Arch Linux : Post Installation Guide

A personal guide of useful steps after installation of Arch Linux

Enable dhcpcd service for DNS host name resolution and configure DNS nameserver

Install dhcpcd if you haven't already, for doing this you will need to chroot into the installed filesystem using arch bootable usb once you load the bootable iso, mount your filesystem and then chroot into it. for example if your Linux File System partition is at /dev/nvme0n1p3 Swap at /dev/nvme0n1p2 and EFI at /dev/nvme0n1p1 then use

mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p2
arch-chroot /mnt

Now install dhcpcd and optionally also install a suitable text editor and man pages if you haven't already

pacman -Syu dhcpcd vim man-db man-pages texinfo

After the installation is completed reboot into the installed system and login as root

Edit /etc/resolv.conf to add DNS nameserver

open /etc/resolv.conf file using any text editor

vim /etc/resolv.conf

if you want to configure your router as the default method to resolve hostnames enter the below text in the file

nameserver 192.168.0.1

If you want to use another server for example: Google's DNS server to resolve hostnames then enter it's IP address in file.

nameserver 8.8.8.8

Enable and start dhcpcd service

The system won't resolve the hostnames if you don't have dhcpcd or a proper network manager to use resolv.conf Use the below commands to enable and then start the service.

systemctl enable dhcpcd.service
systemctl start dhcpcd.service

Use reflector service to speed up pacman downloads

Install

pacman -Syu reflector

Run to get the updated mirrorlist

reflector --latest 5 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist 

Configure reflector to run in background

Edit /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf as below.

# Set the output path where the mirrorlist will be saved (--save).  
--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist  
  
# Select the transfer protocol (--protocol).  
--protocol https  
    
# Use only the  most recently synchronized mirrors (--latest).  
--latest 5  
  
# Sort the mirrors by Synchronization time (--sort)
--sort rate

Enable and start reflector service

systemctl enable reflector.service
systemctl start reflector.service

Mounting a new storage device

Temporarily mounting a device

mkdir /mnt/<friendly-name>
mount /dev/<paritition-name>

example:

mkdir /mnt/games
mount /dev/sdb1

Permanently mounting a device

Actually there is no permanent mounting of a device. Each time on boot the parititons are mounted as per their definition in /etc/fstab To add a device to mount at a specific mountpoint each time on boot we have to add it's entry in /etc/fstab using it's UUID.

Create a mountpoint if it does not exists

mkdir /mnt/games

Finding UUID of a partition To get the details on available partitions

lsblk

To get the UUID of a specific partition

blkid /dev/sdb1

Now note of value of UUID in the output of previous command along with it's file system type and add entry in /etc/fstab in the sequence of <uuid> <mount-point> <filesystem-type> defaults

UUID=BCCE0ECDCE0E803E /mnt/games ntfs defaults

Save the file and execute the below commands to reload the filesystem to mount the defined devices.

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl restart local-fs.target

Install recommended packages

Fonts

pacman -Syu ttf-firacode-nerd ttf-hanazono ttf-inconsolata ttf-indic-otf ttf-jetbrains-mono ttf-liberation ttf-opensans ttf-roboto-mono adobe-source-code-pro-fonts adobe-source-han-sans-jp-fonts cantarell-fonts gnu-free-fonts gsfonts libfontenc libxfont2 noto-fonts-emoji terminus-font wqy-bitmapfont

Multimedia tools

pacman -Syu gimp krita obs-studio audacity openshot vlc

Tools

pacman -Syu xclip neofetch htop lm_sensors

Further recommended configurations

GNOME Configuration

Force GNOME to Alt + Tab only in current workspace

Run the below command as non-root

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only true

Setup dnsmasq

Setup dnsmasq to reduce the time spent with resolving DNS

Install

pacman -Syu dnsmasq

Enable/Start the service

systemctl enable dnsmasq && systemctl start dnsmasq

Edit /etc/dnsmasq.conf Uncomment and the below lines in the file or simply append them to it

listen-address=::1,127.0.0.1
cache-size=1000
no-resolv
server=8.8.8.8
server=8.8.4.4

Edit /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver ::1
nameserver 127.0.0.1
options trust-ad

if you are using NetworkManager (which most likely you are) then make /etc/resolv.conf immutable to avoid the file getting overwritten after reboot

chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf

Restart dnsmasq

systemctl restart dnsmasq

Stop dhcpcd, we don't need it anymore

systemctl disable dhcpcd && systemctl stop dhcpcd

Test dnsmasq

References:

• dnsmasq

Add .vimrc

filetype plugin indent on
syntax on

" enable copy pasting from mouse using shift
set mouse=a

" show existing tab with 4 spaces width
set tabstop=4

" when indenting with '>', use 4 spaces width
set shiftwidth=4

" On pressing tab, insert 4 spaces
set expandtab

" show line numbers
set number

" Highlight search results
set hlsearch

" Show matching brackets when text indicator is over them
set showmatch

" Turn backup off, since most stuff is in SVN, git etc. anyway...
set nobackup
set nowb
set noswapfile

set ai "Auto indent
set si "Smart indent