11mo ago

Does anyone has a Ubuntu --> Manjaro transition guide

Hi All,

Over the previous 20 years I've used at home mostly Mandriva, then kUbuntu and just installed a Manjaro. So I am not "new to Linux" but still new to Manjaro/arch. Has anyone a good "primer" for people migrating ?

A few questions I have

How does pacman work compared to apt-get ? and how to find in which package an command lies. I struggled a bit to get lsinput (to configure a rudder pedal for flight sim)
I am struggling a bit with Zsh, like I ended up starting bash to configure an environment variable, any ressources on-it. Or shall I simply change my setting (and how) to use bash that I know a bit. It's a home/Gaming PC so I don't plan to use the console that much but as anyone who has been using linux based OS for a while, I find-it more conveinient

36 comments

My suggestion to you, is please oh please replace Manjaro with EndeavourOS. It does everything Manjaro does but better. The learning curve will still be the same.
pacman: EndeavourOS has yay installed by default, which is an AUR helper. It interacts with pacman and builds your packages for you. yay -S steam for instance calls up pacman and builds the steam package from the repo and takes some of the head scratching out of it. Very easy to use. A simple “yay” to update, no sudo needed, yay will ask for a sudo password when it needs it.
Shell selection: bash is fine, and bash is enabled by default in EndeavourOS.
But the real reason to use EndeavourOS, aside from having an arch based rolling release distro, is its community and support. An amazing forum, tons of documentation between EOS and arch itself, and fantastic wiki that guides you through various tools and utilities you may want to use.
It is a terminal centric distro, but you can easily install GUI tools for things you don’t want to do in the CLI.
I would even be down to correspond and help you out if need be. Manjaro looks cool when you’re in those early stages of outgrowing Ubuntu, but it’s not the distro you’re looking for, I promise.
- This x1000. If you want a good arch experience, without doing the install yourself, EndeavorOS is the way to go. Just whatever you do, stay away from Manjaro unless you want problems.
  I've tried tons of Arch distros over the years out of laziness, once I already had success manually installing it myself.
- I’ll preface my question by saying that it may be a n00b question. I started using Linux as my daily driver about 4 or 5 months ago.
  What makes EndeavourOS so terminal centric? I’ve been using it for about a month now (maybe two) having moved from Pop!_OS. I don’t think I’m using the terminal more now than I did in Pop!_OS.
  For context, I use my PC for video/photo editing, gaining occasionally, and work (we use our personal computers).
  
  I would say that EndeavourOS, while being more fleshed out than vanilla Arch, has a lot fewer GUI tools for system configuration than say, Linux Mint. Mint has GUI tools for managing PPAs and extra repositories, managing graphics drivers, updating packages and much much more. This has become pretty common in distros aimed toward ease of use for newcomers. EndeavourOS has none of that, with the stated goal of seeing users dive into the command line a little more.
  As a result I’ve learned a lot in the CLI. Setting up BTRFS with timeshift auto snaps taught me a little about configuring grub and systemd, so now I’m learning how to set my fan curves and AIO pump to presets I’ve built into shell scripts to interact with liquidctl, and systemd config files to make them persistent after sleep and reboot. You could totally do all of that in the terminal in any distro, but EndeavorOS not having any GUI handholding made me leave my comfort zone and start learning more.

In general I'm not a fan of commenters immediately telling someone on Manjaro to leave Manjaro. But since you're just transitioning to it, I have to agree, EndeavorOS is the way to go. Manjaro has some anti-patterns that create more trouble than they're worth.
- Yeah, let’s be real, if you like manjaro, okay whatever, but no one should be using manjaro when EndeavourOS exists.
  Which makes me wonder, if manjaro tanked, what other twists on an Arch based distro aimed at gaming and content creators could spring up in its place? Something with the level of execution of EndeavourOS but with its own comprehensive GUI tools?
  
  There are a million Arch derivatives. I think we are ok.
  EOS is my favourite though.
  
  Isn't garuda the main gaming arch derivative?
- I see that you are trying to be nice.
  If you have a chance to save me in the future, please do not withhold your wanting to be nice. Please tell me what you know ( like, for example, that. I should not use Manjaro ).

So... why don't you transition to Debian and use it for the next 20 years? :)
- Support for Debian lts is crazy... 20 years...
- New hardware, so wanted something moving a bit faster than debian, and I thought it was the opportunity to switch from Ubuntu is an old African word meaning I can't configure Debian to Manjaro is an old African word meaning I can't configure arch :)
  
  You can always do what a lot of people are doing, use Debian as your base OS and install all software via Flatpak, solid OS with the latest software. Doesn't get any faster :P

I personally wouldn't use Manjaro, especially if you plan to use anything from the AUR.

Manjaro is not a good Arch downstream afaik. What they try is like produce a stable Arch, like Debian Sid vs. Stable.
But if they do that, they need an automated QA path so that packages are put in based on how they work, and not just delay them by a few weeks all the time.
And hack my stuff like the AUR wouldnt be possible there, they would need to host such packages their own and make sure they work on that specific frozen release.
Its simply more work that what I know they invest. So stay away from Manjaro, use Arch, Opensuse TW, Fedora etc.

How does pacman work compared to apt-get ?
Roughly speaking, pacman is faster, but offers fewer functions. And the parameters take some time getting used to. For example, you can update the system with pacman -Syu.
and how to find in which package an command lies.
You can either use the command pacman -F or the tool pkgfile.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pacman
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Rosetta
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pkgfile
I am struggling a bit with Zsh, like I ended up starting bash to configure an environment variable, any ressources on-it.
Without a more detailed description of the problem, it is difficult to help you. As I have been using ZSH for many years (also under Arch), I can only say that you have done something wrong. But if you don't want to work much with the shell anyway, Bash is perfectly adequate.
But do yourself a favour and stay away from Manjaro. The team responsible for this distribution has already made so many avoidable mistakes and strange decisions that I don't trust this distribution. And I'm not alone in this opinion. If you want a distribution based on Arch, there are better alternatives. Like EndeavourOS, for example.
- The votes for EndeavourOS keep rolling in. I like to distro hop just to experience what’s new, but I can’t help coming back to EndeavourOS every single time.

apt update && apt upgrade > pacman -Syu
apt install package > pacman -S package
apt remove package > pacman -Rns package
apt search package > pacman -Ss package
Except first dump Manjaro for EndeavourOS.
Once on EOS, dump pacman for yay ( sub yay in for pacman above ).
Yay will add access to the AUR ( WAY more packages )

If you are an experienced Linux user, just skip the Manjaro part. Either directly go for Arch or at least install something like EndeavourOS.

As others have said, you can install Endeavour instead. If you want a gui installer, you can still install pamac (Manjaro's gui for pacman and AUR).
I'm on Arch and I still find pamac useful at times.
The Arch Wiki is excellent. Endeavour has a great community that will help out if you get stuck.
There's plenty of tutorial videos that can help get you started.
I highly recommend using the man command. Appending --help is also great for when you're not quite sure what a pacman (or any other command for that matter) works.

Step 1. Don't.
- Why not? Both Ubuntu and Manjaro both have clear pros and cons. There are lots of reasons to go from one to the other in either direction.
  The same can be said for apt vs pacman/aur

how to find in which package an command lies
It's "pacman -Fx" but it can't search in AUR packages.
Where did you find lsinput anyway? I don't think input-utils is in AUR (either that or it's called something completely different).

pacman is less intuitive to use than apt, but after a while, you get used to it. I find it helpful to install tldr, which gives you samples for any command you pass to it. The main thing I like about it is the speed and how you can do an upgrade in a single short command (pacman -Syu), where as you need multiple in apt (apt update && apt upgrade.
When in doubt though, Arch Wiki is your goto.
- I have the inverse where I found pacman intuitive and apt confusing. I distro hopped before settling on Arch and it was pacman that was like a light bulb for me.
  I did have notes (a cheatsheet if you will) on the different parts of pacman switches but, at least for me, know what each letter stood for mde things much easier to remember.

How does pacman work compared to apt-get ? and how to find in which package an command lies. I struggled a bit to get lsinput (to configure a rudder pedal for flight sim)
Manjaro has Pamac installed out of the box. Its commands are much more readable:
Install: pamac install {software} Remove: pamac remove {software} Update: pamac update. You can just run man pamac and read that, it's concise and self explanatory.
You can also use Pamac-gtk (the GUI app-store). I recommend the GTK4 version. Just run sudo pamac install pamac-gtk it will prompt you to replace pamac-gtk3.
You can enable the AUR by opening the GUI store (it will be called "add/remove software" in the app menu) three dot menu preferences (will prompt for password) third party Enable AUR support.
Only use the AUR as a last resort; check if the app is on flathub first, then the official repos, and finally check the AUR. You can add flatpak support by installing the flatpak package and the libpamac-flatpak-plugin optional dependency.
If you want updates to be as fast as they'd be on Arch you can switch to the unstable branch, and now you can't blame Manjaro for your AUR problems.
and how to find in which package an command lies.
I am not sure what this means, but if you meant how to check what commands a package provides, then you can search for the package in the app-store and scroll down to "provides" everything under that section is commands the package provides.
I am struggling a bit with Zsh, like I ended up starting bash to configure an environment variable, any ressources on-it. Or shall I simply change my setting (and how) to use bash that I know a bit.
You can edit the ~/.zshrc file to add your aliases and permanent environment variables.
On Arch based distros you can also add environment variables in the /lib/environment.d file as KEY=value, for setting firefox to use Wayland for example.
If you want to switch from ZSH to BASH here's how.
- Please don't recommend beginners to switch to the unstable branch.
  It will break (because it's not stable), they will have no idea how to fix it, so they switch distro and tell people how Manjaro sucks.
  
  The guy said he's been using linux for 20 years... He also didn't "recommend" it, he said it's an option if you want the arch rolling-release experience.
  Manjaro kinda does suck, compared to the other arch based options out there :/

On your zsh query, check out Powerlevel 10K (p10k) and the fonts it recommends. It's a suite/config package that makes zsh amazing.

A lot of people are telling you to not use manjaro and to use endeavour instead. I've been using manjaro for 6 years and it's fine, in the end they offer very similar user experience.
For package management, I do everything with yay now. Just calling it on it's own will update everything, with keywords it will search and ask you what to install. The only flag you have to know is -R to uninstall.
For the shell bash is perfectly fine, but if you want more features take a look at ohmybash.

36 comments