Arch Linux system configuration guide

• Arch Linux system configuration guide
  • 1. Initial Setup
    • 1.0 Installing Arch Linux
    • 1.1 Install Essential Packages
    • 1.2 Install Yay (AUR Helper)
    • 1.3 Install Essential Packages with Yay
    • 1.3 Install Development Packages for LazyVim
  • 2. Deploying system config
    • 2.1 System specific configuration
      • Customization of device-specific configs
    • 2.2 Deploy oh-my-zsh
    • 2.3 Add required home folders
  • 3. Theming
    • 3.1 Install Theme Packages
    • 3.2 SDDM Theme (Slice 1.5.1)
    • 3.3 Install the GTK theme
  • 4. System Configuration
    • 4.1 Boot Options
      • Nvidia DRM
      • ACPI Backlight control
    • 4.2 Dependencies
    • 4.4 Systemd Services
    • 4.5 Cronjobs
  • 5. Further reading
    • 5.1 Keyboard shortcuts
    • 5.2 Keyboard customizations
    • 5.3 Backup and Restore
    • 5.4 Development

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for deploying Hyprland to an Arch Linux installation, including package installation, theming, configuration, and backup restoration.

This is intended for single user devices, personal devices that aren't going to be shared by multiple linux users.

Up to section 4. System Configuration the guide is supposed to be system and backup agnostic and should work in any system.

Credits to cjbassi for the waybar theme.

Credits to catppuccin/dunst for the dunst theme.

Credits to EricKotato/sddm-slice for the sddm theme.

Credits to connorholyday/kitty-snazzy for the kitty theme.

GTK theme is Adwaita-dark. Oh-my-zsh theme is powerlevel10k.

Special thanks to the Arch Linux team and the folks behind Hyprland.

NeoVim configuration is provided by LazyVim.

---

1. Initial Setup

1.0 Installing Arch Linux

This guide isn't prescriptive about how to install Arch Linux, but it requires the installation of the desktop profile with hyprland by using archinstall.

1.1 Install Essential Packages

sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel

1.2 Install Yay (AUR Helper)

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
cd yay-bin
makepkg -si
cd ..
rm -rf yay-bin
yay -S yay
yay -Scc

1.3 Install Essential Packages with Yay

Install the following packages using yay:

yay -S --needed \
  acpi \
  bc \
  bind \
  blueman \
  brightnessctl \
  cliphist \
  dunst \
  fd \
  frece \
  fzf \
  gnome-system-monitor \
  grimblast-git \
  hyprcursor \
  hyprlock \
  hyprpaper \
  inotify-tools \
  jq \
  kdeconnect \
  ksnip \
  less \
  lsd \
  man-db \
  ncdu \
  noto-fonts \
  noto-fonts-emoji \
  otf-font-awesome \
  pamixer \
  pavucontrol \
  plocate \
  rofi-wayland \
  rsync \
  unzip \
  waybar \
  wl-clip-persist \
  xorg-xhost \
  zen-browser-bin \
  zip \
  zsh-fast-syntax-highlighting

1.3 Install Development Packages for LazyVim

Install these language-specific packages:

yay -S --needed \
  go \
  neovim \
  npm \
  pyenv \
  rust

Install nix in single user mode:

sh <(curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --no-daemon

It's more convenient to install from nix official scripts than with arch native package manager to avoid permission issues in neovim.

---

2. Deploying system config

Clone this repo and deploy it to ~/.config

git clone https://github.com/gchamon/archlinux-system-config
rsync -va ~/archlinux-system-config/ ~/.config
rm -rf ~/archlinux-system-config

2.1 System specific configuration

System specific configurations reside in ~/.config/hypr/config. To deploy one config, create a symbolic link for it:

ln -s ~/.config/hypr/config/nitro.conf ~/.config/hypr/config/current.conf

If no system specific configuration applies, deploy the empty config:

ln -s ~/.config/hypr/config/empty.conf ~/.config/hypr/config/current.conf

Customization of device-specific configs

For brightnessctl to work, use $backlightDevice to configure which device brightnessctl should use to control brightness.

To get a list of the available devices, run:

ls -1 /sys/class/backlight/

If none is available, you should try using linux-lts kernel and play around with acpi_backlight kernel parameter. For more information see ACPI backlight control and archlinux docs on Backlight's kernel command-line options.

2.2 Deploy oh-my-zsh

Zsh shell relies on oh-my-zsh and powerlevel10k, which will need to be installed:

yay -S --needed \
  zsh \
  zsh-completions \
  oh-my-zsh-git \
  zsh-theme-powerlevel10k \
  ttf-meslo-nerd

test -f ~/.zshrc && mv ~/.zshrc{,.bk}
ln -s ~/.config/.zshrc ~/.zshrc

There are four preconfigured powerlevel10k prompt styles. Choose one of .p10k-classic.zsh, .p10k-lean.zsh, .p10k-pure.zsh or .p10k-rainbow.zsh and create a symbolic link to ~/.p10k.zsh:

ln -s ~/.config/.p10k-classic.zsh ~/.p10k.zsh

There is a fifth powerlevel10k prompt style that is geared towards supporting tty shells, which is called .p10k-portable.zsh and it should be deployed to the home folder along with the chosen profile:

ln -s ~/.config/.p10k-portable.zsh ~/.p10k-portable.zsh

Now change the shell to zsh if necessary:

chsh -s $(which zsh)

2.3 Add required home folders

This is for the screenshot utility to work.

mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots

---

3. Theming

3.1 Install Theme Packages

yay -S --needed \
  archlinux-wallpaper \
  gnome-themes-extra \
  qt5-graphicaleffects \
  xcursor-breeze5

3.2 SDDM Theme (Slice 1.5.1)

Unfortunately the main branch of the slice theme repo isn't compatible with SDDM, making it impossible to just install sddm-slice-git. You must download and extract the tar archive related to the v1.5.1 release and deploy it to /usr/share/sddm/themes/slice manually.

1. Download the SDDM Slice theme v1.5.1.
2. Deploy to SDDM themes directory:

cd ~/Downloads
tar -xzvf sddm-slice-1.5.1.tar.gz
sudo mv sddm-slice-1.5.1 /usr/share/sddm/themes/slice

3. Configure sddm theme:

cat > /tmp/theme.conf <<EOF
[Theme]
Current=slice
EOF

sudo mkdir -p /etc/sddm.conf.d
sudo mv /tmp/theme.conf /etc/sddm.conf.d

3.3 Install the GTK theme

1. Install NWG Look

yay -S nwg-look

2. Configure Adwaita-dark in the theme picket. To run the picker, bring up the runner modal with SUPER+R and choose GTK Settings.

---

4. System Configuration

4.1 Boot Options

These are options that need to be passed to the kernel at boot time. See the bootloader docs for information on how to add these options.

For systemd-boot, which I use, they are located at /boot/loader/entries/. One of the entries is the fallback, which should be left untouched.

Nvidia DRM

nvidia_drm.modeset=1

(Use this if you're using NVIDIA proprietary drivers, as per the Hyprland master tutorial.)

ACPI Backlight control

For my Acer Nitro notebook, I need to add the following boot option so I can control the device's built-in screen brightness with brightnessctl:

acpi_backlight=native

4.2 Dependencies

yay -S gnome-keyring seahorse

4.4 Systemd Services

Enable and start the following services:

# User services
for service in gcr-ssh-agent; do
  systemctl --user enable $service
  systemctl --user start $service
done

# System services
for service in bluetooth; do
  sudo systemctl enable $service
  sudo systemctl start $service
done

4.5 Cronjobs

Cronjobs are in the cronjobs/ folder and can be deployed with rsync:

sudo rsync -va ./cronjobs/ /etc/

Current cronjobs are:

Cronjob	Description
cron.hourly/yay_pkglist	Takes an inventory of the packages manually installed with yay and writes it to /etc/pkglist.txt

---

5. Further reading

These are documents that expand the documentation on this desktop environment

5.1 Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts documents all the possible keyboard shortcuts. The information is extracted from hyprland configuration using Google's Gemini LLM.

5.2 Keyboard customizations

Keyboard customizations documents the deployment of xkeyboard-config compatible customizations that makes it easier to type in a different language than that of the keyboard in use.

5.3 Backup and Restore

The Backup and Restore guide isn't intended to be generally applicable outside my personal environment. It's there for my personal disaster recovery drills, but could inspire others looking for backup strategies.

5.4 Development

This document explains steps to install and configure tools I need for daily work as a developer.