About

For those seeking documentation, the ArchWiki is the best resource available. In fact, it's so good that it can be a perfect trap for a curious mind. My goal here is to gather the information I find relevant for my own use case, allowing me to setup and maintain a simple and aesthetic Arch Linux Wayland environment while minimizing the chances of falling down a rabbit hole.

it's called "dotfiles" because that folder ".config" starts with a dot and is therefor hidden

and we customize these hidden text files for ~20 programs because we're neurotic lovers of beauty 🤷

-- from a Reddit user on r/unixporn

Components

The main building blocks, a.k.a packages¹

System

Boot Manager: rEFInd
Dotfile Manager: Chezmoi
Initramfs Generator: Booster
UKI Generator: systemd-ukify

Desktop

App Launcher: Fuzzel
Wayland Compositor: Niri
Display Manager: Ly
Notification: Mako
Screen Locker Swaylock
Status Bar: Waybar

Theme

Cursor: Breeze
Fonts and Glyphs: FiraMono Nerd Font
Gtk: Materia-dark
Icons: Papirus
Palette: Catppuccin Mocha

Terminal

Prompt: Starship
Shell: Fish
Terminal Emulator: Alacritty

Tools

Browser: Firefox
File Manager: Yazi
Text Editor: Neovim

Clients

BitTorrent: Transmission
Discord: WebCord
Spotify: Ncspot

Utilities and Quality of Life

Bat: Cat clone with syntax highlighting and git integration
Bob: A version manager for neovim
Bottom: A graphical process/system monitor
Cava: Console-based Audio Visualizer for Alsa
Delta: A syntax-highlighting pager for git, diff, grep, and blame output
Eza: A modern replacement for ls (community fork of exa)
Fastfetch: Like Neofetch, but much faster because written in C
Fd: Simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find
Fzf: Command-line fuzzy finder
Gitui: Blazing fast terminal-ui for git written in Rust
Ripgrep: A search tool that combines the usability of ag with the raw speed of grep
Yay: Yet another yogurt. Pacman wrapper and AUR helper written in go
Zoxide: A smarter cd command for your terminal

For the exhaustive package list, you can check the packages.toml

Live USB

The steps to create a bootable USB containing the Arch Linux ISO.

Download the ISO

Download the ISO file from https://archlinux.org/download/.

Note: the BitTorrent Download is the recommended option and the file will look like this archlinux-version-x86_64.iso.torrent.

USB Drive Name

Find out the name of your USB drive:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb-*

To make sure it is not mounted, run lsblk and search for the MOUNTPOINTS column, you should see an empty space:

lsblk

Write the ISO

Write the ISO to the USB drive using pv:

sudo pv path/to/archlinux-version-x86_64.iso -Yo /dev/disk/by-id/usb-My_flash_drive-0:0

Note: the USB drive name should look something like /dev/disk/by-id/usb-SanDisk_Cruzer_Blade_4C530000100920118104-0:0.
Make sure to not append any partition number like My_flash_drive-0:0-part1.

For more information about this topic, check the Arch Linux wiki

Live Environment

Console Configuration

Font

First of all, improve the default font size using setfont:

setfont ter-222b

Keyboard

To change the default keyboard layout:

# for example, to set a brazilian keyboard layout
loadkeys br-abnt2

Some Verification

UEFI Mode

To make sure the system is booted in UEFI mode, check the output of the following command. It should return 64, for a 64-bit system:

cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size

Internet Connection

To check the internet connection:

ping archlinux.org

System Clock

To ensure the system clock is synchronized, run:

timedatectl

Partitions

Partitioning the Disk

Device Identification

To identify available disks, the fdisk -l command will give you all the necessary information, but lsblk can also be used. My favorite flags are lsblk -o NAME,SIZE for a concise output and lsblk --fs when I need to check file system information.

Always make sure to identify and select the correct device.

Otherwise, the following steps may result in unintended data loss.

Optimal Logical Sector Size (exclusive for NVMe devices)

To check the formatted logical block address (LBA) size of your NVMe drive:

nvme id-ns -H /dev/nvme0n1 | grep "Relative Performance"

LBA Format  0 : Metadata Size: 0   bytes - Data Size: 512 bytes - Relative Performance: 0x2 Good (in use)
LBA Format  1 : Metadata Size: 0   bytes - Data Size: 4096 bytes - Relative Performance: 0x1 Better

You can confirm it by running lsblk -td and looking at the LOG-SEC column value.

Note: On the example above the sector size in use (512 bytes) is not the optimal one.

To change the logical block address size, you can use the nvme format command specifying the preferred value with the --lbaf parameter:

nvme format --lbaf=1 /dev/nvme0n1

Partition Tables

To write the partition tables using cfdisk:

cfdisk /dev/the_disk_to_be_partitioned

Make sure to set the correct type for the efi partition.

Example Layout:

Mount point	Purpose	Suggested size	Partition type
/efi	efi	1 GiB	EFI System
[SWAP]	swap	8 GiB	Linux filesystem
/	root	Remainder	Linux filesystem

To verify the partitions using fdisk:

fdisk -l /dev/partitioned_disk

Formatting Partitions

To create an Ext4 file system for the root:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/root_partition

To initialize the swap partition:

mkswap /dev/swap_partition

To format the EFI partition:

mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/efi_system_partition

Filesystem Label

Now is a good time to add a label to the efi partition. This will be useful later to set the rEFInd configuration. Using dosfslabel:

dosfslabel /dev/efi_system_partition ARCHIE

You can verify it using lsblk:

lsblk -o NAME,LABEL

Mounting the File Systems

Mount the root volume to /mnt:

mount /dev/root_partition /mnt

Mount the EFI partition:

mount --mkdir /dev/efi_system_partition /mnt/efi

Enable the swap volume:

swapon /dev/swap_partition

Installation

Mirror List

To update the mirrorlist using reflector:

reflector --protocol https --verbose --latest 25 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install Essential Packages

To install the essential packages to the new root:

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware base-devel git nano networkmanager

Fstab

To generate an fstab file:

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot

To change root into the new system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Time

To set the time zone:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Note: You can verify it using the command date:

date

To generate the /etc/adjtime file:

hwclock --systohc

To set up time synchronization with systemd-timesyncd:

systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

Localization

Uncomment the #en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 line editing the /etc/locale.gen file:

nano /etc/locale.gen

To generate the locales:

locale-gen

Create the locale.conf file, setting the LANG variable accordingly:

nano /etc/locale.conf

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Hostname

To set a hostname create a hostname file, adding its name, e.g. desktop:

nano /etc/hostname

desktop

Root password

To set the root password, run:

passwd

Creating New User

To create new user, adding it to the wheel group:

useradd -m -G wheel username

To add a password to the user, run:

passwd username

Edit the sudoers configuration file, uncommenting the # %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL line:

EDITOR=nano visudo

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Enable Network

To enable NetworkManager service:

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Boot Loader

Install systemd-boot

bootctl install

Edit the /efi/loader/loader.conf file:

nano /efi/loader/loader.conf

default  arch.conf
timeout  4
console-mode auto

Create the /efi/loader/entries/arch.conf file:

nano /efi/loader/entries/arch.conf

title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx rw

To make it easy to set the UUID you can use the blkid command and append the output to the arch.conf file.

blkid -s UUID /dev/root_partition >> /efi/loader/entries/arch.conf

Copy everything that is inside the /boot path to /efi.

Reboot

To exit the chroot environment:

exit

To unmount all the partitions and reboot:

umount -R /mnt

reboot

That's it. Good luck!

By the Way

If you have succeeded, there's one last thing to be done.

First download fastfetch:

sudo pacman -S fastfetch

Now run it and enjoy your new achievement:

fastfetch

Note: jokes aside, this last step is a simple and efficient way to verify your installation.

Pos-Installation

Double Checking

To check the timesyncd service, run:

timedatectl status

To refresh the entire system:

sudo pacman -Syyu

Make sure to have some basic system packages installed:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel bash curl gcc git ncurses xz zstd

Installing Some Compilers

Install clang:

sudo pacman -S clang

Install go:

sudo pacman -S go

Install lua:

sudo pacman -S lua

Install rustup:

sudo pacman -S rustup

rustup update stable

Graphic Drivers

OpenGL

Install mesa:

sudo pacman -S mesa

AMD

For Vulkan support:

sudo pacman -S vulkan-radeon

Nvidia

Install the nvidia package:

sudo pacman -S nvidia

UKI

Busybox

Install busybox to enable an emergency shell in case of a panic during the boot process:

sudo pacman -S busybox

Microcode

Install amd-ucode or intel-ucode according with your CPU.

sudo pacman -S amd-ucode

sudo pacman -S intel-ucode

Booster

Install booster:

sudo pacman -S booster

Set the configuration file accordingly:

sudo nano /etc/booster.yaml

extra_files: busybox,fsck,fsck.ext4
modules_force_load: amdgpu,hid_generic,usbhid

Note: the modules_force_load: amdgpu,hid_generic,usbhid line is not obligatory.

For NVIDIA you can replace amdgpu with the following:

modules_force_load: nvidia,nvidia_modeset,nvidia_uvm,nvidia_drm

Ukify

Install systemd-ukify:

sudo pacman -S systemd-ukify

Set the configuration accordingly:

sudo nano /etc/ukify.conf

[UKI]
Linux=/boot/vmlinuz-linux
Initrd=/boot/amd-ucode.img /boot/booster-linux.img
Cmdline=@/etc/kernel/cmdline
OSRelease=@/etc/os-release
Splash=/usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp

Note: probably this configuration isn't required because it will be replaced by the kernel-install one.

Kernel-install

Set the install.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/kernel/install.conf

layout=uki
uki_generator=ukify

Set the ukify configuration in the uki.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/kernel/uki.conf

[UKI]
Linux=/boot/vmlinuz-linux
Initrd=/boot/amd-ucode.img /boot/booster-linux.img
Cmdline=@/etc/kernel/cmdline
OSRelease=@/etc/os-release
Splash=/usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp

To verify the current kernel-install paths and parameters configuration, run:

kernel-install inspect

Kernel Command Line

To check the parameters your system was booted up with, run:

cat /proc/cmdline

To include new kernel parameters to the UKI, for example nvme_load=YES, nowatchdog, quiet, splash, etc. use the /etc/kernel/cmdline file:

sudo nano /etc/kernel/cmdline

rEFInd

Install refind package:

sudo pacman -S refind

Install it with the refind-install script:

refind-install

Note: for comfort I will use the su command that launches an interactive shell as root.

To add the catppuccin theme, create a themes directory inside refind installation path:

cd /efi/EFI/refind
mkdir themes

Clone the repo inside the themes folder:

cd themes
git clone https://github.com/catppuccin/refind.git catppuccin

It requires a include themes/catppuccin/mocha.conf line to be appended to the end of refind.conf file.

To go back to the refind directory:

cd /efi/EFI/refind

We can now customize the refind.conf by adding a new menuentry for the systemd-boot boot loader. Although it might seem a bit contradictory to use rEFInd to launch systemd-boot, rEFInd's role here is to provide a simple and customizable interface that can handle a dual-boot scenario for different available distros.

nano refind.conf

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
    icon /EFI/refind/themes/catppuccin/assets/mocha/icons/os_arch.png
    volume "ARCHIE"
    loader /EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi
}

include themes/catppuccin/mocha.conf

Note the catppuccin theme being included in the last line.

For more info, check rEFInd official documentation

To exit the interactive shell simply run exit.

Package Manager

Pacman

Update pacman configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
Color
ILoveCandy
#NoProgressBar
#CheckSpace
VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5

An example can be found on EndeavourOS repo

Yay

First, create and cd into an apps directory:

mkdir apps && cd apps

To install yay:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git && cd yay && makepkg -si

Additional Pacman Hooks

Install extra pacman hooks for the kernel-install:

yay -S pacman-hook-kernel-install

Pacman Utilities

Install the pacman-contrib package:

sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib

Enable the paccache.timer to periodically clean the pacman cache:

systemctl enable paccache.timer

Generating the UKI

Reinstall the kernel package to trigger the kernel-install in order to generate the unified kernel image:

sudo pacman -S linux

To list the current available boot entries which have been configured, run:

sudo bootctl list

If everything seems correct, reboot the system:

reboot

Home Sweet Home

Bootstrap

To install chezmoi:

sudo pacman -S chezmoi

To initialize it:

chezmoi init https://github.com/<user>/dotfiles.git

To apply it:

chezmoi apply

Note: a lot of packages will be installed. Probably would be a good idea to reboot the system after it.

For the exhaustive list of packages, you can check the packages.toml file from the repo.

Hint: A good reference for essential packages is to check the ones available in the Arch Linux live system (ISO). You can find them here. Another good source is to check the packages available in the EndeavourOS ISO. You can find them in their repo.

Graphical Interface

To launch niri from the tty:

niri-session

Shell

To check if Nushell is in the valid shells list:

cat /etc/shells

To set Nushell as login shell:

chsh -s /usr/bin/nu <user>

Note: Reboot the system to check if everything is ok

Font

To refresh the font cache:

sudo fc-cache -fv

SSH

To generate a new SSH key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

To check the public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

To test the SSH connection:

ssh -T git@github.com

Neovim

To install and set Neovim nightly using bob:

bob install nightly

sudo bob use nightly

To increase the maximum number of inotify watches and queued events. Edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

fs.inotify.max_queued_events=524288
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288

Pandoc

Download Pandoc latest release from the repo

To install it:

sudo tar xvzf /path/to/pandoc-version-linux-amd64.tar.gz --strip-components 1 -C /usr/local

Display Manager

To enable the ly service:

systemctl enable ly

To edit ly default configuration:

sudo nano /etc/ly/config.ini

Reboot the system (I'm neurotic):

reboot

# there's no place like home

Finishing

Catppuccin

Bat

To include the new syntax highlighting theme, rebuild bat's cache:

bat cache --build

To check if the Catppuccin theme is now available:

# the output should be Catppuccin Mocha
bat --list-themes | rg "Catppuccin"

Firefox

To apply Catppuccin Mocha Mauve color theme to firefox simply click here

Neovim

To fetch Neovim configuration, simply launch it:

nvim

To include the api-key for the WakaTime plugin:

# launch the website and copy the api key
start https://wakatime.com/api-key

# run the following cmd inside neovim and paste the key
WakaTimeApiKey

Yazi

To fetch the plugins using Yazi package manager:

ya pack -i

ya pack -u

Note: This will install and update the plugins according to the yazi/package.toml file.

Dev Stuff

Rust

Toolchains

To install the nightly channel:

rustup toolchain install nightly

To check the installed toolchains:

rustup toolchain list

Targets

To include support for the Wasm target:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

To check the installed targets:

rustup target list --installed

Fly.io

Update the DNS

This is a necessary step for my environment. Not sure if this will be the case for anyone else.

To get the list of the current active profiles:

nmcli connection show --active

To check the current DNS values

nmcli connection show 'NAME' | rg dns

To update the DNS:

nmcli connection modify 'NAME' ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8 1.1.1.1"

To reconnect:

nmcli connection down 'NAME'

nmcli connection up 'NAME'

flyctl

To installing flyctl:

curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

To sign in using flyctl:

fly auth login

Miscellaneous

Profile-sync-daemon

To generate the configuration file and check the current status:

psd preview

To edit the sudoers adding the necessary rights

sudo visudo

<username> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/psd-overlay-helper

To edit the psd.conf configuration file:

sudo nvim .config/psd/psd.conf

# Uncomment and set to "yes" to use overlayfs instead of a full copy to reduce
# the memory costs and to improve sync/unsync operations. Note that your kernel
# MUST have this module available in order to use this mode.
#
USE_OVERLAYFS="yes"

#
BROWSERS=(firefox)

To enable the psd service:

systemctl --user enable psd.service

NetworkManager

Wi-Fi Connection

To get the list of available Wi-Fi networks

nmcli device wifi list

To connect to a Wi-Fi

nmcli device wifi connect <SSID_or_BSSID> password <password>

Update the DNS

To get the list of the current active profiles:

nmcli connection show --active

To check the current DNS values

nmcli connection show 'NAME' | rg dns

To update the DNS:

nmcli connection modify 'NAME' ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8 1.1.1.1"

To reconnect:

nmcli connection down 'NAME'

nmcli connection up 'NAME'

Tlp

To enable the service:

systemctl enable tlp.service

To mask the rfkill:

systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service

systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket

Virtual Machine

To check if virtualization is enabled:

grep -Ec '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

To install necessary packages:

sudo pacman -Syu virt-manager qemu-desktop dnsmasq iptables-nft

To enable libvirtd service:

sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd.service

To add the user to the libvirt group:

sudo usermod -aG libvirt $env.USER

To restart the libvirtd service:

systemctl restart libvirtd.service

Live USB

Download the ISO file from the Arch Linux website
Find the USB drive name: ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb-*
Make sure it is not mounted: lsblk
Write the ISO to the USB drive:

sudo pv path/to/archlinux-version-x86_64.iso -Yo /dev/disk/by-id/usb-My_flash_drive-0:0

Live Environment

Console Configuration

Improve the default font size: setfont ter-222b
Change the default keyboard layout, if necessary:

# for example, to set a brazilian keyboard layout
loadkeys br-abnt2

Make sure the system is booted in UEFI mode:

# the output should be 64 for 64-bit system
cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size

Check the internet connection: ping archlinux.org
Ensure the system clock is synchronized: timedatectl

Partitions

Partitioning the Disk

Identify available disks: lsblk -o NAME,SIZE
Create the partitions:

cfdisk /dev/the_disk_to_be_partitioned

Purpose	Suggested size	Partition type	Mount point
efi	1 GiB	EFI System	/efi
swap	8 GiB	Linux filesystem	[SWAP]
root	Remainder	Linux filesystem	/

Verify the partitions: fdisk -l /dev/partitioned_disk

Formatting the Partitions

Create an Ext4 fs for the root: mkfs.ext4 /dev/root_partition
Initialize the swap: mkswap /dev/swap_partition
Format the efi to FAT32: mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/efi_system_partition
Add a label to the efi partition:

dosfslabel /dev/efi_system_partition ARCHIE

Verify the result: lsblk /dev/partioned_disk -o NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL

Mounting the File System

Mount the root partition to /mnt: mount /dev/root_partition /mnt
Mount the efi partition to /mnt/efi: mount --mkdir /dev/efi_system_partition /mnt/efi
Enable the swap: swapon /dev/swap_partition

Installation

Update the mirrorlist:

reflector --protocol https --verbose --latest 25 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install the essential packages to the new root:

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware base-devel git nano networkmanager

Configuring the System

Generate an fstab file: genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Change root into the new system: arch-chroot /mnt
Set the time zone: ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
Verify the new local time: date
Generate the /etc/adjtime: hwclock --systohc
Set up time synchronization:

systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

Edit the locale.gen file:

nano /etc/locale.gen

# Uncomment this line
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Generate the locales: locale-gen
Create the locale.conf file, setting the LANG variable accordingly:

nano /etc/locale.conf

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Create the hostname file:

nano /etc/hostname

desktop

Set the root password: passwd

Creating New User

Create new user, adding it to the wheel group:

useradd -m -G wheel <username>

Add a password to the user: passwd <username>
Edit the sudoers configuration file:

EDITOR=nano visudo

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Set the Boot Loader

Install systemd-boot: bootctl install
Edit the loader.conf file:

nano /efi/loader/loader.conf

default  arch.conf
timeout  4
console-mode auto

Create the arch.conf entry:

nano /efi/loader/entries/arch.conf

title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx rw

Append the UUID number:

blkid -s UUID /dev/root_partition >> /efi/loader/entries/arch.conf

Copy everything that is inside /boot to /efi directory:

cd /efi

cp /boot/* .

Enable the NetworkManager service: systemctl enable NetworkManager

Finishing

Exit the chroot environment: exit
Unmount all the partitions: umount -R /mnt
Reboot: reboot

# good luck!

Verifying the Installation

Download fastfetch: sudo pacman -S fastfetch
Run it: fastfetch

# enjoy your new achievement!

Pos-Installation

Double Checking

# sorry I'm neurotic

Check the timesyncd service: timedatectl status
Refresh the system, including the package database: sudo pacman -Syyu
Make sure some basic system packages are installed:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel bash curl gcc git ncurses xz zstd

Installing Some Compilers

clang: sudo pacman -S clang
go: sudo pacman -S go
lua: sudo pacman -S lua
rustup:

sudo pacman -S rustup

rustup update stable

Graphic Drivers

OpenGL

Install mesa:

sudo pacman -S mesa

AMD

For Vulkan support:

sudo pacman -S vulkan-radeon

Nvidia

Install the nvidia package:

sudo pacman -S nvidia

UKI

Busybox

Install busybox:

sudo pacman -S busybox

Microcode

Install amd-ucode or intel-ucode according with your CPU.

sudo pacman -S amd-ucode

sudo pacman -S intel-ucode

Booster

Install booster:

sudo pacman -S booster

Set the configuration file accordingly:

sudo nano /etc/booster.yaml

extra_files: busybox,fsck,fsck.ext4
modules_force_load: amdgpu,hid_generic,usbhid

For NVIDIA you can replace amdgpu with the following:

modules_force_load: nvidia,nvidia_modeset,nvidia_uvm,nvidia_drm

Ukify

Install systemd-ukify:

sudo pacman -S systemd-ukify

Set the configuration accordingly:

sudo nano /etc/ukify.conf

[UKI]
Linux=/boot/vmlinuz-linux
Initrd=/boot/amd-ucode.img /boot/booster-linux.img
Cmdline=@/etc/kernel/cmdline
OSRelease=@/etc/os-release
Splash=/usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp

Kernel-install

Set the install.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/kernel/install.conf

layout=uki
uki_generator=ukify

Set the ukify configuration:

sudo nano /etc/kernel/uki.conf

[UKI]
Linux=/boot/vmlinuz-linux
Initrd=/boot/amd-ucode.img /boot/booster-linux.img
Cmdline=@/etc/kernel/cmdline
OSRelease=@/etc/os-release
Splash=/usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp

Verify the current kernel-install configuration:

kernel-install inspect

Kernel Command Line

Check the parameters your system was booted up with:

cat /proc/cmdline

Include new kernel parameters to the UKI:

sudo nano /etc/kernel/cmdline

rEFInd

Install refind package: sudo pacman -S refind
Install it with the refind-install script: refind-install
Start an interactive shell as root: su
Create the themes directory inside refind installation path:

cd /efi/EFI/refind
mkdir themes

Clone the catppuccin repo inside the themes directory:

cd themes
git clone https://github.com/catppuccin/refind.git catppuccin

Go back to the refind directory:

cd /efi/EFI/refind

Edit the refind.conf, adding a new menuentry for the systemd-boot and also including the mocha.conf file:

nano refind.conf

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
    icon /EFI/refind/themes/catppuccin/assets/mocha/icons/os_arch.png
    volume "ARCHIE"
    loader /EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi
}

include themes/catppuccin/mocha.conf

Exit the interactive shell: exit

Package Manager

Pacman

Update pacman configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
Color
ILoveCandy
#NoProgressBar
#CheckSpace
VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5

Yay

Create and cd into the apps directory:

mkdir apps && cd apps

Install yay:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git && cd yay && makepkg -si

# I'm not sure about this one
yay -Y --gendb

Additional Pacman Hooks

Install extra pacman hooks for the kernel-install:

yay -S pacman-hook-kernel-install

Generating the UKI

Reinstall the kernel package to generate the unified kernel image:

sudo pacman -S linux

Check the current available boot entries:

sudo bootctl list

If everything seems correct, reboot the system: reboot

Home Sweet Home

Bootstrap

Install chezmoi: sudo pacman -S chezmoi
Initialize it:

chezmoi init https://github.com/<user>/dotfiles.git

Apply the changes: chezmoi apply
Reboot the system: reboot

Not Far From Home

Refresh the font cache:

sudo fc-cache -fv

Launch niri from the tty: niri-session
Check if Nushell is in the valid shells list: cat /etc/shells
Set Nushell as login shell:

chsh -s /usr/bin/nu <user>

SSH

Generate a new SSH key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Check the public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Test the SSH connection:

ssh -T git@github.com

Neovim

Install and set Neovim nightly using bob:

bob install nightly

sudo bob use nightly

Increase inotify maximum numbers:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

fs.inotify.max_queued_events=524288
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288

Pandoc

Download and install Pandoc latest release

sudo tar xvzf /path/to/pandoc-version-linux-amd64.tar.gz --strip-components 1 -C /usr/local

Display Manager

Enable the ly service: systemctl enable ly

Reboot the system: reboot

# there's no place like home

Finishing

Catppuccin

Rebuild bat's cache to add the new syntax highlighting: bat cache --build
Check if Catppuccin is available:

bat --list-themes | rg "Catppuccin"

Apply Catppuccin Mocha Mauve color theme to firefox: simply click here

Neovim

Launch Neovim to fetch its configuration: nvim
Include the api-key for WakaTime plugin:

# launch the website and copy the api key
start https://wakatime.com/api-key

# run the following cmd inside neovim and paste the key
WakaTimeApiKey

Yazi

Fetch the plugins using Yazi package manager:

ya pack -i

ya pack -u

Dev Stuff

Rust

Install the nightly channel:

rustup toolchain install nightly

Include support for the Wasm target:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

Check the installation:

rustup toolchain list

rustup target list --installed

Miscellaneous

Profile-sync-daemon

Generate the configuration file and check the current status:

psd preview

Edit the sudoers adding the necessary rights

sudo visudo

<username> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/psd-overlay-helper

Edit the psd.conf configuration file:

sudo nvim .config/psd/psd.conf

# Uncomment and set to "yes" to use overlayfs instead of a full copy to reduce
# the memory costs and to improve sync/unsync operations. Note that your kernel
# MUST have this module available in order to use this mode.
#
USE_OVERLAYFS="yes"

#
BROWSERS=(firefox)

Enable the psd service:

systemctl --user enable psd.service

NetworkManager

Wi-Fi Connection

Get the list of available Wi-Fi networks

nmcli device wifi list

Connect to a Wi-Fi

nmcli device wifi connect <SSID_or_BSSID> password <password>

Update the DNS

Get the list of the current active profiles:

nmcli connection show --active

Check the current DNS values

nmcli connection show 'NAME' | rg dns

Update the DNS:

nmcli connection modify 'NAME' ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8 1.1.1.1"

Reconnect:

nmcli connection down 'NAME'

nmcli connection up 'NAME'

Tlp

Enable the service:

systemctl enable tlp.service

Mask the rfkill:

systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service

systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket

Virtual Machine

Check if virtualization is enabled:

grep -Ec '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

Install necessary packages:

sudo pacman -Syu virt-manager qemu-desktop dnsmasq iptables-nft

Enable libvirtd service:

sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd.service

Adding the user to the libvirt group:

sudo usermod -aG libvirt $env.USER

Restarting the libvirtd service:

systemctl restart libvirtd.service

System Maintenance

Update the mirrorlist:

sudo reflector --protocol https --verbose --latest 25 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Refresh the entire system:

yay -Syyu

# work in progress

dotfiles cookbook