iamshgulati/DevMyLinuX

A comprehensive manual to install Arch Linux effort-lessly.

DevMyLinuX

A comprehensive instruction manual to install Arch Linux effort-lessly.
Easy AF. Highly Detailed. Throughly Tested.

60 min read • Shubham Gulati

https://shubhamgulati91.github.io/archify-effortlessly

KEY FEATURES • HOW TO USE • DOWNLOAD • CREDITS • RELATED • LICENSE

KEY FEATURES

• Easy AF
  • Includes remote installation instructions.
• Minimal Mistakes
  • Copy-Paste instructions from manual to remote session.
• Automated
  • Most commands are one-liner.
  • Minimal manual intervention needed.
• Minimal Packages - Maximal Tunings
  • GNOME DE.
  • Fully customized ZSH.
  • Power saving tunings.

HOW TO USE

To use this manual, you'll need Git Bash and two computers. This manual is optimized especially for following hardware.

ASUS Zenbook Pro UX501VW
Intel® HM170 Chipset
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor
16GB DDR4 2133 MHz SDRAM
15.6" 16:9 IPS UHD (3840 x 2160) Display
Intel HD 530 4GB VRAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM
512GB Samsung PCIE x4 m.2 SSD

DOWNLOAD

https://www.archlinux.org/download/

CREATE BOOTABLE USB

Save script to a sh file and execute.

./create-bootable-drive.sh

./create-bootable-drive.sh -i -a write -f arch -d sda

CONFIGURE BIOS

Restore default config from BIOS menu.
Disable Secure Boot.
Save settings and reboot.

CHECK BOOT MODE

If UEFI mode is enabled on an UEFI motherboard, Archiso will boot Arch Linux accordingly via systemd-boot. To verify this, use the command:

efivar -l

Alternatively, you can list the efivars directory with:

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

If the directory does not exist, the system may be booted in BIOS or CSM mode. Refer to your motherboard's manual for details.

CONNECT TO INTERNET

WIRELESS CONNECTION

To connect to a network, using wireless network interface, use the command:

wifi-menu -o

WIRED CONNECTION

The installation image automatically enables the dhcpcd daemon on boot for wired network devices.

CHECK INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

Now let’s ping Google to see if we are connected:

ping -c 3 google.com

If you can see the ping, it’s time to proceed.

START INSTALLATION REMOTELY

You can launch an SSH server and continue your installation remotely from another computer. In order to do that:

Set a root password using:

passwd

Now check that "PermitRootLogin yes" is present (and uncommented) in:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

This setting allows root login with password authentication on the SSH server.

Now, start the openssh daemon using:

systemctl start sshd.service

Figure out your IP using:

ip a

Use bash shell to SSH to your installation disk from another computer and continue the installation as usual.

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null root@192.168.0.xxx

BEGIN INSTALLATION

SELECT KEYMAP

For convenience, localectl can be used to set console keymap. It will change the KEYMAP variable in /etc/vconsole.conf and also set the keymap for current session:

localectl --no-convert set-keymap us
echo
localectl status

The "--no-convert" option can be used to prevent "localectl" from automatically changing the Xorg keymap to the nearest match.

CONFIGURE HARDWARE CLOCK

Use systemd-timesyncd to ensure that your system clock is accurate. To start it:

timedatectl set-ntp true

PARTITION SCHEME

When recognized by the live system, disks are assigned to a block device such as /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1. To identify these devices, use lsblk. Results ending in rom, loop or airoot may be ignored.

To identify the attached storage devices:

lsblk

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0         7:0    0 462.5M  1 loop /run/archiso/sfs/airootfs
sda           8:0    1  14.8G  0 disk
├─sda1        8:1    1   573M  0 part /run/archiso/bootmnt
└─sda2        8:2    1    64M  0 part
nvme0n1     259:0    0   477G  0 disk
├─[...]

Suggested UEFI GPT Scheme:

Number  Start    End      Size     File system     Name  Flags
 1      0.00GiB  1.00GiB  1.00GiB  fat32           BOOT  boot, esp
 2      1.00GiB  81.0GiB  80.0GiB  ext4            ROOT
 3      81.0GiB  105GiB   24.0GiB  linux-swap(v1)  SWAP
 4      105GiB   477GiB   372GiB   ext4            HOME

CREATE, FORMAT AND MOUNT NEW PARTITIONS

As soon as you know the alias of your hard drive, use "GNUParted" partitioning tool to create new partitions:

wipefs -af /dev/nvme0n1
parted --script -a optimal /dev/nvme0n1 \
    mklabel gpt \
    mkpart primary fat32 1MiB 1025MiB \
    set 1 boot on \
    name 1 BOOT \
    mkpart primary ext4 1025MiB 81GiB \
    name 2 ROOT \
    mkpart primary linux-swap 81GiB 105GiB \
    name 3 SWAP \
    unit GiB \
    mkpart primary ext4 105GiB 100% \
    name 4 HOME
echo
parted /dev/nvme0n1 'unit GiB print'
gdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1
echo
mkfs.ext4 -F -L ROOT /dev/nvme0n1p2
mount -t ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
mkfs.vfat -F32 -n BOOT /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount -t vfat /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
mkswap -L SWAP /dev/nvme0n1p3
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p3
mkfs.ext4 -F -L HOME /dev/nvme0n1p4
mkdir -p /mnt/home
mount -t ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/home
lsblk /dev/nvme0n1
echo

MATCH THE PARTITIONS AND MOUNTPOINTS

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1     259:0    0  477G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0    1G  0 part /mnt/boot
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   80G  0 part /mnt
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0   24G  0 part [SWAP]
└─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0  372G  0 part /mnt/home

[RECOMMENDED] CONFIGURE MIRRORLIST

Packages to be installed must be downloaded from mirror servers, which are defined in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. On the live system, all mirrors are enabled, and sorted by their synchronization status and speed at the time the installation image was created. The higher a mirror is placed in the list, the more priority it is given when downloading a package. You may want to edit the file accordingly, and move the geographically closest mirrors to the top of the list, although other criteria should be taken into account. This file will later be copied to the new system by pacstrap, so it is worth getting right.

To download data from the fastest mirrors:

[RECOMMENDED] FETCH MIRRORS WITH REFLECTOR

To install Reflector:

pacman -Sy --noconfirm reflector rsync curl
cp -v /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup
reflector --country India --verbose --latest 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
chmod +r /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

INSTALL BASE SYSTEM

The following command installs all packages contained in the "base" and "base-devel" package-group of the Arch Linux installer.

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware intel-ucode nano zsh bash-completion reflector pacman-contrib

GENERATE FSTAB

Fstab is a system configuration file and is used to tell the Linux kernel which partitions (file systems) to mount and where on the file system tree.

Now generate a new fstab file with:

rm /mnt/etc/fstab && genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

CHROOT INTO SYSTEM

Now we are going to enter the installed system without rebooting and start a terminal session from there. Use the command:

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

CONFIGURE LOCALE

We need to set the locale for the freshly installed system.

sudo sed -i '/^#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/s/^#//' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

CONFIGURE TIMEZONE

Link the preferred time zone to your localtime. For example, I get the list of zones with 'tzselect' and choose Asia/Kolkata.

timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata

Configure systemd-timesyncd:

sed -i -e 's/^#NTP=.*/NTP=0.arch.pool.ntp.org 1.arch.pool.ntp.org 2.arch.pool.ntp.org 3.arch.pool.ntp.org/' /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf
sed -i -e 's/^#FallbackNTP=.*/FallbackNTP=0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org 0.fr.pool.ntp.org/' /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf

Enable the service:

systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

CONFIGURE HARDWARE CLOCK

It is recommended to adjust the time skew, and set the time standard to UTC:

hwclock --systohc --utc

CONFIGURE HOSTNAME

Create the hostname file "/etc/hostname":

echo zenbook-pro > /etc/hostname

Configure hosts:

echo "" >> /etc/hosts
echo '127.0.0.1       zenbook-pro.localdomain localhost zenbook-pro' >> /etc/hosts
echo '::1             zenbook-pro.localdomain localhost zenbook-pro' >> /etc/hosts
echo '127.0.1.1       zenbook-pro.localdomain localhost zenbook-pro' >> /etc/hosts

CONFIGURE MULTILIB

If you are running a 64-bit system then you need to enable the multilib repository as follows:

sed -i '/^#\[multilib\]/s/^#//' /etc/pacman.conf
sed -i "$(( `grep -n "^\[multilib\]" /etc/pacman.conf | cut -f1 -d:` + 1 ))s/^#//" /etc/pacman.conf

And update the system.

pacman -Syyu

SET ROOT PASSWORD

Set the root password with:

passwd

ADD NEW USER

Create a new user, and add the user to "users", and "wheel" group. Use the command:

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,lp,rfkill,sys,storage,power,audio,disk,input,kvm,video,scanner -s /bin/zsh shubham -c "Shubham Gulati"

Set password for the new user:

passwd shubham

CONFIGURE SUDOERS

To run commands as sudo, you need to provide the user privilage specification in "/etc/sudoers".

Allow all permissions to users in wheel group with:

sed -i '/^# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL/s/^# //' /etc/sudoers
echo "" >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults !requiretty, !tty_tickets, !umask' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults visiblepw, path_info, insults, lecture=always' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults loglinelen=0, logfile =/var/log/sudo.log, log_year, log_host, syslog=auth' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults passwd_tries=3, passwd_timeout=1' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults env_reset, always_set_home, set_home, set_logname' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults !env_editor, editor="/usr/bin/vim:/usr/bin/vi:/usr/bin/nano"' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults timestamp_timeout=15' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults passprompt="[sudo] password for %u: "' >> /etc/sudoers
echo 'Defaults lecture=never' >> /etc/sudoers

INSTALL MICROCODE UPDATES

If you have an Intel CPU, install the "intel-ucode" package, and enable microcode updates to avoid freezes.

pacman -S --noconfirm intel-ucode

To enable microcode updates for "systemd-boot" boot loader, just add a "initrd /intel-ucode.img" as first initrd entry in boot entry config file after installing boot loader.

NOTE: The installation drive is assumed to be GPT-partioned, and have the EFI System Partition (parted type ESP, formatted with FAT32) mounted at /boot.

INSTALL BOOTLOADER

To install the bootloader:

bootctl --path=/boot install

ADD BOOT ENTRY

Now we will create the Arch Linux boot entry:

nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

[ADVANCED POWER SAVINGS] Enter the following configuration to the "arch.conf" file.

title		Arch Linux
linux		/vmlinuz-linux
initrd		/intel-ucode.img
initrd		/initramfs-linux.img
options		root=/dev/nvme0n1p2 rw resume=/dev/nvme0n1p3 i915.enable_guc=3 i915.enable_psr=2 i915.enable_fbc=1 i915.enable_dc=2 drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.enable_rc6=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.semaphores=1 acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2015" acpi_backlight=native pcie_aspm=force pcie_aspm.policy=powersupersave nmi_watchdog=0 elevator=noop splash quiet loglevel=3 rd.systemd.show_status=false rd.udev.log-priority=3

Now configure boot loader to boot using the above configuration:

nano /boot/loader/loader.conf

Clear anything that is written in the file and enter the following:

timeout		0
editor		yes
console-mode	keep
auto-entries	1
auto-firmware   1
default		arch

[ALTERNATE LEGACY CONFIG] Enter the following configuration to the "arch.conf" file.

title		Arch Linux
linux		/vmlinuz-linux
initrd		/intel-ucode.img
initrd		/initramfs-linux.img
options		root=/dev/nvme0n1p2 rw resume=/dev/nvme0n1p3 i915.preliminary_hw_support=1 intel_idle.max_cstate=1 i915.enable_execlists=0 acpi_osi= acpi_backlight=native elevator=noop splash quiet vga=current loglevel=3 rd.systemd.show_status=false rd.udev.log-priority=3 nmi_watchdog=0

INSTALL DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT

XORG

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg

Xorg is the public, open-source implementation of the X window system version 11.

pacman -S --noconfirm xorg-server xorg-xbacklight xbindkeys xorg-xev xorg-xinit xorg-xinput xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm xdotool

WAYLAND

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wayland

Wayland is a protocol for a compositing window manager to talk to its clients, as well as a library implementing the protocol.

pacman -S --noconfirm weston xorg-server-xwayland

DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT

Install GNOME Desktop environment with:

pacman -S --noconfirm gnome gnome-extra gnome-software gnome-initial-setup gnome-menus deja-dup gedit-plugins gpaste gnome-tweak-tool gnome-power-manager gnome-themes-standard fprintd nautilus-share

GNOME DISPLAY MANAGER

Enable GDM:

systemctl enable gdm.service

CONFIGURE NETWORK

NETWORKMANAGER

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Networkmanager

NetworkManager is a program for providing detection and configuration for systems to automatically connect to network. NetworkManager's functionality can be useful for both wireless and wired networks.

pacman -S --noconfirm dnsmasq networkmanager-openconnect networkmanager-openvpn networkmanager-pptp networkmanager-vpnc network-manager-applet nm-connection-editor gnome-keyring

systemctl disable dhcpcd.service

systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

We are now finally ready to boot in to the glory that Arch Linux is. But before rebooting, install Web Browser to get access to the installation manual out of the box:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm chromium firefox

UNMOUNT PARTITIONS

Exit from the chroot environment:

exit

Partitions will be unmounted automatically by systemd on shutdown. You may however unmount manually as a safety measure:

umount -R /mnt/boot /mnt/home /mnt
swapoff -a

REBOOT SYSTEM

Shut down and reboot the system:

systemctl reboot

Remove the installation media.

If something goes wrong at this point, use the installation media to remount partitions and chroot into the installed system.

wifi-menu -o

passwd

systemctl start sshd.service

ip a

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null root@192.168.0.xxx

mount -t ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
mount -t vfat /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
mount -t ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/home

lsblk /dev/nvme0n1

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1     259:0    0  477G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0    1G  0 part /mnt/boot
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   80G  0 part /mnt
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0   24G  0 part [SWAP]
└─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0  372G  0 part /mnt/home

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

LOGIN TO NEW USER

You can log into your new installation as root or with newly created user, using the password you specified with passwd.

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null shubham@192.168.0.xxx

CONFIGURE XINITRC

cp -fv /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc /home/shubham/.xinitrc
sed -i '/^twm.*/s/^/# /' /home/shubham/.xinitrc
sed -i '/^xclock.*/s/^/# /' /home/shubham/.xinitrc
sed -i '/^xterm.*/s/^/# /' /home/shubham/.xinitrc
sed -i '/^exec.*/s/^/# /' /home/shubham/.xinitrc
echo -e "" >> /home/shubham/.xinitrc
echo -e "exec gnome-session" >> /home/shubham/.xinitrc
sudo chmod +x ~/.xinitrc

CONFIGURE ZSH

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Zsh

Zsh is a powerful shell that operates as both an interactive shell and as a scripting language interpreter.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm zsh git

Install oh-my-zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

CONFIGURE BASH

Inject pre-configured dotfiles:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm git colordiff
mkdir -p /tmp && cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/helmuthdu/dotfiles
cp -v dotfiles/.bashrc dotfiles/.dircolors dotfiles/.dircolors_256 /home/shubham/
rm -rf dotfiles && cd ~

GIT

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm git
git config --global user.name "Shubham Gulati" && git config --global user.email "john.doe@example.com"
git config --global credential.helper cache store

SSH

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ssh

Secure Shell (SSH) is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers.

OpenSSH is already installed and enabled at this point. Configure sshd:

sudo sed -i '/Port 22/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/Protocol 2/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/HostKey \/etc\/ssh\/ssh_host_rsa_key/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/HostKey \/etc\/ssh\/ssh_host_dsa_key/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/HostKey \/etc\/ssh\/ssh_host_ecdsa_key/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/KeyRegenerationInterval/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/ServerKeyBits/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/SyslogFacility/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/LogLevel/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/LoginGraceTime/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/PermitRootLogin/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/HostbasedAuthentication no/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/StrictModes/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/RSAAuthentication/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/PubkeyAuthentication/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/IgnoreRhosts/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/PermitEmptyPasswords/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/AllowTcpForwarding/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/AllowTcpForwarding no/d' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/X11Forwarding/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/X11Forwarding/s/no/yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i -e '/\tX11Forwarding yes/d' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/X11DisplayOffset/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/X11UseLocalhost/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/PrintMotd/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/PrintMotd/s/yes/no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/PrintLastLog/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/TCPKeepAlive/s/^#//' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/the setting of/s/^/#/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i '/RhostsRSAAuthentication and HostbasedAuthentication/s/^/#/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

YAY - AUR HELPER

Install an AUR helper, YAY, to start using Arch User Repository.

Create a temporary working directory and navigate to it:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm git
mkdir -p /tmp/yay_install
cd /tmp/yay_install
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si --noconfirm
cd ~
rm -rf /tmp/yay_install

BASH TOOLS

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bash

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm bc rsync mlocate bash-completion pkgstats

(UN)COMPRESS TOOLS

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/P7zip

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm zip unzip unrar p7zip lzop cpio zziplib

AVAHI

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Avahi

Avahi is a free Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) implementation, including a system for multicast DNS/DNS-SD discovery. It allows programs to publish and discovers services and hosts running on a local network with no specific configuration.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm avahi nss-mdns
sudo systemctl enable avahi-daemon.service

ALSA

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alsa

The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) is a Linux kernel component intended to replace the original Open Sound System (OSSv3) for providing device drivers for sound cards.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm alsa-utils alsa-plugins

PULSEAUDIO

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pulseaudio

PulseAudio is the default sound server that serves as a proxy to sound applications using existing kernel sound components like ALSA or OSS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa

NTFS/FAT/exFAT/F2FS

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_Systems

A file system (or filesystem) is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device(s) which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the specific characteristics of the device.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm ntfs-3g dosfstools exfat-utils f2fs-tools fuse fuse-exfat autofs mtpfs

SYSTEMD-TIMESYNCD

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-timesyncd

A file system (or filesystem) is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device(s) which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the specific characteristics of the device.

sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

TOUCHPAD DRIVER

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm xf86-input-libinput mousetweaks

For touchpad tap-to-click use:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Libinput#Common_options

FONT CONFIGURATION

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration

Fontconfig is a library designed to provide a list of available fonts to applications, and also for configuration for how fonts get rendered.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm --asdeps --needed cairo fontconfig freetype2

[NOT RECOMMENDED] CONFIGURE GPU DRIVERS

CHECK CARDS

If you do not know what graphics card you have, find out by issuing:

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"

For the system I'm using to generate this guide, I use NVIDIA driver. You can use the output from the above command to determine what driver you need.

NVIDIA CARDS

[REQUIRED] BUMBLEBEE (NVIDIA)

sudo pacman -S --needed xf86-video-intel bumblebee nvidia nvidia-settings lib32-virtualgl lib32-nvidia-utils mesa lib32-mesa-libgl lib32-mesa-demos mesa-demos libva-vdpau-driver nvidia-libgl lib32-opencl-nvidia lib32-mesa-vdpau

Add username to bumblebee group:

sudo gpasswd -a shubham bumblebee

Enable bumblebee service:

sudo systemctl enable bumblebeed.service

[NOT RECOMMENDED] OTHER OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-nonveau mesa libva-vdpau-driver lib32-mesa lib32-libva-vdpau-driver

[NOT RECOMMENDED] NVIDIA PROPRIETARY DRIVERS

sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-libgl lib32-nvidia-libgl

[NOT REQUIRED] INTEL CARDS

Open Source GPU Drivers:

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel mesa libva-intel-driver lib32-mesa lib32-libva-intel-driver

[NOT REQUIRED] ATI CARDS

Open Source GPU Drivers:

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-ati mesa libva-vdpau-driver lib32-mesa lib32-libva-vdpau-driver

Proprietary GPU Drivers (available only on AUR at the time of writing):

sudo yay -S catalyst catalyst-libgl lib32-catalyst-libgl

[RECOMMENDED] ADDITIONAL FIRMWARE

yay -S --noconfirm wd719x-firmware aic94xx-firmware
sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

CONFIGURE SYSTEM

CONNECT TO INTERNET

Connect to wired or wireless network

RE-OPEN INSTALL MANUAL FROM BROWSER TO CONTINUE

Install Web Browser:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm chromium firefox

CONFIGURE SYSTEM SETTINGS

Configure basic system preferences such as privacy and power settings.

CONFIGURE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Home folder

Super+E

Hide All Normal Windows

Super+D

Terminal

gnome-terminal

Super+T

Terminal

gnome-terminal

Ctrl+Alt+T

INSTALL FONTS AND THEMES

Install better system fonts:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm ttf-ubuntu-font-family noto-fonts ttf-liberation adobe-source-code-pro-fonts ttf-dejavu opendesktop-fonts

Install Shell & Icon Themes

yay -S --noconfirm mojave-gtk-theme mojave-ct-icon-theme
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm arc-gtk-theme

Add font configuration to "~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf"

mkdir -p ~/.config/fontconfig/
nano ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Add following code to fonts.conf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
   <const>hintslight</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

In order to enable “Infinality mode” in plain vanilla freetype2:

sudo sed -i '/^#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES=.*/s/^#//' /etc/profile.d/freetype2.sh

Then create the following symbolic links in /etc/fonts/conf.d if they aren’t already present:

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo rm ./10-hinting-slight.conf
sudo ln -s ../conf.avail/10-hinting-slight.conf
sudo ln -s ../conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf
sudo ln -s ../conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf
cd ~

GNOME SHELL CONNECTION

Install the browser-shell connector:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm chrome-gnome-shell

Use web browser and go to:

https://extensions.gnome.org/

Choose "Allow and remember" when prompted for shell integration permission.

CHANGE LOOK AND FEEL

Install and enable User Themes extension.

Configure appreance from GNOME Tweak Tool:

Applications		to		Mojave-dark
Cursor			to		Adwaita (default)
Icons			to		Mojave-CT
Shell			to		Mojave-dark

Open Gnome Tweak Tool, goto fonts tab and change the following options:

Interface Text		to		Ubuntu Regular			10
Documents Text      	to		Ubuntu Regular			10
Monospace Text		to		Ubuntu Mono Regular		10
Legacy Window Titles   	to		Ubuntu Bold			10
Hinting			to		Slight
Antialiasing		to		Subpixel (rgba)
Sacling Factor		to		1.00

GNOME SHELL EXTENSIONS

Install and configure extensions:

Dash to Dock

Caffeine

Dynamic Top Bar - transparency level 0.30

NetSpeed

Refresh Wifi Connections

Todo.txt

Media player indicator

CONFIGURE SWAPPINESS

Swap storage is slow. SSD writes are precious. So let us set the swappiness to "1" which technically almost disables your swap, but still makes it accessible for hibernation.

sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "vm.swappiness=1" >> /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf'
sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=1

POWER ENHANCEMENTS

http://arter97.blogspot.com/2018/08/saving-power-consumption-on-laptops.html?m=1

TL;DR

sudo nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Set kernel options to:

options		root=/dev/nvme0n1p2 rw resume=/dev/nvme0n1p3 i915.enable_guc=3 i915.enable_psr=2 i915.enable_fbc=1 i915.enable_dc=2 drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.enable_rc6=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.semaphores=1 acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2015" acpi_backlight=native pcie_aspm=force pcie_aspm.policy=powersupersave nmi_watchdog=0 elevator=noop splash quiet loglevel=3 rd.systemd.show_status=false rd.udev.log-priority=3

INSTALL LATEST KERNEL

sudo pacman -Sy linux

INSTALL LATEST FIRMWARE

sudo pacman -Sy intel-ucode linux-firmware

[EXPERIMENTAL] CONFIGURE i915

sudo nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add kernel options:

i915.enable_guc=3 i915.enable_psr=2 i915.enable_fbc=1 i915.enable_dc=2 i915.enable_rc6=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.semaphores=1

Or, alternatively:

sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "options i915 enable_guc=3 enable_psr=2 enable_fbc=1 enable_dc=2" >> /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf'

sudo systemctl reboot

Verify:

dmesg | grep GuC
dmesg | grep HuC
dmesg | grep psr

[drm] HuC: Loaded firmware i915/kbl_huc_ver02_00_1810.bin (version 2.0)
[drm] GuC: Loaded firmware i915/kbl_guc_ver9_39.bin (version 9.39)
i915 0000:00:02.0: GuC firmware version 9.39
i915 0000:00:02.0: GuC submission enabled
i915 0000:00:02.0: HuC enabled
Setting dangerous option enable_psr - tainting kernel

[EXPERIMENTAL] ADJUSTING DRM VBLANK OFF DELAY

sudo nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add kernel options:

drm.vblankoffdelay=1

[EXPERIMENTAL] TRICKING THE BIOS

sudo nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add kernel options:

acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2015" acpi_backlight=native

[EXPERIMENTAL] ENABLE ASPM

sudo nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add kernel options:

pcie_aspm=force pcie_aspm.policy=powersupersave

TLP

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tlp

TLP is an advanced power management tool for Linux. It is a pure command line tool with automated background tasks and does not contain a GUI.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm tlp tlp-rdw ethtool smartmontools x86_energy_perf_policy

Modify TLP configuration:

sudo nano /etc/default/tlp

Enable TLP Service on boot

sudo systemctl enable tlp.service
sudo systemctl enable tlp-sleep.service
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager-dispatcher.service
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket

[EXPERIMENTAL] REMOVE DEVICES AT BOOT AND RESUME

Type 'lsusb' and 'lsusb -v' to see USB devices.

sudo lsusb -v

In my case, "ID 04f2:b3fd" is a webcam and "ID 8087:0a2b" is a Bluetooth adapter, which I know I won't be using.

sudo nano /etc/remove-unused-usb-devices.sh

#!/bin/bash

exec > /dev/kmsg 2>&1

sleep 3
find /sys -name idProduct | while read file; do
  if cat $file | grep -q 'b3fd\|0a2b'; then
    echo Removing $(dirname $file)
    echo 1 > $(dirname $file)/remove
  fi
done

sudo chmod 755 /etc/remove-unused-usb-devices.sh

The part you need to change is at "grep -q '562e|0a2b'". The syntax is simple, just append new devices followed by "|": grep -q '0000|1111|2222|3333|4444'

Now, for it to execute upon reboot, let's use crontab:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm cronie

sudo crontab -e

@reboot /etc/remove-unused-usb-devices.sh

If you need to access those blacklisted USB devices, just remove the script and suspend/resume your laptop.

Now we need to execute the script upon resume. Let's write a systemd service for that:

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/remove-unused-usb-devices-upon-resume.service

[Unit]
Description=Remove Unused USB Devices Upon Resume
Before=sleep.target
StopWhenUnneeded=yes

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStop=/etc/remove-unused-usb-devices.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=sleep.target

sudo systemctl enable --now remove-unused-usb-devices-upon-resume.service

You can validate whether it works by checking kernel log with dmesg:

[10838.133311] Removing /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-5
[10838.296408] usb 1-5: USB disconnect, device number 2
[10838.310044] Removing /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-6
[10838.454298] usb 1-6: USB disconnect, device number 3

[EXPERIMENTAL] DISABLE UNUSED PCIe PERIPHERALS

sudo lspci | grep -v 00:

In my case, 01:00.0 is dGPU Card, 02:00.0 is a PCIe microSD reader, 03:00.0 is Wi-Fi Card, and 04:00.0 is a NVMe SSD.

Disabling PCIe peripherals is a more straight forward process. We can just disable loading of a device driver that is responsible for such device.

sudo lspci -v

'lspci -v' will print out which kernel modules are responsible for each devices.

sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "#  Disable Bluetooth" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-bluetooth.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "blacklist bluetooth" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-bluetooth.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "blacklist btusb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-bluetooth.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "# Disable Webcam" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-webcam.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "blacklist uvcvideo" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-webcam.conf'

The first two lines disable bluetooth and the last disables the webcam.

[EXPERIMENTAL] DISABLE dGPU

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm dkms bbswitch
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "# Disable Alternate Driver" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-dGPU.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-dGPU.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "# Disable Original Driver" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-dGPU.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "blacklist nvidia" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-dGPU.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "blacklist nvidia_drm" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-disable-dGPU.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/bbswitch.conf'

POWERTOP

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm powertop

Create a new systemd service:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/powertop.service

[Unit]
Description=PowerTOP Tunings

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/powertop --auto-tune
RemainAfterExit=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and enable it with:

sudo systemctl enable --now powertop.service

See power statistics using powertop

sudo powertop

Confirm Idle Stats:

Package		-> C8(pc8) - C10(pc10)
Core		-> C7 (cc7)
GPU		-> RC6
CPU [0-7]	-> C8 - C10

CPU/HDD TEMPERATURE

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm lm_sensors hddtemp
sensors
sudo hddtemp /dev/nvme0n1

CONFIGURE PERIODIC TRIM FOR SSD

To verify TRIM support, run:

lsblk -D

And check the values of DISC-GRAN and DISC-MAX columns. Non-zero values indicate TRIM support.

The "util-linux" package provides "fstrim.service" and "fstrim.timer" systemd unit files. Enabling the timer will activate the service weekly. The service executes fstrim on all mounted filesystems on devices that support the discard operation.

Enable the periodic trim service with:

sudo systemctl enable --now fstrim.timer

[RECOMMENDED] CONFIGURE BLUETOOTH

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard for the short-range wireless interconnection of cellular phones, computers, and other electronic devices. In Linux, the canonical implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack is BlueZ.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm bluez bluez-utils bluez-libs pulseaudio-alsa pulseaudio-bluetooth
sudo systemctl enable --now bluetooth.service

Enable auto connection adding the following lines to:

sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "### Automatically switch to newly-connected devices" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "load-module module-switch-on-connect" >> /etc/pulse/default.pa'

By default, your Bluetooth adapter will not power on after a reboot. Now you just need to add the line AutoEnable=true in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf at the bottom in the Policy section:

sudo sed -i 's/^#AutoEnable=.*/AutoEnable=true/' /etc/bluetooth/main.conf

If PulseAudio fails when changing the profile to A2DP while using GNOME with GDM, you need to prevent GDM from starting its own instance of PulseAudio.

Prevent Pulseaudio clients from automatically starting a server if one isn't running by adding the following lines to:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/gdm/.config/pulse
sudo touch /var/lib/gdm/.config/pulse/client.conf
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "autospawn = no" >> /var/lib/gdm/.config/pulse/client.conf'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "daemon-binary = /bin/true" >> /var/lib/gdm/.config/pulse/client.conf'

Prevent systemd from starting Pulseaudio anyway with socket activation:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/gdm/.config/systemd/user
sudo ln -s /dev/null /var/lib/gdm/.config/systemd/user/pulseaudio.socket

Restart, and check that there is no Pulseaudio process for the gdm user.

REMOVE GNOME GAMES

sudo pacman -Rnsc --noconfirm four-in-a-row five-or-more gnome-chess gnome-klotski gnome-mahjongg gnome-mines gnome-nibbles gnome-robots gnome-sudoku gnome-tetravex gnome-taquin swell-foop hitori iagno quadrapassel lightsoff tali

FIX NOISE IN HEADPHONES

sudo /bin/sh 'echo "options snd-hda-intel model=dell-headset-multi" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf'

VIPER4LINUX

Follow the guide to install Viper4Linux.

https://github.com/L3vi47h4N/Viper4Linux

To start Viper after login:

echo '' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'viper start &' >> ~/.bash_profile

CUPS

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cups

CUPS is the standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple Inc. for Mac OS X and other UNIX-like operating systems.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm cups cups-pdf gutenprint ghostscript gsfonts foomatic-db foomatic-db-engine foomatic-db-nonfree foomatic-db-ppds foomatic-db-nonfree-ppds foomatic-db-gutenprint-ppds libcups system-config-printer hplip
sudo systemctl enable --now org.cups.cupsd.service

NFS

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nfs

NFS allowing a user on a client computer to access files over a network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm nfs-utils

sudo systemctl enable rpcbind
sudo systemctl enable nfs-client.target
sudo systemctl enable remote-fs.target

[OPTIONAL] CONFIGURE USB MODEM

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_3G_Modem

A number of mobile telephone networks around the world offer mobile internet connections over UMTS (or EDGE or GSM) using a portable USB modem device.

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm usbutils usb_modeswitch modemmanager
sudo systemctl enable ModemManager.service

SPEED-UP APP STARTUP

Speed up application startup:

mkdir -p ~/.compose-cache
sudo systemctl enable --now accounts-daemon
sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288" >> /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf'

CONFIGURE ADDITIONAL FN KEY SHORTCUTS

Install and check output of acpi_listen:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm acpid
sudo systemctl enable --now acpid.service
acpi_listen

xev -event keyboard

Temporary bug fix

sudo pacman -U https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/x/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config-2.28-1-any.pkg.tar.xz

Create new keyboard symbols

mkdir -p $HOME/.xkb/symbols
sudo nano $HOME/.xkb/symbols/custom

partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "fn" {
    include "inet(evdev)"
    key <I171>   {      [ End                   ]       };
    key <I172>   {      [ Next, Next            ]       };
    key <I173>   {      [ Home                  ]       };
    key <I174>   {      [ Prior, Prior          ]       };
};

Backup existing keyboard map

mkdir -p $HOME/.xkb/keymap
setxkbmap -print > $HOME/.xkb/keymap/xkbbase

cp $HOME/.xkb/keymap/xkbbase $HOME/.xkb/keymap/xkbcustom

Add custom(fn) to xkb_symbols in the new xkbcustom keymap

xkb_keymap {
	xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)"	};
	xkb_types     { include "complete"	};
	xkb_compat    { include "complete"	};
	xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us+inet(evdev)+custom(fn)"	};
	xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"	};
};

Create and enable systemd service to set keyboard map at start of X session

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/xkbcomp.service

[Unit]
Description=Set xkbd map
After=xinitrc.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/bin/xkbcomp -I$HOME/.xkb $HOME/.xkb/keymap/xkbcustom $DISPLAY

[Install]
WantedBy=xinitrc.target

Enable the service

sudo systemctl enable xkbcomp.service

nano ~/.xsession

if [ -d $HOME/.xkb/keymap ]; then
  setxkbmap -print | \
    sed -e '/xkb_symbols/s/"[[:space:]]/+custom(fn)&/' > $HOME/.xkb/keymap/xkbcustom
  xkbcomp -w0 -I$HOME/.xkb -R$HOME/.xkb keymap/xkbcustom $DISPLAY
fi

INSTALL PACKAGE CLEANER

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm pacman-contrib

sudo systemctl enable --now paccache.timer

LEARN BASICS OF PACKAGE INSTALLERS

To get started with Arch Linux you need to know how to use "Pacman" and "AUR".

PACMAN

INSTALL PACKAGES

SEARCH PAGKAGE

pacman -Ss <package>

DETAILS OF UNINSTALLED PACKAGE

pacman -Si <package>

INSTALL PACKAGE

sudo pacman –S <package list>

DETAILS OF INSTALLED PACKAGE

pacman -Qi <package>

LIST OUTDATED PACKAGES

pacman -Qu

UPDATE PACKAGES DATABASE

sudo pacman -Sy

UPGRADE PACKAGES

sudo pacman -Syu

CHECK STORAGE CONSUMPTION

pacsysclean

FOREIGN PACKAGES FOR REMOVAL

These packages do not exist on arch repositories and should me removed.

pacman -Qm

ORPHANED PACKAGES

Lists orphaned packages, ie. unrequired packages installed as dependency.

pacman -Qdt

REMOVE PACKAGES

REMOVE ONLY THE PACKAGE

sudo pacman –R <package list>

REMOVE PACKAGE WITH DEPENDENCIES AND CONFIGURATIONS

sudo pacman –Rns <package list>

RECURSIVELY REMOVE PACKAGE WITH DEPENDENCIES AND CONFIGURATIONS

sudo pacman –Rnsc <package list>

FORCE REMOVE PACKAGE IRRESPECTIVE OF DEPENDENCIES

sudo pacman -Rdd <package list>

Learn more about Pacman on the wiki page at:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/pacman

YAY - AUR HELPER

Most functions are similar to pacman.

INSTALL PACKAGES FROM AUR

yay -S

UPGRADE DATABASE AND PACKAGES FROM AUR

yay -Syu --devel --needed

INSTALL APPS

ACCESSORIES APPS

MAKE TERMINAL COOL

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm fortune-mod cowsay lolcat cmatrix

Have some fun with:

cowsay -l

fortune | cowsay

fortune | lolcat

cowsay $(fortune -o) | lolcat

cmatrix | lolcat

ACCESSORIES

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm synapse terminator
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm catfish

OFFICE APPS

TEXLIVE

Install LaTeX Environment:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm texlive-core texlive-bin texlive-latexextra

Install LaTeX IDE

yay -S --noconfirm texworks

Add "ModernCV" class for Resume

curl -L -O http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/moderncv.zip
unzip moderncv.zip && rm moderncv.zip && cd moderncv
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/moderncv/
sudo cp *.sty *.cls -t /usr/local/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/moderncv/ && cd .. && rm -rf moderncv

Rebuild latex package cache

sudo mktexlsr

Check if "ModernCV" class is correctly installed with:

kpsewhich moderncv.cls

LIBREOFFICE

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LibreOffice

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm libreoffice-fresh

SYSTEM TOOLS

FIREWALL

Blocking every request incoming to your system is nice to keep everything safe. I recommend you to install the UFW firewall:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm gufw
sudo ufw enable
sudo systemctl enable --now ufw
sudo ufw default deny
sudo ufw logging off
sudo ufw status

ANTIVIRUS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm clamav
sudo systemctl enable --now clamav-daemon.service
sudo systemctl enable --now clamav-freshclam.service
sudo freshclam

BLOCK ADWARE

yay -S --noconfirm hosts-update

sudo sed -i 's/^127.0.0.1.*/127.0.0.1       zenbook-pro.localdomain localhost zenbook-pro/' /etc/hosts.local
sudo sed -i 's/^::1.*/::1             zenbook-pro.localdomain localhost zenbook-pro/' /etc/hosts.local
sudo sed -i "$(( `grep -n "^::1" /etc/hosts | cut -f1 -d:` + 1 )) i\127.0.1.1       zenbook-pro.localdomain localhost zenbook-pro" /etc/hosts.local
sudo hosts-update

HTOP - INTERACTIVE PROCESS VIEWER

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm htop

MONITOR NETWORK

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm netdata nload
sudo systemctl enable --now netdata.service

VIRTUAL MACHINE

yay -S --noconfirm vmware-workstation12

DOCKER

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm docker

sudo gpasswd -a shubham docker

WINE

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm icoutils wine wine_gecko wine-mono winetricks

INTERNET APPS

WEB BROWSERS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm chromium

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm firefox

yay -S --noconfirm google-chrome tor-browser

DOWNLOAD/FILE-SHARE

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm transmission-gtk
sed -i -e 's/^"blocklist-enabled":.*/"blocklist-enabled": true/' /home/shubham/.config/transmission/settings.json
sed -i -e 's/^www\.example\.com\/blocklist/list\.iblocklist\.com\/\?list=bt_level1&fileformat=p2p&archiveformat=gz/' /home/shubham/.config/transmission/settings.json

EMAIL CLIENTS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm evolution

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm thunderbird

INSTANT MESSAGING CLIENTS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm telegram-desktop

yay -S --noconfirm skypeforlinux-stable-bin

DESKTOP SHARING

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm remmina

yay -S --noconfirm teamviewer

GRAPHICS APPS

IMAGE VIEWERS/EDITORS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm shotwell gimp imagemagick gthumb

3D GRAPHICS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm blender inkscape

SKTECHING

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm mypaint

yay -S --noconfirm pencil

PUBLISHING

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm scribus

AUDIO

AUDIO PLAYERS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm rhythmbox grilo grilo-plugins libgpod libdmapsharing gnome-python python-mako

yay -S --noconfirm spotify

AUDIO CODECS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-base-libs gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav

AUDIO EDITORS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm audacity easytag soundconverter

VIDEO

MULTIMEDIA CODECS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm gstreamer flashplugin pepper-flash faac faad2 libdca libmad libmpeg2 x264 x265 libfdk-aac libquicktime

yay -S --noconfirm chromium-widevine

VIDEO CODECS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm ffmpeg ffmpegthumbnailer ffmpegthumbs

VIDEO PLAYERS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm vlc gnome-mplayer mplayer

yay -S --noconfirm --nedit popcorntime-ce

VIDEO EDITORS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm handbrake

FILE SYSTEMS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm btrfs-progs dosfstools e2fsprogs exfat-utils f2fs-tools gpart jfsutils mtools ntfs-3g reiserfsprogs xfsprogs

MORE PACKAGES

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm gparted screenfetch dconf-editor bleachbit hdparm dstat seahorse simplescreenrecorder dmenu elinks alacarte speedtest-cli simple-scan deja-dup

DEVELOPMENT

VISUAL CODE STUDIO

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm code

ATOM

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm atom

GEANY

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm geany

EMACS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm emacs

GVIM

sudo pacman -Rns --noconfirm vim

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm gvim ctags

MELD

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm meld

SUBLIME TEXT 3

yay -S --noconfirm sublime-text-dev

OPENJDK 8

sudo pacman -Rnsc --noconfirm jdk

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm jdk8-openjdk

OPENJDK 10

sudo pacman -Rnsc --noconfirm jdk

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm jdk10-openjdk

ORACLE JDK

sudo pacman -Rnsc --noconfirm jdk7-openjdk jdk8-openjdk jdk9-openjdk jdk10-openjdk

yay -S --noconfirm jdk

CONFIGURE JDK

Check the installation with:

sudo ls /usr/lib/jvm

List compatible Java environments installed

archlinux-java status

Change the default Java environment

sudo archlinux-java set java_environment_name

Unset the default Java environment

sudo archlinux-java unset

SPRING TOOL SUITE

yay -S --noconfirm spring-tool-suite

NETBEANS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm netbeans

ECLIPSE

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm eclipse-jee

ANDROID-TOOLS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm android-tools

ANDROID STUDIO

yay -S --noconfirm android-sdk android-sdk-platform-tools android-sdk-build-tools android-platform
sudo gpasswd -a shubham sdkusers
sudo chown -R :sdkusers /opt/android-sdk/
sudo chmod -R g+w /opt/android-sdk/
sudo /bin/sh -c 'export ANDROID_HOME=/opt/android-sdk >> /home/shubham/.bashrc'
yay -S --noconfirm android-studio

JETBRAINS TOOLBOX

yay -S --noconfirm jetbrains-toolbox

INTELLIJ IDEA

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm intellij-idea-community-edition

INTELLIJ IDEA ULTIMATE EDITION

yay -S --noconfirm intellij-idea-ultimate-edition

MONODEVELOP

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm monodevelop monodevelop-debugger-gdb

QT CREATOR

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm qtcreator

MYSQL WORKBENCH

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm mysql-workbench

NODEJS

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm nodejs

MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO CODE

yay -S --noconfirm visual-studio-code-bin

GIT GUI-s

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm gitg qgit

KDIFF3

yay -S --noconfirm kdiff3

REGEXXER

yay -S --noconfirm regexxer

POSTMAN

yay -S --noconfirm postman-bin

GITKRAKEN

yay -S --noconfirm gitkraken

WEBSERVERS

LAMP - APACHE, MariaDB & PHP

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm apache php php-apache php-mcrypt php-gd

Complete following steps:

INSTALL_MARIADB
INSTALL_ADMINER
SYSTEMCTL ENABLE HTTPD.SERVICE
CONFIGURE_PHP_APACHE
CONFIGURE_PHP "MARIADB"
CREATE_SITES_FOLDER

LAPP - APACHE, POSTGRESQL & PHP

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm apache php php-apache php-pgsql php-gd

Complete following steps:

INSTALL_POSTGRESQL
INSTALL_ADMINER
sudo systemctl enable --now httpd.service
CONFIGURE_PHP_APACHE
CONFIGURE_PHP "POSTGRESQL"
CREATE_SITES_FOLDER

LEMP - NGINX, MariaDB & PHP

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm nginx php php-mcrypt php-fpm

Complete following steps:

INSTALL_MARIADB
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm.service
CONFIGURE_PHP_NGINX
CONFIGURE_PHP "MARIADB"

LEPP - NGINX, POSTGRESQL & PHP

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm nginx php php-fpm php-pgsql

Complete following steps:

INSTALL_POSTGRESQL
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm.service
CONFIGURE_PHP_NGINX
CONFIGURE_PHP "POSTGRESQL"

ADMINER

yay -S --noconfirm adminer

Check config:

cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf | grep Adminer

If config, does not contain Adminer:

echo -e '\n# Adminer Configuration\nInclude conf/extra/httpd-adminer.conf' >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

MARIA-DB

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm mariadb
sudo /usr/bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql
sudo systemctl enable --now mysqld.service
sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

POSTGRESQL

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm postgresql
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/postgres
sudo chown -R postgres:postgres /var/lib/postgres
systemd-tmpfiles --create postgresql.conf
sudo passwd postgres
su - postgres -c "initdb --locale ${LOCALE}.UTF-8 -D /var/lib/postgres/data"
sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql.service
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm postgis
yay -S --noconfirm pgrouting

CONFIGURE PHP

If new file exists:

-f /etc/php/php.ini.pacnew

mv -v /etc/php/php.ini /etc/php/php.ini.pacold
mv -v /etc/php/php.ini.pacnew /etc/php/php.ini

For MariaDB:

sudo sed -i '/mysqli.so/s/^;//' /etc/php/php.ini
sudo sed -i '/mysql.so/s/^;//' /etc/php/php.ini
sudo sed -i '/skip-networking/s/^/#/' /etc/mysql/my.cnf

For PostgreSQL:

sudo sed -i '/pgsql.so/s/^;//' /etc/php/php.ini

Finally:

sudo sed -i '/mcrypt.so/s/^;//' /etc/php/php.ini
sudo sed -i '/gd.so/s/^;//' /etc/php/php.ini
sudo sed -i '/display_errors=/s/off/on/' /etc/php/php.ini

CONFIGURE PHP APACHE

If new file exixts:

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.pacnew

mv -v /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.pacnew /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Check if php is disabled:

cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf | grep php5_module.conf

If disabled, enable with:

echo -e 'application/x-httpd-php5                php php5' >> /etc/httpd/conf/mime.types

sudo sed -i '/LoadModule dir_module modules\/mod_dir.so/a\LoadModule php5_module modules\/libphp5.so' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
echo -e '\n# Use for PHP 5.x:\nInclude conf/extra/php5_module.conf\n\nAddHandler php5-script php' >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
sudo sed -i -e 's/LoadModule mpm_event_module modules\/mod_mpm_event.so/LoadModule mpm_prefork_module modules\/mod_mpm_prefork.so/' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
sudo sed -i -e 's/DirectoryIndex\ index.html/DirectoryIndex\ index.html\ index.php/' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

CONFIGURE PHP NGINX

Check if new file exists:

/etc/nginx/nginx.conf.pacnew

If file exists:

mv -v /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.pacnew /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

sudo sed -i -e '/location ~ \.php$ {/,/}/d' /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
sudo sed -i -e '/pass the PHP/a\        #\n        location ~ \.php$ {\n            fastcgi_pass   unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;\n            fastcgi_index  index.php;\n            root           /srv/http;\n            include        fastcgi.conf;\n        }' /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

CREATE SITES FOLDER

sudo sed -i -e 's/public_html/Sites/' /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf  
sudo /bin/sh -c 'mkdir -p ~/Sites'
sudo /bin/sh -c 'chmod o+x ~/ && chmod -R o+x ~/Sites'

CLEAN ORPHAN PACKAGES

sudo pacman -Rsc --noconfirm $(pacman -Qqdt)

RECONFIGURE SYSTEM

HOSTNAME

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HOSTNAME

A host name is a unique name created to identify a machine on a network.Host names are restricted to alphanumeric characters.\nThe hyphen (-) can be used, but a host name cannot start or end with it. Length is restricted to 63 characters.

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname

TIMEZONE

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Timezone

In an operating system the time (clock) is determined by four parts: Time value, Time standard, Time Zone, and DST (Daylight Saving Time if applicable).

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata

HARDWARE CLOCK TIME

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Internationalization

This is set in /etc/adjtime. Set the hardware clock mode uniformly between your operating systems on the same machine. Otherwise, they will overwrite the time and cause clock shifts (which can cause time drift correction to be miscalibrated).

sudo timedatectl set-local-rtc false

sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

EXTRA

BROWSER PROFILE SYNC DAEMON

yay -S --noconfirm profile-sync-daemon

psd

sed -i 's/^#USE_BACKUPS=.*/USE_BACKUPS="yes"/' /home/shubham/.config/psd/psd.conf
sed -i '/^#BACKUP_LIMIT/s/^#//' /home/shubham/.config/psd/psd.conf

systemctl --user enable --now psd.service

CHECK BOOT PERFORMANCE

systemd-analyze
systemd-analyze blame
systemd-analyze critical-chain
systemd-analyze plot > plot.svg

Clean systemd journal files manually using journalctl utility to limit its size to [size]MiB. You can specify your own parameters. For example, I prefer to keep it to 100MiB

Journal files are located at /var/log/journal/

journalctl --vacuum-size=100M

THE END

CREDITS

This manual refers to several articles and open source packages.

• Arch Wiki - Installation Guide
• Arch Wiki - General Recommendations
• Arch Wiki - Asus Zenbook Pro UX501
• Arter97's Blog - Power Saving Tunings
• Archlinux Ultimate Install
• Viper4Linux

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LICENSE

GPL-3.0

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