What's this?

Hi, this is pport and this are my dotfiles.

This is my fist attempt to make a stable and long term Arch Linux installation. After doing it several times, I have learned the hard way to properly document my steps in order to make a favor to my future self. Therefore, this readme provides a practical guide to quickly reinstall my Arch setup.

If you have fallen in this repo and you see an error or a recomendation, feel free open an issue or PM me. Thanks!

To-Do

Programs

Use	Name	Description
Graphical server	xorg	FOSS X server protocol implementation
Backlight	xbacklight
Sound	pipewire
WM	bspwm	binary-space partition window manager
HotKey daemon	sxhkd	simple X hotkey daemon
Compositor	picom	The compton fork. Actually ibhawgan's fork
Notifications	dunst	Simple notification daemon
Bar	polybar	Customizable and light bar
Font 1	IBM Plex Nerd Font
Font 2 (icons)	MaterialDesignIcons
Text editor	Neovim	I love vim mood
Screenshot tool	Flameshot	Fully featured screenshot tool
Music server	mpd	Music backend
Music client	ncmpcpp	Simple but pretty mpd frontend
Browser 1	brave	Privacy-focused browser
Browser 2	firefox	Open source standard browser
Browser X	qutebrowser	Chromium based browser with vim-like keybindings

Wayland setup

Currently I am working to migrate my setup to the newer Wayland protocol. I am experimenting with different WM (Sway, Qtile and River) and several substitutes for the tools I have used in Xorg.

You can find my progress in the wayland branch, which I will merge whenever I am ready to use it as my daily driver.

Configs

Only for XPS 15 7590 (ArchWiki)

Default sleep mode

Add mem_sleep_default=deep to kernel parameters and rebuild initramfs image.

Autologin (ArchWiki)

Execute this command and add the next to the file:

sudo vim getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --skip-login --nonewline --noissue --autologin USERNAME --noclear %I %TERM

Silent Boot (ArchWiki)

Remove kernel messages

Add the next kernel parameters to the bootloader:

quiet loglevel=3
rd.systemd.show_status=auto
rd.udev.log_priority=3

Rebuild initramfs.

Remove console cursor blinking

Add vt.global_cursor_default=0 to the kernel parameters. To recover the cursor in the TTY, run:

sudo -i
setterm -cursor on >> /etc/issue

Remove last login message

touch $HOME/hushlogin

Remove fsck messages

Replace udev with systemd hook in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and update the initramfs image:

sudo mkinitcpio -p PRESET

INFO: If encryption is in use with systemd hook, see this.

Edit this two services:

sudo systemctl edit --full systemd-fsck-root.service
sudo systemctl edit --full systemd-fsck@.service

And configure StandardOutput and StandardError like this:

(...)

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-fsck
StandardOutput=null
StandardError=journal+console
TimeoutSec=0

Remove getty message (autologin)

Add or modify the override configuration with --skip-login --nonewline --noissue

sudo systemctl edit getty@tty1

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --skip-login --nonewline --noissue --autologin uSeRnAmE --noclear %I $TERM

Locale configuration (ArchWiki)

Generating locale

Uncomment locales in /etc/locale.gen

...
#en_SG ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
#en_US ISO-8859-1
...

Save the file and generate the locales:

sudo locale-gen

Setting locale (system-wide)

Edit and populate the file /etc/locale.conf:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TIME=es_ES.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C

Setting locale (per-user)

Alternatively, you can set the locale in ~/.config/locale.conf the same way as system-wide.

INFO: this is how i'm doing right now.

Login Keyring (ArchWiki)

Install gnome-keyring and libsecret package. Optionally seahorse for a GUI interface.

If you are using autologin, set a blank password to the default Login. But first you need to disable autologin to create the default Login keyring. Once it's created, set no password to achieve auto-unlocking.

WARNING: this leaves the passwords unencrypted. I don't care much because I have full disk encryption. Nevertheless I think it can be obtained by software digging into the filesystem.

Also, add this to ~/.xinitrc (in my case bspwmrc) to autostart the daemon:

eval $(/usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=pkcs11,secrets,ssh)
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK

WARNING: There is a bug in my config or the ArchWiki isn't correct, this solved it: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=224652

Unmute microphone

pactl set-source-mute 1 toggle

VPN

Install OpenVPN extension:

yay -S openvpn

Download .ovpn file and add this line:

auth-user-pass auth.txt

In the same directory as the .ovpn file, create one with the VPN credentials called as setted above:

####################### -> username
####################### -> password

Connect with the next command:

sudo openvpn --cd "path/to/config/file/directory" --config "file.ovpn"

Bluetooth headset

Install several packages:

yay -S bluez bluez-utils pulseaudio-bluetooth

Do not install pulseaudio-bluetooth if pipewire is used.

In the bluetoothctl cli, connect and trust your device:

$ bluetoothctl
[bluetoothctl]# scan on
[bluetoothctl]# devices
[bluetoothctl]#connect MAC_ADDRESS
[bluetoothctl]# trust MAC_ADDRESS

Uncomment this line in /etc/pulse/default.pa:

load-module module-switch-on-connect

ZSH

Set default shell to sh:

$ chsh --shell /bin/sh

Modify /etc/zsh/zshenv and add this line:

export ZDOTDIR="$HOME/.config/shell/zsh"

Add fish-like autosuggestions

Download the source files in the oh-my-zsh directory:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Add the plugin in the .zshrc file:

plugins=(
	...
	zsh-autosuggestions
	...
)

Nvidia Setup

Driver installation

Install the nvidia driver, nvidia settings and nvidia prime:

yay -S nvidia nvidia-settings nvidia-prime

Interesting commands:

Nvidia run: prime-run

Nvidia resource monitor: nvidia-smi

Pacman hook

To prevent updating the linux kernel or the nvidia driver without making initramfs, create the next file:

`/etc/pacman.d/hooks/nvidia.hook

[Trigger]
Operation=Install
Operation=Upgrade
Operation=Remove
Type=Package
Target=nvidia
Target=linux

[Action]
Description=Update Nvidia module in initcpio
Depends=mkinitcpio
When=PostTransaction
NeedsTargets
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'while read -r trg; do case $trg in linux) exit 0; esac; done; /usr/bin/mkinitcpio -P'

If you have the linux-lts kernel installed, create another one modifying the Target's variables:

`/etc/pacman.d/hooks/nvidia-lts.hook

[Trigger]
Operation=Install
Operation=Upgrade
Operation=Remove
Type=Package
Target=nvidia-lts
Target=linux-lts

[Action]
Description=Update Nvidia module in initcpio
Depends=mkinitcpio
When=PostTransaction
NeedsTargets
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'while read -r trg; do case $trg in linux) exit 0; esac; done; /usr/bin/mkinitcpio -P'

Power management (ArchWiki)

GPU power saving (Nvidia only) (ArchWiki)

See Arch wiki because of the frequency in updates.

Cpu power saving (Intel only)

Create this file /etc/tmpfiles.d/energy_performance_preference.conf:

w /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy?/energy_performance_preference - - - - balance_power

Audio power saving

Create this file /etc/modprobe.d/audio_powersave.conf:

options snd_hda_intel power_save=1

Kernel power saving

Add the next kernel parameters to the bootloader:

nmi_watchdog=0
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs=6000

Rebuild initramfs.

Wi-Fi power saving

Create this file /etc/udev/rules.d/81-wifi-powersave.rules:

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNEL=="wl*", RUN+="/usr/bin/iw dev $name set power_save on"

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 186 Commits
.config		.config
.local		.local
.hushlogin		.hushlogin
README.md		README.md

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