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!