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Revisions

  1. @fjpalacios fjpalacios revised this gist Feb 15, 2020. 1 changed file with 2 additions and 2 deletions.
    4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions arch-i3gaps-install.md
    View file
    Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
    @@ -271,12 +271,12 @@ Assuming your chosen user is "thinkpad":
    If you prefer not to be prompted for a password every time you run a command
    with "sudo" privileges you need to uncomment this line:
    ```
    %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
    %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
    ```
    Or if you prefer the standard behavior of most Linux distros you need to
    uncomment this line:
    ```
    %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
    %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
    ```

    ### Login into newly created user
  2. @fjpalacios fjpalacios revised this gist Feb 15, 2020. 1 changed file with 1 addition and 1 deletion.
    2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion arch-i3gaps-install.md
    View file
    Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
    @@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ Replace "thinkpad" with your computer name.
    ### Final steps
    ```
    # exit
    # umount -R -mnt
    # umount -R /mnt
    # swapoff /dev/sda2
    # reboot
    ```
  3. @fjpalacios fjpalacios created this gist Feb 4, 2020.
    436 changes: 436 additions & 0 deletions arch-i3gaps-install.md
    View file
    Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
    @@ -0,0 +1,436 @@
    # Arch + i3-gaps Install Guide
    First set up your keyboard layout. For example, in Spanish:
    ```
    # loadkeys es
    ```
    For a list of all acceptable keymaps:
    ```
    # localectl list-keymaps
    ```

    ## Pre-installation

    ### EFI-enabled BIOS
    This guide assumes you have EFI-enabled BIOS. Let's check it out.
    ```
    # ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
    ```
    When you run this command you should see a list of files.

    ### Internet connection
    To make sure you have an internet connection, you have to ask Mr. Google:
    ```
    # ping 8.8.8.8
    ```

    ### Add best Arch mirrors
    To install arch you have to download packages. It's a good idea to download
    them from the best connection mirror.
    ```
    # pacman -Sy
    # pacman -S reflector
    # reflector --latest 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    ```

    ### Partition disk
    Your primary disk will be known from now on as `sda`. You can check if
    this is really your primary disk:
    ```
    # lsblk
    ```
    Feel free to adapt the rest of the guide to `sdb` or any other if you
    want to install Arch on a secondary hard drive.

    This guide will use a 250GB hard disk and will have only Arch Linux installed.
    You'll create 5 partitions of the disk (feel free to suit this to your needs).

    * `/dev/sda1` boot partition (1G).
    * `/dev/sda2` swap partition (4G).
    * `/dev/sda3` root partition (50G).
    * `/dev/sda4` home partition (100G).
    * `/dev/sda5` data partition (remaining disk space).

    You're going to start by removing all the previous partitions and creating
    the new ones.
    ```
    # gdisk /dev/sda
    ```
    This interactive CLI program allows you to enter commands for managing your HD.
    I'm going to show you only the commands you need to enter.

    #### Clear partitions table
    ```
    Command: O
    Y
    ```
    #### EFI partition (boot)
    ```
    Command: N
    ENTER
    ENTER
    +1G
    EF00
    ```

    #### SWAP partition
    ```
    Command: N
    ENTER
    ENTER
    +4G
    8200
    ```

    #### Root partition (/)
    ```
    Command: N
    ENTER
    ENTER
    +50G
    8304
    ```

    #### Home partition
    ```
    Command: N
    ENTER
    ENTER
    +100G
    8302
    ```

    #### Data partition
    ```
    Command: N
    ENTER
    ENTER
    ENTER
    ENTER
    ```

    #### Save changes and exit
    ```
    Command: W
    Y
    ```

    ### Format partitions
    ```
    # mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
    # mkswap /dev/sda2
    # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
    # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4
    # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5
    ```

    ### Mount partitions
    ```
    # swapon /dev/sda2
    # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
    # mkdir /mnt/{boot,home}
    # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
    # mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home
    ```

    If you run the `lsblk` command you should see something like this:
    ```
    NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    sda 8:0 0 232.9G 0 disk
    ├─sda1 8:1 0 1G 0 part /mnt/boot
    ├─sda2 8:2 0 4G 0 part [SWAP]
    ├─sda3 8:3 0 50G 0 part /mnt
    ├─sda4 8:4 0 100G 0 part /mnt/home
    └─sda5 8:5 0 77.9G 0 part
    ```

    ## Installation

    ### Update the system clock
    ```
    # timedatectl set-ntp true
    ```

    ### Install Arch packages
    ```
    # pacstrap /mnt base base-devel openssh linux linux-firmware neovim
    ```

    ### Generate fstab file
    ```
    # genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
    ```

    ## Add basic configuration

    ### Enter the new system
    ```
    # arch-chroot /mnt
    ```

    ### Language-related settings
    ```
    # nvim /etc/locale.gen
    ```
    Now you have to uncomment the language of your choice, for example
    `en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8`.
    ```
    # locale-gen
    # nvim /etc/locale.conf
    ```
    Add this content to the file:
    ```
    LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    LANGUAGE=en_US
    LC_ALL=C
    ```
    ```
    # nvim /etc/vconsole.conf
    ```
    Add this content to the file:
    ```
    KEYMAP=us
    ```

    ### Configure timezone
    For this example I'll use "Europe/Madrid", but adapt it to your zone.
    ```
    # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Madrid /etc/localtime
    # hwclock —-systohc
    ```

    ### Enable SSH, NetworkManager and DHCP
    These services will be started automatically when the system boots up.
    ```
    # pacman -S dhcpcd networkmanager network-manager-applet
    # systemctl enable sshd
    # systemctl enable dhcpcd
    # systemctl enable NetworkManager
    ```

    ### Install bootloader
    ```
    # pacman -S grub-efi-x86_64 efibootmgr
    # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=arch
    # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
    ```
    You can replace "arch" with the id of your choice.

    ### Choose a name for your computer
    Assuming your computer is known as "thinkpad":
    ```
    # echo thinkpad > /etc/hostname
    ```

    ### Adding content to the hosts file
    ```
    # nvim /etc/hosts
    ```
    And add this content to the file:
    ```
    127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
    ::1 localhost.localdomain localhost
    127.0.0.1 thinkpad.localdomain thinkpad
    ```
    Replace "thinkpad" with your computer name.

    ### Install other useful packages
    ```
    # pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant dialog intel-ucode git reflector lshw unzip htop
    # pacman -S wget pulseaudio alsa-utils alsa-plugins pavucontrol xdg-user-dirs
    ```

    ### Update root password
    ```
    # passwd
    ```

    ### Final steps
    ```
    # exit
    # umount -R -mnt
    # swapoff /dev/sda2
    # reboot
    ```

    ## Post-install configuration

    Now your computer has restarted and in the login window on the tty1 console you
    can log in with the root user and the password chosen in the previous step.

    ### Add your user
    Assuming your chosen user is "thinkpad":
    ```
    # useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power,audio thinkpad
    # passwd thinkpad
    ```

    ### Grant root access to our user
    ```
    # EDITOR=nvim visudo
    ```
    If you prefer not to be prompted for a password every time you run a command
    with "sudo" privileges you need to uncomment this line:
    ```
    %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
    ```
    Or if you prefer the standard behavior of most Linux distros you need to
    uncomment this line:
    ```
    %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
    ```

    ### Login into newly created user
    ```
    # su - thinkpad
    $ xdg-user-dirs-update
    ```

    ### Install AUR package manager
    In this guide we'll install [yay](https://github.com/Jguer/yay) as the
    AUR package manager. More about [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/).

    TL;DR AUR is a Community-driven package repository.
    ```
    $ mkdir Sources
    $ cd Sources
    $ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
    $ cd yay
    $ makepkg -si
    ```

    ### The coolest Pacman
    If you want to make Pacman look cooler you can edit the configuration file and
    uncomment the `Color` option and add just below the `ILoveCandy` option.
    ```
    $ sudo nvim /etc/pacman.conf
    ```

    ### PulseAudio applet
    If you want to manage your computer's volume from a small icon in the systray:
    ```
    $ yay -S pa-applet-git
    ```

    ### Manage Bluetooth
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S bluez bluez-utils blueman
    $ sudo systemctl enable bluetooth
    ```

    ### Improve laptop battery consumption
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S tlp tlp-rdw powertop acpi
    $ sudo systemctl enable tlp
    $ sudo systemctl enable tlp-sleep
    $ sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service
    $ sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket
    ```
    If your laptop is a ThinkPad, also run this:
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S acpi_call
    ```

    ### Enable SSD TRIM
    ```
    $ sudo systemctl enable fstrim.timer
    ```

    ## i3-gaps related steps

    ### Install graphical environment and i3
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-apps xorg-xinit
    $ sudo pacman -S i3-gaps i3blocks i3lock numlockx
    ```

    ### Install display manager
    The display manager allows us to log in to the system graphically and also
    to automate the startup of some services.
    [LightDM](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LightDM) is one of the most
    lightweight display managers.
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter --needed
    $ sudo systemctl enable lightdm
    ```

    ### Install some basic fonts
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S noto-fonts ttf-ubuntu-font-family ttf-dejavu ttf-freefont
    $ sudo pacman -S ttf-liberation ttf-droid ttf-roboto terminus-font
    ```

    ### Install some useful tools on i3
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S rxvt-unicode ranger rofi dmenu --needed
    ```

    ### Install some GUI programs
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S firefox vlc --needed
    ```

    ### Apply previous settings
    ```
    $ sudo reboot
    ```

    ## Rice i3-gaps
    "Rice" is how we know to make visual improvements and customizations
    to the desktop and its programs.

    ### Console
    The program we use the most is the console emulator. I use
    [kitty](https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty) as a replacement for urxvt,
    the default terminal emulator on i3. However, these improvements can be
    applied to any terminal emulator.

    #### zsh
    `zsh` is an alternative to `bash` shell I particularly love.
    You can also have a look at the `fish` shell, because even though I haven't
    tried it, it looks very cool.
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S zsh
    ```

    #### Oh My Zsh
    There is also a set of add-ons that we install on top of `zsh` that provide us
    a series of interesting goodies, as well as a new and improved prompt.

    To install [Oh My Zsh](https://ohmyz.sh) we need to run the following command:
    ```
    $ sh -c "$(wget https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh -O -)"
    ```
    During the execution of the command you will be asked if you want to set `zsh`
    as the default shell for your user. You have to confirm this.

    ### LXAppearance
    With LXAppearance you can change themes, icons, cursors or fonts.
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S lxappearance
    ```
    Once you have installed LXAppearance, you can start exploring the many possible
    customization options by installing the great
    [Arc theme](https://github.com/arc-design/arc-theme) and the
    [Papirus](https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme) icons
    theme.
    ```
    $ sudo pacman -S arc-gtk-theme
    $ sudo pacman -S papirus-icon-theme
    ```

    ### Customize LightDM
    At this point you can also customize the look of LigthDM. You can blow your mind
    by adding Papirus icons and Arc theme in LightDM, just by editing its config file.

    ```
    $ sudo nvim /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
    ```
    In this file you have to add these lines
    ```
    [greeter]
    theme-name = Arc-Dark
    icon-theme-name = Papirus-Dark
    background = #2f343f
    ```
    You can also custom the font with the same one you added in LXAppearance,
    just by adding `font-name = Whatever` to this file.