My Arch Linux Setup

The Arch Linux wiki contains a comprehensive, up-to-date guide on how to install Arch Linux. And the Arch Linux Installation Guide is a good starting point. The Arch Linux website provides the latest news on the distro which is important to keep up with.

Credit

• The wallpaper stored in ~/.config/wallpaper.png was created by Ash Thorp.

Overview

• I use Arch Linux on all of my personal devices (PC and Laptop).

  • On my PC I configure two users: a 'productivity' user running DWM for development work, and an 'entertainment' user running XFCE for playing video games (a traditional floating window manager really helps run Steam/games, which is why I don't use DWM for everything).
  • On my laptop, I run only DWM.

• I like my systems to be as lightweight as possible, so run the smallest/simplest versions of the tools I need, and don't use tools that aren't necessary (such as display managers).

• I use the terminal for everything other than browsing the web and playing video games, as I am a massive advocate of FOSS and simplicity.

• I like to configure everything in dotfiles (no GUIs if they can be avoided), and use Stow to sync the settings that are not specific to a user type (i.e., window manager dotfiles are not synced, but shell, terminal, file editor, etc. are).

Pre-installation

Install Ventoy

Ventoy is a tool to create bootable USB drives. It is a great tool to have as it allows you to boot multiple ISOs from a single USB drive and not have to format the drive each time you want to try a different distro.

Download the ISO

Download the Arch Linux ISO from the bottom of the page and place it inside the root of the Ventoy USB drive.

Boot into the USB

Insert the Ventoy USB drive into the computer and boot into it by selecting it from the boot menu. You may need to change the boot order in the BIOS settings, or your BIOS may have a boot menu key that you can press at startup to select the USB drive.

Once Ventoy boots, you will see a list of ISOs that you can boot from. Select the Arch Linux ISO and press enter.

Note: Disable Secure Boot in your BIOS settings if you have trouble booting into the USB drive.

When the Arch Linux ISO boots, you will be presented with a GRUB2 menu. Select the first option to boot into the live environment (if you are using UEFI mode). Arch Linux will boot into the live environment and you can start the installation process when it finishes copying the image to RAM.

Note: If Arch Linux does not boot into the live environment because it cannot find a device or path, then you may need to enter GRUB2 mode in Ventoy by pressing ctrl + r before booting into the Arch Linux ISO.

Ensure the system is working by setting the system timezone:

timedatectl set-timezone <Region>/<City>

Initial network configuration

If you are using a wired connection, then you can skip this step. If you are using Wi-Fi, then you will need to connect to your network before proceeding with the installation.

Using iwctl (iNet Wireless Control), you can scan for networks and connect to them. First, list the available devices:

iwctl device list

Scan for available networks:

iwctl station <device> scan

List the available networks:

iwctl station <device> get-networks

Connect to your network:

iwctl --passphrase <password> station <device> connect <network>

Test the connection:

ping archlinux.org

If the connection is successful, you should see output from the ping appearing every second. Press Ctrl + C to stop the ping.

Disk partitioning

List the available disks:

lsblk

Identify the disk you want to install Arch Linux on. If you are unsure, use the size of the disk to determine which is the primary disk.

Note: If re-partitioning a device, run sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sda followed by partprobe /dev/sda to completely wipe it beforehand. A restart may be required for everything to sync.

Enter disk partitioning mode for the disk:

fdisk /dev/<device>

Note: Make sure not to select a partition (e.g., /dev/sda1) but the disk itself (e.g., /dev/sda).

Create an empty partition table:

g

Note: At any point you can type p to print the current partition table.

Create the boot partition

Create a new partition:

n

Leave the partition number as the default: press Enter.

Leave the first sector (beginning of the partition) as the default: press Enter.

Make this new partition 1 gigabyte in size:

+1G

If prompted to remove the signature, type y and press Enter.

Create the EFI partition

Create a new partition:

n

Leave the partition number as the default: press Enter.

Leave the first sector (beginning of the partition) as the default: press Enter.

Make this new partition 1 gigabyte in size:

+1G

Create the LVM partition

Create a new partition:

n

Leave the partition number as the default: press Enter.

Leave the first sector (beginning of the partition) as the default: press Enter.

Leave the last sector (end of the partition) as the default, to use all remaining space: press Enter.

Enter type selection mode:

t

Select the partition you just created: press Enter.

Select the Linux large volume manager (LVM) type:

44

Write the changes to disk

Note: Running the following command will erase all data on the disk. Make sure you have backed up any important data before proceeding.

Write the changes to disk:

w

Disk formatting

Format the boot (first) partition as FAT32:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/<device>1

Format the EFI (second) partition as FAT32:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/<device>2

Encrypt the home LVM (third) partition, as it will contain the root and swap volumes (i.e., the actual stuff we store and use on our computer):

cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/<device>3

Type YES to confirm the encryption.

Enter and verify the passphrase for the encryption (i.e., the password you will use every time you log in to your computer).

Open the encrypted partition:

cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/<device>3 lvm

Note: The lvm name is arbitrary and can be anything you want - it is how we will refer to the partition in the next steps.

Create the physical volume:

pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm

Create the system volume group:

vgcreate vg_system /dev/mapper/lvm

Create the logical volume for the system:

lvcreate -L 30GB vg_system -n lv_root

[Optional] Create the logical volume for the swap partition:

lvcreate -L <RAM-size>GB vg_system -n lv_swap

[Optional] Configure the swap partition:

mkswap /dev/vg_system/lv_swap

[Optional] Enable the swap partition:

swapon /dev/vg_system/lv_swap

Note: We can run vgdisplay to see the volume group information, and lvdisplay to see the logical volume information.

modprobe dm_mod

Scan for the LVM volumes:

vgscan

Activate the volume group:

vgchange -ay

Format the LVM partition as ext4:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg_system/lv_system

Partition mounting

Mount the root partition:

mount /dev/vg_system/lv_system /mnt

Create the boot directory:

mkdir /mnt/boot

Mount the EFI (second) partition:

mount /dev/<device>2 /mnt/boot

Note: We are not mounting the boot (first) partition...

Configure base system

pacstrap -i /mnt base

Note: If any packages ask which version to install, select the default version by pressing Enter.

Generate the fstab file (the file that automatically mounts volumes/partitions on boot):

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

This will append the UUIDs of the partitions to the fstab file: root, boot, home, and swap.

Chroot into the new system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Set root password:

passwd

Enter and confirm the root password.

Create productivity user:

useradd -m -G tty,input,video,audio,optical,storage,wheel p

Set productivity user password:

passwd p

Enter and confirm the password.

Create entertainment user:

useradd -m -G tty,input,video,audio,optical,storage,wheel e

Set entertainment user password:

passwd e

Enter and confirm the password.

Install system packages:

pacman -S alacritty alsa-tools alsa-utils base base-devel clang docker docker-compose efibootmgr fd feh firefox fzf git github-cli grub linux linux-firmware linux-headers lvm2 neovim networkmanager nodejs npm nvidia nvidia-utils pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-audio pipewire-pulse ripgrep stow sudo sysstat ttf-dejavu ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd ttf-liberation ttf-nerd-fonts-symbols-mono unzip wget xclip xdg-utils xfwm4 xorg xorg-server xorg-xinit zoxide zsh

Note: If any packages ask which version to install, select the default version by pressing Enter.

Note: If using Intel or AMD graphics, instead of installing the Nvidia packages, install mesa intel-media-driver instead.

Uncomment the multilib section in /etc/pacman.conf to enable 32-bit packages to be installed:

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Upgrade the system:

pacman -Syu

Install 32-bit packages:

pacman -S lib32-nvidia-utils steam

Grant the user sudo privileges:

sudo EDITOR=nvim visudo

Uncomment the line (or the NOPASSWD variant where applicable):

%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Make sure the kernel knows how to deal with encrypted partitions:

nvim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Add encrypt to the HOOKS array:

HOOKS=(... block encrypt lvm2 filesystems ...)

Generate the ramdisk:

mkinitcpio -p linux

Set locale:

nvim /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment the locale(s) you want to use:

en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8

...and...

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Generate the locale:

locale-gen

Add the encrypt device to the GRUB configuration:

nvim /etc/default/grub

Add cryptdevice=/dev/<device>3:vg_system to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 quiet cryptdevice=/dev/<device>3:vg_system"

Setup EFI partition:

mkdir /boot/EFI

Mount the EFI partition:

mount /dev/<device>1 /boot/EFI

Install bootloader:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck

Generate the GRUB configuration:

cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo

Generate config file:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Enable network manager:

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Reboot

Exit the chroot environment:

exit

Unmount the partitions:

umount -a

Reboot the system:

reboot

Note: You can now unplug the USB.

Post-installation

Name the device:

sudo hostnamectl hostname <name>

Connect to the network (if using wireless):

nmcli device wifi connect <SSID> password <password>

Global user configuration

Enable auto-login by adding the following to the top of /etc/pam.d/login:

auth sufficient pam_permit.so

Perform the following for each user individually...

List installed shells:

chsh -l

Set ZHS as the default shell:

chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

Note: The configuration for ZHS can be found in the ~/.zshrc and ~/.zprofile files (stored in the stow subdirectory of this repo).

Clone this repo into the root directory:

git clone https://github.com/dan-smith-tech/rig.git

For each of the users, run the stow command to symlink the configuration files:

stow --adopt -t ~ -d rig/stow .

Note: The --adopt flag overrides the dotfiles stored in this repo with the ones already configured on the system. This can be used to override all files dotfiles on the system easily without having to delete them first, and then after the symlinks are created, git restore . can be applied to this repo to revert all configs to how they are here.

Firefox

1. Sign in to Firefox Sync, wait for a sync to complete, and then sign into/configure each extension (enabling sync per-extension where possible).

2. Go through the Privacy & Security settings and configure them to be strict and track no history.

3. Inside about:config:

   1. Set services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.uiCustomization.state to true.

   2. Clear all toolkit.telemetry settings.

Productivity (p) user configuration

Clone the DWM repository:

sudo git clone https://git.suckless.org/dwm

Navigate to the cloned DWM directory:

cd dwm

Copy the configruation from the p/dwm subdirectory of this repo:

sudo cp ~/rig/p/dwm/config.def.h config.def.h

sudo cp ~/rig/p/dwm/dwm.c dwm.c

Build and install DWM:

sudo make clean install

Note: If rebuilding DWM after making edits to any of the config, make sure to remove the generated config.h beforehand.

Clone the DWM blocks repository:

sudo git clone https://github.com/torrinfail/dwmblocks.git

Navigate into the cloned DWM blocks directory:

cd dwmblocks

Copy the DWM blocks configuration from the p/dwm subdirectory of this repo:

sudo cp ~/rig/p/dwm/blocks.def.h blocks.def.h

Build and install DWM blocks:

sudo make clean install

Note: If rebuilding DWM blocks after making edits to any of the config, make sure to remove the generated config.h beforehand.

Copy the Xorg startup configuration from the p subdirectory of this repo:

sudo cp ~/rig/p/.xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

Configure Firefox to be the default browser:

xdg-settings set default-web-browser firefox.desktop
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /usr/local/bin/x-www-browser
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/firefox /usr/local/bin/www-browser

Entertainment (e) user configuration

Add the configuration for the XFCE window manager:

cp -rf rig/e/.config/xfce4 .config/.

Download Fluent XFCE theme:

git clone https://github.com/vinceliuice/Fluent-gtk-theme.git

Install Fluent XFCE theme:

Fluent-gtk-theme/install.sh -n Fluent -c dark -s standard -i arch --tweaks solid round noborder

Note: XFCE themes are stored in ~/.local/share/themes.

Give permissions to the /g mountpoint where games are stored:

sudo chown -R e /g

Setup controller dongle with xone

Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/medusalix/xone

Note: At the time of writing this documentation this fork and branch are required to fix compatibility issue with new kernel.

Install xone:

cd xone && sudo ./install.sh --release

Download dongle firmware:

sudo xone-get-firmware.sh

Miscellaneous configuration

If pacman mirrors start to return 404s

Delete the mirror sync:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/pacman/sync/*

Refresh the package databses:

sudo pacman -Syy

Locally adjusting for display sizes

Depending on what monitors are used, some local adjustments (that do not want to be synced here) may need to be made.

Note: The following are examples of config alterations I made for a large TV being used as a monitor.

DWM

Inside ./p/dwm/config.def.h, adjust the following sizing constant values:

• 22 replaced with 42

• 12 replaced with 18

• 3 replaced with 6

Change the font size to be 35:

static const char *fonts[] = {"JetBrainsMono Nerd Font:weight=bold:size=35"};

Inside ./p/dwm/config.def.h, adjust the Alacritty launch command to pass in scaling options:

static const char *openTerminal[]  = { "alacritty", "--option", "font.size=6", "--option", "window.padding.x=6", "--option", "window.padding.y=6", NULL };

XFCE

Inside the 'Display' application, set the scale to 0.4.

Firefox

Inside about:config, set layout.css.devPixelsPerPx to 3.

Laptop-specific configuration

In order to auto-login as a specific user, open the getty tty1 service config file:

sudo systemctl edit getty@tty1

Between the comments that don't get overriden (towards the top of the file)m add:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --autologin your_username --noclear %I $TERM

Enabled the modified service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable getty@tty1