arch lin

Lin Distros

• minimal

  • Package managers
  • Firmware-Hardware
  • Partitioning
  • display server
    • x11
    • wayland - new, more secure, slim, still not much used
  • init systems
    • system D - usually “bloated” init system - LS
      • what? init system
        • first process that starts after booting, runs on bkg to manage services etc
        • launch what you need, in specific order
      • sysV
      • cons
        • one point of failure sunce it’s monolythic
        • mainly red-hat project
        • kind of bloated
          • it is modular but most people implement this all togheter
          • at the same time, it’s fast
        • pushes other software to be dependant on it
          • creates problems to distros not willing to use systemD
        • hides certain configs behind its own tools
          • especially bad if you want to change text files
      • pros
        • written in C
        • mantained
  • kernel - src
    • linux stable - 2 months stable
    • linux lts - 2 years stable
    • libre kernel - does not allow proprietary stuff
      • usually these proprietary stuff gives hardware support
        • so you might not be able to use this at all
      • released after a few days of linux stable
    • hardened kernel - non official more secure kernel
      • incompatible with systemd
      • might brake some software
    • android kernel - specific for mobile devices
    • real-time & low latency
      • reduce latency between input and output of task at the cost of… much, especially multitasking
      • applications needs to be tailored to this to be useful
    • zen kernel & xan mod - better performance
    • TKG kernels -
  • firmware blobs
  • UEFI vs legacy Bios
    • supports big storage
    • supports graphics when you boot
  • Table partitioning
    • GPT
    • MBR - no more than 2TB
  • boot loader/manager
    • grub
      • grub-install
      • grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  • Audio
    • ALSA - driver hard to use
      • cannot play 2 audio at the same time by default
      • complex config
      • no docs
    • options
      • pulseaudio
        • everything just works
        • bad
      • pipewire - new kid in the block to kill pusleaudio + jack
  • file systems

• Initial configuration

  • archinstall
    • mirror
      • where software come from? better if close to phisical location like Italy
    • f
      • 
    • img
      • 
  • exit (chroot) - sometimes you also need to reboot
    • especially if startx gives you permission denied. Reboot and log-in with default user like e
  • keyboard layout - src
    • localectl set-keymap uk
    • gb is great britain
  • resolution
    • pacman -S xorg-xrandr
    • xrandr - see all devices
    • go to xinit
    • xrandr —output HDMI-1 —mode 1920x1080 —rate 60
  • user & add password
    • useradd -m -g wheel myNewUserName
    • passwd myNewUserName
    • nano /etc/sudoers
    • 
  • fonts
    • quick: pacman -S tff-dejavu
  • xorg

    • pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit

    • add to ~/.xinitrc: exec dwm or whatever u using

    • xinit

    • kill xorg server: ctrl + alt + backspace

    • Fixing xinit/startx not running without sudo

      sudo usermod -aG tty username

      • Not sure if these stuff is useful

        sudo chmod 660 /dev/tty2 sudo chmod 660 /dev/tty3

        no screens found

        X -configure sudo cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

        cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/

        
        

      startx or xinit — :1 -nolisten tcp vt$XDG_VTNR that’s the enchanced way to do xinit needed in systemd -nolisten tcp optional but great

  • default browser
    • xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/http
      • output: brave-browser.desktop
    • xdg-mime default firefox.desktop x-scheme-handler/http x-scheme-handler/https
      • to change it lin app dev tools

• Smaller

  • Customize startup settings

    • nano ~/.profile - these run after log-in
    • $PATH - path that lin check to run commands

    • if have bashrc, run it

    .bashrc && . ~/.bashrc

    export PATH=$PATH:&HOME/.scripts export EDITOR=“vim” export TERMINAL=“st” export BROWSER=“firefox”

  • additional downloads

    • git
    • neofetch
    • resource monitor - just use top, lol
      • htop
      • btop
      • gtop
      • mission center v
    • vim
    • nano
    • cmatrix
    • man (core repo)
    • Helpers for AUR - needs base-devel & git
      • sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

      • paru

        • rustup for cargo pkg
      • yay - mantainer ditched it and created paru
    • Paru needed
      • vscodium - paru -S vscodium-bin
        • if you get permissions errors is because it’s setup by default to use /run/user/0, the problem is that this directory changes based on who log-in first in the TTY
      • brave bin

  • export LC_TIME=‘en_US.UTF-8’

    • if not, AM/PM won’t show!?