Attempt to install ArcaOS 5.1.2 on laptop

[Glenn]

Hello,
After the last years of using eCS on multiboot (I'd say around 2007), when I could not install it anymore, I have only had VMs. With ArcaOS 5.1.2, I started experimenting again with installation as multiboot.I have a few problems that make it not a full success..

1. I could install, but only using my laptop's keyboard, and no mouse. It is weird that external keyboard and mouse can work when, for instance, modifying BIOS settings on the PC (i.e. before an OS is loaded) but during the whole installation only the laptop's keyboard was working. It stayed the same after installation, which makes the whole OS not usable. One can only work with what is on the desktop, and shutdown using the command line as one cannot reach the shutdown command in the warpcenter.
Apart from using (probably) a wired mouse, any hint on how to fix that?

2. I already had Grub installed and I would have preferred the installer not to touch the default bootloader - especially as I do not know how to change the default OS to boot with the new bootloader. Maybe I missed it, but I did not see an option not to install the new bootloader. If I do want to boot windows, I now have to be here to change the first option on the new bootloader to grub, then windows, then the proper version of Windows - not possible to let the PC boot by itself as it will be default start ArcaOS, which, given point 1, is not currently a viable solution. It is also weird that in all the options proposed by the bootloader, I did not see the Windows efi proposed.
So, any advice on how to change the default OS in the boot manager?

3. I know there is a lot of work to modernize the OS, so take this item with a pinch of salt. With a high-dpi screen, the OS AND the bootloader are really tiny, and would deserve a "zoom" function.

Thanks all for all tips !

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello Glenn

About point #1. Can you share the testlog of you laptop to see if something shows up.
I have information about how to use testlog here (just in case)

About #3. Have you played with the options to increase the icon size and text size to help with high-dpi screens?

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Glenn,
About the trackpad, unluckily OS/2 (ArcaOS) only supports USB and PS2 mice and a lot of newer laptops use a different bus to access the trackpad. Unless, in the unlikely case of there being a setting in your BIOS to make the trackpad present differently, you are out of luck due to the lack of drivers with an external mouse being your only choice. There are small USB wireless mice that would work fine and personally I like using a real mouse.
There is also the option of opening an issue at Arca Noae about this.
The booting, it sounds like you are using UEFI. Simplest solution is to use your laptops built in bootmanager, usually accessed by pressing F11 or F12 at the beginning of boot. See your documentation for the laptop.
You can also change the boot order, usually in the BIOS is a page enabling this. Grub doesn't know about OS/2 so you would have to manually add the ANLauncher or os2\os2ldr.efi to your grub menu.
There are other bootmanagers, I use rEFInd, which is likely in your Linux's package repository, perhaps something like "sudo apt install refind" You still might have to manually add ArcaOS to refind.conf, though I think the latest knows about ArcaOS.
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

[Rich Walsh]

So, any advice on how to change the default OS in the boot manager?

To change the boot manager back to GRUB, run 'BOOTORDER' at a command prompt. In GRUB create an entry that points at 'LAUNCHER.EFI'.

To change the order and default entry in the AN Launcher, edit "[EFI partition]/EFI/BOOT/LAUNCHER.CFG' in a text editor. Since your EFI partition isn't given a drive letter by default, you will have to use 'MiniLVM' to assign it one.

BTW... Shift-F10 displays an object's menu. Ctrl-\ deselects all objects in a folder. If an object on the Desktop is currently selected, Ctrl-\ followed by Shift-F10 will display the Desktop menu.