this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025

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Arch Linux – Best Tips for Beginners? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I’m planning to install Arch Linux for the first time. Any recommendations on setup, must-have applications, or best practices? Also, what’s something you wish you knew before switching to Arch?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Arch was the distro that got me to stop distro-hopping. It's stable, it has a rolling release, and it's mine (as in, customizable, manageable).

I guess, if there's anything I wish I'd known off the bat is that the Arch documentation is probably the best available. So much so, a LOT of it applies to Linux in general and not strictly to Arch.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_page

If something breaks, READ the error messages, understand each component, and check the wiki, there's a very high chance the troubleshooting section has the exact issue laid out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I'm using manjaro-i3 for a pretty long time now (6-7 years) and I'm fully satisfied, I won't change any time soon. It was not very difficult at first, even though I wasn't a linux user when I moved to manjaro. I would just maybe move to sway instead of i3 which seems probably more modern now.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I can recommend using endeavourOS if you do not want to waste time

But if you want to learn, go for it! Make sure to have the arch wiki ready on a second device

And understand what chroot is, is very important 😆😌

Edit: Ah and don’t forget to install yet another yoghurt

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you go the EOS route, yay is already installed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, and I love it

Maybe I should have added “if going the arch route”..

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ditch it and go straight to NIxOS

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Arch" for people who think Arch is too easy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

lol Arch wasn't hard and neither was vanilla NixOS, in fact NixOS was easier

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Not if you have a weird app that only installs with a self-executing tarball. But for initial setup, sure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Be aware that some apps will install fine from the arch repo but some others will be better installed from flatpack (e.g. inkscape) or directly as an executable (e.g. Godot).

On steam you may need to specify your video card if you run an AMD card using the DRI prime command. Some games will require -vulkan to use vulkan rather than game settings.

Note: experience may vary by compositor (xorg/wayland), desktop environment, drivers, system hardware, and your willingness to dive into details.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The only thing I have ever installed using Flatpak on Arch is pgAdmin. Inkscape from the repos works fine for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Nice!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What exactly works better on flatpak version? Until now, for any packages that were somehow different, repo vs flatpak, were working better in repo version. (Due to container thingy, because flatpak version could bot see everything and I was zoo lazy to fix it using flatseal 😆)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Seems to be program by program. Usually an issue with plasma or wayland or drivers.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’ve had Discord not be up to date in the AUR. Moved to flatpak and haven’t had that issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Huh, works well for me, ig updates come a little late sometimes but never unable to use it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What was your experience with Inkscape and Godot? I have those both installed from repo.

I've never felt the need to use flatpak at all on arch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Godot had some driver issues. Inkscape had issues with the interface fonts.

Plasma 6/wayland

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

don't use archinstall if it's the first time, the manual installation is not that hard

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Yea, I would say either go for arch manually or go straight to endeavourOS

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I installed Arch like that. When I had to do a new install, I forgot everything, then I used archinstall with Xfce option and it worked fine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I learned so much from just going wiki-diving at every step of the installation and post-installation

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

i don't think i went wiki diving really, i just followed what it said but it gave me a nice overview of what does what in an arch system that i could expand on later

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Don't cheap out and use the hand holding script to ez mode the install. At least not the first time. You will learn a few things along the way.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

Use EndeavousOS instead because the initial install process is simpler.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Check ArchLinux.org for news before you kick off an update. It's got an RSS feed and a mailing list if that helps.

Read the Wiki, and turn to it first for any issues you have.

This one may be a special "me" problem, but if you're manually interacting with wpa_supplicant, stop and go read the Networking page in the Wiki again.

Learn how to use journalctl (at least superficially) before something goes wrong.

Generally you want to restart after an update to the kernel or graphics drivers or things start degrading strangely.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I'm surprised it isn't the norm to have a hook that checks it as part of pacman updating.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

From the bottom of the installation guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_recommendations

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