My installation of ArchLinux with KDE (Plasma and applications) in Dell XPS 9570. I am writing these notes for personal use and I have not completed them yet. If you are here by chance, you may make use of them but they are fitted to my specific experience and needs and I would not be able to help with anything (because I am not a particularly experienced linux user).
Some general characteristics assumed:
- Keyboard = UK; language = UK English; timezone = UK London.
- Using wired internet connection for installation
The document has three sections: Installation, initial Set up and tunning , and Personalization; increasingly fitted to my personal needs.
Set keyboard layout
loadkeys uk
Check internet connection
ping -c 3 archlinux.org
Update System Clock
# timedatectl set-ntp true
Partition disk (mine is nvme0n1)
# cgdisk /dev/nvme0n1
Use existing EFI for dual-boot with Windows 10 (in my case nvme0n1p2) and no swap. Check EFI partition is at least 500mb! Mine wasn't and, as I do not know much about disk management, I used MiniTool Partition Wizard from Windows to
- Shrink Win10 Partition "upwards"
- Copy the empty 128mb reserved windows partition next to the new start of the main partition, and delete the old.
- Extend the EFI partition
Format main partition (nvme0n1p5) with ext4
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p5
Mount main and EFI (nvme0n1p2) partitions in /mnt and /mnt/boot respectively
# mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt && mkdir /mnt/boot && mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/boot
Use reflector package to set local fast mirrors. (This is 'automated' and many advise against it)
# pacman -Syy && pacman -S reflector && reflector -c "United Kingdom" -f 12 -l 10 -n 12 --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Install base and base-devel
# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
Set the time zone:
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime
Run hwclock to generate /etc/adjtime:
# hwclock --systohc --utc
Uncomment en_GB.UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen, generate locale, and set permanently language and keyboardlayout
# sed -i 's/#en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen
# locale-gen
# echo 'LANG=EN_GB.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
# echo 'KEYMAP=uk' > /etc/vconsole.conf
# echo 'archXPS' > /etc/hostname
Edit /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.1.1 archXPS.localdomain archXPS
Enable dhcpcd (disable later when enabling NetworkManager)
# systemctl enable dhcpcd
# passwd
# pacman -S grub os-prober efibootmgr
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=ArchLinux
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
# exit
# umount -R /mnt
# reboot
Login as root
# useradd -g users -G wheel,storage,power -m manuel
# passwd manuel
uncomment # %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL — gives sudo permisison to group wheel — and add Defaults !tty_tickets — avoids entering password several times per session — in
# EDITOR=nano visudo
Modify CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS in /etc/makepkg.conf replacing any -march and -mtune with march=native.
REPLACE update-grub WITH ARCH COMMAND
sudo sed -i 's/CFLAGS="-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic/CFLAGS="-march=native/g' /etc/makepkg.conf
sudo sed -i 's/CXXFLAGS="-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic/CXXFLAGS="-march=native/g' /etc/makepkg.conf
sudo sed -i 's/#MAKEFLAGS="-j2"/MAKEFLAGS="-j$(nproc)"/g' /etc/makepkg.conf
sudo sed -i 's/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet CONFIG_DEVMEM=y CONFIG_X86_MSR=y/g' /etc/default/grub && sudo update-grub
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git wget yajl
cd /tmp
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/package-query.git
cd package-query/
makepkg -si && cd /tmp/
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yaourt.git
cd yaourt/
makepkg -si
yaourt -S pamac-aur yay
# pacman -Syu xorg xorg-init
# localectl set-x11-keymap gb
# yay -Syu kde-applications plasma plasma-wayland-session
# yay -Syu sddm archlinux-themes-sddm
# systemctl enable sddm
Edit /usr/lib/sddm/sddm.conf.d/default.conf changing:
- In
[Theme]section:
# Current theme name
Current=archlinux-simplyblack
# Cursor theme used in the greeter
CursorTheme=breeze-dark
- Under both
[Wayland]and[X11]:
EnableHiDPI=true
Then create
sudo mkdir /etc/sddm.conf.d
And make file
sudo nano /etc/sddm.conf.d/hidpi.conf
containing
[Wayland]
EnableHiDPI=true
[X11]
EnableHiDPI=true
Install and set up super key to open app launcher. (Configure in between, most likely.)
sudo pacman -Syu latte-dock
kwriteconfig5 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.lattedock,/Latte,org.kde.LatteDock,activateLauncherMenu"
# pacman -S gnome gnome-extra
# systemctl enable gdm
pamac install grub-customizer
Run sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf and uncomment [multilib] and the next (not the testing!).
Some tools:
yay -S thermald powertop s-tui mprime xsensors
# sudo systemctl enable --now thermald
# sudo systemctl start thermald
# sudo powertop
As explained here
# echo "1-7" | tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
In case you want to re-enable it (as there is development in progress (e.g. Goodix92, goodix_fp_dump and this libfprint issue:
# echo "1-7" | tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind
The optimus configuration is a technology that allows an Intel integrated GPU and discrete NVIDIA GPU to be built into and accessed by a laptop. As the discret NVIDIA GPU card eats lots of power, we want to use the intergrated Intel card most of the time and activate/desactivate the NVIDIA GPU card only when required by a defined application.
Regarding to this conversation [3], an optimus configuration well working on the xps 15 9570 is:
Install nvidia, bumblebee, powertop and unigine-valley
pacman -S nvidia bumblebee
yay unigine-valley # to test the NVIDIA GPU later
Make sure that bbswitch is uninstalled or at least disabled
In the [driver-nvidia] section of /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
# [driver-nvidia] section
Driver=nvidia
PMMethod=none
for not auto adding gpu edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/01-noautogpu.conf
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AutoAddGPU" "off"
EndSection
ipmi modules are loaded together with nvidia and block its unloading. Therefore create /etc/modprobe.d/disable-ipmi.conf including
install ipmi_msghandler /usr/bin/false
install ipmi_devintf /usr/bin/false
and /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf including:
install nvidia /bin/false
Finally add nvidia and ipmi in the modprobe.d blacklist to disable this functionality, edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv
blacklist nv
blacklist nvidia
blacklist nvidia-drm
blacklist nvidia-modeset
blacklist nvidia-uvm
blacklist ipmi_msghandler
blacklist ipmi_devintf
Create 2 GPU management scripts for enabling and disabling discret NVIDIA graphical card [4]:
#!/bin/sh
# allow to load nvidia module
mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf.disable
# Remove NVIDIA card (currently in power/control = auto)
echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/remove
sleep 1
# change PCIe power control
echo -n on > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:01.0/power/control
sleep 1
# rescan for NVIDIA card (defaults to power/control = on)
echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan
# someone said that modprobe nvidia is needed also to load nvidia, to check
# modprobe nvidia
#!/bin/sh
modprobe -r nvidia_drm
modprobe -r nvidia_uvm
modprobe -r nvidia_modeset
modprobe -r nvidia
# Change NVIDIA card power control
echo -n auto > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/power/control
sleep 1
# change PCIe power control
echo -n auto > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:01.0/power/control
sleep 1
# Lock system form loading nvidia module
mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf.disable /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf
A service which locks GPU on shutdown / restart when it is not disabled by disablegpu.sh script is necessary. Otherwise, on next boot nvidia will be loaded together with ipmi modules (even if blacklisted with install command) and it won't be possible to unload them then.
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/disable-nvidia-on-shutdown.service
[Unit]
Description=Disables Nvidia GPU on OS shutdown
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=true
ExecStart=/bin/true
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c "mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf.disable /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf || true"
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Reload systemd daemons and enable the disable-nvidia-on-shutdown service:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable disable-nvidia-on-shutdown.service
Allow gpu to poweroff on boot
sudo nano /etc/tmpfiles.d/nvidia_pm.conf
w /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/control - - - - auto
Finally check that everything is well configured:
Reboot and verify that nvidia is not loaded by running:
lsmod | grep nvidia
Should not return anything
Disconnect / unplug charger and verify the power consumption with powertop is around 5W — FHD screen with no touchscreen — or 7.5W — 4K with touchscreen — on idle (sudo powertop --auto-tune previously launched).
Enable GPU by using the enablegpu.sh script
Check that the GPU is loaded by using:
nvidia-smi
If good, launch unigine-valley with optirun:
optirun unigine-valley
unigine-valley needs a GPU to work. Should activate the fans quickly.
Close all nvidia applications and disable gpu with the disablegpu.sh script
Check again power consumption, it should have gone back to a similar value as before
pamac install libsmbios
yay i8kutils dell-smm-hwmon-i8kutils
sudo smbios-thermal-ctl -g
sudo smbios-thermal-ctl -i
sudo smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode=Balanced
modinfo dell-smm-hwmon | grep '^description'
modprobe dell-smm-hwmon ignore_dmi=1
You can make these settings permanent by adding the following to /etc/modprobe.d/dell.conf:
sudo su
echo 'options dell-smm-hwmon ignore_dmi=1' >> /etc/modprobe.d/dell.conf
And also by making the HWMON_MODULES variable appears like so in /etc/conf.d/lm_sensors:
sudo su
echo 'HWMON_MODULES="coretemp dell-smm-hwmon"' >> /etc/conf.d/lm_sensors
yay i8kutils dell-bios-fan-control
sudo systemctl enable dell-bios-fan-control
sudo modprobe -v i8k
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/dell-smm-hwmon.conf
sudo modprobe dell-smm-hwmon restricted=0
sudo echo 'options i8k force=1' >> /etc/modprobe.d/i8k.conf
sudo echo 'i8k' >> /etc/modules-load.d/i8k.conf
sudo nano /etc/i8kutils/i8kmon.conf
sudo systemctl enable --now i8kmon
sudo systemctl start i8kmon
cat /sys/power/mem_sleep
echo deep|sudo tee /sys/power/mem_sleep
sudo sed -i 's/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet mem_sleep_default=deep/g' /etc/default/grub && sudo update-grub
Review the current configuration of wakeup devices:
cat /proc/acpi/wakeup
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
...
EHC1 S3 *enabled pci:0000:00:1d.0
EHC2 S3 *enabled pci:0000:00:1a.0
XHC S3 *enabled pci:0000:00:14.0
...
The relevant devices are EHC1, EHC2 and XHC (for USB 3.0). To toggle their state you have to echo the device name to the file as root.
# echo EHC1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
# echo EHC2 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
# echo XHC > /proc/acpi/wakeup
Edit /etc/systemd/system/root-suspend.service and systemctl enable --now root-suspend.
[Unit]
Description = Local system resume actions
After = suspend.taget sleep.target
[Service]
Type = simple
ExecStart = /usr/bin/sleep .3
ExcecStartPost = /usr/bin/dell-bios-fan-control 1 ; /usr/bin/dell-bios-fan-control 0 ; echo -e 'power on' | bluetoothctl
[Install]
WantedBy = suspend.target sleep.target
yay -S tlp thermald powertop
sudo systemctl enable --now tcl
sudo systemctl enable --now tlp
sudo systemctl enable --now tlp-sleep
sudo systemctl enable --now thermald
sudo systemctl enable --now powertop
sudo nano /etc/thermald/thermal-conf.xml
yay -S throttled
sudo systemctl enable --now lenovo_fix.service
And edit /etc/lenovo_fix.conf (at least that's its name by 26 April 2019) as desired. My current setup is
[GENERAL]
# Enable or disable the script execution
Enabled: True
# SYSFS path for checking if the system is running on AC power
Sysfs_Power_Path: /sys/class/power_supply/AC*/online
## Settings to apply while connected to Battery power
[BATTERY]
# Update the registers every this many seconds
Update_Rate_s: 30
# Max package power for time window #1
PL1_Tdp_W: 44
# Time window #1 duration
PL1_Duration_s: 28
# Max package power for time window #2
PL2_Tdp_W: 44
# Time window #2 duration
PL2_Duration_S: 0.002
# Max allowed temperature before throttling
Trip_Temp_C: 85
# Set cTDP to normal=0, down=1 or up=2 (EXPERIMENTAL)
cTDP: 2
## Settings to apply while connected to AC power
[AC]
# Update the registers every this many seconds
Update_Rate_s: 5
# Max package power for time window #1
PL1_Tdp_W: 44
# Time window #1 duration
PL1_Duration_s: 28
# Max package power for time window #2
PL2_Tdp_W: 44
# Time window #2 duration
PL2_Duration_S: 0.002
# Max allowed temperature before throttling
Trip_Temp_C: 95
# Set HWP energy performance hints to 'performance' on high load (EXPERIMENTAL)
HWP_Mode: True
# Set cTDP to normal=0, down=1 or up=2 (EXPERIMENTAL)
cTDP: 2
[UNDERVOLT.BATTERY]
# CPU core voltage offset (mV)
CORE: -60
# Integrated GPU voltage offset (mV)
GPU: -25
# CPU cache voltage offset (mV)
CACHE: -60
# System Agent voltage offset (mV)
UNCORE: 0
# Analog I/O voltage offset (mV)
ANALOGIO: 0
[UNDERVOLT.AC]
# CPU core voltage offset (mV)
CORE: -60
# Integrated GPU voltage offset (mV)
GPU: -25
# CPU cache voltage offset (mV)
CACHE: -60
# System Agent voltage offset (mV)
UNCORE: 0
# Analog I/O voltage offset (mV)
ANALOGIO: 0
# [ICCMAX.AC]
# # CPU core max current (A)
# CORE:
# # Integrated GPU max current (A)
# GPU:
# # CPU cache max current (A)
# CACHE:
# [ICCMAX.BATTERY]
# # CPU core max current (A)
# CORE:
# # Integrated GPU max current (A)
# GPU:
# # CPU cache max current (A)
# CACHE:
Monitor with
sudo /usr/lib/throttled/lenovo_fix.py --monitor
cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/powertop.service
[Unit]
Description=PowerTOP auto tune
[Service]
Type=idle
Environment="TERM=dumb"
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/powertop --auto-tune
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable powertop.service
to /etc/modules-load.d/webcam.conf seems to be in the right direction.
Change#AutoEnable=false to AutoEnable=true in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf so bluetooth would be enabled at login screen (for mouse and keyboard when docked) and after suspension.
sudo sed -i 's/#AutoEnable=false/AutoEnable=true/g' /etc/bluetooth/main.conf
yay -Syu nordvpn
sudo systemctl enable --now nordvpnsd
systemctl --user enable --now nordvpnud
sudo systemctl start nordvpnsd
systemctl --user start nordvpnud
yay -Syu r texlive-bin texlive-core texlive-latexextra texlive-bibtexextra biber texlive-langextra texlive-fontsextra texlive-formatsextra texlive-humanities texlive-publishers texlive-pstricks texlive-science texlive-science virtualbox virtualbox-guest-iso virtualbox-host-modules-arch virtualbox-sdk telegram-desktop libreoffice-fresh libreoffice-fresh-en-gb
yay -Syu tk gcc-fortran ed dialog java-runtime perl-tk psutils python2-pygments texlive-pictures java-environment virtualbox-ext-vnc ttf-opensans pstoedit libmythes beanshell unixodbc postgresql-libs mariadb-libs coin-or-mp gnome-shell-extension-appindicator-git libappindicator-gtk3
yay -Syyu rstudio-desktop dropbox mendeleydesktop spotify skypeforlinux-stable-bin sublime-text-3-imfix tixati whatsapp-nativefier
import urllib.request,os,hashlib; h = '6f4c264a24d933ce70df5dedcf1dcaee' + 'ebe013ee18cced0ef93d5f746d80ef60'; pf = 'Package Control.sublime-package'; ipp = sublime.installed_packages_path(); urllib.request.install_opener( urllib.request.build_opener( urllib.request.ProxyHandler()) ); by = urllib.request.urlopen( 'http://packagecontrol.io/' + pf.replace(' ', '%20')).read(); dh = hashlib.sha256(by).hexdigest(); print('Error validating download (got %s instead of %s), please try manual install' % (dh, h)) if dh != h else open(os.path.join( ipp, pf), 'wb' ).write(by)
yay -S fwupd
Since GNOME only manages scaling by integers, a screen like this one (relatively not that HiDPI in relatively small form factor) is better setup combining xrandr with GNOME scaling. First set scaling at the maximum convenient (2) and then 'zooming out' with xrandr (1.75x1.75). See the Arch wiki for HiDPI
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides "[{'Gdk/WindowScalingFactor', <2>}]"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface scaling-factor 2
xrandr --output eDP1 --scale 1.75x1.75
As of 25th of April 2019, it is necessary to install bluez-git (5.50.r295.g9e6da22ed-1 > 5.50-264-g750a26cd9) instead of bluez to make A2DP audio work with bluetooth headphones. Then, as commented here, a manual fix is still required, modifying /usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service to change ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd to ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetoothd. I also found necessary to change #AutoEnable=false to AutoEnable=true in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf so bluetooth would be enabled after suspension.
yay -S bluez-git
sudo sed -i 's_ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd_ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetoothd_g' /usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service