/data/packages.xml

Installer does not boot properly!

A common problem with certain computers is that the Antergos installer boots to a black screen only. This typically happens in a machine with two graphics cards, while existing graphics drivers on the installer are not working as expected.
Sometimes this can be solved using one of these kernel parameters for the installer (press “e” to give the parameter on the kernel boot line):

modprobe.blacklist=nouveau        # if Intel and Nvidia graphics
modprobe.blacklist=radeon,amdgpu  # if Intel and AMD graphics

Note that on an already installed system certain other graphics related or other problems can be worked around using the kernel parameters above. For example, I had to blacklist radeon and amdgpu modules (on a machine with Intel and AMD graphics cards) because of serious lagging on the user interface.

Grub problems

• if grub menus generated by Antergos fail to boot other systems (in multiboot setup), see: grub-fix-generation
  • download (or copy/paste) the PKGBUILD file
  • run commands:

wget -q -O PKGBUILD https://github.com/manuel-192/Antergos/raw/master/grub-fix-generation/PKGBUILD
makepkg -sic
sudo update-grub
reboot

General solutions
Here are some useful ways to solve common problems. The following may apply to several problem types:

• update motherboard’s BIOS/firmware (NOTE: use exactly the right version for your machine!)
• install the correct driver for the hardware (check AUR if not in official packages)
• install another kernel (default is linux, try linux-lts), since sometimes kernel updates cause problems
• use dkms versions (e.g. nvidia-dkms) of packages (requires kernel headers: linux-headers and/or linux-lts-headers)
• downgrade (install package downgrade) a problematic package, but only temporarily until a real fix is available. Note that downgrading a package or library may cause problems in other packages or libraries, so be very careful if using it.
• users coming from other distros may find this useful: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman/Rosetta

Graphics or booting related solutions

• change display manager (one of: lightdm, sddm, gdm). For example, commands to replace lightdm with sddm:

sudo pacman -S sddm
sudo systemctl disable lightdm
sudo systemctl enable sddm
reboot

• blacklist unwanted graphics driver (e.g. nouveau)
• for Nvidia: use package nvidia-installer
  • tip: use option --test to see what would be changed
• Intel graphics: older machines may require xf86-video-intel. For newer machines it is not recommended. If you have issues with Intel graphics, try to install (or uninstall) this package.
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg

How to avoid some potential problems

• Rule of thumb: update your system at least once a week to keep it in good shape. Once a month or worse may cause annoying problems.
• Always write down changes you make to the system or settings! That may be very helpful later when trying to solve strange problems.
• Do not remove installed packages lightly, since that may render your install unable to boot. If you want to remove packages, make sure you know exactly what you are doing. Note that many packages have dependencies, so don’t delete the dependencies unless you are sure they are no more needed. However, usually AUR packages can be removed (unless it replaces a similar official package) without affecting your system’s stability. In case of problems, check the pacman logs at /var/log/pacman.log.
• In general, it is better to avoid AUR packages since they are not officially supported. Use them only if similar official package is not available and you really, really need that package. Still make sure the AUR package is not malware by reading its PKGBUILD file. If in doubt, you can show the PKGBUILD in the Antergos forum.
• Replacing or “blocking” official packages with AUR counterparts (or external packages) can cause hard to find problems.
• Command pacman -Qm shows your installed foreign (usually AUR) packages.

Fixing stuff after install

• use arch-chroot to fix your system if you cannot boot the installed Antergos

And finally, don’t forget the mother of all remedies:

• reboot!

Reboot is important after making important system changes, like e.g. grub-mkconfig etc.

Some simple tips for troubleshooting

• start the app from a terminal and show the terminal output in case of trouble
• show logs and system info. There are quite a few logs (at /var/log) and system info apps available:
  • journalctl
  • Xorg.0.log
  • lspci
  • systemctl status <service>
  • inxi (AUR package)

Examples:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io
journalctl -b0 | curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io
inxi -F

See also: https://antergos.com/wiki/miscellaneous/how-do-i-include-system-logs-when-asking-for-help/

More info about the solutions above is available by searching the internet, especially at:

• Arch wiki
• Antergos wiki and forums

And Dear Reader, thanks for reading this far already!
If you have more solutions to common problems, please contribute and post them into this thread. Many other users are very happy to read the actual solutions!

WORD!

I do feel like a lot of users do not find the way to the Antergos WIKI, may be caused by user guidance on the Forum structure:

Links are hidden mostly:

autohidden if you scroll down… and on bigger screens very tiny.

@manuel
I just pinned this very helpful thread, so it won’t get “lost”.

@Bryanpwo
Thanks!

I was planning to keep the first post of this thread updated (hopefully the forum software continues to support that!) when new great solutions and ideas appear here. That way the solutions are easy to find without searching all over the net.

Excellent @manuel

I had a thought that might be useful like this: a pinned topic for new users with current known problems - for example choosing CD/DVD instead of USB during install, and it could simply be descriptions with links to posts with solutions so it’s easy to read. I’ve never seen any distro do this and I’ve always thought it would be useful. Any of us could add to it as time rolls on, but it needs to be pinned or where it can’t be missed - is this possible?

What do you all think of this?

@robgriff444
That’s a great idea! Well, why don’t you just start a thread like “Current known problems” (or whatever you choose) and one of the moderators can make it pinned. Then you can keep the thread easy to read by updating (mainly) the first post, and others can help too.

Maybe this same category (Antergos talks) is a good place to start the new thread. Some day we may have another structure here that could be better for the users.

Added a word about useful file systems (like: try ext4 in case of problems, FAT32 is not an option).

Added some more tips and solutions.

@robgriff444 said in Solutions to some common problems:

Excellent @manuel

I had a thought that might be useful like this: a pinned topic for new users with current known problems - for example choosing CD/DVD instead of USB during install, and it could simply be descriptions with links to posts with solutions so it’s easy to read. I’ve never seen any distro do this and I’ve always thought it would be useful. Any of us could add to it as time rolls on, but it needs to be pinned or where it can’t be missed - is this possible?

What do you all think of this?

There is already a structure for this :
https://antergos.com/news/
And antergos alert system showing up over update system…

@joekamprad said in Solutions to some common problems:

https://antergos.com/news/
And antergos alert system showing up over update system…

It showing mostly if a kernel upgraded or Xorg or systemd… but is just a notifier… ???
If you see like in aur like Informant would be awesom… If you configure it properly is ‘force’ people first to read some update news & possible soluition…

it just stops the update proces to read your informant then you are known to do, such thing for antergos specifik is nice if its get maintainance for sure :)

@ringo32
This means that Pamac would have to undergo a major change and since Pamac is under development by Manjaro, it is a very hard thing to do. (not impossible though) The other obstacle is that if it shows that, it would surpass its purpose by being newbie friendly.

@Bryanpwo ok, but i dont use pamac :)

@ringo32
I thought so, so that is my point. A lot of new users use Pamac, instead of Pacman, because the terminal is too intimidating for them. A feature you’re suggesting, which I also think would be very useful, means that the user should interfene updates manually, instead of automatic.

Again I agree with you, to make the user more realize what’s happening during updates, but then Antergos should change their strategy and launch Antergos as the friendly Arch installer with a twist, instead of Antergos for everyone, but I don’t think the devs would even like to think in that direction, let alone act upon it.

In my humble opinion: Taking that direction, would also tackle a lot of problems new users have with Antergos. The friendly installer being Cnchi and the twist being a basic native set up of each DE. With that approach Antergos would only need the Antergos repo for the native set up and the Arch and AUR repository for what the user would like to install. That way it’s more clear that Antergos users need to dive into the Arch eco system and that not everything is presented on a silver platter, ready to use.

My opinion may sound negative towards the devs, but it isn’t. I’ve been using Antergos for two years now and the way the distro and the forum works, leads me to this conclusion.
Antergos is an easy to set up installer for Arch with ready to go DE’s and a very friendly and helpful community. This was achieved by the users, but more by the @developers . You initiated this approach and it worked out very fine. Maybe it’s time to revise the strategy, the fundamentals are already here: You’re surrounded by people who live and shout out the open source mentality on this forum , what more do you want?

It would be easy to create a pacman hook that shows an Antergos issues page every time there’s new stuff in that page.

The hard part is: who would update Antergos issues page and how?
Any suggestions?

A hook is nice sure, i dont know what helps Antergos Alert alerts for sure that works. but does not mean things helps. is hard to track issues anyway.

personal on that road Antergos-alerts should make it smarter, like you make a seporate topic on forum or github with a subject [ package - version ] if antergos-alert could read it, it could point out the link if there some issues on the road, only users should see if its for them, alerts should also reads out own configuration because if its on nvidia you dont use the non-free driver so it should not show it. it would then not advice to reboot directly after update.

@ringo32
It of course is possible to check e.g. installed packages before warning about potential issues before an update.
Then, for example, no nvidia warnings would be shown if no nvidia package is installed.

Added some tips about AUR and keeping the system updated.

This is excellent stuff. This will be helpful for any arch-based distros.

Downgrade:

pacman will not handle version conflicts. If a library or other package needs to be downgraded with the packages, please be aware that you will have to downgrade this package yourself as well.