2019-04-08
My favourite distribution of Linux is Arch Linux. The reason? It lets you choose exactly what components you'd like to install - nothing more. Unlike pre-packaged distros like Ubuntu, Arch doesn't come with an office suite, a graphics editor, various games, tons of GUI tools, etc. Oh, you can install all of these things. As a matter of fact, you can make Arch look and behave exactly like Ubuntu, or any other distro. But that's not what I'm into.
When I install Arch, I either run Tom's Window Manager (TWM) which was one of the original window managers for Unix, or I run XFCE4 which is a nice, lightweight but modern window manager. I tend to install Arch often - recently I re-did my laptop after buying a bigger hard drive, or into a virtual machine for testing purposes. Here is the guide I use to install Arch:
# iwctl ;when using wifi instead of LAN [iwd]# device list ;make note of your device ie: wlan0 [iwd]# station {device} connect {SSID} # ping archlinux.org ;ensure you have Internet! # lsblk ;list devices # fdisk /dev/sdx ;partition drive Command: g ;create GPT table - clears drive Command: n, 1, enter, +512M ;partition 1 for EFI Command: t, 1, 1 ;set partition 1 type = 1 (EFI Boot) Command: n, 2, enter, +8192M ;partition 2 for Swap Command: t, 2, 19 ;set partition 1 type = 19 (swap) Command: n, 3, enter, enter ;partition 3 for Linux System ;by default, partition type = system Command: p ;display partition table - double check! Command: w ;write changes and exit app # mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdxX ;format EFI boot partition # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdxY ;format primary partition # mkswap /dev/sdxZ # swapon /dev/sdxZ # mount /dev/sdxY /mnt # pacman -Syy # pacman -S reflector # reflector -c "Canada" -f 12 -l 10 -n 12 --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist # pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring # pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel bash-completion linux linux-firmware vim vi rfkill networkmanager Other Packages To Consider: intel-ucode ;if running an Intel processor os-prober ntfs-3g ;if dual booting with Windows # genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab # arch-chroot /mnt # vi /etc/locale.gen ;uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 # locale-gen # echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/{Zone}/{SubZone} /etc/localtime # hwclock --systohc --utc # timedatectl set-ntp true # echo {hostname} > /etc/hostname ;replace {hostname} with your preference # vi /etc/hosts ;insert lines listed below: 127.0.0.1 localhost ::1 localhost 127.0.1.1 {hostname} # systemctl enable NetworkManager.service ; if required # passwd # pacman -S grub efibootmgr # mkdir /boot/efi # mount /dev/sdxX /boot/efi # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --efi-directory=/boot/efi # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg # vi /etc/pacman.conf ;uncomment Color and multilib repository! # useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash rick # passwd rick # visudo ;uncomment 'wheel' group line! # exit # reboot Once rebooted, install nice things. Run all these commands with: sudo pacman -S {package} first, update repositories: sudo pacman -Sy PACKAGES: --------- xorg xorg-server xorg-apps xorg-xinit xterm xorg-fonts-100dpi xorg-fonts-75dpi plasma-meta ;KDE desktop kde-applications-meta ;KDE applications terminus-font ;nice font for the console! ;create; /etc/vconsole.conf with the line: ;FONT=ter-p24n LOGIN SERVICE: --------------- sudo systemctl enable sddm ;enables KDE login VIRTUALBOX GUEST: ----------------- pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils vi ~/.xinitrc ;add /usr/bin/VBoxClient-all OTHER PACKAGES: --------------- yay ;aur + pacman wrapper stellarium ;night sky simulator stella ;Atari 2600 emulator gimp ;image manipulation firefox ;web browser vlc ;multimedia player libreoffice ;office suite clamav ;antivirus jre7-openjdk ;java runtime virtualbox ;virtualization ;gpasswd -a {user} vboxusers HP printing ----------- cups ;systemctl enable org.cups.cupsd.service ;gpasswd -a {user} lp gtk3-print-backends ;required to print from Firefox UPDATES: -------- sudo pacman -Syu or yay
My name is Rick Towns and I am an amateur astronomer and computer programmer from Canada. This is a collection of interesting posts I've gathered over the years.