Post-installation

Run these commands after reboot as your regular user. Commands needing administrative privileges use sudo.

Network and keyboard

Connect Wi-Fi through your desktop's network settings or nmtui. The installed system uses NetworkManager; the ISO's iwctl setup is separate.

Set your keyboard layout in the desktop settings. For X11 sessions and display managers that use the system X11 layout, this example sets German:

sudo localectl set-x11-keymap de

This does not replace /etc/vconsole.conf, which controls the console and the encrypted-root unlock prompt. If you change that file on an encrypted system, regenerate the initramfs with sudo mkinitcpio -P.

AUR packages

Use sudo pacman -S package for official repository packages. The Arch User Repository contains user-maintained build instructions, not officially supported binary packages. Review the PKGBUILD, install scripts and source URLs before building, including when a helper offers to show changes.

Install build prerequisites:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

Choose one optional helper. Run makepkg as your regular user, never root. After cloning, read the build files before running the final command:

paru

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
less PKGBUILD
makepkg -si
cd ..

yay

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
less PKGBUILD
makepkg -si
cd ..

Examples below use paru; substitute yay if that is your helper.

Task	Command
Upgrade repository and AUR packages	paru -Syu
Install an AUR package	paru -S package
Inspect installed package information	pacman -Qi package
Remove a package and unneeded dependencies	sudo pacman -Rns package
List foreign packages, including AUR packages	pacman -Qm

Review removal lists before confirming. Do not bypass dependency checks to force a package replacement.

AUR packages may need rebuilding after library upgrades. The official rebuild-detector package helps find affected packages:

sudo pacman -S rebuild-detector

Software centers and Flatpak

For Plasma:

sudo pacman -S discover flatpak fwupd

For GNOME:

sudo pacman -S gnome-software flatpak fwupd

Configure remotes using the Flatpak setup instructions. These software centers can manage Flatpaks and supported firmware updates. Repository package support depends on installed backends such as PackageKit; they do not replace AUR review or Arch's manual upgrade interventions. This guide uses pacman for repository packages.

Bazaar is another Flatpak-focused option. After configuring Flathub:

flatpak install flathub io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar

Media codecs

For applications using GStreamer:

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

Install gst-plugin-va if you need GStreamer VA-API acceleration and have a supported video driver. Other players may use their own codec stack; see GStreamer.

Fonts

A small general-purpose selection is:

sudo pacman -S noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji ttf-liberation

Add noto-fonts-cjk for Chinese, Japanese and Korean coverage. Choose additional fonts for the languages and applications you use instead of installing every font package. See Fonts.

Windows and macOS fonts

If you need Microsoft fonts, the AUR's ttf-ms-win11 build instructions describe the required files from a Windows installation or ISO. Review the current PKGBUILD and its licensing requirements, supply the matching sources, and build normally with makepkg -si. Resolve source or checksum mismatches instead of disabling integrity checks.

Apple's San Francisco fonts are optional and have their own licensing terms. Check the current AUR build instructions for otf-san-francisco and otf-san-francisco-mono if you need them.

Qt applications on GTK desktops

qt6ct can configure Qt 6 applications outside Plasma. Follow Qt's configuration guidance for setting QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct in your session's environment. Do not set it globally on Plasma, which supplies its own integration. A Wayland session does not necessarily read ~/.profile.

APFS access

The official repository contains linux-apfs-rw-dkms. Install the headers for your kernel alongside it, for example linux-headers for linux:

sudo pacman -S linux-headers linux-apfs-rw-dkms

The upstream driver mounts read-only by default. Write support is experimental and can corrupt data; encrypted APFS volumes are unsupported. Keep valuable data backed up and use read-only access.

Nano syntax highlighting

Optional additional syntax definitions are available with:

sudo pacman -S nano-syntax-highlighting

Follow the package's configuration instructions to enable the definitions you need.

Package cache and regular updates

Use the official cache-cleaning timer, which retains three versions of cached packages by default:

sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib
sudo systemctl enable --now paccache.timer

Keeping recent packages helps with recovery. Read system maintenance and backups before your next upgrade.