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Initial installation

Use archinstall. May need to fix Windows EOL in generated /etc/fstab.

This note assumes you installed KDE on Wayland and use systemd-boot.

Password lockout

By default user will be lockout for 10 minutes after 3 failed login attempts in a 15 minute period. Edit /etc/security/faillock.conf, increase deny and decrease unlock_time if the default is too restrictive (it is, for me).

Wayland-related issues

Run apps in Wayland mode

About XDG_CONFIG_HOME

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME} is direcdtory for user-specific configurations, defaulted to ~/.config.

Set environment variables for Wayland session

Environment variable that should be set only for Wayland session can be set in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/environment.d/envvars.conf

QT apps

Set enviroment variable QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland. For Qt 6 apps, also install qt6-wayland.

Electron apps

Create ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/electron-flags.conf with the following content:

--ozone-platform-hint=auto

Add ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT=auto to /etc/environment.

Wayland clipboard

Install wl-clipboard to use wl-copy and wl-paste.

systemd-boot update

Enable systemd-boot-update.service. Note that you have to reboot twice to actually use the new bootloader: pacman update the installer and during the first reboot (using old bootloader) this service triggers installation of new bootloader.

Bash enhancement

Install bash-completion.

For "command-not-found" equivalent, install pkgfile, enable and start pkgfile-update.timer to allow periodic database update, and add

if [[ -r /usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.bash ]]; then
  . /usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.bash
fi

to /etc/bash.bashrc.

Network

Firewall

Install iptables-nft (this removes iptables) to use nftables and prevent conflicts with iptables. Install firewalld, enable and start firewalld.service.

DNS caching

Install dnsmasq, create /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/dns.conf with the following content:

[main]
dns=dnsmasq

Then run nmcli general reload as root. NetworkManager runs its own instance of dnsmasq that listens on 127.0.0.1:53.

Wi-Fi

Install wireless-regdb and uncomment correct country in /etc/conf.d/wireless-regdom.

It seems that the firmware on Qualcomm card self-manages regdomain, so the regdomain can't be changed.

Sharing Internet via Wi-Fi with NetworkManager

Need dnsmasq to work. NetworkManager run its own instance of dnsmasq as DHCP server.

There are some issue with access point feature in NetworkManager:

  • Can't create WPA3 access point.
  • The network confuse some device and cause connection failure (Nexus 6 running of LineageOS can connect by Pixel 5a running stock ROM failed to connect).
  • Need to figure out how to make KDE connect work (firewall-related issue?)

Bluetooth

Enable and start bluetooth.service.

Package management

AUR

Install git. Install paru-bin by cloning and makepkg -si.

Ideally AUR packages should be built in clean chroot, otherwise build and run issues may arise. To use this feature, you have to setup paru local repo first. Edit /etc/pacman.conf, uncomment the line

CacheDir = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/

and add the following excerpt to the end:

[options]
CacheDir = /var/lib/repo/aur

[aur]
SigLevel = PackageOptional DatabaseOptional
Server = file:///var/lib/repo/aur

The first CacheDir option specifies cache directory for official repos and the second one specifies cache directory for the local aur repo.

Package can be built in clean chroot and installed with -S --chroot options. But it's better to enable this as default by uncommenting Chroot option in /etc/paru.conf.

Parallel build

Install pigz and pbzip2.

Edit /etc/makepkg.conf to enable parallel make and compression:

MAKEFLAGS="-j8"
...
COMPRESSGZ=(pigz -p 8 -c -f -n)
COMPRESSBZ2=(pbzip2 -p8 -c -f)
COMPRESSXZ=(xz -c -z --threads=8 -)
COMPRESSZST=(zstd -c -z -q --threads=8 -)

Rebuild AUR packages after dependencies update

If dependencies of an AUR package are updated, the packages may need to be rebuilt. (Most?) AUR helpers don't do this automatically.

Installed rebuild-detector, and run checkrebuild -v to know which packages should be rebuilt. rebuild-dectector also install pacman hook that run the check automatically with smaller scan graph. It should be note that the tool may have false negative.

To rebuild manually after a known dependenies update, search for the dependents and rebuild them. For example, to rebuild all AUR packages that depend on Python after a Python update, run:

pacman -Qoq /usr/lib/python${PREV_VERSION}/ | paru -S --rebuild --no-confirm -

or

pacman -Qoq /usr/lib/python${PREV_VERSION} | paru -S --answerclean All -

You can also rebuild all AUR packages periodically.

Enhancements to pacman

Uncomment Color line in /etc/pacman.conf to enable color ouput.

Install informant and add your user to informant group so pacman will prevent you from installing new packages without reading all the news.

Install pacman-contrib. It provides:

  • checkupdates command: check for updates without the need for root priviledge used to sync database.
  • paccache.timer: enable and start this to discard unused cached packages weekly.
  • paccache command: remove cached packages manually.

Install pacman-cleanup-hook (AUR) to run paccache after each pacman transaction.

Install archlinux-contrib to get checkservices command. It runs pacdiff to merge .pacnew files then checks for processes running with outdated libraries and prompts the user if they want them to be restarted.

Add Server = https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/.all to the end of enabled mirrors. This allows using Arch Linux Archive to get old packages and avoid 404 error when you install packages after a long time from the last database synchronization.

Contribute package statistics

Install pkgstats.

Fonts

Install MS fonts

Install ttf-ms-win11-auto AUR package.

Fix jagged Calibri and Cambria fonts

Disable embedded bitmaps for these fonts by creating /etc/fonts/local.conf with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <!-- Disable embedded bitmap in some MS fonts which make text
  pixelated at some sizes -->
  <match target="font">
    <test name="family" compare="contains">
      <string>Calibri</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <test name="family" compare="contains">
      <string>Cambria</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

Connecting with Android devices

Install android-tools and android-udev.

Multimedia

Image viewer

Install gwenview. Gwenview video playback also work if phonon-qt5-vlc is installed.

Hardware-accelerated video decoding

Install mesa-vdpau. Add VDPAU_DRIVER=radeonsi to /etc/enviroment.

Firefox

Run Firefox in Wayland mode. Go to about:config and set media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled to true.

Note: it seems that using VA-API causes time-out error in amdgpu driver and session crashes. In that case switch to other virtual TTY and issue a reboot commmand, or use REISUB magic SysRq.

Power management

Improve S0 power consumption

By default the laptop in sleep mode drain all the battery in less than 24h. Edit boot entry on ESP to add acpi.ec_no_wakeup=1 to kernel command line to remedy this issue. The power consumption after applying this workaround is <1% battery level per hour. Note that this disable waking up by opening the lid or by pressing any key on the keyboard.

Disable waking from touchpad (by disabling correspondin I2C device) doesn't improve power consumption.

Vietnamese input method

Install fcitx5-unikey and fcitx5-im. Add to /etc/enviroment the following lines:

XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx

Qt and GTK theming

GTK warning when using Breeze theme

This warning may appear when launching GTK application:

Gtk-WARNING **: <time_stamp>: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:1649:16: '-gtk-icon-size' is not a valid property name

It's pretty benign but may cause distraction in CLI. The reason seems to be changes in GTK that made the CSS property in Breeze theme for GTK no longer valid.

Several ways to fix this:

  • Set GTK_THEME enviroment variable to use other theme (e.g. Adwaita:dark).
  • Go to System Settings > Appearance > Application Style > Configure GNOME/GTK Application Style... and select other theme for GTK apps. To have Adwaita theme in the drop-down list you may have to install gnome-themes-extra.

Misc

Enable REISUB magic SysRq

Create file /etc/sysctl.d/99-enable-sysrq.conf with the following content:

kernel.sysrq=224

PrtScr key and Fn + S can be used as SysRq key.

Special keys

This is defined by keyboard/system firmware:

  • Fn + R: Break
  • Fn + S: SysRq
  • Fn + C: ScrollLock
  • Fn + W: Pause
  • Fn + E: Insert

Man pages

Install man-db and man-pages.