Install Desktop

Display Server

🖥️ Choose between Xorg or Wayland as your display server

Xorg

Xorg is a traditional display server

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-xrandr xorg-xfontsel xorg-xlsfonts xorg-xkill xorg-xinput xorg-xwininfo

Wayland

Wayland is a modern display server protocol. Most desktop environments (GNOME, KDE Plasma, etc.) include Wayland support out of the box — you typically do not install wayland by itself.

If you choose a desktop environment (e.g., GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, Cinnamon), the display server is handled for you and Wayland support is included where applicable. You don't need to install Wayland separately.

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wayland

Desktop Environment

🗔 You need to select a desktop environment

• For beginners coming from Windows I recommend KDE Plasma or Cinnmaon.
• For a very resource friendy desktop I recommend Xfce or LXQt
• The instructions for KDE Plasma are tested by me because I use it. Others should work but you may need some extra packages for productive use (pull requests are welcome)

KDE Plasma

pacman -S plasma kdialog kcalc icoutils libappimage konsole dolphin kdegraphics-thumbnailers svgpart ffmpegthumbs kdenetwork-filesharing gwenview kimageformats ark kate okular kcron kdf filelight print-manager

If you want to use KDE Connect (Pairing with Android phone)

pacman -S kdeconnect sshfs

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE

Xfce

pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xfce

GNOME

pacman -S gnome gnome-extra

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME

LXDE

pacman -S lxde lxdm-gtk3

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LXDE

LXQt

pacman -S lxqt breeze-icons pcmanfm-qt qterminal lxqt-sudo polkit-qt5

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LXQt

Cinnamon

pacman -S cinnamon cinnamon-translations nemo-fileroller nemo-image-converter nemo-preview xed xreader gnome-terminal

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Cinnamon

Budgie

pacman -S budgie-desktop network-manager-applet

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Budgie

Mate

pacman -S mate mate-extra

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MATE

Deepin

pacman -S deepin deepin-extra
nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
# append this line to use the deepin specific greeter
greeter-session=lightdm-deepin-greeter

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Deepin

Display/Desktop Manager

🖥️ A display manager is basically your login screen where you enter your user details and select your Desktop Environment

LXDM (Included with LXDE)

pacman -S lxdm-gtk3
systemctl enable lxdm

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LXDM

SDDM (Included with KDE Plasma)

pacman -S sddm
systemctl enable --now sddm

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM

GDM (Included with GNOME/Budgie/MATE)

pacman -S gdm
systemctl enable --now gdm

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GDM

LightDM

pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter
systemctl enable --now lightdm

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LightDM