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 or wifi-menu to configure your network profile

Oh My Zsh ​

🤖 A delightful & open source framework for Zsh

bash
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/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. yay is a pacman wrapper that allows installing AUR packages

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

paru is a good alternative to yay. It's easy to use due to its similarity with yay's CLI. To install it, simply execute the following commands.

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

In the following commands replace yay with paru.

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
yay -S rebuild-detector

Cheat sheet ​

(Unless explicitly mentioned, this also applies to paru)

  • yay Update system
  • yay xyz Install xyz
  • yay -Rns xyz Uninstall xyz
  • yay -Rdd xyz Force remove xyz (should not be used)
  • yay -Yc / paru -c 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 graphical package manager

  • Simple GTK: yay -S gnome-packagekit
  • Simple Qt: yay -S apper
  • Complex GTK: yay -S pamac-aur (Most beginner-friendly)
  • Complex Qt: yay -S octopi

🛒 If you want an even easier to use GUI, you can install a Software Center. They can't install AUR packages though.

  • GTK Software Center: yay -S gnome-software
  • Qt Software Center: yay -S discover packagekit-qt6

Media Codecs ​

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 ​

If you use a GTK desktop and want Qt apps to use your GTK Theme you have 2 choices

You need to install the Qt5 Style plugins for both

bash
yay -S qt5-styleplugins

Convert GTK2 theme ​

🧮 This may not look good with every GTK Theme

bash
echo "export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2" >> ~/.profile

Qt5 ​

You can use Qt5Ct instead

bash
yay -S qt5ct
echo "export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct" >> ~/.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
yay -S linux-apfs-rw-dkms-git

Fonts ​

General Fonts ​

🗛 Those are some essential font packages

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
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
yay -S ttf-ms-win11-auto

macOS Fonts ​

🗚 If you want the San Francisco Font by Apple

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
yay -S nano-syntax-highlighting

Auto clean package cache ​

🗑️ This will clear the package cache to only keep 1 version after every action

bash
yay -S pacman-contrib
sudo mkdir /etc/pacman.d/hooks
sudo nano /etc/pacman.d/hooks/clean_package_cache.hook
Click me to view the code
ini
[Trigger]
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Install
Operation = Remove
Type = Package
Target = *
[Action]
Description = Cleaning pacman cache...
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/paccache -rk 2

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