Arch Linux i3wm Install Guide

This guide is for installing arch linux (UEFI) with Xorg, i3wm, Lightdm, Paru, BTRFS, Snapper, Snap-pac-grub, Snapshots, Qemu, KVM, and Gaming.

Sway Install Guide:

Arch Sway Install

Install ISO to USB:

After downloading the latest Arch ISO you will need to install it to a usb using a program like Balena Etcher. Plug the usb into the machine you want to install arch to and boot into the usb.

VM Setup

Base Install

Give root a password then get the local ip:

passwd

ip address show

SSH into the target machine from your main:

ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Set datetime:

timedatectl set-ntp true

Find your device:

Use lsblk to dyplay your disk information, normally the drive will listed as SDA or SDB.

lsblk

Wipe Existing BTRFS Systems:

gdisk /dev/XXX

Edit Filesystem:

Replace XXX with the target device. Gdisk is for GPT partitions and UEFI, use Fdisk for mbr partitions and bios boot.

gdisk /dev/XXX

Create Boot Partition:

Use the n command to create a new partition on the disk, use the default partition number, use the default first sector, offset the last sector by 512M, and give it a efi flag of ef00.

n

default

default

+512M

ef00

Create Swap Partition (Optional):

We will instead use zramd from the aur or zram-generator from the main repo at a later point

Create Main Partition And Write Changes:

Use the n command to create a new partition on the disk, use the default partition number, use the default first sector, since we are using the remainder of the disk we can use the default last sector, and use the default flag for linux filesystem.

n

default

default

default

w

y

Setup Partition Filesystems And Subvolumes:

If you skipped the swap partition then skip the mkswap and swapon and use the right partition number for the btrfs volume.

mkfs.vfat /dev/vda1 #Can also use mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/xxxx

mkfs.btrfs /dev/vda2

mount /dev/vda2 /mnt

cd /mnt

btrfs su cr @

btrfs su cr @home

btrfs su cr @snapshots

btrfs su cr @var_log

cd ..

BTRFS Raids Side Note (TODO: INVESTIGATE):

mkfs.btrfs -m raid1 -d raid1 /dev/vdaX /dev/vdaY

Remount Partitions Individually:

In order to setup the systems fstab we need to remount the partitions individually with the proper settings.

Use lsblk to verify all partitions and volumes were mounted.

umount /mnt

mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,discard=async,subvol=@ /dev/vda2 /mnt

mkdir -p /mnt/{boot,home,.snapshots,var/log}

mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,discard=async,subvol=@home /dev/vda2 /mnt/home

mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,discard=async,subvol=@snapshots /dev/vda2 /mnt/.snapshots

mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,discard=async,subvol=@var_log /dev/vda2 /mnt/var/log

mount /dev/vda1 /mnt/boot

lsblk

Add desired packages (May have error about missing file fsck.btrfs):

Choose your base: linux, linux-lts, linux-zen.

Choose your ucode: intel-ucode, amd-ucode.

pacstrap /mnt base linux-zen linux-zen-headers linux-firmware amd-ucode intel-ucode btrfs-progs nano reflector sudo git rsync

Generate fstab:

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

Enter system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Setup System Time:

timedatectl list-timezones | grep Toronto

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Toronto /etc/localtime

hwclock --systohc

Setup Locale Generator:

nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment your desired locales

en_CA.UTF-8
en_US.UTF-8

Generate Locale:

locale-gen

Update Keymap:

nano /etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=us

Update Mirrors:

#reflector -c Canada -c US -a 6 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

reflector --country Canada,USA --age 12 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

pacman -Syy

Create Locale Config:

nano /etc/locale.conf

Insert you chosen language from step 16

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Create Hostname File:

nano /etc/hostname

NAME

Setup Hosts:

nano /etc/hosts

Add the following entries replacing NAME with your hostname

127.0.0.1       localhost
::1             localhost
127.0.1.1       NAME.localdomain NAME

Set Root Password For Actual System:

passwd

Enable Multilib:

This will allow us to install steam, wine, and lutris

Edit the pacman configuration

nano /etc/pacman.conf

uncomment Multilib and the include

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

update system:

pacman -Syu

Create User:

useradd -mG wheel NAME

passwd NAME

Allow Wheel As Root:

EDITOR=nano visudo

Uncomment the following

%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Install Packages:

avahi is for dns service discovery

gvfs is gnome virtual filesystem

xdg helps apps integrade with the desktop

cups is printer support

mtools provides dos file support

acpi provides power support

ipset maintain set of ips for firewall

fish is an alternative to bash

ntfs-3g is an open source MS NTFS implementation

iptables-nft is a modern version of iptables, ok to replace

WARNING xdg-desktop-portal will request a repo for xdg-desktop-portal-impl, choose the gtk version.

WARNING choose Y to remove iptables

pacman -S xdg-desktop-portal base-devel grub grub-btrfs efibootmgr networkmanager network-manager-applet dialog avahi gvfs gvfs-smb nfs-utils cifs-utils ntfs-3g inetutils dnsutils mtools dosfstools snapper snap-pac xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs alsa-utils inetutils usbutils openssh grub-customizer os-prober cups acpi acpi_call acpid iptables-nft ipset firewalld nss-mdns bash-completion fish archlinux-keyring hwinfo upower neovim stylua

systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl enable cups.service
systemctl enable sshd
systemctl enable avahi-daemon
systemctl enable reflector.timer
systemctl enable fstrim.timer
systemctl enable firewalld
systemctl enable acpid
systemctl enable upower

Audio:

pacman -S sof-firmware pipewire pipewire-jack pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-media-session pavucontrol

Laptop extras:

tlp is for battery power saving

pacman -S wpa_supplicant tlp

systemctl enable tlp

Bluetooth extras:

pacman -S bluez bluez-utils

systemctl enable bluetooth

Bookmarking:

sudo pacman -S xdotool

Create a text file with lines of bookmarks (Default path is ~/Nextcloud/.bookmarks) and modify the i3 config to match the file location:

bindsym $mod+Insert exec "xdotool type $(grep -v '^#' ~/Nextcloud/.bookmarks | dmenu -i -l 50 | cut -d' ' -f1)"

VM:

pacman -S virt-manager qemu qemu-arch-extra vde2 bridge-utils dnsmasq openbsd-netcat libvirt ovmf

systemctl enable libvirtd
systemctl enable virtlogd.socket
virsh net-autostart default

Graphics:

Nouveu:

pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa

Nvidia:

pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings nvidia-dkms

AMD:

pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon

Setup CPIO Modules And Hooks:

nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Insert btrfs and other items into the brackets for modules.

Virtualization: vfio_pci vfio vfio_iommu_type1 vfio_virqfd
Nouveau: nouveau
Amd: amdgpu
Nvidia: nvidia

Ensure modconf is in hooks and uncomment zstd compression

# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
MODULES=(vfio_pci vfio vfio_iommu_type1 vfio_virqfd btrfs nvidia)

##   This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
##   No raid, lvm2, or encrypted root is needed.
#    HOOKS=(base)
#
##   This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
##   work as a sane default
#    HOOKS=(base udev autodetect block filesystems)
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck)

# COMPRESSION
# Use this to compress the initramfs image. By default, gzip compression
# is used. Use 'cat' to create an uncompressed image.
COMPRESSION="zstd"
#COMPRESSION="gzip"
#COMPRESSION="bzip2"
#COMPRESSION="lzma"
#COMPRESSION="xz"
#COMPRESSION="lzop"
#COMPRESSION="lz4"

run mkinit for the chosen kernel (linux, linux-lts, linux-zen)

mkinitcpio -p linux-zen

Istall Grub:

Grub is the system that will locate and boot any os on your drive.

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

Open grub config

nano /etc/default/grub

Add iommu for system into GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT section.

Amd: amd_iommu=on

Intel: intel_iommu=on

Passthrough: iommu=pt

VM: video=1920x1080 Or the desired resolution

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet intel_iommu=on iommu=pt loglevel=3 nowatchdog"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Uncomment the os_prober section

# Probing for other operating systems is disabled for security reasons. Read
# documentation on GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER, if still want to enable this
# functionality install os-prober and uncomment to detect and include other
# operating systems.
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Update grub

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Finish Setup And Reboot:

exit

umount -a

reboot

Desktop and Usability

SSH Into Machine As New User:

ssh NAME@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Update the timezone:

timedatectl set-ntp true

Setup Rust (Needed For Paru):

sudo pacman -S rustup

rustup toolchain install stable

rustup default stable

Access AUR with Paru:

The arch user repository has some handy GUI packages for interacting with snapshots.

There are a few options for accessing the aur (I prefer paru).

cd /tmp

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git

cd paru

makepkg -si

cd ~

Setup fonts and icons:

paru -S nerd-fonts-complete

sudo pacman -S arc-icon-theme

Setup zram:

paru -S zramd

Edit the config for your setup

sudo nano /etc/default/zramd

# Max total swap size in MB
 MAX_SIZE=8192

# Number of zram devices to create
 NUM_DEVICES=1

sudo systemctl enable --now zramd.service

Fix Snapshots:

This step allows the non root user to manage all the snapshots

sudo umount /.snapshots

sudo rm -r /.snapshots

sudo snapper -c root create-config /

sudo btrfs su del /.snapshots

sudo mkdir /.snapshots

sudo mount -a

sudo chmod 750 /.snapshots

sudo chmod a+rx /.snapshots

sudo chown :NAME /.snapshots

Setup Snapper:

sudo nano /etc/snapper/configs/root

Make the following changes based on preference, and make sure to add the new user to the allowed list.

ALLOW_USERS="NAME"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_HOURLY="5"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_DAILY="7"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_WEEKLY="0"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_MONTHLY="0"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_YEARLY="0"

Snapper is what creates the btrfs snapshots allowing us to roll back changes.

sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-timeline.timer

sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-cleanup.timer

paru -S snap-pac-grub snapper-gui

Setup Pacman Hooks For Snapper:

sudo mkdir /etc/pacman.d/hooks

sudo nano /etc/pacman.d/hooks/50-bootbackup.hook

Paste in the hook information.

[Trigger]
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Install
Operation = Remove
Type = Path
Target = usr/lib/modules/*/vmlinuz

[Action]
Depends = rsync
Description = Backing up /boot...
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete /boot /.bootbackup

Install i3wm + DE:

~~obs-studio-tytan652~~ has better plugins packaged vs obs from main. OBS now has the same abilities

feh will handle the wallpaper (can also use nitrogen)

thunar is the file browser

fish is the shell

wezterm is the terminal emulator

rofi is a package launcher similar to dmenu

arandr is for setting up displays (this is handy for i3wm)

lsd is the next gen ls command

exa is a modern replacement for ls. It uses colours for information by default, helping you distinguish between many types of files, such as whether you are the owner, or in the owning group

gvfs is for remote file support

tumbler is for auto generating thunar thumbnails

thunar-volman is for removable device management

thunar-archive-plugin is for archive creation

thunar-media-tags-plugin is to view/edit tags

gnome-keyring and ~~libgnome-keyring~~ are needed for authing nextcloud on startup. Edit: libgnome-keyring is deprecated, use libsecret instead

~~lightdm-webkit-theme-litarvan~~ is the desktop manager

~~ly is a simple desktop manager~~ This manager stopped working recently (2022-07-12)

SDDM is a desktop manager used by kde.

xclip allows for copying selected text.

sudo pacman -S xorg xorg-server xorg-init xterm i3-wm i3blocks i3status thunar feh dmenu picom btop mpv nextcloud-client packagekit-qt5 rofi volumeicon firefox neofetch starship code keepassxc gnome-keyring libsecret xfce4-settings lsd exa lm_sensors steam wine-staging lutris wine-mono discord mousepad bat gvfs gvfs-mtp wget usbutils numlockx arandr jre-openjdk jdk-openjdk file-roller flameshot tumbler thunar-volman thunar-archive-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin sddm plasma-sdk plasma-workspace obs xclip

paru -S wezterm jellyfin-media-player haruna proton proton-ge-custom protonup-qt betterdiscord-installer mangohud gimp jmtpfs librewolf autotiling rustup kdenlive xvidcore ardour libvpx libde265 opencv thunderbird sddm-config-editor-git checkupdates+aur

sudo systemctl enable sddm.service

COPY CONFIGS FROM GIT (Optional):

These are my own mashed together configs, mostly from my i3wm system. There are also some backgrounds in the repo.

git clone https://github.com/rassweiler/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && ./install

Set Lightdm Theme (No longer used):

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Set the greeter session to lightdm-webkit2-greeter

#xdmcp-key=
greeter-session=lightdm-webkit2-greeter

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm-webkit2-greeter.conf

Set the lightdm theme to litarvan

time_language       = auto
#webkit_theme        = antergos
webkit_theme        = litarvan

Set Sddm Theme:

Download the dracula theme
Extract the Dracula folder to downloads
Copy folder to themes directory:

sudo cp -rf ~/Downloads/Dracula/ /usr/share/sddm/themes/Dracula

Test the theme:

sddm-greeter --test-mode --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/Dracula

Set the new theme:

sudo mkdir /etc/sddm.conf.d/

sudo cp /usr/lib/sddm/sddm.conf.d/default.conf /etc/sddm.conf.d/default.conf

sudo nano /etc/sddm.conf.d/default.conf

[Theme]
Current=Dracula

Set Shell:

chsh -s $(which fish)

Install Extra Audio Packages:

paru -S carla noise-repellent calf

Update User:

Adding the user to the audio and video groups may not be necessary, this was done for gaming with multiple xorg servers.

sudo usermod -aG audio NAME

sudo usermod -aG video NAME

sudo usermod -aG libvirt NAME

Generate SSH Key And add To Agent:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

eval (ssh-agent -c)

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Gaming Extras For Wine/Lutris:

sudo pacman -S winetricks

Extra wine packages

sudo pacman -S --needed wine-staging giflib lib32-giflib libpng lib32-libpng libldap lib32-libldap gnutls lib32-gnutls mpg123 lib32-mpg123 openal lib32-openal v4l-utils lib32-v4l-utils libpulse lib32-libpulse libgpg-error lib32-libgpg-error alsa-plugins lib32-alsa-plugins alsa-lib lib32-alsa-lib libjpeg-turbo lib32-libjpeg-turbo sqlite lib32-sqlite libxcomposite lib32-libxcomposite libxinerama lib32-libxinerama lib32-libgcrypt libgcrypt ncurses lib32-ncurses ocl-icd lib32-ocl-icd opencl-icd-loader lib32-opencl-icd-loader libxslt lib32-libxslt libva lib32-libva gtk3 lib32-gtk3 gst-plugins-base-libs lib32-gst-plugins-base-libs vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader samba dosbox

Nvidia Extras

sudo pacman -S --needed nvidia-dkms nvidia-utils lib32-nvidia-utils nvidia-settings vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader

Install Betterdiscord:

sudo betterdiscord-installer

Setup Git:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"

git config --global user.email "youremail@yourdomain.com"

Setup Libvirtd:

sudo nano /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

Set group to use libvirt with 770 permissions

# Set the UNIX domain socket group ownership. This can be used to
# allow a 'trusted' set of users access to management capabilities
# without becoming root.
#
# This setting is not required or honoured if using systemd socket
# activation.
#
# This is restricted to 'root' by default.
unix_sock_group = "libvirt"

# Set the UNIX socket permissions for the R/W socket. This is used
# for full management of VMs
#
# This setting is not required or honoured if using systemd socket
# activation.
#
# Default allows only root. If PolicyKit is enabled on the socket,
# the default will change to allow everyone (eg, 0777)
#
# If not using PolicyKit and setting group ownership for access
# control, then you may want to relax this too.
unix_sock_rw_perms = "0770"

Verify Iommu:

This command should present a line with DMAR: IOMMU enabled

sudo dmesg | grep -i -e DMAR -e IOMMU

If iommu is enabled then paste in this command to view the groups and make sure devices to be passed over are in seperate groups:

shopt -s nullglob
for g in `find /sys/kernel/iommu_groups/* -maxdepth 0 -type d | sort -V`; do
	echo "IOMMU Group ${g##*/}:"
	for d in $g/devices/*; do
		echo -e "\t$(lspci -nns ${d##*/})"
	done;
done;

Note down the ids for the devices to be passed through:

[1022:43e9]