POST_INSTALLATION.md

Post installation steps

Steps after installing the base system. This includes optional desktop environment and all the drivers required for system functioning properly and also all basic programs, fonts, security, etc. First log in to the system using the credentials provided in the installation steps. If you need to connect to the WiFi, you can use: nmtui.

Table of contents

• Configuration
  • Pacman configuration
  • Upgrade the system
• Security
  • Firewall
• Drivers
  • CPU drivers
  • Graphics drivers
  • Sound drivers
  • Bluetooth drivers
  • Printers support
  • Input devices drivers
• Graphical desktop setup
  • Desktop environment
  • Desktop manager
  • Desktop software
  • Fonts

🔧 Configuration

Pacman configuration

Pacman configuration files can be found in /etc/pacman.conf:

sudo nvim /etc/pacman.conf

We can do a few things here:

• add more colors to the Pacmam TUI by uncommenting Color
• speedup downloads by adding more parallel with option ParallelDownloads set to some value
• make Pacman eating candies while installing software add ILoveCandy
• enable multilib repository that contains 32-bit software and libraries (wine, steam), just uncomment below 2 lines and upgrade system after that

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

Upgrade the system

Before installing further software and drivers it is recommended to upgrade the system. Do it also after enabling multilib repository.

sudo pacman -Syu

🔒 Security

Firewall

The simplest and most popular firewall is ufw. Below is the basic installation with pacman and setup. First it is good to stop ufw before configuration or make sure that it is not running. This is basic setup allowing only SSH and HTTP ports to be accessed from outside.

Install UFW with command:

sudo pacman -S ufw

Example configuration, here everything is blocked except ports 22, 80 443:

sudo systemctl stop ufw;
sudo ufw default deny incoming;
sudo ufw default allow outgoing;
sudo ufw allow ssh;
sudo ufw allow http;
sudo ufw allow https

Start and enable UFW:

sudo systemctl start ufw;
sudo ufw enable

💾 Drivers

CPU drivers

Install your CPU drivers, but first check CPU info with command:

lscpu

More about microcode CPU drivers can be found in this wiki. Depends on your CPU manufacturer install amd-ucode or intel-ucode package like below:

sudo pacman -S intel-ucode

Additionally, for CPU frequency scaling read this wiki page.

Graphics drivers

For the graphics drivers installation follow this wiki. Alternatively install your drivers from producer website.

First you can enable 32-bit software and libraries by enabling multilib:

nvim /etc/pacman.conf

Here uncomment two lines:

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

If you follow xorg Arch installation steps wiki first run:

sudo pacman -S xorg-server

And then install your drivers. In below example drivers for Intel integrated graphic card.

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel

To check GPU info run:

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"

Sound drivers

Again the best info about installation options and steps can be found on Arch wiki page here. Below is an example installation of all sound drivers.

Install default Linux kernel component providing low level support for audio hardware:

sudo pacman -S alsa-utils

Most common Linux drivers are PipeWire and PulseAudio:

sudo pacman -S pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-jack pipewire-pulse wireplumber

Bluetooth drivers

Install basic Bluetooth drivers:

sudo pacman -S bluez blueman bluez-utills;
sudo modprobe btusb

Enable Bluetooth:

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth;
sudo systemctl start bluetooth

Install printers support

Install cups and HP driver and print manager:

sudo pacman -S cups hplip print-manager

After that enable printer in systemctl and add user to group lpadmin

sudo systemctl enable cups;
sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin $username

Input devices drivers

To add support for input devices like mouse acceleration, additional buttons, touchpad or touchscreen you need to install additional drivers.

Example touchpad driver can be added by:

sudo pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

🖥️ Graphical desktop setup

Desktop environment

Install KDE Plasma and kscreen for screen management.

sudo pacman -S plasma-desktop kscreen

Desktop manager

Display managers are useful if you have multiple DE's or WM's and want to choose where to boot from in a GUI fashion They also they take care of the launch process. More about display managers here

sudo pacman -S sddm

Enable SDDM service to make it start on boot.

sudo systemctl enable sddm

For KDE install this to control the SDDM configuration from the KDE settings App.

sudo pacman -S --needed sddm-kcm

Desktop software

This is according to your needs :)

Fonts

Remember to add system fonts like MacOS or Windows fonts if you are editing or using files created there.