Installing Arch Linux

From My Big Bad Wiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Prerequisites 3 rc.conf 4 REWRITING FOR EASIER FOLLOWING AND LESS OVERALL STEPS 5 Reboot 6 Install Fonts 7 Gnome Display Manager 8 Web Browser 8.1 Enabling the Numlock Key 9 Networking 9.1 Wired 9.2 Wireless 10 Configuring Audio 11 Apps 11.1 Daemon Apps 11.1.1 SSHd 11.2 Accessory Apps 11.3 Development Apps 11.4 Graphics Apps 11.5 Multimedia Apps 11.6 Codecs 11.7 Network Apps 11.8 Office Apps 11.9 Themes 12 CPU Scaling 13 DVD/CDrom Access 14 Mounting 15 Printing 16 Fun Stuff 16.1 Conky 16.2 Figlet 17 Mouse Scrolling 18 New Notes 19 Installing from AUR (Arch User Repository) 19.1 Good packages to get from AUR 20 Installing Yaourt 21 Installing software from AUR 22 Installing banshee-svn 23 Credits

Note: Just like every other page on this wiki, it is a work in progress. Results are not guaranteed. Use at your own risk

Introduction

Prerequisites

rc.conf

The timezone setting is important if you plan to use Gnome and want to see weather via the clock applet. This setting has to match the Gnome timezone that is used when you select your city.

Timezone = "America/Chicago"

REWRITING FOR EASIER FOLLOWING AND LESS OVERALL STEPS

First step is to add a regular user

adduser

Next, install sudo so you can log in as the regular user and complete the rest of the installation

pacmsn -S sudo

Configure your user for sudo rights

visudo

Uncomnent the following line by removing the # (arrow down to the line and press i then the Delete key twice. Then the Escape key. Then :w [Enter] and then :q [Enter]

# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Add the standard user the wheel group

gpasswd -a username wheel

Type exit to log off as root and then log in as your standard user. Then run the package update command using sudo

sudo pacman -Syyu

From hear on out, all root commands will be ran from your user account prepended with sudo.

sudo pacman -S xorg  hal mesa gnome gdm

Add hal to the startup daemons. (must be completed before booting in to X (if you want your keyboard and mouse to work))

sudo nano /etc/rc.conf

Install whatever video driver you need

ATI

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-ati

Nvidia

sudo pacman -S nvidia

sudo pacman -R epiphany

sudo gpasswd -a username video

sudo pacman -S gnome-terminal gedit file-roller gconf-editor gcalctool evince nautilus-cd-burner gnome-power-manager gnome-utils

Reboot

sudo pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-liberation

sudo pacman -S flashplugin jre

Install Fonts

su
pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-liberation

Gnome Display Manager

su
pacman -S gdm archlinux-themes-gdm

Web Browser

su
 
pacman -R epiphany

pacman -S firefox

pacman -S flashplugin jre

Enabling the Numlock Key

su
pacman -S numlockx

Networking

Wired

Wireless

su
pacman -S ipw2200-fw network-manager-applet

Modify the rc.conf file.

• Need to add the eth1 entry
• Need to comment out eth0

eth0="dhcp"
eth1="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0)

• Add networkmanager & dhcdbd to the end of the Daemons section and comment out network

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng hal !network netfs crond networkmanager)

gpasswd -a username network

Configuring Audio

Install Alsa

sudo pacman -S alsa-utils

Bring up the initial volumes

sudo alsamixer

Save the config

sudo alsactl store

Add your user the audio group

sudo gpasswd -a username audio

Add alsa to the DAEMONS sections

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng hal !network netfs crond networkmanager @alsa)

Apps

Daemon Apps

SSHd

pacman -S openssh

Add to hosts.allow

nano -w /etc/hosts.allow

sshd: ALL

Add sshd to the DAEMONS section of your rc.conf file so it runs on boot-up

Accessory Apps

pacman -S beagle

Development Apps

pacman -S bluefish monodevelop

Graphics Apps

pacman -S gimp inkscape gthumb scrot f-spot

Multimedia Apps

pacman -S miro vlc

Codecs

pacman -S gstreamer0.10 gstreamer0.10-python gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-good gstreamer0.10-bad gstreamer0.10-ugly gstreamer0.10-good-plugins gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins gstreamer0.10-base gstreamer0.10-base-plugins

Network Apps

pacman -S skype rdesktop pidgin purple-plugin-pack pidgin-encryption pidgin-libnotify aspell-en nmap wireshark irssi filezilla dnsutils whois

Office Apps

pacman -S openoffice-base

Themes

pacman -S gnome-themes-extras tango-icon-theme tango-icon-theme-extras

CPU Scaling

Edit /etc/conf.d/cpufreq

# valid suffixes: Hz, kHz (default), MHz, GHz, THz
min_freq="800MHz"
max_freq="1.87GHz"

Add the following to modules section and the daemons section of your rc.conf

MODULES=(acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand

DAEMONS=(cpufreq

DVD/CDrom Access

gpasswd -a username optical

Mounting

su
pacman -S ntfs-3g
gpasswd -a username storage

Printing

pacman -S cups hplip samba system-config-printer-gnome

Fun Stuff

Conky

pacman -S conky fortune-mod

gpasswd -a username log

Create a file in your home directory called .startconky and use the code below as an example to start conky delayed so it loads properly in gnome.

• Make the file executable chmod a+x .startconky

#!/bin/bash

######################################
##                                  ##
##   This Conky startup script      ##
##   shows how you can start        ##
##   Conky mulitple times and       ##
##   use different configs for      ##
##   each session.                  ##
##                                  ##
##   The sleep statement before     ##
##   each is important for Conky    ##
##   to display properly if you     ##
##   Gnome.                         ##
##                                  ##
######################################

sleep 20 &&	# 0 good for Xfce - use 20 to 30 for Gnome
conky -c ~/Conky/conkyrc-panel-0 &
sleep 20 &&
conky -c ~/Conky/conkyrc-panel-1 &
sleep 20 &&
conky -c ~/Conky/conkyrc-panel-2 &

Figlet

pacman -S figlet

Usage:

figlet -f slant I Love Arch

Output

    ____   __                       ___              __  
   /  _/  / /   ____ _   _____     /   |  __________/ /_ 
   / /   / /   / __ \ | / / _ \   / /| | / ___/ ___/ __ \
 _/ /   / /___/ /_/ / |/ /  __/  / ___ |/ /  / /__/ / / /
/___/  /_____/\____/|___/\___/  /_/  |_/_/   \___/_/ /_/ 

Mouse Scrolling

This is specific to my Thinkpad Z60m (May work with other Thinkpads as well).

sudo nano /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-mouse.fdi

Add:

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.YAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XAxisMapping" type="string">6 7</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">false</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelTimeout" type="string">200</merge>
</match>

You will need to restart hal and xorg for it to take effect.

New Notes

This section will get organized in the near future

pacman -S gnome-system-tools
gpasswd -a username stb-admin

pacman -S nautilus-share
This line has to go the end of [global] section of the smb.conf
>> include = /etc/samba/usershare.conf
>> add yourself to samba group

pacman -S remind

pacman -S tuxpaint

Installing from AUR (Arch User Repository)

I found the official AUR usage guide a little hard to follow, so I created this straight to the point guide that I follow when building a package from AUR.

1. Browse/Search AUR for your desired application
2. From the application page, download the tarball
3. Install any dependencies listed on the application page.
4. Copy the tarball to ~/builds
5. Extract the tarball
6. Change into the new directory
7. Run makepkg
8. If it finishes without error, then su and pacman -U foo.pkg.tar.gz
9. If it errors out, then it's off to the internet for troubleshooting. Start with the comments sections of the application page in AUR.

Good packages to get from AUR

Installing Yaourt

Install yaourt then install rest of stuff from AUR using the following syntax

su
pacman -S base-devel cvs subversion
exit
wget http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yaourt/yaourt.tar.gz
tar zxvf yaourt.tar.gz
cd yaourt
makepkg -s
su
pacman -U yaourt-0.9.2.5-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
exit
yaourt -Syu --aur

Installing software from AUR

yaourt -S human-icon-theme

yaourt -S icon-themes

yaourt -S xcursor-human xcursor-vanilla-dmz xcursor-vanilla-dmz-aa

yaourt -S tuxpaint-config

yaourt -S tuxpaint-stamps

yaourt -S nautilus-dropbox

Installing banshee-svn

yaourt -S mono-zeroconf gnome-common sg3_utils intltool podsleuth-svn libmtp ipod-sharp-svn boo

yaourt -S banshee-1-svn

Credits

• http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide