Pre-installation
Writing an iso to usb
Writing an iso is explained thoroughly in this article.
We start either from
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
We can also burn an iso with dd (linux) from the terminal.
Checking iso for errors
We provide you with different ways to see if an iso is corrupted or not.
- sha1
- sha256
- md5sum
You will find the checksums on Sourceforge and on Seedhost then you need to check them locally with the information that is supplied online.
The checksums should match.
Checking the signature or .sig
This is a more complex thing because of the keyservers not being “up-to-specs” lately.
See that you have gnupg installed.
See that you have a .gnupg folder.
See that you have a file called gpg.conf in .gnupg with this keyserver in it (just that one) keyserver hkp://keys.openpgp.org:80
Then you can get the key.
gpg --recv-keys 74F5DE85A506BF64
Then you can verify a download with the sig file.
gpg --verify arcolinuxl-v22.03.06-x86_64.iso.sha256.sig gpg: assuming signed data in 'arcolinuxl-v22.03.06-x86_64.iso.sha256' gpg: Signature made Wed 23 Feb 2022 01:36:26 PM CET gpg: using RSA key 93D1CCB2B2421F4B1CD0489774F5DE85A506BF64 gpg: Good signature from "Erik Dubois <erik.dubois@gmail.com>" [ultimate]
Bios/Uefi
We have create an extensive but clear article what you should know about installing linux on your computer.
Once everything is set correctly, you can install any Linux operating system.
Nvidia
These days the linux kernel is so far evolved that it will support a wide range of graphical drivers out of the box.
If, however, you really need the proprietary driver of Nvidia then this can be installed. The Arch Wiki will provide you with a lot of answers.
During the installation process you can choose what nvidia package you would like to install. See the installation video to see what you can choose.
Follow the link to many nvidia and display related articles.
News from ArcoLinux
We communicate via a diversity of social media but we also communicate via Youtube.
We use playlists on Youtube to be able to focus on a topic.
News from Arch Linux
As an ArcoLinux user you need to follow the news on the Arch Linux website.
installation
Complete calamares guide - Calamares is our graphical installer
Calamares is free and is an universal installer framework. That means you can install many Linux distros with it.
You can visit the website here.
You can visit the github and report issues here.
Calamares is NOT from ArcoLinux.
ArcoLinux believes in and endorses Calamares. We improve the installer by posting issues on the github.
We have an extensive article (30+ videos) just about Calamares called
Dual-booting with linux or with windows
If you are a beginner in Linux we would advise against dual booting. We often get frustrated people on our forum with problems concerning dual booting.
We recommend installing just one operating system on a hard disk or SSD. You can buy a ssd bay and switch ssds that way like in this project. This can help you on a desktop computer but not on a laptop.
However we have many articles about dual-booting if you really need it.
Follow the link to see our articles about dual-booting.
We have an extensive article (30+ videos) just about Calamares where you learn more about dual-booting.
Encrypting your partitions
We have an extensive article (30+ videos) just about Calamares. Part of the videos will cover encryption.
Installing ArcoLinux
With every new Calamares we will make a new “How to install ArcoLinux” and “How to install ArcoLinuxD” on YouTube. The ArcoLinuxB are derivatives of ArcoLinux and the installation procedure is the same. Even those installation videos are created for the users.
Follow the link to see our article about installing the latest version of ArcoLinux.
Follow the link to see our article about installing the latest version of ArcoLinuxD.
Where to get help
Use our forum to solve issues or post your questions.
Use our YouTube channel and the search button to find solutions.
Use the playlists of our YouTube channel to find solutions and focus on the topic of the moment.
Join us on the forum, Discord, Telegram, Facebook, Mewe, YouTube and never miss anything.
Make it possible to help you.
Often language, the lack of technical terms, etc. make it difficult to help users.
This is how you can help us help you. We have written several articles on how to report effectively.
post-installation
Update your system
Updating is inherent to all OSs. We recommend you update via the terminal. You can also update via graphical GUI applications like pamac-aur or discover.
Updating via terminal has some advantages
- you get to know the commands and their aliases
- you see the same texts developers can
- you see the messages pacman sends
- you see the warnings, errors or all clear messages
- you learn how pacman and yay work
- you learn to know the name of the packages
- you learn which packages matter
- you know what you installed
We provide many video’s on how to update in order to stay rolling and to never re-install ever again.
Follow this link to see the current collection of update videos.
Every other month there is a release of the iso and every month there is a “what is new video” and a “how to stay rolling video“. These videos are very educational to watch.
We have a playlist on YouTube only about updating or how to stay rolling.
Here you can find everything you need to know about updating your system – educational version.
Here you can find everything you need to know about updating your system – superfast version.
Things to do after a clean install
We have gathered all the possible things to do after a clean installation in this article.
It will also include the nemesis scripts and the arcogetstarted scripts.
Follow this link to get more information on what to do after a clean install.
Choose different kernel
As a rule the latest linux kernel will always work. Hardware is however very diverse. Sometimes you need to choose a different kernel like linux-lts or linux-zen or linux-hardened or kernels from the AUR. You can also downgrade kernels.
During the ArcoLinux installation Calamares lets you choose between linux and linux-lts kernel.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is available on ArcoLinux. If you are missing the hardware, you can expand your computer with a bluetooth dongle with a small investment.
Display resolution
For tiling window managers I would like to give you the tip to search our websites for the words arandr, xrandr and lxrandr to set your display resolution. Other desktops often have tools available to set your display.
Follow this link to see the current articles about resolution.
Wallpaper changes automatically
We have an application called variety. You can use it to set your wallpaper or to change it automatically after a period of time.
Follow this link to find all articles in the category wallpaper.
Samba or sharing data over your personal network
Samba is all about sharing data with others. In order to do so you need to set up a samba server. This can be quite complex because it is used in the context of enterprises but on ArcoLinux we keep it simple for the home users, who would like to share data between computers.
pacman is our package manager
pacman sync
The goal is to sync the pacman databases with the command
sudo pacman -Sy
Pacman stores the databases locally in /var/lib/pacman/sync/.
pacman sync forced
The goal is to sync the pacman databases with the online databases with force this time.
We sync the databases with the command
sudo pacman -Syy
Pacman stores the databases locally in /var/lib/pacman/sync/.
pacman sync update
The goal is to sync the pacman databases with the online databases and update our system.
We sync the databases with the command
sudo pacman -Syu
Pacman stores the databases locally in /var/lib/pacman/sync/.
pacman sync forced and update
The goal is to sync the pacman databases with the online databases with force and update our system.
We sync the databases with the command
sudo pacman -Syyu
Pacman stores the databases locally in /var/lib/pacman/sync/.
We use this command as our alias for update.
pacman install
The goal is to install packages.
Foobar is a fictive package.
sudo pacman -S foobar
pacman install package group or a meta group
In both cases the goal is to install a bunch of packages.
GROUP PACKAGES
There are actually several packages in one group.
Here you can find the list of all package groups.
https://www.archlinux.org/groups/
Many of the desktops will have a group package to install a complete desktop. Follow the url and find mate, plasma, xfce4 and xfce4-goodies and so many more.
These are the ones we also use in our cheatsheet on ArcoLinux.
You can not uninstall a group package.
META PACKAGES
If you do an Arch Way installation one of the first meta packages you will install are
pacman -S base
Read on the Arch Wiki about the difference between group and meta package.
Simply put, meta-packages are packages that do nothing but depend on other packages. The result of this is that you can install a group of packages at once by installing a single meta-package. Now, Arch Linux has a similar concept: package groups, and while they serve a similar purpose they are suitably different. The difference is when you add or remove dependencies – groups will not install/remove additional dependencies whereas meta packages will. When a dependency is added our system will install it automatically.
You can uninstall a metapackage.
pacman remove package leaving dependencies
Removing packages you no longer need can be done with
sudo pacman -R foobar
pacman remove package and removing also the dependencies
Removing packages and the dependencies, which are not required by any other installed package, can be done with
sudo pacman -Rs foobar
pacman query
To query means to ask. You are asking questions and pacman will respond.
There are more flags possible here but remember that the Q stands for query. You can try these commands out without any harm. You are asking for info. Replace foobar with firefox for example.
sudo pacman -Q foobar
sudo pacman -Qs foobar
sudo pacman -Qi foobar
sudo pacman -Ql foobar
sudo pacman -Si foobar
You can find the summary on the Arch Wiki.
If you found a file and you wonder what packages have actually delivered this file then type this
sudo pacman -Qo /path/to/file_name
pacman-keyring
Arch Linux has a way of determining if a package is authentic. The packages are signed.
In the Arch Linux community developers come and go and with them keys will be deleted and added.
The only thing you have to remember is a package to install if you see a message about the keys.
sudo pacman -S archlinux-keyring
This keyring is stored in this folder.
/usr/share/pacman/keyrings/
Here is an example of how to fix issues of this kind.
Here is another example for “key could not be looked up remotely”.
pacman key problem
Sometimes you need one specific key from a developer and the archlinux-keyring will not provide you this one. So installing archlinux-keyring
sudo pacman -S archlinux-keyring
did not work.
Pacman will mention the key that is missing when updating or installing in the terminal. Use the key to complete the command
I have taken a key as an example. It will look similar to this one.
gpg2 --keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve --receive-keys A6234074498E9CEE
After receiving the key (and that can take a while), you can try to update or install again.
pacman-keyring re-initialize
The information to help you with this can be found on this Arch Linux wiki page.
sudo rm -r /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
sudo pacman-key --init
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
sudo pacman-key --populate arcolinux
sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 74F5DE85A506BF64
We locally sign to trust the key of ArcoLinux.
We have a script to fix the keys – type the following command in a terminal
fixkey
pacman cache
When you download packages pacman is going to store it somewhere. You will find them in this folder.
/var/cache/pacman/pkg/
The size of this folder can grow over time (if you keep rolling) as it is not automatically cleaned out. The advantage is that you can downgrade a package later.
You can clean up the cache folder and gain a few GB with this command. If we build an iso, it is a good practice to delete the cache as well.
sudo pacman -Sc
pacman.conf
The settings for pacman are kept in
/etc/pacman.conf
We only go in there to activate the test repositories.
There is an alias to change the content – for advanced users and beta-testers.
npacman
Here you can find an article about pacman.conf where we add old repositories back to our pacman.conf to get our submicron wallpapers back.
pacman.d
Your folder /etc/pacman.d/ holds two files. Pacman needs to know where to get its files. These are the source files if you will.
- where can I find the packages for Arch Linux aka mirrorlist
- where can I find the packages for ArcoLinux aka arcolinux-mirrorlist
The content of arcolinux-mirrorlist is fixed and is now: seedhost (paid) and github (free)
The content of mirrorlist (so just Arch Linux) is fixed by our alias mirror. It will get the fastest Arch Linux servers in your neighborhood.
pacman mirrors
We have created several aliases to get the fastest Arch Linux servers in your neighborhood.
- mirror
- mirrora
- mirrord
- mirrors
They are all a little bit different and will result in a different mirrorlist in the /etc/pacman.d folder. See also topic “pacman.d”.
Then you can update your system and see if you are downloading faster than before.
pacman management
Sometimes we run out of disk space. This mostly happens on dual boot systems.
You can clean out the cache folder and gain a few GB.
sudo pacman -Scc
Pacman stores the databases locally in /var/lib/pacman/sync/.
The pacman databases will occasionally get corrupted. Removing the files in this folder and updating your system will create new databases.
sudo rm /var/lib/pacman/sync/* update
Type in the terminal this command
pacman -Suv
You will get all the important places pacman is going to use.
Conf File : /etc/pacman.conf DB Path : /var/lib/pacman/ Cache Dirs: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ Hook Dirs : /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/ /etc/pacman.d/hooks/ Lock File : /var/lib/pacman/db.lck Log File : /var/log/pacman.log GPG Dir : /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
More pacman information online
This a a collection of interesting links
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/pacman
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance
pamac is our graphical package manager
Pamac
Pamac is a graphical application coming from Manjaro. We can install it from the AUR. These days we have it on our repository.
On most ArcoLinux desktops we will include this package.
It has many functionalities
- install packages
- remove packages
- update packages
- analyze packages on content
- analyze packages on dependencies
- AUR packages can be included
We advise you to update your system via the terminal. On this page we explain a way but ultimately it does not matter if you update via a graphical application or via a terminal. The result will be the same.
AUR HELPERS
YAY
Yay is what they call an AUR-helper. It literally helps you install packages from the AUR.
Installed by default.
Yay works as a pass-through for pacman. Packages from Arch Linux repositories can also be installed (or removed) that way.
sudo pacman -S firefox yay -S firefox
But packages that are originate from AUR have to be installed with yay. Foobar is a fictive package.
yay -S foobar
ArcoLinux wants to have 2 AUR helpers. If one breaks down, we can use the other.
PARU
Paru is what they call an AUR-helper. It literally helps you install packages from the AUR.
Installed by default
Paru works as a pass-through for pacman. Packages from Arch Linux repositories can also be installed (or removed) that way.
sudo pacman -S firefox paru -S firefox
But packages that are originate from AUR have to be installed with paru. Foobar is a fictive package.
paru -S foobar
ArcoLinux wants to have 2 AUR helpers. If one breaks down, we can use the other.
TRIZEN
Trizen is what they call an AUR-helper. It literally helps you install packages from AUR.
Trizen also works a pass-through for pacman. Packages from Arch Linux repositories can also be installed (or removed) that way.
sudo pacman -S firefox trizen -S firefox
But packages that are coming from AUR, they need to be installed with trizen. Foobar is a fictive package.
trizen -S foobar
ArcoLinux wants to have 2 AUR helpers. If one breaks down, we can use the other.