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. Low RAM systems may need a swap file
• file systems: use ext4 if other alternatives don’t seem to work. Note that Linux cannot be installed on FAT32

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

• update 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)

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

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.

More detailed info about the methods above are available have been discussed at the Antergos forum several times.

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 here. 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).