riccardoscalco/archlinux-notes

Installation notes

loadkeys it
setfont latarcyrheb-sun32 // use bigger font in HiDMI monitor (see also terminus fonts)
wifi-menu
ping www.archlinux.org // test connection
timedatectl set-ntp true

// Disk partition
lsblk
cfdisk // sda1 5M linux boot and sda2 remaining size linux
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

// CHROOT
arch-chroot /mnt
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Rome /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

// Setup locales
// uncomment `it_IT.UTF-8` in `/etc/locale.gen`
echo 'LANG="it_IT.UTF-8"' >> /etc/locale.conf
echo 'LC_COLLATE="C"' >> /etc/locale.conf

// Set Hostname

// Install packages
pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant dialog

// Set admin psw
passwd

// Setup Grub
pacman -S intel-ucode grub
grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

// Add user
pacman -S zsh
useradd -m -s /bin/zsh riccardo
passwd riccardo
// edit sudoers file using visudo

// Use terminus font in the Virtual console
pacman -S terminus-font
setfont ter-132n (add FONT=ter-132n in /etc/vconsole.conf)

Configure the nftables firewall

sudo pacman -Syu nftables

Note that the system must be updated and rebooted since a kernel upgrade:

ls -l /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/net/netfilter | grep nft

If the above return no files then probably you nee to reboot.

Rules are listed in /etc/nftables.conf.

Start and enable the service as usual with:

systemctl enable --now  nftables.service

Check the status with:

systemctl status nftables.service

Ref: link

Security and system auditing

Lynis is a security auditing tool for Linux. The tool checks the system and the software configuration, to see if there is any room for improvement the security defenses.

Github repo: github.com/CISOfy/lynis.

pacman -R lynis

Perform local security scan:

lynis audit system

TODO: apply suggested actions.

tmux

Most used keys:on panes:

C-b " or tmux split-window: splits the window into two vertical panes.
C-b % or tmux·split-window -h: splits the window into two horizontal panes.
C-b <arrow>: move to a pane.
C-b C-<arrow>: resize a pane.
C-b z: toggle fullscreen a pane.
C-d or exit to close a pane.

Most used keys:on sessions:

tmux new -s <session-name>: creates a new tmux session.
tmux attach -t <session-name>: attaches to an existing tmux session.
C-b d: detach current session.
C-b C-s: save a session (tmux-resurrect plugin).
C-b C-r: restore the last saved session (tmux-resurrect plugin).
C-b s or tmux ls: list sessions.

Most used keys:on windows:

C-b c or tmux new-window: open a new window.
C-b p: go to previous window.
C-b n: go to next window.
C-b 3: go to the third window.

Commands:

// Reloads the current configuration:
tmux source ~/.tmux.conf

// Rename session 3
tmux rename-session -t 3 <session-name>

// Kill session 9
tmux kill-session -t 9

// lists out every bound key and the tmux command it runs
tmux list-keys

// lists out every tmux command and its arguments
tmux list-commands

Autostart X at login

Add the following to .zshrc :

if [[ ! $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]]; then
	exec startx
fi

Ref: link

Pacman commands

Upgrade the system:

pacman -Syu

Check for packages that were installed as a dependency but now no other packages depend on them:

pacman -Qtd

Query foreign packages, i.e. packages that were not found in the sync database (AUR packages for example).

pacman -Qm

Cleaning the package cache

systemctl enable paccache.timer
systemctl start paccache.timer

Change owner and group ownership of a directory

Change (recursively) the directory owner as the current user:

chown -R $USER /path/to/dir

Change (recursively) the directory group as the current user group:

chgrp -R $USER /path/tp/dir

Mount a partition at boot

The fstab file can be used to define how disk partitions should be mounted into the filesystem.

Mount a give partition at boot:

# /etc/fstab
# /dev/sdc3
UUID=d6c15483-a2f1-459c-975d-3b9015b0267b       /mnt/Torrent    ext4            rw,relatime             0 2

Get the UUID of a partition with:

lsblk -no UUID /dev/sdc3

Ref: link

Swap

Check swap status using swapon --show or free -h.

Create a swap partition with:

cfdisk /dev/sdb // use partition type 82
mkswap /dev/sdb2

The mkswap command should return the UUID of the swap space. Enable this swap partition on boot, add an entry to /etc/fstab:

// /etc/fstab
# /dev/sdb2
UUID=8970229c-3b13-449a-b55d-3407afa339ad       none            swap            defaults,discard        0 0

Parameters default,discard are related to the use of TRIM support on SSD.

Suspend

If you are using systemd (which is default in Arch Linux) and install polkit, users with non-remote session can issue power-related commands as long as the session is not broken.

systemctl suspend

Hibernate

Systemd provides commands to hibernate using the kernel's native suspend/resume functionality:

systemctl hibernate

In order to use hibernation is necessary to 1) create a swap partition, 2) set kernel parameters and 3) configure the initramfs.

Set the kernel parameter resume in /etc/default/grub, usingthe UUID of the swap space link:

// /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet module_blacklist=i915,intel_agp vga=881 resume=UUID=8970229c-3b13-449a-b55d-3407afa339ad"

Reconfigure the main grub configuration file:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Configure the initramfs adding the resume hook after udev link:

// /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard modconf block filesystems resume fsck)

Regenerate the initramfs:

mkinitcpio -p linux

LOCALE

Display the currently set locale:

locale

List available locales which have been previously generated:

localedef --list-archive

Edit locale in /etc/locale.conf, to make locale changes immediate run:

unset LANG
source /etc/profile.d/locale.sh

Audio (TODO)

// Verifying correct sound modules are loaded
lsmod | grep '^snd' | column -t

// check the directory /dev/snd/ for the right device files
ls -l /dev/snd

// install alsa utils
pacman -S alsa-utils

// test
speaker-test -c 2

Pulseaudio

Pulseaudio should not be necessary. If needed, install pulseaudio with:

pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa

Kill and restart pulseaudio with:

pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --start

Image viewer

sxiv -t -z 75 ./

Use key Enter to switch between Thumbnail mode and Image mode, use n and p for the next and previous image in Image mode.

NVIDIA

Make sure to have the latest linux kernel:

pacman -Syu

Get your card name:

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

Install the nvidia driver for your card. For card code names, have a look at https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/CodeNames/#NV130.

pacman -S nvidia

Nouveau open source driver

If present, uninstall nvidia driver.

pacman -Rs nvidia

Install mesa pkg.

pacman -S mesa

Ref: link

Aside note: in my case (GeForce GTX 1050 Ti) nouveau driver has poor performance.

Blacklist intel modules in /etc/default/grub (black screen issue):

After installing the nvidia driver and rebooted I got a black screen (where actually is still possible to blindly login). The issue is related to my Intel integrated GPU.

Blacklinsting modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf did not work for me, module i915 is still loaded (lsmod | grep "i915"), therefore I opted for the kernel command line.

// /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet module_blacklist=i915,intel_agp"

Generate the grub config file and reboot:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
reboot

Ref: link

Convert svg to png

svgexport file.svg file.png 100% 2048:2048

Setting the framebuffer resolution (TODO):

// /etc/default/grub
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080x32

Generate the grub config file and reboot:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
reboot

For some reason the above method does not work, therefore I use old vga= way.

To view the list of supported modes:

sudo hwinfo --framebuffer

Convert to decimal number, for example the 0x0371 returns 881:

printf "%d\n" 0x0371

Update grub configuration file:

// /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet module_blacklist=i915,intel_agp vga=881"

Regenerate the main configuration file /boot/grub/grub.cfg:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Composite

Make sure the Composite extension is enabled for the X Server:

xdpyinfo | grep Composite

xdpyinfo can be installed with pacman -S xorg-xdpyinfo.

Install Picom:

pacman -S picom

Exec Picom when X starts (with i3 window manager):

// ~/.config/i3/config
# Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
exec picom -CGb

Ref: link, compton (replaced by picom), picom

Nodejs

pacman -S nodejs npm yarn

Allow global package installations for the current user with:

// .profile
PATH="$HOME/.node_modules/bin:$PATH"
export npm_config_prefix=~/.node_modules

nvm

Install with:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.0/install.sh | bash

Use node v14:

nvm use v14

Managing .pac* files

Locate .pac* files:

locate --existing --regex "\.pac(new|save)$"

Search all .pacnew and .pacsave files and ask for any actions on them:

pacdiff

Ref: link

i3

Install the i3 window manager:

pacman -S i3

Start with X:

// .xinitrc
exec i3

Configuration file: ~/.config/i3/config. Ref card: https://i3wm.org/docs/refcard.html.

ZSH

Install (oh my) zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Add this to .zshrc to automatically rehash new executables, this avoid to restart the shell for having auto-completion of newly installed programs:

// .zshrc
zstyle ':completion:*' rehash true

Update with:

upgrade_oh_my_zsh

Replace file ~/.profile with ~/.zprofile. When starting, Zsh will source it.

Termite

Keybinding: github.com/thestinger/termite#keybindings Config file: ~/.config/termite.

Gtk-3 theme

pacman -S arc-gtk-theme
pacman -S arc-icon-theme
pacman -S lxappearance

Locate files

pacman -S mlocate
updatedb

Locate a file

locate ...

MIME

pacman -S xdg-utils

Determine a file's MIME type:

xdg-mime query filetype filename.md

Default application for a MIME type:

xdg-mime query default image/jpeg

Change the default application for a MIME type:

xdg-mime default feh.desktop image/jpeg

Add fonts

Place fonts in the user directory ~/.local/share/fonts.

Update the fontconfig font cache:

fc-cache

List available fonts:

fc-list : family style

Imagemagick / Graphicsmagick

Scale an image:

// imagemagick
convert image.png -scale 33% rescaled-image.png

// gm
gm mogrify -resize 256x170! image.jpg

Merge many files into a single PDF file:

// it works with PNG as well
convert 1.pdf 2.pdf 3.pdf out.pdf

Extracts pages from a pdf:

pdftk ORIG_FILE.pdf cat 1-5 output NEW_FILE.pdf

Set Wallpaper Image

Install feh:

pacman -S feh

Set a wallpaper image:

feh --bg-scale /path/to/image.file

Make it persistent adding ~/.fehbg & in ~/.config/i3/config:

exec --no-startup-id ~/.fehbg

HiDPI

Edit .profile and .Xresources as following:

// ~/.profile
export GDK_SCALE=2
export GDK_DPI_SCALE=0.5
export QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SET_FACTOR=0
export QT_SCALE_FACTOR=2
export QT_FONT_DPI=96

// ~/.Xresources
Xft.dpi: 192
Xcursor.size: 32

Miltihead

See the state of the outputs:

xrandr

Configure two monitors, one HDMI and one DP:

xrandr --output HDMI-3 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 3840x0 --output DP-3 --mode 3840x2160 --pos 0x0

In ended up setting xrandr in the .xinitrc file:

// .xinitrc
xrandr --output HDMI-0 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 3840x0 --scale 2x2 --output DP-0 --mode 3840x2160 --pos 0x0 &
exec i3

Note the presence of --scale for the HDMI output, it changes the dimensions of the output picture, so that the dimension of the HDMI output is equal to the dimension of the DV output.

Set keyboard layout in Xorg

View keyboard settings:

setxkbmap -print -verbose 10

Set keyboard layout it:

setxkbmap -layout it

Edit Xorg conf to have a system-wide configuration which is persistent across reboots:

// /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf
Section "InputClass"
		Identifier "system-keyboard"
		MatchIsKeyboard "on"
		Option "XkbLayout" "it"
EndSection

Ref: link

Framebuffer terminal (TODO)

wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications#Terminal

Keyboard bindings

Bind keysym with i3 window manager. To interactively enter a key and see what keysym it is configured to, use xev (pacman -S xorg-xev).

// ~/.config/i3/config
bindsym $mod+XF86Eject exec --no-startup-id systemctl suspend

bindsym $mod+F12 exec --no-startup-id amixer set Master 5%+
bindsym $mod+F11 exec --no-startup-id amixer set Master 5%-
bindsym $mod+F10 exec --no-startup-id amixer set Master toggle

Ref: link

Jekyll

sudo pacman -S ruby

Allow RubyGems to be executed:

// ~/.profile
PATH="$PATH:$(ruby -e 'puts Gem.user_dir')/bin"

Update with source ~/.profile for changes to apply.

Install jekyll and bundler:

gem update
gem install jekyll bundler

Manage browser profile in tmpfs

To manage the browser profile in tmpfs install profile-sync-daemon:

// yay is an AUR helper, visit github.com/Jguer/yay
yay -S profile-sync-daemon

Then activate the service:

psd // and edit the indicated file
psd
systemctl --user start psd.service
systemctl --user enable psd.service

Edit file $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/psd/psd.conf.

Ref: link

Enable Trim on SSD

Verify trim support as described in wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_state_drive#TRIM.

Check if unit fstrim.timer is installed:

systemctl list-unit-files | grep "fstrim"

Enable the timer unit:

systemctl enable fstrim.timer

The timer will activate the service weekly.

Ref: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing).

Netctl

Network profiles are in /etc/netctl, in case you want to remove a profile just delete the relevant file.

List available profiles:

netctl list

Use wifi-menu to generate profiles.

Start a profile:

netctl start <profile>

Enable a profile on boot:

netctl enable <profile>

To delete a profile:

remove it in directory /etc/netctl
remove related file in /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants
remove related directory in /etc/systemd/system/

Disable pc speaker beep

echo "blacklist pcspkr" > /etc/modprobe.d/nobeep.conf

Redshift

pacman -S redshift

Edit file ~/.config/redshift/redshift.conf with latitude and longitude coordinates.

Start with X, before the window manager:

// ~/.xinitrx
redshift &
exec i3

Note that the systemctl user service fails (systemctl --user) (TODO: see arch docs)

Ref: link

Enable F keys on Apple Keyboard

echo "options hid_apple fnmode=2" > /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf

Set custom Keymap in the Virtual Console

Assuming it is the loaded keymap, the file to customise is /usr/local/share/kbd/keymaps/it.map. Add some custom keymaps, for example:

shift altgr keycode 26 = braceleft
shift altgr keycode 27 = braceright

Environment variables

~/.profile
export EDITOR="nvim"
export VISUAL="nvim"

or, with zsh shell,

~/.zprofile
export EDITOR="nvim"
export VISUAL="nvim"

Use source .zprofile to update global environment variables.

Update the mirror list with Reflector

Install reflector:

pacman -Syu reflector

Update the mirror list with the HTTPS mirrors located in either France, Germany or Italy, rate and sort the 20 most recently synchronized mirrors by download speed, and overwrite the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist:

reflector --country France --country Germany --country Italy --latest 20 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Schedule a systemd service that runs reflector at each boot once the network is up:

// /etc/systemd/system/reflector.service
[Unit]
Description=Pacman mirrorlist update
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/reflector --country France --country Germany --country Italy --latest 20 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[Install]
RequiredBy=multi-user.target

Enable the service and the network wait service of netctl:

systemctl enable reflector.service
systemctl enable netctl-wait-online.service

Ref: link

Firefox Developer Edition

Enable spell checking:

pacman -S hunspell hunspell-it
// then restart the browser

Vscode

Disable GPU acceleration adding the following line to file argv.json (Ctrl-Shif-P -> Preferences: Configure Runtime Argument), after that restart vscode:

"disable-hardware-acceleration": true

Full system backup with rsync

rsync -aAXv --delete --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found","/home/riccardo/Git","/home/*/.cache/mozilla/*","/home/*/.cache/chromium/*"} / /mnt

Synchronizing the system clock across the network

Start/enable systemd-timesyncd service:

systemctl start systemd-timesyncd.service
systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

Check the service status with:

timedatectl status

Ref: link

Make a screenshot

scrot -d 5 -c

Make a screencast

Install tools:

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg mkvtoolnix-cli

Find display resolution with:

xrandr -q --current | grep '*' | awk '{print$1}'

Make a sccreencast:

ffmpeg -f x11grab  -s 3840x2160 -i :0.0 -r 25 -vcodec libx264  output.mp4

Make a screencsat on the right screen:

ffmpeg -f x11grab  -s 3840x2160 -i :0.0+3840,0 -r 25 -vcodec libx264  output.mp4

Make a screencast at a lower resolution:

ffmpeg -f x11grab  -s 3840x2160 -i :0.0 -r 25 -vcodec libx264 -vf scale=1920:-1 output.mp4

View the screencast:

mpv output.mp4

Convert djvu to pdf

Install djvulibre

sudo pacman -S djvulibre

Convert to pdf

ddjvu --format=pdf input.djvu output.pdf

Tor

sudo pacman -S torbrowser-launcher

Enable and start tor:

systemctl enable --now tor

Run with:

torbrowser-launcher

Peek

Peek is a simple screen recorder with an easy to use interface, Peek makes it easy to create short screencasts of a screen area. Install Peek with:

sudo pacman -S peek

ocrmypdf

OCRmyPDF adds an OCR text layer to scanned PDF files, allowing them to be searched or copy-pasted.

For the installation, I tried both the AUR way and the brew way without success. Then the Python way saved my day.

Install dependencies:

pacman -S tesseract tesseract-data-eng tesseract-data-ita qpdf python-pip

Install ocrmypd:

pip install ocrmypd

Run ocrmypd (without PATH and environment variables update):

env TESSDATA_PREFIX=/usr/share/tessdata/ ~/.local/bin/ocrmypdf in.pdf out.pdf

Base64

Create base64 data from font files and copy the standard output to the clipboard:

base64 -w 0 my-font.woff2 | xclip -selection clipboard

Errors

Error: too many open files

Command ulimit -n shows the current file limit. Add the following line to /etc/security/limits.conf and reboot.

*               soft    nofile  4096

To Do

move /home to an encripted partition
clone disk (wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dd#Disk_cloning_and_restore)
clean config files (wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance#Clean_the_filesystem)
consolidate colorisation (wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Color_output_in_console#pacman)

Installation notes

Configure the nftables firewall

Security and system auditing

tmux

Autostart X at login

Pacman commands

Cleaning the package cache

Change owner and group ownership of a directory

Mount a partition at boot

Swap

Suspend

Hibernate

LOCALE

Audio (TODO)

Pulseaudio

Image viewer

NVIDIA

Nouveau open source driver

Blacklist intel modules in /etc/default/grub (black screen issue):

Convert svg to png

Setting the framebuffer resolution (TODO):

Composite

Nodejs

nvm

Managing .pac* files

i3

ZSH

Termite

Gtk-3 theme

Locate files

MIME

Add fonts

Imagemagick / Graphicsmagick

Set Wallpaper Image

HiDPI

Miltihead

Set keyboard layout in Xorg

Framebuffer terminal (TODO)

Keyboard bindings

Jekyll

Manage browser profile in tmpfs

Enable Trim on SSD

Netctl

Disable pc speaker beep

Redshift

Enable F keys on Apple Keyboard

Set custom Keymap in the Virtual Console

Environment variables

Update the mirror list with Reflector

Firefox Developer Edition

Vscode

Full system backup with rsync

Synchronizing the system clock across the network

Make a screenshot

Make a screencast

Convert djvu to pdf

Tor

Peek

ocrmypdf

Base64

Errors

To Do

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