arch.md

Arch Linux Setup

Installation

You can download this raw file using wget bit.ly/rdarchdocs

Wireless on Installation

Use the command iwctl to get an interactive prompt.

In the iwctl prompt you can auto-complete commands, device names and SSID by hitting Tab.

First, if you do not know your wireless device name, list all Wi-Fi devices:

[iwd]# device list

If the command above don't list any wifi card you can try the following: rfkill unblock all and try again.

Then, to scan for networks:

[iwd]# station device scan

You can then list all available networks:

[iwd]# station device get-networks

Finally, to connect to a network:

[iwd]# station device connect SSID

Partition the disks

Check available SSDs

fdisk -l

Scheme

Note that you need to reuse the Windows boot partition if dual booting in the same SSD.

Name	Size	System
/boot/efi	512MB	fat
swap	2x RAM	swap
/	All Rest	ext4

parted /dev/sda

(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1M 513M
(parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) mkpart primary linux-swap 513M 32G
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 32G 100%
(parted) quit

lsblk /dev/sda

Encrypt: Start

cryptsetup luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sda3
cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 cryptlvm

Encrypt: LVM setup

pvcreate /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
vgcreate cryptvg /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
lvcreate -l 100%FREE cryptvg -n root

Format partitions

Boot partition:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

Swap partition:

mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2

Data encrypted partition:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/cryptvg/root

Mount partitions

mount /dev/cryptvg/root /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Install the base packages

Select the best mirror

vim /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware neovim zsh git 
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Locale

arch-chroot /mnt
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
printf "\nen_US.UTF-8 UTF-8\npt_BR.UTF-8 UTF-8\n" >> /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

Default text editor

export VISUAL="nvim"
export EDITOR="$VISUAL"

User

passwd
useradd -m -G wheel,storage,power,audio,video -s /usr/bin/zsh rafael
passwd rafael
visudo

Uncomment this line: %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Network

echo alpha-arch > /etc/hostname
printf "\n127.0.0.1 localhost\n::1 localhost\n127.0.0.1 alpha-arch.localdomain alpha-arch" >> /etc/hosts
pacman -S dialog bluez bluez-utils networkmanager wireless_tools network-manager-applet
systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

To connect to network after the reboot use nmtui-connect

Encrypt: Generate an initramfs

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf so we can generate an initramfs which lets us decrypt our root partition during start-up. Change the HOOKS definition to look like this:

HOOKS=(base systemd udev keyboard autodetect modconf block sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

Ensure systemd, sd-encrypt and lvm2 are on the HOOKS list.

We have to create an /etc/crypttab.initramfs to identify our encrypted volume. Linux uses UUIDs to uniquely identify your data volumes, independent of the system they’re attached to.

Let’s figure out the UUID of our encrypted partition:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid | grep sda3

Copy the UUID and edit /etc/crypttab.initramfs:

cryptlvm UUID=<your UUID> none luks2,discard

We can edit /etc/vconsole.conf to define the keyboard layout used for entering our encryption passphrase during start-up:

KEYMAP=us

Let’s generate a new initramfs image that contains everything we need for decrypting our volume:

pacman -S lvm2
mkinitcpio -p linux

Bootloader

bootctl install

Encrypt: Bootloader setup

We will have to tell the boot loader which root partition to boot from. Look at your cat /etc/fstab and copy the UUID of your root filesystem.

Note that this is a different UUID than the one we used before!

Edit /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and add the following lines:

title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=UUID=<your UUID> rw quiet loglevel=0 splash

Edit /boot/loader/loader.conf and uncomment timeout in case you want the boot menu to show up.

Tools

pacman -S zsh-autosuggestions curl tmux openssh zip unzip ripgrep fzf xclip jq rustup 

Installing Tmux Plugin

tmux-plugins Once installed press prefix + I (capital I, as in Install) to fetch the plugin.

Enable ssh-agent.service

systemctl --user enable ssh-agent.service

Audio

pacman -S alsa-firmware alsa-utils alsa-plugins pulseaudio-alsa pulseaudio playerctl

Video

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-apps xorg-xinit

Intel Driver (New Cards, Eg. Iris XE)

pacman -S mesa mesa-utils vulkan-intel

You also need to add i915.enable_guc=2 kernel argument into /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf options.

Nvidia Driver

pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings nvidia-prime

You also need to add acpi_osi=\"Windows 2015\" nvidia-drm.modeset=1 kernel arguments into /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf options.

Windows Manager (i3)

pacman -S i3 picom rofi alacritty xdg-utils lxappearance xfce4-notifyd feh maim

Some basic fonts

pacman -S ttf-dejavu ttf-font-awesome adobe-source-han-sans-otc-fonts ttf-indic-otf noto-fonts-emoji

Create the file .Xresources

Xft.dpi: 144

Create the file .xinitrc

xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources
xrandr --dpi 144 --auto
exec i3

Run startx

Config

Yay

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

Aur Tools

yay -Sy autojump-rs ttf-anonymouspro-nerd xfce-polkit nordic-theme --noconfirm

Paro

bash < <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rafaeldelboni/paro/main/install.sh)

Oh My Zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

GPG

pacman -Sy gnupg pinentry
gpg --import backuped-gpg.asc
gpg-connect-agent reloadagent /bye

Dotfiles

Clone this repo (or your own fork!) to your home directory (/Users/username).

cd
git clone git@github.com:rafaeldelboni/dotfiles.git .dotfiles
rcup -x docs -x readme.md -t linux

rcup expects that you cloned your dotfiles to ~/.dotfiles/ and will create dotfile symlinks (.vimrc -> ~/.dotfiles/vimrc) from your home directory to your ~/.dotfiles/ directory.

TLP

To a complete TLP's install, you must enable the systemd services tlp.service and tlp-sleep.service. You should also mask the systemd service systemd-rfkill.service and socket systemd-rfkill.socket to avoid conflicts and assure proper operation of TLP's radio device switching options.

pacman -S tlp tlp-rdw

sudo systemctl enable tlp
sudo systemctl start tlp
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket

Edit the TLP config /etc/tlp.conf file and enable wifi and blutooth on the system startup.

Add the following line:

DEVICES_TO_ENABLE_ON_STARTUP="wifi bluetooth"

Touchpad and Trackballs

Make sure you link the following files:

sudo ln -sf ~/.xorg/10-touchpad.conf /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-touchpad.conf
sudo ln -sf ~/.xorg/10-slimblade.conf /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-slimblade.conf
sudo ln -sf ~/.xorg/10-expert-mouse.conf /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-expert-mouse.conf

To hidecursor while typing on xorg you can use xhidecursor

yay -Sy xhidecursor

Blutooth

  bluetoothctl
  [bluet]power off
  [bluet]power on
  [bluet]scan on
  [mouse]connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
  [mouse]trust
  [mouse]connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
  [mouse]pair
  [mouse]unblock
  [mouse]power off
  [bluet]power on

Now you just need to add the line AutoEnable=true in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf at the bottom in the [Policy] section:

[Policy]
AutoEnable=true

GUI

You can install blueman for a visual blutooth applet

Dual boot & ZMK bluetooth device

A quick guide on getting an ZMK bluetooth based device to connect to linux and windows when dual booting on a single machine.
https://hoelter.prose.sh/kinesis-advantage-360-bluetooth-dualboot