See ArchiWiki :: Beginners Guide for more.

Install

  • Install all packages in the base category
  • In /etc/rc.conf, make sure to change your HOSTNAME
  • Check /etc/local.gen to make sure your language is uncommented, corresponding to the /etc/rc.conf file

Setup

pacman

nano /etc/pacman.conf

Simply uncomment the repositories you wish to use. Make sure you uncomment a server in the corresponding pacman.d file. For instance:

#/etc/pacman.conf
[community]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/community #/etc/pacman.d/community
Server = ftp://locke.suu.edu/linux/dist/archlinux/community/os/i686

Then, update pacman and do a system update:

pacman -Syu

Add a user

adduser

Make sure to add the user to all the necessary groups:

audio,video,disk,floppy,lp,optical,network,storage,wheel

Enable sudo

As root, install sudo and edit the sudoers file:

pacman -S sudo
nano /etc/sudoers

Add a line with the following information:

username ALL=(ALL) ALL

Install packages

pacman -S nvidia alsa-utils ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera gnome gnome-extra epiphany-extensions hal dbus xorg-server xorg-xkb-utils xorg-xauth xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit xf86-video-nv xf86-input-mouse xf86-input-keyboard codecs vlc gstreamer0.10-bad gstreamer0.10-ugly gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-mad gstreamer0.10-mpeg2dec bcm43xx-fwcutter gnome-network-manager evolution gajim aspell-en tvtime audacious audacious-plugins flashplugin tracker-gnome-search-tool openoffice-base openoffice-spell-en gimp imwheel gnome-screensaver totem-plugin system-config-printer gutenprint

Configure Archlinux

  • Xorg :: Run Xorg -configure or nvidia-xconfig to create a config file, then move it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    Change your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to reflect the following: ## Device section
        Option         "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
        Option         "TripleBuffer" "true"

    ## Screen section
        Option         "NoLogo"
        Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

    ## Add a new section:
    Section "Extensions"
        Option         "Composite" "Enable"
    EndSection
  • alsa :: To have alsa start, add it to the DAEMONS section of /etc/rc.conf.
  • GNOME :: To have GNOME run at boot, add gdm to your /etc/rc.conf DAEMONS
  • hal :: Add hal to your /etc/rc.conf DAEMONS
  • cups :: Add cups to your /etc/rc.conf DAEMONS
  • bcm43xx :: sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware /Desktop/wl_apsta.o Make sure bcm43xx is included in the MODULES section of your /etc/rc.conf
    Make sure the interfaces you want networkmanager to manage are commented out (!eth0) in your /etc/rc.conf INTERFACES section, and also comment out the network daemon. Add dhcdbd and networkmanager to the DAEMONS section, as well as including your interfaces, such as eth0="dhcp". For instance: lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
    eth1="dhcp"
    eth0="dhcp"
    #eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
    INTERFACES=(lo !eth0 !eth1)

    DAEMONS=(syslog-ng hal alsa !network dhcdbd networkmanager netfs crond gdm)
  • Scroogle :: Scroogle is a scraper that allows you to use Google search anonymously. To have Epiphany/Iceweasel use Scroogle for the default location bar search, enter about:config into the location bar, then scroll down to the keyword.URL line, right click, and modify it to contain the following string:
    http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw= If you decide later that you would like to use Google install, simply replace the original code: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=

imwheel

imwheel is a program that is meant to map mouse wheel events to keyboard events. First, edit you /etc/X11/xorg.conf as necessary for your mouse. For my Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0A USB and PS2 Compatible mouse, the relevant section looks like this:

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier "Mouse0"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "CorePointer"
    Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option "Buttons" "7"
    Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7"
    Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
EndSection

The ButtonMapping option tells X what button values to assign to the physical buttons, in relative order. In the above configuration, physical buttons 4 and 5 (as determined by the mouse itself) are treated as buttons 6 and 7. The xev tool can be used to determine how X sees your mouse buttons.

Either edit ~/.imwheelrc (for your user only), or /etc/X11/imwheel/imwheelrc (for all users--this will be overridden by any .imwheelrc file) to contain the following:

".*"
None, Up, Alt_L|Left
None, Down, Alt_L|Right

"(null)"
None, Up, Alt_L|Left
None, Down, Alt_L|Right

If there is other content in the file, make sure to place the above content at the top of the file so it will be given precedence.

Explanation :: imwheel can be told to treat each window differently. The window attributes are placed in double quotes and are used to identify which windows the proceeding code applies to. ".*" designates all window attributes, and "(null)" designates all windows missing the necessary window attribute (Quake, for instance, has no window information). Each line contains an interpretation command for imwheel. The first item designates a modifier key to be used with the mouse button to trigger the keyboard event (for instance, holding the Alt key while clicking the mouse button). The second item is the mouse button itself, and the third item is the keyboard event to be triggered. In the first line in the above configuration, using what imwheel sees as the "Up" mouse button, without holding any key, will send the same signal as the keyboard event: "Left Alt key + Left arrow key". For applications such as Epiphany, Firefox, and Nautilus, this key combination is the same as clicking the "Back" button.

Create a startup script for imwheel:

#!bin/bash
imwheel
killall imwheel
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7"
BINARY=$(which imwheel)
$BINARY -k -b "67"

Either have this script run with X, or execute it manually.

Compiz Fusion

Add the Compiz Fusion repository to /etc/pacman.conf:

[compiz-fusion]
Server = http://arch.nesl247.org/compiz-fusion/i686

Update and install compiz:

pacman -Sy compiz-fusion-git

You might need to install the libx11 package from the [testing] repo for Compiz to work. To run:

fusion-icon