POST INSTALLATION

In post installation we will be using a lot of sudo. I'm not responsible if you broke your newly installed system. Remember that this guide is for future me.

Connect to the internet

We will be downloading stuff so we need an internet connection! So set-up your connection first!

Check for Updates

It's recommended to check for updates first before installing anything so:

# pacman -Syu

Display Server and Protocol

We need to install a display server, a protocol or both. Normally, your desktop environment or window manager of choice will automatically install these as a dependency. But for this guide's sake we will install X server:

# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xrdb xorg-xinit xorg-xrandr xorg-xev xorg-xdpyinfo xorg-xprop

If you're planning to use a window manager like awesome, bspwm or i3, you should install X. While if you're planning to use sway, then wayland it is. If GNOME, you can install both. Again, your environment of choice will automatically install these as its dependencies.

Video Drivers

After installing the graphical server, we need to install the video drivers. I'm only using an integrated intel graphics card. Sobs. So an intel driver is what I need.

# pacman -S xf86-video-intel vulkan-intel vulkan-icd-loader libva-intel-driver

Add your (kernel) graphics driver to your initramfs. For example, if using intel add i915:

# sudoedit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Then add i915 to the MODULES:

MODULES=(i915 ...)

Audio Drivers

# pacman -S pipewire lib32-pipewire wireplumber pipewire-audio pipewire-pulse

File System Tools

File system tools

# pacman -S unrar unzip p7zip unarchiver gvfs-mtp libmtp ntfs-3g \
android-udev mtpfs xdg-user-dirs

xdg-user-dirs is a tool to help manage "well known" user directories like the desktop folder and the music folder. This will be automatically run on your next log in. Though you can manually generate XDG user directories by:

# xdg-user-dirs-update

Git

If you didn't include git on pacstrap earlier, it's time to install it now. This tool will come in handy later:

# pacman -S git

AUR Helper

The "later" is now, old man. We will now install an AUR helper, yay.

Clone yay-bin from the AUR using git.

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
$ cd yay-bin/
$ makepkg -sri

Missing Kernel Modules

If you noticed, there's a warning message while running mkinitcpio -p linux, fix this by installing these firmwares:

$ yay -S wd719x-firmware aic94xx-firmware --removemake --noconfirm
# mkinitcpio -p linux

Desktop Environment and Window Manager

Install your preferred desktop environment or window manager.

I'm an awesome and KDE Plasma guy, but right now I am using Plasma. So in this guide, I'll include a guide to set-up both Plasma and Awesome.

KDE Plasma
- Install the plasma-meta meta-package or the plasma group. For differences between plasma-meta and plasma reference Package group. Alternatively, for a more minimal Plasma installation, install the plasma-desktop package. Although I always install plasma-desktop, plasma-meta and some other programs such as libappindicator-gtk3, libappindicator-gtk2, packagekit-qt5, and etc.
```
 # pacman -S plasma-desktop plasma-meta
```
- KDE Plasma provides a global menu, to have a better integration with GTK programs, install appmenu-gtk-module:
```
 # pacman -S appmenu-gtk-module
```
- If some programs like Discord has a blurry icon in the system tray, install the libappindicators:
```
 # pacman -S libappindicator-gtk3 libappindicator-gtk2
```
- Discover is the Plasma's app store, it will be automatically installed by installing the plasma-meta package. If it doesn't show any applications, install packagekit-qt5:
```
 # pacman -S packagekit-qt5
```
- Xorg is dying and nobody wants to maintain it anymore, while "Wayland is the future". I agree with this, although wayland needs to mature a little bit more to replace X completely. So yeah, I also want a Wayland session to test things out:
```
 # pacman -S qt5-wayland plasma-wayland-session
```
- Some of the plasmoids uses qdbus, so also intall qt5-tools that will provide it:
```
 # pacman -S qt5-tools
```
- I need a dock and I will be using latte-dock from the AUR:
```
 $ yay -S latte-dock-git
```
Awesome Window Manager
- I always use the latest version of awesomewm because the devs are doing an amazing job by maintaining this treasure of a program and I also want to get the latest fixes and features ASAP (one of the reason I use arch btw). So install it from the AUR:
```
 $ yay -S awesome-git --noconfirm --removemake
```
- Of course, just a window manager is not enough to get the experience I want. So I need to install a compositor and some utilities to achieve it.
  - I will be using light as the backlight control tool:
```
 $ yay -S light-git
```
  - Picom as the compositor:
```
 $ yay -S picom-git --noconfirm --removemake
```
  - Rofi as the application launcher:
```
 # pacman -S rofi
```
  - Authentication Managers
    
    Polkit is used for controlling system-wide privileges. It provides an organized way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged ones. In contrast to systems such as sudo, it does not grant root permission to an entire process, but rather allows a finer level of control of centralized system policy.
    - Install polkit-kde-agent/lxqt-policykit/polkit-gnome, and gnome-keyring:
      
      I'm using Qt apps with awesome, so I'll install lxqt-policykit for UI consistency. Note that you only need one authentication manager and gnome-keyring.
      # pacman -S polkit lxqt-policykit gnome-keyring
    - Run it:
      
      For lxqt-policykit, run:
      $ /usr/bin/lxqt-policykit-agent
      For polkit-kde-agent, run:
      $ /usr/lib/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1
      For polkit-gnome:
      $ /usr/lib/polkit-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1

Terminal Emulator

After installing an environment, we need a terminal emulator. Every linux user's first partner. Note that we're still on the TTY.

KDE Plasma

Konsole is the best terminal emulator for KDE Plasma due to its integration to the environment. While yakuake will be our drop-down terminal.
```
 # pacman -S konsole yakuake
```
Awesome Window Manager

For me, kitty is the best terminal emulator for my awesome wm setups as it's easy to configure and fast. I will also install xterm as a backup emulator.
```
 # pacman -S kitty xterm
```

GTK

GTK, or the GIMP Toolkit, is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.

If not yet installed:

# pacman -S gtk3

Install GTK engines

# pacman -S gtk-engine-murrine gtk-engines gnome-theme-extra

File Managers

KDE's dolphin is the best file manager in the Linux world, imho. So I always use this no matter what environment I'm using. We will also install ranger, a CLI-based file manager.

# pacman -S dolphin dolphin-plugins kde-cli-tools ranger

To generate thumbnails, I'll also install these:

kdegraphics-thumbnailers: Image files and PDFs
kimageformats: Gimp .xcf files
qt5-imageformats : .webp, .tiff, .tga, .jp2 files
kdesdk-thumbnailers: Plugins for the thumbnailing system
ffmpegthumbs: Video files (based on ffmpeg)
raw-thumbnailer: .raw files
taglib : Audio files

# pacman -S kdegraphics-thumbnailers kimageformats qt5-imageformats kdesdk-thumbnailers \
ffmpegthumbs raw-thumbnailer taglib

Enable preview showing of required file type in Settings > Configure Dolphin... > General > Previews.

There's a lot more thumbnail generators that can be found from the AUR (like a generator to create a thumbnail for APK files), but I don't really use them.

GUI-based Text Editors

vim is my text editor of choice, but sublime Text 3 is my go-to GUI text editor as it's lighter than the ~~bloated~~ chromium-based counterparts like atom and vscode.

$ yay -S sublime-text-dev

Note that Sublime is not "free" and needs a license.

Web browsers

Firefox and w3m are my trusty web browsers.

# pacman -S firefox w3m

I also install google-chrome as my back up web browser:

$ yay -S google-chrome

Bluetooth

If you're using KDE Plasma, you don't need to do these:

# pacman -S bluez

But make sure to install bluez-utils and enable bluetooth manually:

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

The generic Bluetooth driver is the btusb Kernel module. Check whether that module is loaded. If it's not, then load it.

If you're not using Plasma, install blueman. The best GTK bluetooth manager.

# pacman -S blueman

Blueman automatically enables Bluetooth adapter when certain events (on boot, laptop lid is opened, etc.) occur. This can be disabled with the auto-power-on in org.blueman.plugins.powermanager:

$ gsettings set org.blueman.plugins.powermanager auto-power-on false

Plymouth

Plymouth provides a flicker-free graphical boot process. In short, a splash screen.

Install plymouth.
```
$ yay -S plymouth
```
Add plymouth to the HOOKS array in mkinitcpio.conf. It must be added after base and udev/systemd for it to work:
```
# sudoedit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
```
- Unencrypted partition
  
  Put plymouth after base and udev:
```
 HOOKS=(base udev plymouth ...)
```
- Encrypted partition and systemd-based initramfs.
  
  Again, you need a systemd-based initramfs for the plymouth HOOK to work.
  
  Put sd-plymouth after the base and systemd hooks:
```
 HOOKS=(base systemd sd-plymouth ...)
```
Set the theme.

List all the installed plymouth theme:
```
# plymouth-set-default-theme -l
```
I have my own theme btw, and you can found it on the AUR. It is called arch10. So install it:
```
$ yay -S plymouth-theme-arch10
```
Choose a theme by running the command below, then it will rebuild the initramfs image:
```
# plymouth-set-default-theme -R arch10
```
Replace arch10 with your choice.

You now need to append splash in the kernel parameters in your boot entry options.

# sudoedit /boot/loader/enable/arch.conf

Example:

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options rd.luks.name=/DEV/SDA2/UUID/HERE=volume root=/dev/mapper/volume-root rw
options quiet splash fbcon=nodefer

Display Manager

A display manager, or login manager, is typically a graphical user interface that is displayed at the end of the boot process in place of the default shell.

KDE Plasma

The plasma-meta package will include and install sddm. So there's no need to install one. Enable it by:

If you installed and using plymouth, enable this to have a smooth transition:
```
 # systemctl enable sddm-plymouth
```
If not:
```
 # systemctl enable sddm
```
Awesome Window Manager

I'm using lightdm with lightdm-webkit2-greeter, so this guide will cover that.
- First, install it:
```
 # pacman -S lightdm lightdm-webkit2-greeter
```
- To enable graphical login, enable the appropriate systemd service. For example, for Lightdn, enable lightdm.service. Just because we're using plymouth, we will enable lightdm-plymouth.service to have a smooth transition from plymouth to lightdm.
```
 # systemctl enable lightdm-plymouth
```
- Install a theme. I create my own lightdm-webkit2 theme and it's called glorious.
```
 $ yay -S lightdm-webkit2-theme-glorious
```
- Configure the lightdm to use lightdm-webkit2-greeter by:
  - Set lightdm greeter session to webkit2.
```
 # sudoedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
```
    Find greeter-session under the [Seat:*] section, uncomment it, then set its value to lightdm-webkit2-greeter.
  - Set it as the lightdm-webkit2 theme then enable debug_mode by setting it to true. Why do we need to enable debug_mode? Sometimes you will be greeted by an error. And this error is due to a race condition where the theme is trying to access the lightdm object even though it doesn't exist yet. Debug mode will allow you to right-click and reload the greeter just like a webpage.
```
 # sudoedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm-webkit2-greeter.conf
```
    Find webkit_theme then set its value to glorious. Find debug_mode then set it to true. If you encountered an error, right-click then reload.

Silent boot

This is for who prefer to limit the verbosity of their system to a strict minimum, either for aesthetics or other reasons. For me, it's aesthetics.

Edit boot loader kernel parameters:

# sudoedit /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add these parameters (options ... loglevel=3 vga=current rd.udev.log_priority=3 fbcon=nodefer ...) in the options:

options quiet loglevel=3 vga=current rd.udev.log_priority=3 fbcon=nodefer

If you're using plymouth and its splash kernel parameter, put splash after the quiet parameter.

If you have an encrypted partition, quiet and fbcon=nodefer is enough. For example:

options quiet splash fbcon=nodefer

Remove splash if you're not using plymouth.

Install and Configure Network Manager

As of now, we're using iwd if we're using wireless connection and dhcpcd if we're on wired connection.

Network Manager is recommended if you're on a Plasma environment. So make sure to enable it and disable the other networking tools. While if you're using awesome, you can just continue using iwd and dhcpcd. I mean it's your choice.

Install network manager and its utilities.

plasma-meta will include and install networkmanager. But just to be safe:

 # pacman -S networkmanager network-manager-applet dhclient modemmanager usb_modeswitch mobile-broadband-provider-info

Disable iwd or dhcpcd.

iwd

 # iwctl station wlan0 disconnect
 # systemctl disable --now iwd

dhcpcd
```
 # systemctl disable --now dhcpcd
```

Enable Network Manager service.

 # systemctl enable --now NetworkManger

Reboot then Login

The system's fully functional! You can now login to you system with all the configuration we've done so far.

$ reboot

Extras

Power Management for Laptops

TLP brings you the benefits of advanced power management for Linux without the need to understand every technical detail. This is for laptops.

Install and enable it now:

# pacman -S tlp
# systemctl enable --now tlp.service

Install upower, acpid and acpi_call:

# pacman -S acpid acpi_call upower

Enable acpid

# systemctl enable acpid.service

Fan Control for Thinkpad

For thinkpad users, install thinkfan here.

$ yay -S thinkfan

Note that the thinkfan package installs /usr/lib/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf, which contains:

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

So fan control is enabled by default. Alternatively, you can enable fan control as follows:

# echo "options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf

Now, load the module:

# modprobe thinkpad_acpi
# cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

You should see that the fan level is "auto" by default, but you can echo a level command to the same file to control the fan speed manually. The thinkfan daemon will do this automatically.

For Lenovo x230 users:

Open or create /etc/thinkfan.conf. Then use the following configuration:

sensors:
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

fans:
  - tpacpi: /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

levels:
  - [0, 0, 60]
  - [1, 53, 65]
  - [2, 55, 66]
  - [3, 57, 68]
  - [4, 61, 70]
  - [5, 64, 71]
  - [7, 68, 75]
  - ["level full-speed", 72, 32767]

To find the best thinkfan configuration for you, search it on the internet.

Make sure to have a configuration file before enabling the thinkfan service!

# systemctl enable thinkfan.service

If you encounter an error about missing module, add this to your kernel parameters:

options thinkpad_acpi.fan_control=1

Enable MAC randomization

MAC randomization can be used for increased privacy by not disclosing your real MAC address to the network.

Randomization for iwd

Create and edit /etc/iwd/main.conf. Then add the following lines:
```
 [General]
 AddressRandomization=once
 AddressRandomizationRange=nic
```

Randomization for network-manager

Install macchanger.
```
 # pacman -S macchanger
```

Create 30-mac-randomization.conf in your /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/. Add this:

 [device-mac-randomization]
 # "yes" is already the default for scanning
 wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=yes

 [connection-mac-randomization]
 ethernet.cloned-mac-address=random
 wifi.cloned-mac-address=stable

Firewall

We'll use Uncomplicated Firewall or ufw for short.

Install the ufw package. Start and enable ufw.service to make it available at boot. Note that this will not work if iptables.service is also enabled (and same for its ipv6 counterpart).
```
# pacman -S ufw
```
Configuration

Here's some basic configuration. A very simplistic configuration which will deny all by default, allow any protocol from inside a 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.255 LAN, and allow incoming Deluge and rate limited SSH traffic from anywhere:
```
# ufw default deny
# ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24
# ufw allow Transmission
# ufw limit ssh
```
The next line is only needed once the first time you install the package:
```
# ufw enable
# systemctl enable --now ufw.service
```

Adding other applications. The PKG comes with some defaults based on the default ports of many common daemons and programs. Inspect the options by looking in the /etc/ufw/applications.d directory or by listing them in the program itself:

# ufw app list

Fonts

Improve fonts.

Install these fonts. Inter will be my system font no matter what the environment.

# pacman -S ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji inter-font ttf-roboto

Additional fonts to support Asian characters

# pacman -S noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-extra

Enable font presets by creating symbolic links:

# ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
# ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
# ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d

The above will disable embedded bitmap for all fonts, enable sub-pixel RGB rendering, and enable the LCD filter which is designed to reduce colour fringing when subpixel rendering is used.

For font consistency, all applications should be set to use the serif, sans-serif, and monospace aliases, which are mapped to particular fonts by fontconfig.

Create /etc/fonts/local.conf, then add:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
	<match>
		<edit mode="prepend" name="family">
			<string>Inter</string>
		</edit>
	</match>
	<match target="pattern">
		<test qual="any" name="family">
			<string>serif</string>
		</test>
		<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
			<string>Noto Serif</string>
		</edit>
	</match>
	<match target="pattern">
		<test qual="any" name="family">
			<string>sans-serif</string>
		</test>
		<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
			<string>Noto Sans</string>
		</edit>
	</match>
	<match target="pattern">
		<test qual="any" name="family">
			<string>monospace</string>
		</test>
		<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
			<string>Noto Mono</string>
		</edit>
	</match>
</fontconfig>

Update and set your font of choice on settings.

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POST.md

POST.md

POST INSTALLATION

Connect to the internet

Check for Updates

Display Server and Protocol

Video Drivers

Audio Drivers

File System Tools

Git

AUR Helper

Missing Kernel Modules

Desktop Environment and Window Manager

Terminal Emulator

GTK

File Managers

GUI-based Text Editors

Web browsers

Bluetooth

Plymouth

Display Manager

Silent boot

Install and Configure Network Manager

Reboot then Login

Extras

Power Management for Laptops

Fan Control for Thinkpad

Enable MAC randomization

Firewall

Fonts

Files

POST.md

Latest commit

History

POST.md

File metadata and controls

POST INSTALLATION

Connect to the internet

Check for Updates

Display Server and Protocol

Video Drivers

Audio Drivers

File System Tools

Git

AUR Helper

Missing Kernel Modules

Desktop Environment and Window Manager

Terminal Emulator

GTK

File Managers

GUI-based Text Editors

Web browsers

Bluetooth

Plymouth

Display Manager

Silent boot

Install and Configure Network Manager

Reboot then Login

Extras

Power Management for Laptops

Fan Control for Thinkpad

Enable MAC randomization

Firewall

Fonts