Drivers and useful packages

Install the graphics and audio packages needed by your desktop before continuing to the bootloader page. The remaining sections are optional. Commands run as root inside the chroot.

Graphics drivers

Identify your hardware:

lspci -k | grep -A 3 -E '(VGA|3D|Display)'

Install drivers for each GPU you use, including both GPUs on a hybrid laptop. The commands below target current hardware; consult the linked wiki pages for older generations.

AMD

pacman -S mesa vulkan-radeon

For Steam and other 32-bit graphics applications, enable multilib and add:

pacman -S lib32-mesa lib32-vulkan-radeon

VA-API support is included in Mesa. See AMDGPU for older GPUs and hardware video acceleration.

Intel

pacman -S mesa vulkan-intel

For 32-bit graphics applications:

pacman -S lib32-mesa lib32-vulkan-intel

Video acceleration packages depend on the GPU generation; see Intel graphics. The legacy xf86-video-intel Xorg driver is not a default requirement.

NVIDIA

Select the driver by GPU generation. The current open kernel modules support Turing and newer, not every NVIDIA card. For the linux kernel installed by this guide:

pacman -S nvidia-open nvidia-utils

For Steam, add lib32-nvidia-utils after enabling multilib. Use nvidia-open-lts with linux-lts, or nvidia-open-dkms plus matching kernel headers for other kernels.

Maxwell, Pascal and Volta need the legacy nvidia-580xx-dkms AUR branch and matching nvidia-580xx-utils (plus lib32-nvidia-580xx-utils for 32-bit applications). These require AUR setup as a regular user and headers for each installed kernel. For a fresh install on this hardware, complete the base system and boot into a console first; postpone enabling a graphical login until the driver is installed. If you already enabled a display manager, disable that service before rebooting. Older cards need other legacy branches or Nouveau. Do not mix legacy and current NVIDIA userspace libraries.

Read NVIDIA for the hardware support table, hybrid graphics and power-management caveats. Arch's driver transition notice explains the package change.

Initramfs and virtual machines

Keep the default kms hook for in-tree drivers. Only add explicit modules when your hardware requires them, preserving any existing MODULES entries; see early KMS. The next page regenerates the initramfs after configuration.

For a VM, install guest integration appropriate to its hypervisor and virtual GPU: VirtualBox, VMware, or QEMU. The VMware Xorg driver is not a universal VM driver.

Audio

Use PipeWire with WirePlumber:

pacman -S pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse wireplumber alsa-utils

The user services start with the desktop session; do not enable them as system services. Install pipewire-jack only if you need JACK compatibility. Plasma includes volume controls; pavucontrol or pavucontrol-qt are optional alternatives. See PipeWire.

Bluetooth

pacman -S bluez bluez-utils
systemctl enable bluetooth.service

Plasma includes Bluedevil; other desktops can use their own Bluetooth settings or blueman. PipeWire does not need pulseaudio-bluetooth.

Printing and scanning

Start with driverless printing for supported IPP printers:

pacman -S cups
systemctl enable cups.service

For network printer discovery, install avahi and enable avahi-daemon.service. Use Plasma's print-manager or system-config-printer to add printers. Install gutenprint, hplip or other device-specific drivers only if your model needs them. See CUPS.

For supported network scanners, install sane-airscan with skanlite (Qt) or simple-scan (GTK). Supported USB IPP devices may need ipp-usb. Local scanning does not require enabling saned.socket; see SANE.

SSD maintenance

For supported SSDs:

systemctl enable fstrim.timer

Encrypted systems also need a deliberate discard configuration. The timer alone cannot trim through a LUKS mapping that blocks discard.

File tools and network shares

Install what you use, for example:

pacman -S 7zip unzip unrar rsync xdg-user-dirs

Use exfatprogs for native exFAT filesystem tools. Linux includes the ntfs3 driver; ntfs-3g remains an alternative. Network shares may need nfs-utils or cifs-utils, and GTK file managers commonly use gvfs integrations.

NetworkManager is already installed and enabled. Add VPN plugins only for the VPN you use; do not enable another network manager for the same interface.

Android tools

For ADB access as your regular user:

pacman -S android-tools android-udev
usermod -aG adbusers yourusername

Alternative shells

For Zsh:

pacman -S zsh zsh-completions
chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh yourusername

Or for Fish:

pacman -S fish
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish yourusername