Arch Linux Guide

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Post-Installation ​

Set X11 Keymap ​

⌨️ It's recommended to set this to your keymap. Some Display Manager and Desktop Environments use this (replace yourkeymap with your keymap e.g. de)

bash
localectl set-x11-keymap yourkeymap

Wi-Fi ​

📶 You can use nmtui wifi-menu or your graphical network manager from your desktop environment to configure your network profile

Oh My Zsh ​

🤖 A delightful & open source framework for Zsh

bash
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Oh my Fish ​

🤖 The Fishshell Framework

bash
curl -L https://get.oh-my.fish | fish

AUR Setup ​

The Arch User Repository is a community-driven repository for Arch users. paru is a popular AUR helper that allows installing AUR packages.

bash
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
makepkg -rsi
cd .. && rm -rf paru
bash
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -rsi
cd .. && rm -rf yay

This guide shows commands for both paru and yay where applicable.

Hold up ​

WARNING

Be careful when using AUR packages. You might need to re-build them when the dependencies in the repositories get updated.
I recommend installing rebuild-detector to get notified when a package needs to be re-built.

bash
paru -S rebuild-detector
bash
yay -S rebuild-detector

Cheat sheet ​

  • paru Update system
  • paru xyz Install xyz
  • paru -Rns xyz Uninstall xyz
  • paru -Rdd xyz Force remove xyz (should not be used)
  • paru -c Uninstall not explicitly installed optional dependencies
  • paru -Si xyz Show remote package
  • paru -Qi xyz Show local package
  • paru -Qq List installed packages
  • paru -Qqe List explicitly installed packages
  • yay Update system
  • yay xyz Install xyz
  • yay -Rns xyz Uninstall xyz
  • yay -Rdd xyz Force remove xyz (should not be used)
  • yay -Yc Uninstall not explicitly installed optional dependencies
  • yay -Si xyz Show remote package
  • yay -Qi xyz Show local package
  • yay -Qq List installed packages
  • yay -Qqe List explicitly installed packages

Graphical package manager ​

📦 I recommend only to use yay/paru to update and install packages but (especially if you are a beginner) you may want a software center or a graphical package manager

🛒 If you want an even easier to use GUI, you can install a Software Center. They can only manage Flatpaks and Firmware updates and not install AUR packages though.

bash
paru -S gnome-software fwupd
bash
yay -S gnome-software fwupd

I would recommend you to go for bazaar instead. First Install Flatpak and then install Bazaar with:

bash
flatpak install flathub io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar
bash
paru -S discover flatpak fwupd
bash
yay -S discover flatpak fwupd

Warning

You can install packagekit-qt6 to get support for Arch packages in Discover but this is strongly discouraged because it is not very stable. It is recommended to rely on tested CLI tools.

Complex GTK (Most beginner-friendly) ​

bash
paru -S pamac-aur
bash
yay -S pamac-aur

Complex Qt ​

bash
paru -S octopi
bash
yay -S octopi

Media Codecs ​

bash
paru -S gst-libav gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gstreamer-vaapi x265 x264 lame
bash
yay -S gst-libav gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gstreamer-vaapi x265 x264 lame

Qt theme on GTK Desktop ​

You can use Qt6Ct to set the style of Qt applications

bash
paru -S qt6ct
echo "export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct" >> ~/.profile
bash
yay -S qt6ct
echo "export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct" >> ~/.profile

If you want to read APFS Partitions ​

💽 If you have a Hackintosh installation you can use this to access your files from it

bash
paru -S linux-apfs-rw-dkms-git
bash
yay -S linux-apfs-rw-dkms-git

Fonts ​

General Fonts ​

🗛 Those are some essential font packages

bash
paru -S adobe-source-sans-pro-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-opensans noto-fonts freetype2 terminus-font ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu ttf-droid ttf-fira-mono ttf-fira-sans ttf-freefont ttf-inconsolata ttf-liberation libertinus-font
bash
yay -S adobe-source-sans-pro-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-opensans noto-fonts freetype2 terminus-font ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu ttf-droid ttf-fira-mono ttf-fira-sans ttf-freefont ttf-inconsolata ttf-liberation libertinus-font

If you want you can install all available fonts which takes about 1 GB of space

bash
paru -S all-repository-fonts
bash
yay -S all-repository-fonts

Windows Fonts ​

🗛 If you want the Windows/Microsoft fonts (f.e. for Office Suites and required by certain games under Wine)

With an existing Windows Installation / ISO ​

When you have an existing Windows Installation / ISO you can use the following package script

bash
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/ttf-ms-win11.git
cd ttf-ms-win11

Read PKGBUILD and copy all Windows files into the directory and then run makepkg -rsi --skipchecksums

Without an existing Windows Installation / ISO ​

TIP

There's a package that automatically downloads and extracts the fonts

bash
paru -S ttf-ms-win11-auto
bash
yay -S ttf-ms-win11-auto

macOS Fonts ​

🗚 If you want the San Francisco Font by Apple

bash
paru -S otf-san-francisco otf-san-francisco-mono
bash
yay -S otf-san-francisco otf-san-francisco-mono

Nano syntax highlighting ​

📃 This package provides syntax highlighting enhancements to the nano text editor

bash
paru -S nano-syntax-highlighting
bash
yay -S nano-syntax-highlighting

Auto clean package cache ​

⚠️The cache can get huge over time so it is strongly encouraged to install a hook like this

🗑️ This install a configurable hook to cleanup the pacman package cache

bash
paru -S paccache-hook
sudo nano /etc/paccache-hook.conf # Configure to your liking
bash
yay -S paccache-hook
sudo nano /etc/paccache-hook.conf # Configure to your liking

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