After witnessing insane minimalism paired with a tiler (tiling window manager), knew it was my time to take the pilgrimage to Arch Linux.

Some characteristics that make Arch unique:

The Arch Way embody the principles behind Arch Linux; simplicity, modernity, pragmatism, user centrality and versatility.
Forces one to build the system up by hand.
This encourages you to question the role of each component of the system, and available options to satisfy that component (e.g. the terminal emulator).
The result is a highly tailored and minimal system that meets precisely your needs.
Practical and pragmatic documentation. The Arch Wiki is the gold standard when it comes to documentation.
The Arch User Repository (AUR) is a treasure chest of pre-packaged useful recent software. Somehow every program I’ve ever needed has been available on AUR.
Rolling upgrades.

Arch was born in 2001, when Canadian programmer Judd Vinet, inspired by the elegance of systems such as Slackware and the BSD’s, set out to build his own distro based on a similar ethos. The first formal release, 0.1, dropped on March 11, 2002.

Pre Install⌗

Boot disk⌗

To bootstrap the install process, a boot key is the way to go. Obtain the latest iso image, and block write it to a USB drive using dd. dd (aka disk destroyer to some) trusts you know what you’re doing and can destroy data very easily if not used correctly.

Use lsblk to determine the mapped device name (e.g. /dev/sdb). When ready, pull the trigger and flash the drive with arch:

dd if=Downloads/archlinux-2019.03.01-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb status="progress"

Boot the target system on the new boot drive. If all goes well, you will end up on a bash shell, in the temporary boot preparation system provided by Arch.

Post boot⌗

Get network connectivity:

ip l
iwctl
[iwctl]# device list
[iwctl]# station wlan0 connect <SSID_HERE>
[iwctl]# station wlan0 show
[iwctl]# quit
ip l

Partitioning⌗

UEFI (supports newer 64-bit based GPT) or BIOS (based on traditional MBR). If the below sys node doesn’t exist, go BIOS:

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Determine the target block device (e.g. an SSD) for installation, using lsblk.

Assuming a BIOS compatible system, will go with fdisk (not gdisk) for the partitioning setup:

fdisk /dev/nvme0n1

fdisk shortcuts:

m help
p print partition table
d delete
n new

In a nutshell, blow away any existing partitions (d), and create 4 new (n) primary partitions. Note when specifying the last sector can size with +200M style syntax, +200M is 200MiB, +50G is 50GiB. I cut my ~500GB drive up into the following partiions:

100M for EFI (type 0xef00)
250M for boot (type 0x8300)
The remainder for LVM (type 0x8300)

System encryption⌗

cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p3
cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p3 luks

LVM⌗

On top of the dm-create device mapper target named luks, setup logical volume manager for flexibility down the road:

note: Rule of thumb for swap is 150% of total system memory

pvcreate /dev/mapper/luks
vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/luks
lvcreate --size 30G vg --name swap
lvcreate -l +100%FREE vg --name root

Format partitions (file systems)⌗

mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/nvme0n1p2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
mkswap /dev/mapper/vg-swap

Mount partitions⌗

Now its time to mount these new partitions into the Arch bootstrapped system, so they be used.

The 3 partitions will be mounted into the current Arch boot preparation systems file system tree under /mnt so a chroot can occur, and then system installation. First mount the root partition, then the boot partition within the root mount under /mnt/boot, and finally the EFI partition within the /mnt/boot/efi:

mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
swapon /dev/maper/vg-swap
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/boot
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi

Installation⌗

Add pacman mirror⌗

Update /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist as desired. My ISP has an unmetered mirror:

Server = http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Install Arch with pacstrap⌗

The pacstrap script will install the base, and if desired other package groups, such as base-devel for common build related programs.

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel grub-efi-x86_64 git efibootmgr networkmanager dialog wpa_supplicant dhcpcd mkinitcpio lvm2 linux-hardened linux-firmware neovim tmux

Configuration⌗

fstab and crypttab⌗

So mounts are automatically applied as part of the system boot process, add them to /etc/fstab as UUID’s, which are more robust than device names which can change, the -U option on genfstab makes this a breeze:

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
nvim /mnt/etc/fstab
# Add this:
# tmpfs	/tmp	tmpfs	defaults,noatime,mode=1777	0	0

chroot⌗

Now to change root into the new system, from the Arch boot preparation system:

arch-chroot /mnt

root password⌗

Set the password for the root account with passwd

Localisation⌗

Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 and UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen, and generate:

locale-gen

Set language:

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 >> /etc/locale.conf
echo LANGUAGE=en_US >> /etc/locale.conf
echo LC_ALL=C >> /etc/locale.conf

Time zone⌗

Symlink in the appropriate zone definition:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Canberra /etc/localtime

Run hwclock --systohc to generate /etc/adjtime

Networking⌗

Create /etc/hostname, and define a name for the host.
Edit /etc/hosts for loopback based on the defined hostname above, 127.0.1.1 myhostname.localdomain myhostname
Install NetworkManager which provides persistent network configuration across reboots, pacman -S networkmanager and enable it systemctl enable NetworkManager

ramdisk⌗

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:

Add ext4 to MODULES
Add encrypt and lvm2 to HOOKS before filesystems it should look like the below
Ensure the package lvm2 is installed
mkinitcpio -P

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

Boot loader (GRUB)⌗

Several boot loaders are supported, I stuck with GRUB.

pacman -S grub
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Edits to /etc/default/grub:

Uncomment GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console (graphical = bloat)
Add quiet loglevel=3 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to suppress kernel logs spewing into login prompt

If targeting a LUKS device, need to pass kernel params from the boot loader to trigger a decryption as part of the boot process.

Again in /etc/default/grub, edit to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX to include cryptdevice=/dev/nvme0n1p3:luks:allow-discards root=/dev/vg/root

Reboot⌗

A minimal base system is installed and configured, and ready to be used.

Escape chroot with ctrl+d or exit.
Unmount everything umount -R /mnt, lsblk should confirm this.
reboot
Remove the USB drive

Post boot⌗

WiFi⌗

Unfortunately wifi settings were not persisted. Fix with network manager:

nmcli dev wifi connect wifi-sid-goes-here password wifi-password-goes-here

Also make sure to that wifi-menu is functional, by installing the dialog package. netctl is useful for troubleshooting. Ensure that the network profile for the wifi is enabled using netctl.

See archwiki:

nmcli device wifi list sniff currently available wifi ssids in range
nmcli connection show show active connection/s
nmcli device wifi connect Jeneffer password S3CR3T connect to ssid
nmcli device wifi connect Jeneffer password S3CR3T hidden yes connect to hidden ssid
nmcli connection up uuid UUID reconnect a disconnected interface
nmcli device list all interfaces and their state
mcli device disconnect wlp3s0 disconnect an interface
nmcli radio wifi off disable wifi radio

Add users⌗

useradd -m -g wheel ben
passwd ben
sudo vi /etc/sudoers

Uncomment (line 85) to allow members of the wheel group to sudo with (or without) password prompting:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

GPU drivers⌗

I’ve got a mix of machines with nvidia and amd accelerators. Just follow the bouncing ball on the appropriate arch wiki:

AMDGPU for the open source AMD based driver
NVIDIA the proprietary blob

Once installed verify with some benchmarks, before installing steam. Install glmark2 from the AUR, then bench.

$ glmark2
=======================================================
    glmark2 2014.03
=======================================================
    OpenGL Information
    GL_VENDOR:     X.Org
    GL_RENDERER:   AMD Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics (POLARIS10, DRM 3.35.0, 5.4.2-arch1-1, LLVM 9.0.0)
    GL_VERSION:    4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 19.2.7
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 9521 FrameTime: 0.105 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 14981 FrameTime: 0.067 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 15094 FrameTime: 0.066 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 15087 FrameTime: 0.066 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 14676 FrameTime: 0.068 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 14161 FrameTime: 0.071 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 14188 FrameTime: 0.070 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 14027 FrameTime: 0.071 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 14157 FrameTime: 0.071 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 11664 FrameTime: 0.086 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 15074 FrameTime: 0.066 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 14998 FrameTime: 0.067 ms
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 16919 FrameTime: 0.059 ms
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 16612 FrameTime: 0.060 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 15541 FrameTime: 0.064 ms
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 8164 FrameTime: 0.122 ms
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 8348 FrameTime: 0.120 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 1189 FrameTime: 0.841 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 1467 FrameTime: 0.682 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 1221 FrameTime: 0.819 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 5648 FrameTime: 0.177 ms
[jellyfish] <default>: FPS: 13110 FrameTime: 0.076 ms
[terrain] <default>: FPS: 1939 FrameTime: 0.516 ms
[shadow] <default>: FPS: 12114 FrameTime: 0.083 ms
[refract] <default>: FPS: 3845 FrameTime: 0.260 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 14620 FrameTime: 0.068 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 15881 FrameTime: 0.063 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 16657 FrameTime: 0.060 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 17256 FrameTime: 0.058 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 17571 FrameTime: 0.057 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 17570 FrameTime: 0.057 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 17540 FrameTime: 0.057 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 17667 FrameTime: 0.057 ms
=======================================================
                                  glmark2 Score: 12379
=======================================================

If the GPU driver is functional, can pull metrics about your device from the kernel:

$ sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/amdgpu_pm_info
Clock Gating Flags Mask: 0x3fbcf
        Graphics Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        Graphics Medium Grain memory Light Sleep: On
        Graphics Coarse Grain Clock Gating: On
        Graphics Coarse Grain memory Light Sleep: On
        Graphics Coarse Grain Tree Shader Clock Gating: Off
        Graphics Coarse Grain Tree Shader Light Sleep: Off
        Graphics Command Processor Light Sleep: On
        Graphics Run List Controller Light Sleep: On
        Graphics 3D Coarse Grain Clock Gating: Off
        Graphics 3D Coarse Grain memory Light Sleep: Off
        Memory Controller Light Sleep: On
        Memory Controller Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        System Direct Memory Access Light Sleep: Off
        System Direct Memory Access Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        Bus Interface Medium Grain Clock Gating: Off
        Bus Interface Light Sleep: On
        Unified Video Decoder Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        Video Compression Engine Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        Host Data Path Light Sleep: On
        Host Data Path Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        Digital Right Management Medium Grain Clock Gating: Off
        Digital Right Management Light Sleep: Off
        Rom Medium Grain Clock Gating: On
        Data Fabric Medium Grain Clock Gating: Off
        Address Translation Hub Medium Grain Clock Gating: Off
        Address Translation Hub Light Sleep: Off

GFX Clocks and Power:
        300 MHz (MCLK)
        300 MHz (SCLK)
        300 MHz (PSTATE_SCLK)
        300 MHz (PSTATE_MCLK)
        800 mV (VDDGFX)
        7.162 W (average GPU)

GPU Temperature: 31 C
GPU Load: 25 %
MEM Load: 7 %

UVD: Disabled

CE: Disabled

Essential applications⌗

If you’ve gone down the window manager (i.e. tiler) route, there is literally nothing, its a minimalist wasteland. Here’s the programs I use to support my specific workflows, as a software engineer and terminal fanboy.

My 2c consider suckless programs, which pair nicely with the minimal arch environment just setup.

AUR helper: paru (install this first)
Audio: alsamixer, alsa-utils, pulseaudio, pulseaudio-alsa, pulsemixer
Bluetooth: bluez, bluez-utils, pulseaudio-bluetooth
Dev: gcc, python, golang, java
Documenation: pandoc, texlive-core, texlive-bin, texlive-latexextra, texlive-publishers, texlive-fontsexta, troff, pdflatex
DVD/CD burning: dvd+rw-tools, cdrtools, lame
Games: steam (enable multilib pacman repo), nethack
Fonts: nerd-fonts-fira-code, ttf-fira-code, ttf-font-awesome, ttf-ms-fonts, ttf-linux-libertine, ttf-dejavu, ttf-inconsolata, ttf-ubuntu-font-family (steer clear of noto fonts due to glyph bug with Xft which crashes st)
Font management: xorg-xfontsel (GUI for specifying a font in XLFD), xorg-xfontsel (list fonts by name in X logical font description aka XLFD format)
File manager: nnn
Image viewer: sxiv
IRC client: irssi
Mail: neomutt, isync, msmtp, lynx
Music player: mpd, mpc, ncmpcpp
Networking: networkmanager, wifi-menu, dialog
Notifications: dunst, dzen2
PDF viewer: mupdf
Screenshots: maim, xclip
Shells: dash, zsh
System monitor: conky (handy for piping into dzen2) as per my ~/bin/popinfo2 script
Terminal emulator: st
Text editor: neovim, python-pynvim
Video player: vlc
VPN: openvpn
Window manager: dwm
Virtualisation: libvirt, qemu, virt-manager, dnsmasq, iptables, ebtables

Desktop Environment (DE) vs Window Manager (WM)⌗

In a nutshell a DE (like gnome or kde) is heavy weight includes everything bar the kitchen sink, such as music players, document editors, file managers, status bars, network managers, start menus, etc. They are incredibly bloated, but aimed at novice users that just want their computer “to work”. A WM (like dwm or i3) on the other hand is incredibly lean, I mean you don’t even get a status bar, but are very customisable and do just what you want and no more. Because of this WM’s tend to be allot snappier. I personally prefer using a WM, and more specifically a tiling WM (aka a tiler) and highly recommend dwm:

Because dwm is customized through editing its source code [C], it’s pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions.

I have started to form some of my own opinions around the use of a tiler:

Gaps between windows are literally a waste of space. Don’t do this.
Don’t bother with lots of the cosmetic ricing hacks out there, its all bloat.
Toolbars (such as polybar) display redundant information at the cost of cognitive overload and wasted screen real-estate. If I want to know the time I look at my watch.

dwm⌗

I’ve have recently discovered suckless, and their philosophy towards software really resonates strongly with me.

We are the home of quality software such as dwm, dmenu, st and plenty of other tools, with a focus on simplicity, clarity and frugality. Our philosophy is about keeping things simple, minimal and usable.

dwm is their minimal tiling window manager.

Because dwm is customized through editing its source code, it’s pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions.

The configuration of dwm is done by creating a custom config.h, by editing the config.def.h header, and (re)compiling the source code using the provided makefile.

pacman -Sy xorg-server xorg-xinit xf86-video-amdgpu libxft libxinerama xorg-xset xautolock

Clone the dwm Git repo, and my patches:

git clone https://git.suckless.org/dwm
git clone https://github.com/bm4cs/dots.git
cd ~/dotfiles && ./install.sh

Apply patches for specific features wanted. The only patch I apply is center:

Add an iscentered rule to automatically center clients on the current monitor.

This lets you define rules in config.def.h for certain programs (e.g. pulsemixer) that you’d like to launch center screen, by adding an iscentered rule to automatically center clients on the current monitor:

static const Rule rules[] = {
	/* xprop(1):
	 *	WM_CLASS(STRING) = instance, class
	 *	WM_NAME(STRING) = title
	 */
	/* class      instance       title       tags mask     iscentered     isfloating   monitor */
	{ "Gimp",     NULL,          NULL,       0,            0,             1,           -1 },

To you can see the WM_CLASS and WM_NAME properties of the X window are used by the rule chain to figure out what rules to apply. To determine these values, use xprop which will give you a mouse cursor to select the window of the running program you are interested in, and will dump its property to stdout:

$ xprop WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "st-256color", "st-256color"

$ xprop WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "st-256color", "st-256color"

$ xprop WM_NAME
WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "vim"

Build and install:

make && sudo make install

To autostart dwm:

Edit ~/.xinitrc with following:

exec dwm

Then startx. A black screen desktop should appear. This is good.

Default applications⌗

Programs that handle arbitrary files (e.g. web browsers, irc clients, file managers) delegate to a general purpose resource handler. XDG MIME Applications is the ubiquitous option here, and is not only an implementation, but a full blown specification.

To check a default program to be used based on MIME type:

xdg-mime query default text/plain

Or, if unsure of the MIME type, to check a default program based on a sample input file:

xdg-mime query filetype 2016-01-12-jdbc-overflow.markdown

To set a default handler, the program needs a, the program needs a .desktop launcher. First make sure one exists:

$ locate -i nvim.desktop
/usr/share/applications/nvim.desktop

Then bind it as the default for a given file (MIME) type:

xdg-mime default nvim.desktop text/plain

Test it out:

xdg-open 2018-01-08-pki.markdown

These are stored in ~/.local/mimeapps.list.

Ricing⌗

The term ricing originates from the auto enthusiast community, and was used predominantly as a perjorative to describe people who make modifications to their (usually Japanese) cars that add visual flair, but don’t improve performance. In the context of unixporn, it means customizing your desktop to make it look snazzy.

This rice was used on i3. While I enjoyed my brief time using this excellent tiler, I have moved to using suckless dwm. While these ricing hacks should apply to various window managers and tilers, I havent verified.

Wallpaper⌗

pacman -S feh

Add a task runner to ~/.config/i3/config to always set the wallpaper whenever i3 runs.

(feh --bg-scale ~/dots/art/quiet-mind-by-alena-aenami.png) & # wallpaper

Sound⌗

pacman -S alsa-utils

Can now run alsamixer to manage the sound card.

Load Xresources at startup⌗

Used to customise the appearance of graphical (i.e. X!) apps such as dwm, st and urxvt.

Ensure that .XResouces is read in when starting X by placing this in your ~/.xinitrc:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources &

If you dont have an ~/.Xresources of your own, checkout my dots.

Remember to run xrdb ~/.Xresources after editing it.

Making GTK and QT apps pretty⌗

pacman -S lxappearance gtk-chtheme gtk-engine-murrine gtk-engines gnome-themes-extra qt5ct

Define the following environment variables to override default QT styling:

export QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=adwaita
export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME="qt5ct"
export QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=0

Clock in status bar⌗

Involves setting the ’name’ property of the root window using xsetroot.

First I like to make a little script I keep in my ~/bin/, which periodically sets the time:

#!/bin/sh

print_date(){
	date "+%a %d %b %H:%M"
}

while true
do
	xsetroot -name "$(print_date)"
	sleep 1m
done

Then in ~/.xinitrc its just a matter of backgrounding this script:

~/bin/dwmbar &

Virtualisation⌗

Easy instructions to get QEMU/KVM and virt-manager up and running on Arch.

Source: https://gist.github.com/diffficult/cb8c385e646466b2a3ff129ddb886185

Make sure your cpu supports kvm grep -E "(vmx|svm)" --color=always /proc/cpuinfo
Make sure VT CPU extension is enabled in BIOS.
User access to /dev/kvm so add your account into kvm(78) group with sudo gpasswd -a USER_NAME kvm
Loading kernel modules kvm_intel or kvm_amd depend on your CPU, Add module name in /etc/modules-load.d/kvm.conf either kvm_intel or kvm_amd
Install qemu, virt-manager, dnsmasq and iptables with sudo pacman -S qemu virt-manager dnsmasq iptables ebtables dnsmasq
Run and enable boot up start libvirtd daemon with systemctl start libvirtd and systemctl enable libvirtd
Use PolicyKit authorization create /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-libvirt.rules with the example policy below.
You will need to create the libvirt group and add any users you want to have access to libvirt to that group with groupadd libvirt then sudo gpasswd -a USER_NAME libvirt
Check network interface status sudo virsh net-list --all. If it is inactive start it using sudo virsh net-start default
Now you can use virt-manager manager your virtual machine.
Things to do after installing a Windows VM. Check and install drivers on your guest Windows VM, probably virtio-win is a nice place to start.

PolicyKit that allows the kvm group to manage libvirt:

/* Allow users in kvm group to manage the libvirt
daemon without authentication */
polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
    if (action.id == "org.libvirt.unix.manage" &&
        subject.isInGroup("kvm")) {
            return polkit.Result.YES;
    }
});

What if the `default` network interface is not listed⌗

If virsh net-list is not listing any network interface just reinitialize it with:

 sudo virsh net-define /usr/share/libvirt/networks/default.xml

Then just autostart it like so,

sudo virsh net-autostart default

How to extend / increase a Windows Partition on KVM QEMU VM⌗

Shutdown the VM virsh shutdown hostname
Increase the qcow2 image. Find the qcow2 file of the VM and take a backup (just in case).

cp hostname.qcow2 hostname.qcow2.backup
qemu-img resize hostname.qcow2 +100GB

Start the VM virsh start hostname
Extend the partition in Window

Troubleshooting⌗

Error loading vmlinuz-linux: not found⌗

The kernel image is gone, and there is nothing for GRUB to boot. This happens occassionally when doing a full system update, and a package fails due to a conflict.

Boot Arch on USB key.
Mount the bricked system volumes into /mnt, specifically the / and /boot mounts, as described above in Mount partitions.
arch-chroot /mnt
Install a Linux kernel into /boot with pacman -S linux

pacman - Failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)⌗

Likely a program has been installed, not using pacman, such as a tarball.

If another package did create the conflicting files, that is a bug and should be logged. Verify this is/isnt the case with pacman -Qo /path/to/conflicting/file

Trivial to resolve. Rename the conflicting file, and reissue package update command. If successfully, blow the renamed remnants away.

error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
expressvpn: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/expressvpn exists in filesystem
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)⌗

On an old thinkpad recently discovered this problem, due to having never enabled NTP. Run timedatectl, if it reports no for time synchronisation, this could be your problem. To remedy:

sudo su
timedatectl set-ntp true
mv /etc/pacman.d/gnupg /etc/pacman.d/gnupg-orig
pacman-key --init
pacman -Sy && pacman-key --populate archlinux
pacman -S archlinux-keyring

Kudos to Scimmia and MountainX on the Arch Forums. The best bit, the explanation:

You boot the Arch install disk with the wrong date, the keyring is initialised, and master key created.
The Arch master keys are imported and locally signed by your local master key, making them trusted.
Your clock is fixed. At this point your local master key is considered to be created in the future and can’t be used to sign anything.
A new Arch master key is added (Bartłomiej’s). The update tries to locally sign the key, but it fails because of 3.
Packaging keys are trusted if they have 3 or more signatures from trusted master keys. Up until now, they’ve all had 3 sigs without needing Bartłomiej’s. Eli’s only had 2 without it.

Recently (2023) do a rebuild of an old laptop, reinitialising the keyring and re-populating made everything work. Suspect that the base metapackage wasn’t installed with pacstrap but I’m sure it was…

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux

JetBrains GoLand madness⌗

Window reparenting madness⌗

If you launch Goland to only find a blank window, this is likely the same problem.

In the launcher script e.g: ~/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/Goland/ch-0/203.5981.98/bin/goland.sh

Make sure to export _JWT_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 someplace prior to the JAVA_BIN execution command.

Incorrect editor warnings and errors⌗

GoLand caches its representation of the golang world. If you’ve recently upgraded compiler versions or similar, make sure to invalidate the IDE cache in, File | Invalidate Caches

Conclusion⌗

This is a worth while endevour to take. I now have a very tailored system that works exactly how I want, without any bloat, and its FAST. Finally if interested, all my configuration from vim to st and dwm is in my dots repo.

I’ve have recently discovered suckless and their philosophy towards software really resonates strongly with me.

We are the home of quality software such as dwm, dmenu, st and plenty of other tools, with a focus on simplicity, clarity and frugality. Our philosophy is about keeping things simple, minimal and usable.

Arch Linux

Pre Install⌗

Boot disk⌗

Post boot⌗

Partitioning⌗

System encryption⌗

LVM⌗

Format partitions (file systems)⌗

Mount partitions⌗

Installation⌗

Add pacman mirror⌗

Install Arch with pacstrap⌗

Configuration⌗

fstab and crypttab⌗

chroot⌗

root password⌗

Localisation⌗

Time zone⌗

Networking⌗

ramdisk⌗

Boot loader (GRUB)⌗

Reboot⌗

Post boot⌗

WiFi⌗

Add users⌗

GPU drivers⌗

Essential applications⌗

Desktop Environment (DE) vs Window Manager (WM)⌗

dwm⌗

Default applications⌗

Ricing⌗

Wallpaper⌗

Sound⌗

Load Xresources at startup⌗

Making GTK and QT apps pretty⌗

Clock in status bar⌗

Virtualisation⌗

What if the default network interface is not listed⌗

How to extend / increase a Windows Partition on KVM QEMU VM⌗

Troubleshooting⌗

Error loading vmlinuz-linux: not found⌗

pacman - Failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)⌗

invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)⌗

JetBrains GoLand madness⌗

Window reparenting madness⌗

Incorrect editor warnings and errors⌗

Conclusion⌗

What if the `default` network interface is not listed⌗