Backup any data

Backup a linux OS

using rsync

Download a list of ignored folders and files

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JosephLucas/archlinux_installation/master/ignored_during_backup

Start with a dry run with the option --dry-run to see what rsync plans to do.

rsync --dry-run -av --delete --stats --info=progress2 --exclude={"/path/to/backup/folder/*"} --exclude-from=ignored_during_backup / /path/to/backup/folder

NB: this will do backup the /boot, /etc and /home

Backup home

Backup a former windows partition

Tools to list disks on the machine

lsblk
lsblk -f
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL,PARTLABEL
lskid

ntfsresize can resize windows partition (shrink or extend) without any previous defragmentation. ntfsclone copies ntfs partitions fast.

Get how much space is really used before resizing the partition

ntfsresize --info

If exception is raised, like:

disk has been scheduled for *chkdsk*

you may need to relaunch windows. This will launch the chkdsk tool to repare some errors in the ntfs partition.

Finally, edit the ntfs partition, for instance

ntfsresize -s -o /mnt/depot_jo/Backup/windows.sepcial.img /dev/sdX
ntfsresize --no-action --size 100G /dev/sdaX
ntfsresize -v --size 100G /dev/sdaX

Installation of Arch Linux

The installation process is for UEFI computers, we do not cover BIOS installation process.

We rely heavily on:

• rEFInd bootloader
• systemd arch linux
• xfce4 DE
• lightdm DM

Many steps are relative to a ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD machine.

Main inspirations:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General_recommendations
https://wiki.archlinux.fr/installation
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ASUS_Zenbook_Prime_UX31A

Download the last iso of Arch Linux

Use a mirror listed at https://www.archlinux.org/download/

Being in France, I used https://arch.yourlabs.org/iso/2018.01.01/

Create an Arch Linux live USB

Format your usb stick in fat32 (this will destroy your data)

mkfs.vfat -n <name_for_your_pendrive> -I /dev/sdc

With sdX the USB stick device

dd bs=4M if=arch.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress

Boot from the USB stick in EFI mod

After booting, Enter root as login.

At any time you can switch to another console by pressing Alt + a lateral arrow.

This can be useful to read a documentation while installing Arch Linux.

Read offline documentation

less ./install.txt

Set keyboard layout into french AZERTY

loadkeys fr-latin1

Verify that computer has booted in efi

efivar -l

output should be non-null.

Connect to the internet

Two options:

1. use your phone with usb tethering
2. activate wifi

(first option is usually easier).

4G

1. Plug a 4G phone with USB tethering
2. exec dhcpcd to start a dhcp (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client.

Wifi

Using wifi-menu and netctl

wifi-menu

Give a (name) to the config and enter a password if needed. This writes a file in /etc/netctl/<name>.

Load this file

netctl start <name>

Using iw (if previous method is not working)

Get the name of your wireless interface

iw dev

To check link status, use following command

iw dev interface link

You can get statistic information, such as the amount of tx/rx bytes, signal strength etc., with following command

iw dev interface station dump

Some cards require that the kernel interface be activated before you can use iw or wireless_tools

ip link set interface up

To see what access points are available

    iw dev interface scan | less

Connect to an access point

• No encryption

  iw dev interface connect "your_essid"

• WEP

  iw dev interface connect "<your_essid>" key 0:<your_key>

Try to ping google.com

ping google.com

Use elinks to browse the internet in CLI (Command Line Interface), for instance to read arch linux intallation guide.

elink https://github.com/JosephLucas/archlinux_installation

(or https://github.com/JosephLucas/archlinux_installation)

Prepare installation

Update pacman database

pacman -Syy

set timezone (it seems needed for pacman)

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Paris

Edit partitions

Use parted to edit partitions

parted /dev/sdX

(parted) rm X
(parted) mkpart primary ntfs 0% 100GB
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 100GB 100%

Label partitions

mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sda1 -L windows
fatlabel ...

(By experience, I advice you to avoid LVM, you will avoid losing a lot of time for not much help. If you really want to, read following section.)

Manage Logical volumes

pvcreate ...
vgcreate ...
lvcreate ... -L 50GB -n lv_debian
lvcreate ... -l 100%FREE -n lv_arch_home

Instead of /dev/sdXX, a lvm partition looks like /dev/mapper/vg_ssd-lv-root

If you plan to resize some logival volumes, do not forget to:

• shrink the file system before shrinking the logical volume
• extend the logical volume before extending the file system)

If LVM partitions are used, the ESP is mounted at /boot; contrary to the standard mountpoint of the ESP. Cause, rEFInd doesn't seem to read LVM partitions whereas Arch installs bootloader and iniramfs into /boot with pacstrap and mkinitcpio. Another solution would be to move the images and the refind_linux.conf from /boot/ (into LVM/ext4) to /boot/efi (into the ESP) each time they are upgraded :

do not launch ! (mv) /boot/initramfs-linux.img /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img /boot/refind_linux.conf /boot/vmlinuz-linux /boot/refind_linux.conf /boot/efi

Just before creating an initial ramdisk environment (mkinitcpio), add 'lvm2" in the HOOKS of /etc/mkinitcpio.conf.

HOOKS="base udev ... block lvm2 filesystems"

The order seems important.

Do not make a swap partition

Do not make a swap, use instead a swap file, it is more flexible.

Mount partitions

With:

• /dev/sdXX the partition for root
• /dev/sdYY the partition for home

mount /dev/sdXX /mnt
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sdYY /mnt/home

Mount the EFI System Partition (ESP)

mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot/efi

Rank pacman mirrors

cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup
rankmirrors -n 20 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup > /etc/mirrolist

Install Arch

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
pacstrap /mnt vim

Install Wifi; wpa_supplicant is for wpa/wep support

pacstrap /mnt iw wpa_supplicant

(You could also install dialog for a wifi-menu)

Install a desktop environment

pacstrap /mnt xfce4 xfce4-goodies xorg-server

Install Firefox (and elinks, just in case you cannot start the graphic server)

pacstrap /mnt firefox elinks

Generate the table of file system and mount points

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

Chroot into the newly installed arch

arch-chroot /mnt

Give a name to the machine (for instance asus_ux32vd)

echo <name> /etc/hostname

Give a name for the net

echo '127.0.0.1 asus_ux32vd.localdomain asus_ux32vd'  >> /etc/hosts
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris /etc/localtime

Set local language

vim /etc/locale.gen

Then uncomment the line en_US-UTF-8 UTF-8

locale-gen
echo LANG="en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
echo KEYMAP=fr-latin1 > /etc/vconsole.conf

Customize pacman

vim /etc/pacman.conf

• uncomment Color
• add line ILoveCandy for a funny animation when installing packages with pacman
• uncomment multilib repo if you want to enable running and building 32-bit applications on 64-bit installations of Arch Linux.

Create an initial ramdisk environment

mkinitcpio -p linux

Install the boot loader rEFInd

Here we use rEFInd.

By default, rEFInd scans all disks and locates all EFI bootloaders that can be launched with the UEFI. An easy way to configure a linux bootloader is to add a refind_linux.conf next to it, e.g. A more exhaustive configuration can be made through a manual "stanza" in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf

Let's install rEFInd

pacman -S refind-efi
refind-install

refind-install automatically generates the refind_linux.conf next to the linux image. It can be edited with

vim /boot/refind_linux.conf

You might need to remove the 2 first lines that may correspond to the Arch Linux Live USB.

Otherwise, edit the arch linux stanza in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf to get

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
    icon     EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png
    volume   arch_root
    loader   /boot/vmlinuz-linux
    initrd   /boot/initramfs-linux.img
    options  "ro root=UUID=57203de9-12fc-419c-a358-7b880da80e38"
    ostype   "Linux"
    submenuentry "Boot using fallback initrd" {
		initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
	}
}

where

• "EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png" is the path from the root of the ESP disk to the icon file
• "arch_root" is the disk label. (this line corresponds to change the working directory)
• "/boot/vmlinuz-linux" is the path to the linux kernel (on the "arch_root" volume)
• "/boot/initramfs-linux.img" is the path to the linux initialisation RAM file system image The UUID of the linux OS disk (UUID=57203de9-12fc-419c-a358-7b880da80e38) can be found with lsblk -f.

NB: The "fallback" image utilizes the same configuration file as the default image, except the autodetect hook is skipped during creation, thus including a full range of modules. The autodetect hook detects required modules and tailors the image for specific hardware, shrinking the initramfs.

tricks with rEFInd

On the rEFInd boot screen:

• press F10 to make screenshots. Images are saved at the main dir of refind "ESP/refind/".
• on a bootloader entrypoint press DEL to hide an entry. You cann restore it with the "configuration of hidden tags" icon afterwards.

Set a password for the root

passwd

Reboot

Ctr + D

unmount -R /mnt
reboot

Post-Installation configuration

Micro-code of Intel CPUs

Look for your processor model at intel's webpage.

If you need microcode,

pacman -S intel-ucode
vim /boot/refind_linux.conf

and insert initrd=/boot/intel-ucode.img just before initrd=/boot/initramfs-linux.img, with spaces between options.

After a reboot, check that microcode is 'updated early'

dmesg | grep microcode

Activate TRIM (for saving your an SSD lifetime)

Following arch's wiki.

Check if you have a ssd disk with a TRIM available

lsblk -D

non-0 DISK-GRAN or DISK-MAX means that the device supports TRIM.

Enable fstrim.timer to be started on bootup

systemctl enable fstrim.timer

Optimize SSD

Arch's wiki recomands to add option noatime in /etc/fstab for partitions on the ssd. (It should already be the case by default)

Desktop environment xfce4

Start the graphical window manager

startxfce4

Install xfce4-goodies

pacman -S xfce4-goodies

Change icon /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/xfce4-time-out-plugin.png because it graphically looks like the clock icon.

Within a xfce4 graphical session switch to a consol tty

ctr + alt + fX 

(with X in [1-6])

To come back to the xfce4 session

ctr + alt + f7 

(ctr + alt + f1 doesn't work for unknown reasons)

Unmute sound

pacman -S alsa-utils
alsamixer

unmute the master channel (MM) by selecting it and pressing 'm', then increase volume untill reaching a 0dB filtering.

pacman -S pulseaudio

You might need

pacman -S xfce-pulseaudio-plugin
pacman -S pavucontrol

and might also need to restart.

If pulseaudio cannot start (e.g. by trying the command pulseaudio), and if it raises

E: [pulseaudio] core-util.c: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied

Then

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME

Start and enable the user daemon

systemctl --user restart pulseaudio.service
systemctl --user enable pulseaudio.service

(NB: pulseaudio should not be started as a sudo)

Configure an automated connection to the internet

ip link show

Note the names of the interfaces (for instance 'lo' and 'wlp3s0').

Automatically connect to the wifi

pacman -S wpa_actiond
systemctl enable netctl-auto@wlp3s0.service

Automatically switch wifi network connection

systemctl enable netctl-auto@<wifi-interface>.service

Get the ethernet interface with

ip link

Then, to enable auto-connection when the ethernet cable is plugged in/unplugged

sudo pacman -S ifplugd
sudo systemctl start netctl-ifplugd@<ethernet-interface>.service
sudo systemctl enable netctl-ifplugd@<ethernet-interface>.service

(it might be useful to rm /var/lib/dhcpcd/*.lease)

Create a non-root user

with default shell = ZSH

pacman -S zsh
useradd -m -g wheel -s /bin/zsh <user>
passwd <user>

If needed, give sudo rights to <user>

visudo

Make zsh the default shell

NB: Overall ranking of zsh configs seems to be grml-zsh-config > prezto > Oh-my-zsh. The two former frameworks are bloated.

Install the default config for arch (same as in the USB stick)

pacman -S grml-zsh-config

List available shells

chsh -l

Make zsh the default shell

chsh -s /bin/zsh

NB: Usually zsh is used in Emacs mode. If the vim mode was accidentally set, Emacs mode can be set back at any time with

bindkey -e

Install a Windows Display Manager

lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings
systemctl enable lightdm

Set a background for all users

sudo cp /home/jlucas/Images/xxx.png /home/

Give permission rights to the image for the background of LightDM

sudo chmod uog+rwx /home/xxx.png

Settings > LightDM + Greeter > background image

Switch xfce4 and lightdm into azerty

localctl --no-convert set-x11-keymap fr

Swap file

From the arch wiki page

fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile

edit /etc/fstab to add an entry for the swap file: echo '/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Then

pacman -S systemd-swap

set swapfc_enabled=1 in the Swap File Universal section of /etc/systemd/swap.conf

systemctl enable systemd-swap.service

Swappiness

Show current swappiness

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Edit /etc/sysctl.d/99.sysctl.conf

vm.swappiness=15

When 85% RAM is used (15% of free ram is remaining), the kernel is allowed to use the swapfile.

Setting touchpad

In Applications > Setting > Mouse and Touchpad, set tap click and scrolling.

(If necessary install xf86-input-synaptics with pacman and follow arch wiki page)

Auto-mount USB devices

pacman -S udisks2 
pacman -S thunar-volman gvfs

In Thunar (default folder/files manager of xfce4) Edit -> Preferences Tab « Advanced » on the right Check « activate device manager »

If you want to be able to write on a mounted ntfs disk:

pacman -S ntfs-3g

customize Thunar

Remove the buggy "set as default wallpaper" when right click on an image

sudo mv /usr/lib/thunarx-3/thunar-wallpaper-plugin.so{,.disabled}

Add custom actions, when right click on a file/folder

Add a custom action Edit->Configure custom actions...

Examples of custom actions

(trick: to monitor/debug a xfce channel

xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -m
```)

### Removable drives and media
Applications > Settings > Appearance > Removable drives and media
Check 'Automatically mount' 

### Customize rEFInd
Download asus logo http://logo-logos.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Asus_logo_black_and_white.png
Shrink Asus logo to 800px in width and 24bits depth for colors.
```bash
convert -colors 256 -depth 24 +dither -resize 800 ~/Desktop/logo_asus.png ~/Desktop/logo_asus_24b.png

Download snowy icons

pacman zip unzip

Move the logo and the snowy folder in /boot/EFI/refind/themes (mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/refind/themes)

echo 'banner /EFI/refind/themes/logo_asus_24b.png' | sudo tee -a /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf

If you want to discard automated detection of efi boot loaders

At the end of /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf write

# Personal config, using the partition label for the volume
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
    volume   "arch_root"
    icon     /boot/efi/EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png
    loader   /boot/vmlinuz-linux
    initrd   /boot/initramfs-linux.img
    options  "ro root=/dev/sdb2 add_efi_memmap loglevel=3"
    ostype   "Linux"
    submenuentry "Boot using fallback initramfs" {
        initrd initramfs-linux-fallback.img
    }
    submenuentry "Boot to terminal" {
        add_options "systemd.unit=multi-user.target"
    }
}

Change 'scanfor manual' to hide other unconfigured bootloaders.

Trizen for AUR packages

Please use yay instead of trizen

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

Ethernet (usb ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet)

Intall driver from AUR and dependency (linux-headers for the kernel module of the driver)

pacman -S linux-headers
trizen -s asix-ax88179-dkms

Configure netctl

cp /etc/netctl/examples/ethernet-dhcp /etc/netctl/
netctl start ethernet-dhcp
netctl enable ethernet-dhcp

Use systemd-networkd

Good tuto : systemd-networkd + wpa_supplicant

Stop netctl services (or any other network manager daemon) and start sytemd-networkd daemon

sudo systemctl stop netctl
sudo systemctl disable netctl
sudo systemctl start systemd-networkd

Configure systemd-networkd

Configure wired ethernet connexions

sudo tee /etc/systemd/network/eth.network << EOF
[Match]
# Will match eth0, eth1, ethX…
Name=eth*
[Network]
DHCP=yes
EOF

Get the wifi interface (link) with networkctl list. In my case it is wlp3s0. Configure wireless connections (NB wlp3s0 in the filename, it' important to put your interface name here)

sudo tee /etc/systemd/network/wlp3s0.network << EOF
[Match]
Name=wlp3s0
[Network]
DHCP=yes
EOF

configure wpa_supplicant for wifi

Make sure you use a WPA/WPA2 protocol (following instructions do not work with deprecated WEP).

echo "please enter wifi pasword:"
read -s PWD
wpa_passphrase LUCAS_PARIS $PWD | grep -v "#psk=" | sudo tee /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlp3s0.conf

Make a symlink from /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf to /etc/resolv.conf

# starting the daemon creates `/run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf`
sudo systemctl start systemd-resolved
sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
sudo ln -s /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

Start and enable all services

sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd systemd-resolved wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0
sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd systemd-resolved wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0

(wpa_supplicant@wlp3s0 means wpa_supplicant service with parameter wlp3s0)

Pycharm

IDE python : pychamr

pacman -S pycharm-community-edition

Set pycharm diff tool has the default diff tool (not recommanded, since pycharm is quite slow... use meld instead)

sudo echo 'export DIFFPROG="pycharm diff"' >> ~/.zshrc
sudo DIFFPROG='pycharm diff' pacdiff

Install Meld for file/folder/vcs comparisons

sudo echo 'export DIFFPROG="meld"' >> ~/.zshrc
pacman -S meld

Set a dark Arch linux theme for XFCE + some tweaks/tunings

Install a dark gtk theme

trizen -S gtk-theme-arc-git

Applications > Settings > Appearance > Arc-Dark Applications > Settings > Window Manager > Arc-Dark

Install an extension for black background on firefox

``'Dark Background and Light Text'

Set the arch-xfce wallpaper or the beautiful night wallpaper.

Remove some icons (specially important for avoiding drag-n-drop in root)

Settings > Desktop > Icons > (uncheck 'FileSystem' and 'Removable Devices')

Install icon themes

trizen -S humanity-icon-theme

(papirus-icon-theme and arc-icon-theme are also good choices)

Settings > Appearance > Icons > Humanity

Monitoring CPU,RAM,SWAP with conky

pacman -S conky pacman-contrib

(pacman-contrib gives the command checkupdates used to show the number of updates available)

mkdir -p ~/.config/conky

Default configuration

conky -C > ~/.config/conky/conky.conf

Download versioned configuration file

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JosephLucas/configs/master/.config/conky/conky.conf
cp ~/.config/conky/conky.conf{,.bak}
mv conky.conf ~/.config/conky/conky.conf

Enable conky to auto-start

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JosephLucas/configs/master/.config/autostart/conky.desktop
mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
mv conky.desktop ~/.config/autostart

(inspiration: last post of angstrom and documentation)

Plank dock (Macos like panel)

trizen -S plank-theme-arc

Configure Plank

1. Hold down Control and right click anywhere on the dock
2. Select "Preferences"

Fix annoying shadow bar next to Plank dock

Settings > Window Manager Tweaks > Compositor tab > untick the ‘Show shadows under dock windows’ checkbox

xfce shortcuts

To open the whisker menu of the panel with the windows key, go to Settings -> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts. Add the command xfce4-popup-whiskermenu in the list.

Configure xfce panel

Settings > Panel > Add the "whisker menu" item and remove "Applications menu".

Fix trouble editing the account top-left xfce whisker menu

trizen -S mugshot

Fix low battery warning

First tried to set a systemd/timer for notify-send but a post advised not to do that. Finally opted the solution for 1) in forum page

Install a tool to monitor battery

pacman -S acpi

Arch wiki page on timers advises to download and install a daemon script

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JosephLucas/archlinux_installation/master/low_battery_warning.sh
sudo install -o root -g root -m 755 low_battery_warning.sh /usr/local/bin
rm low_battery_warning.sh

Albert (fast launcher from keywords)

trizen -S albert

Instant messagery with Pidgin

pacman -S pidgin
pacman -S purple-facebook
pacaur -S telegram-purple
pacman -S purple-skypeweb

Note that pidgin may play a sound at startup. This can be deactivated Tools > Mute sounds

For minimized window at start: Tools > check Extended Preferences > configure plugin > Hide buddy list at startup

trizen -S pidgin-extprefs

Have a look at https://github.com/JD342/arc-thunderbird-integration

Download interfaces

pacman -S wget rsync aria2 uget

Mail client : neomutt

Arch installation process

mkdir -p /tmp/makepkg && cd /tmp/makepkg
wget https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/neomutt.tar.gz
tar xf neomutt.tar.gz
cd neomutt
makepkg -si

Drivers

NVIDIA optimus graphic cards

Arch wiki page

Find out the model of your graphic card

lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D"

Graphic cards (Optimus = (HD4000 + Geforce GT 620 M))

A guide on reddit

1. install bumblebee with intell support

Ensure you have enabled "multilib" repository: be sure both lines are uncommented in /etc/pacman.conf

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

pacman -S bumblebee mesa nvidia lib32-virtualgl lib32-nvidia-utils

(Note xf86-video-intel does not seem necessary)

Add to the group that is allowed to run bumblebee

gpasswd -a <user> bumblebee
systemctl enable bumblebeed.service

Tester (optirun a des meileurs performances que primusrun)

pacman -S virtualgl
glxspheres64

optirun glxspheres64
optirun glxspheres32

2. Install nvidia-xrun and the lightweight Desktop Environment

trizen -S nvidia-xrun
pacman -S openbox

In ~/.nvidia-xinitrc, add a line that starts openbox-session

echo -e '# start the window manager\nopenbox-session' >> ~/.nvidia-xinitrc

Configure Openbox

cp -R /etc/xdg/openbox ~/.config/

In ~/.config/openbox/autostart, ensure that keyboard is properly set to AZERTY

# personal config (jlucas)
#
# change  keyboard to fr-latin1 (azerty)
(sleep 2s && setxkbmap fr-latin1 oss) &

echo '\n# personal config (jlucas)\n#\n# change  keyboard to fr-latin1 (azerty)\n(sleep 2s && setxkbmap fr-latin1 oss) &' >> ~/.config/openbox/autostart

Next lines describe how to Activate the Geforce gt 620 M in openbox.

Logout from the xfce4 DE

xfce4-session-logout

Switch to a tty; e.g.

Ctr+Alt+F2

Activate the Geforce 620M and start openbox DE with this graphical acceleration

nvidia-xrun

Load AZERTY keyboard layout

setxkbmap fr oss

If you want to use XFCE config tools within openbox (switch keyboard layout):

xfce4-mcs-manager

In the light-weight DE openbox you can now launch the 3D application.

For instance open a terminal and

glxspheres64

Performances should be impressive !

For stats about the video card

nvidia-settings -q screens -q gpus -q framelocks -q fans -q thermalsensors

(terse option, add : -t)

Wine (allow executing some windows applications natively)

Here also, ensure you have enabled pacman "multilib" repository.

sudo pacman -S wine

(use default providers if you are asked for a choice)

For sound

pacman -S lib32-libpulse

Configure wine

wine winecfg

Do install .NET and Gecko in graphical popups

wine control

Install Battlenet client

pacman -S winetricks lib32-gnutls lib32-libldap
winetricks corefonts

Fix the icon of wine in the menu

for f in ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/*/apps/1CD8_rundll32.0.png; do cp $f $(dirname $f)/wine.png; done

with ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor//apps/1CD8_rundll32.0.png convenient icons of wine for different sizes ()

To update the icon cache, log out and in.

Fix blackscreen and error when starting Heroes Of The Storm

Before starting the game (from battlenet client app) Game settings > additional command line arguments > "-dx9"

Htop

pacman -S htop

SSH

Install ssh

sudo pacman -S openssh

Start a ssh server

sudo systemctl start sshd

Gnerate ssh key pairs

ssh-keygen

Copy public key to .ssh/authorized_keys of a desired ssh server

ssh-copy-id <remote-user>@<host>

Edit .ssh/config

Host raspberry
    HostName 192.168.10.1
    Port 22
    User pi

To avoid writing id_rsa passphrase for each connection

ssh-add

(NB: this presuposes that ssh-agent is already running)

VLC

pacman -S vlc qt4 libcdio

Mount an Android smartphone device via USB

Activate the MTP protocol on the smartphone, then

pacman -S jmtpfs
mkdir /mnt/smartphone
jmtpfs /mnt/smartphone

Nextcloud (fork of Owncloud)

pacman -S nextcloud libgnome-keyring

libgnome-keyring is necessary to store the password

Pdf viewer

trizen -S acroread

Handle archive formats

pacman -S p7zip p7zip-plugins tar

Fix screen tearing issues with the default window compositor of xfce4

XFCE default compositing window manager and default nvidia configuration had me experience screen tearing.

A solution is to install compton, a 'compositing window manager

Deactivate default xfce composite manager (window manager tweak-> manager->Disable) and installing compton

pacman -S compton

then this discussion for configuration with xfce.

Otherwise I tried this solution -- it crashed my graphic server.

I created file : /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf with :

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
  Driver      "intel"
  Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection 

xfce keyboard shortcuts

Setting Manager -> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts and add the command "xfce4-screenshooter"

Do the same for the consol "xfce4-terminal"

Manager of archives :

(same as ubuntu's)

pacman -S file-roller

Redhift

Shift colors depending on the hour of the day (help your eyes hurt less if you are working in front of the screen at night) redshift

In order to allow access Redshift to use GeoClue2, add the following lines to /etc/geoclue/geoclue.conf:

[redshift]
allowed=true
system=false
users=

Docker

pacman -S docker
sudo systemctl enable docker.service

Add the user to the group

sudo gpasswd -a jlucas docker

Install proprietary software Antidote

With the installer version over ./Antidote_9.5.3_B_31_Linux.bash things should go smoothly. Do remind to install firefox/thunderbird extensions. Do not read what goes next if things went smoothly.

Otherwise have a look to the reddit post that covers an in-depth fix of Antidote installer for Ach linux. I also tried:

sudo pacman -S xhost
sudo bash Antidote_9.5.2_B_21_Linux.bash

After installation, grant access X server to everyone

xhost +

It was important to execute Antidote_9.5.2_B_21_Linux.bash as sudo to avoid the error:

/usr/bin/env: ‘./Antidote_9.5.2_B_21_Linux.bash’: No such file or directory

Download mp3 from youtube videos

pacman -S youtube-dl ffmpeg
youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 <url>

For more info

Other packages

xkill

Hints and unsuccessful tries

Explanation why there is not a automatic login of owncloud-client at startup

Thunar right click action "set as wallpaper" on a picture isn't working

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=12322

Improvement of Plank

Remove the anchor icon

gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem False

Bluetooth pairing of the headset, Bose Quiet Confort q35

NB: I didn't manage to enable bluetooth connection -> plug it with a jack wire

Unsuccessful try:

https://eklausmeier.wordpress.com/2016/10/26/bluetooth-headphones-in-arch-linux/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Blueman

(Note the existence of https://github.com/Denton-L/based-connect sudo pacaur -S based-connect-git)

sudo pacman -S bluez bluez-utils sudo pacman -S pulseaudio-bluetooth (sudo pacman -S blueman)

Load the generic bluetooth driver, if not already loaded (important!): modprobe btusb

in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf :

ControllerMode = bredr
[Policy]
AutoEnable=true

By default the bluetooth daemon will only give out bnep0 devices to users that are a member of the lp. So launch

sudo bluetoothctl

(without sudo, commands may not work)

help
show
devices
pair xx:yy:...
trust xx:yy:...
connect xx:yy:...
paired-devices

(xx:yy:... is the MAC address)

https://erikdubois.be/installing-bose-quietcomfort-35-linux-mint-18/

in a newly created file /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf Copy/paste these lines inside. Do not change anything. The order is important.

[General]
Disable=Socket
Disable=Headset
Enable=Media,Source,Sink,Gateway
AutoConnect=true
load-module module-switch-on-connect

List of interesting packages

Manage your money (allow connection to your bank account with specific protocols) gnucash Edit pdfs masterpdfeditor Analyse Disk usage baobab or even better : ncdu

(from http://sametmax.com/mon-environnement-de-travail/) Agregator of RS feeds (have a look at "Tiny RSS" too) liferea Snapshot with integrated util to edit (avoid openning gimp a posteriori) shutter Editing pdfs pdfmod

It might be interesting to have a look at

aria2: a lightweight multi-protocol & multi-source command-line download utility
uget: a download manager which can use aria2 as a back-end by enabling a built-in plugin

and

visual studio code
bash debug: bashdb (also a plugin for visual studio code)
shellcheck (also a pycharm plugin)

TODO

Wayland (emulate Xserver with xWayland) installation process for virtualbox activates HOOKS requested for kvm use Wayland or XWayland as soon as XFCE allows it

Tips

Use TestDisk or parted in rescue mod to rescue erroneous partition tables

Glossary

Arch linux Rollback Machine (ARM) Arch Linux Archive (ALA) where previous versions of packages are archived

Obsolete

Manjaro ZSH configuration (switched to grml)

If you want to install the configuration of the ZSH of manjaro (see file zshrc_manjaro attached)

#enable fish-like style features
sudo pacman -S zsh-syntax-highlighting
pacaur -S zsh-history-substring-search-git
pacaur -S zsh-autosuggestions
sudo pacman -S lsb-release

In the manjaro zhrc, change

echo $USER@$HOST  $(uname -srm) $(lsb_release -rs)

If grml-zsh-config is installed, add a first line in ~/.zshrc

add-zsh-hook -d precmd prompt_grml_precmd

whenever you want to customize your prompt. (see https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/50sfdq/unable_to_change_zsh_command_prompt/)

LXDM Display Manager (switched to lightdm)

pacman -S lxdm

I had trouble with the default keyboard in lxdm (the one of Xorg) and I needed to set the french azerty (with 'é'). For this I found some help on the internet.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout_switching https://forum.voidlinux.eu/t/change-default-keyboard-for-lxdm-to-local-layout/972

An (ugly) solution is to create a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbVariant" "azerty"
Option "XkbRules" "evdev"
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection

####Install a dark Arch linux theme for LXDM

pacaur -S lxdm-themes

List all available themes

ls /usr/share/lxdm/themes
vim /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf

Change

theme=Archlinux

Sublime (might be better to install "visual studio code" instead)

Sublime text editor (still with a non-sudo-user)

trizen -S sublime-text

Solve icon of sublime, with plank, cannot be toggled to the dock (http://www.techbear.co/sublime-debian-plank/)

sudo ln -s /opt/sublime_text/sublime_text /usr/bin/sublime

sublime /usr/share/applications/sublime-text.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Sublime Text Perso
Comment=Sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose
Exec=sublime %F
Icon=sublime-text
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
Terminal=false
MimeType=text/plain;
StartupNotify=true
Actions=Window;Document;

[Desktop Action Window]
Name=New Window
Exec=sublime -n
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;
Icon=sublime-text

[Desktop Action Document]
Name=New File
Exec=sublime --command new_file
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;
Icon=sublime-text

Tricks to debug a binary file

sudo pacman -s strace

Start the binary with strace

strace <command>

Tricks with pacman

Delete all cached versions of installed and uninstalled packages except most recent 2 versions of packages

sudo paccache -k2 -r

Edit configuration files after upgrade

sudo pacdiff

Install lineageos on one plus one

Instructions come from this HOWTO

Install ADB on the computer

pacman -S android-tools
pacman -S android-udev

Plug the phone with USB and enable USB Debugging on your phone or device. This is usually done from Settings > Devoper options > Activate all ADB switches

Then assert that adb devices shows it as "device" and not as "unauthorized". A popup window might call to accept the computer connection.

To mount the android FS without sudo right on the smartphone

mkdir -p ~/Dev ~/one_plus_one
cd ~/Dev
git clone git://github.com/spion/adbfs-rootless.gi
make

Mount the smarphone FS on ~/one_plus_one

./adbfs  ~/one_plus_one

Now FS should be accessible in ~/one_plus_one