32 KiB
Phundrak-flavored Arch Linux
- Introduction
- Install Arch Linux
- Execute bootstrap
- Decrypt private yadm files
- Get a correct keyboard layout
- Set our locale
- Create some folders
- Set user’s shell to fish
- Install basic packages
- Tangle configuration files from Org files
- Setting up Emacs: Installing Spacemacs
- Set up dotfiles’ git repository
- Enable some services
- Symlink some system config files
- Install packages from git
- Install Rust
- Install some python packages
- Set up Chicken (Scheme interpreter/compiler)
- Set up our fish shell
Introduction
Here will be presented what I do to get my system up and running on a fresh Arch Linux install. These installation instructions were written in order to get an Arch Linux distribution up and running with the same configuration as my main computer’s and my travelling laptop’s configuration.
Install Arch Linux
I usually install Arch from the vanilla ISO, however I began using archfi to
install easily the distro (I’ve done it so many times, I know how it works
now). Usually, my distros will be installed on two partitions: /home
and /
(root).
If the computer supports EFI bootloaders, the EFI partition will be mounted on
/boot/efi
. I generally use systemd-boot
as my boot manager, but if you are
more comfortable with another one, just install what you want. Be aware that
if you format your /boot
partition, you will delete all boot managers that
already exist; so, if you are dual-booting, DO NOT FORMAT IT. Yes, I made
the mistake of wiping the Windows boot manager when I used to dual-boot.
In order to use the suspend-then-hibernate
systemd command, it is necessary
to have a swap partition at least twice the size of your installed RAM. That
is because when this command will be run, the system will try to save the
current state of your machine, stored in your RAM, to the swap filesystem. If
there is not enough space, the command will fail, and you won’t be able to use
this command.
Get the latest, fastest mirrors
When you boot into the live ISO, execute the following command:
pacman -Sy reflector
reflector -c FR -c DE -c BE -l 200 -p http -p https --sort rate \
--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist --verbose
This will update the packages from your live ISO, and you will get the best mirrors for your installation. Of course, change the countries accordingly to your location. In my case, I am only interested in French, German, and Belgian mirrors.
Install the system
Then you can use a custom script to ease your installation of Arch if you do
not wish to do it manually. Personally, I’ve done it several times already, I
know how the distro works, I just want to be able to install my distro
quickly now. I’ll need to download the script with wget
, but apparently it
isn’t installed by default on Arch ISOs anymore, so I’ll need to install it.
pacman -S wget
Now, let’s grab the script. You can check it on Github.
wget archfi.sf.net/archfi
# Or from matmoul.github.io/archfi if SourceForge is down
sh archfi
Then, follow the instructions and install Arch Linux. Take the opportunity to
install as many packages as you need, mainly yay
which I use as my package
manager (it is just a wrapper for pacman
) and AUR helper, and
pacman-contrib
which will help us installing some packages later.
Once your system is installed, reboot and remove your installation media from your computer.
Execute bootstrap
With the installation of Arch with archfi
, I will have yay, an AUR helper,
installed. This will allow me to have some basic packages installed in order
to run the bootstrap described below. So, let’s install fish
(our shell
running the script), git
, and my dotfiles manager yadm
.
yay -Sy fish git yadm
yadm
comes with a very handy feature: its bootstrap script. It can be
executed automatically once the dotfiles are cloned with yadm:
yadm clone https://labs.phundrak.com/phundrak/dotfiles
# or if labs.phundrak.com is down or too slow for you
#yadm clone https://github.com/phundrak/dotfiles
Let’s take a look at what it does.
Decrypt private yadm files
Some private files are stored encrypted in the repository of my yadm dotfiles. I will need them later on during the bootstrap execution.
if test "$USER" = 'phundrak'
yadm decrypt
else
whiptail --yesno "Decrypt private files?" 8 40 && yadm decrypt
end
Get a correct keyboard layout
I use mainly the bépo layout, a French keyboard layout inspired by Dvorak layouts, however I sometimes need to switch back to the standard French AZERTY or the American QWERTY layout, so I make it so the Menu key switches for me my layout between these three. This makes it so my xorg configuration of my keyboard looks like this:
set keyboardconf \
'Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbVariant" "bepo_afnor"
Option "XkbOptions" "caps:ctrl_modifier"
EndSection'
So, let’s ask the user if they want to set it as their keyboard configuration.
printf "\n# Set keyboard layout #########################################################\n\n"
whiptail --yesno "Would you like to set your keyboard layout to the bépo layout?" 8 55
if test $status -eq 0
echo $keyboardconf | sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf
end
Set our locale
I use two main locales, the French and US UTF-8 locales, and I like to keep the Japanese locale activated just in case.
set mylocales "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" "fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8" "ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8"
I’ll let the user accept them one by one.
printf "\n# Set locale ##################################################################\n\n"
for item in $mylocales
whiptail --yesno "Set the \"$item\" locale?" 8 40
if test $status -eq 0 -a (grep -e "#$item" /etc/locale.gen)
sudo sed -i "/$item/s/^#//g" /etc/locale.gen
end
end
This is my configuration I usually use when it comes to my locale.
set localeconf "LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C
LC_NAME=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_TIME=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_FR.UTF-8"
Let’s set it as our system’s locale if the user whishes to.
whiptail --yesno "Do you agree to have the following locale set?\n\n $localeconf" 20 43
if test $status -eq 0
echo $localeconf | sudo tee /etc/locale.conf
end
Now we can generate our locale!
printf "\n# Generate locale #############################################################\n\n"
sudo locale-gen
Create some folders
Let’s create some folders we might need for mounting our drives, Android devices and CDs.
printf "\n# Create directories for mounting #############################################\n\n"
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/{USB,CD,Android}
sudo chown $USER:(id -g $USER) /mnt/{USB,CD,Android}
Set user’s shell to fish
First of all, the bootstrap shell will set the user’s shell to fish.
printf "\n# Set fish as the default shell ###############################################\n\n"
whiptail --yesno "Set the current user’s default shell to fish?" 8 50
if test $status -eq 0 -a ! "$SHELL" = '/usr/bin/fish'
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish
end
Install basic packages
Let’s set in a custom varible what packages we’ll be needing.
set PACKAGES \
acpilight adobe-source-han-sans-jp-fonts arc-gtk-theme asar ascii aspell-en \
aspell-fr awesome awesome-terminal-fonts awesome-freedesktop-git base-devel \
bashtop bat biber bitwarden-bin bluez-firmware bluez-utils bookworm bzip2 \
chicken chromium clisp corrupter-git cppcheck cppreference \
cppreference-devhelp cpupower discord-canary discount docker docker-compose \
dockerfile-language-server-bin doxygen emacs emacs-org-mode exa exfat-utils \
farbfeld fd ffmpegthumbnailer findutils firefox flake8 flat-remix-gtk freeglut \
fzf gcc-libs gdb gimp gnome-disk-utility gnome-epub-thumbnailer gnu-free-fonts \
gnuplot go go-tools golangci-lint-bin graphviz htop i3lock-color inetutils \
isync inter-font javascript-typescript-langserver js-beautify jfsutils jmtpfs \
lain-git libxft-bgra linux-headers lldb logrotate ly meson minted man-db \
man-pages mpc mpd mpd-rich-presence-discord-git mpv mupdf-tools nano ncdu \
ncmpcpp nemo-fileroller nemo-preview neofetch netctl network-manager-applet \
networkmanager networkmanager-openvpn nitrogen nm-connection-editor nodejs-vmd \
nomacs nordic-theme-git nordvpn-bin noto-fonts-emoji npm ntfs-3g numlockx \
obs-studio openssh otf-fandol otf-ipafont p7zip pacman-contrib pandoc-bin pass \
pavucontrol pdfpc picom-ibhagwan-git powerline-fonts prettier \
pulseaudio-bluetooth python-autoflake python-epc python-importmagic \
python-language-server python-nose python-pip python-poetry python-ptvsd \
python-pytest qt5-imageformats qemu r raw-thumbnailer reflector ripgrep rofi \
rsync rtv ruby-rb-fsevent ruby-sass rustup samba scrot sent shadow siji-git \
simplescreenrecorder sshfs st-luke-git sxiv texlive-bin texlive-langchinese \
texlive-langcyrillic texlive-langgreek texlive-langjapanese texlive-langkorean \
texlive-latexextra texlive-localmanager-git texlive-most tmux tree \
ttf-arphic-uming ttf-baekmuk ttf-charis-sil ttf-dejavu \
ttf-google-fonts-opinionated-git ttf-hanazono ttf-joypixels ttf-koruri \
ttf-liberation ttf-monapo ttf-sazanami ttf-tibetan-machine typescript \
typescript-language-server-bin unicode-emoji unrar usbutils valgrind \
vscode-css-languageserver-bin vscode-html-languageserver-bin w3m wget \
x11-ssh-askpass xclip xdg-user-dirs-gtk xfce-polkit xidlehook xfsprogs \
xorg-drivers xorg-server xorg-xinit xss-lock xvkbd yaml-language-server-bin \
zeal
These are the minimum I would have in my own installation. You can edit it however you want. Let’s install those.
printf "\n# Installing needed packages ##################################################\n\n"
sudo pacman -Syu
for pkg in $PACKAGES
yay -S --needed $pkg
end
Tangle configuration files from Org files
Before tangling our configuration files, we need to create some directories first so our files can be properly tangled. Here’s the list of directories we need to create:
$HOME/.config/awesome |
$HOME/.config/awesome/theme |
$HOME/.config/emacs/private |
$HOME/.config/fish |
$HOME/.config/gtk-2.0 |
$HOME/.config/gtk-3.0 |
$HOME/.config/ncmpcpp |
$HOME/.config/neofetch |
$HOME/.config/picom |
$HOME/.config/yadm |
$HOME/.local/bin |
$HOME/org/capture |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (format "mkdir -p %s" (car x)))
dirs
"\n")
mkdir -p $HOME/.config/awesome mkdir -p $HOME/.config/awesome/theme mkdir -p $HOME/.config/emacs/private mkdir -p $HOME/.config/fish mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gtk-2.0 mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0 mkdir -p $HOME/.config/ncmpcpp mkdir -p $HOME/.config/neofetch mkdir -p $HOME/.config/picom mkdir -p $HOME/.config/yadm mkdir -p $HOME/.local/bin mkdir -p $HOME/org/capture
Our code to generate such directories looks like this:
<<gen-dirs-tangle()>>
The next step is to tangle all the Org files. Here is the list of files that are to be tangled:
filename |
---|
awesome.org |
bin.org |
emacs.org |
fish.org |
index.org |
picom.org |
rustfmt.org |
tmux.org |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (concat
(format "printf '\\n\\n==== Tangling %s\\n\\n' && \\\n" x)
(concat "emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \\'ob-tangle)' \\\n"
"--eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \\\n"
(format "--eval '(org-babel-tangle-file \"~/org/config/%s\")'\n" x))))
files
"\n")
printf '\n\n==== Tangling awesome.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/awesome.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling bin.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/bin.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling emacs.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/emacs.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling fish.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/fish.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling index.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/index.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling picom.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/picom.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling rustfmt.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/rustfmt.org")' printf '\n\n==== Tangling tmux.org\n\n' && \ emacs -q --batch --eval '(require \'ob-tangle)' \ --eval '(setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)' \ --eval '(org-babel-tangle-file "~/org/config/tmux.org")'
printf "\n# Tangling org files ##########################################################\n\n"
<<generate-tangle()>>
Setting up Emacs: Installing Spacemacs
Now, the first thing we want to do with Emacs is install its Spacemacs
distribution. We’ll clone its develop
branch into ~/.config/emacs
. We
need to do this prior to our dotfiles’ cloning because of some submodules
that are cloned within our ~/.config/emacs
directory, and git won’t let us
clone Spacemacs in an already existing and non-empty directory. To make sure
it isn’t one, let’s delete any potentially existing ~/.config/emacs
directory:
printf "\n# Installing Spacemacs ########################################################\n\n"
rm -rf $HOME/.config/emacs $HOME/.emacs* .spacemacs
Now we can clone Spacemacs:
git clone --branch develop https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs ~/.config/emacs
And we can restore what might have been deleted in our ~/.emacs.d/private
directory:
yadm checkout -- ~/.config/emacs/private/
Set up dotfiles’ git repository
Update our dotfiles’ remotes
This line in the bootstrap script will test if the current user is using my username. If yes, it’s probably me.
if test "$USER" = 'phundrak'
If it is me installing and using these dotfiles, I want the remotes of my dotfiles to be set to ssh remotes using my ssh keys.
printf "\n# Update yadm’s remotes #######################################################\n\n"
yadm remote set-url origin git@labs.phundrak.com:phundrak/dotfiles.git
yadm remote add github git@github.com:phundrak/dotfiles.git
I will also want to decrypt my encrypted files, such as said ssh keys.
printf "\n# Decrypt encrypted dotfiles ##################################################\n\n"
yadm decrypt
Finally, let’s close this if
statement.
end
Update our submodules
Now we can download the various dependencies of our dotfiles. To do so, let’s run the following command:
printf "\n# Getting yadm susbmodules ####################################################\n\n"
yadm submodule update --init --recursive
Enable some services
We have installed some packages which require some services to run. Let’s enable them.
Systemd-timesyncd
This service enables time syncing with the NTP protocol, so I can be sure my computer’s time is correct. The service first needs to be enabled:
printf "\n# Enabling timesync ###########################################################\n\n"
sudo systemctl enable --now systemd-timesyncd
Now, let systemd know I want to use the NTP protocol to keep my computer’s time synced.
sudo timedatectl set-ntp true
Docker
First, let’s activate Docker.
printf "\n# Enabling and starting Docker ################################################\n\n"
sudo systemctl enable --now docker
Now, if we wish it, we can be added to the docker
group so we won’t have
to type sudo
each time we call Docker or Docker Compose.
read --prompt "echo 'Do you wish to be added to the `docker` group? (Y/n): ' " -l adddockergroup
if test $adddockergroup = 'y' || test $adddockergroup = "Y" || test $adddockergroup = ''
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
end
Emacs
Emacs will run as a user service, which means it won’t be launched until we log in. However, the service won’t be started immediately, I personally prefer to start a standalone instance in which installing and compiling the Emacs packages will happen, and then once that is done I will start the service.
printf "\n# Enabling Emacs as user service ##############################################\n\n"
systemctl --user enable emacs
Mpd
Mpd will also use as a user service in order to get rid of some lines of code in my configuration.
printf "\n# Enabling Mpd as a user service ##############################################\n\n"
mkdir -p ~/.config/mpd/playlists
systemctl --user enable --now mpd
SSH server
Maybe we want to activate an SSH server on our machine. If so, we can enable it. Let’s ask the question.
whiptail --yesno 'Do you want to activate the ssh server?' 8 50
if test $status -eq 0
printf "\n# Enabling ssh server #########################################################\n\n"
sudo systemctl enable --now sshd
end
Ly
Ly is a display manager based on ncurses which I find nice enough for me to use (I generally don’t like using display managers). Let’s enable it, and let’s disable tty2 while we’re at it (Ly uses it to run X).
sudo systemctl disable getty@tty2
sudo systemctl enable --now ly
Acpilight
acpilight
is our utility managing the brightness of our screen. There is
actually no service to enable here, but we must ensure the user is part of
the video
group so we can modify the brightness of our screen without
using sudo
.
sudo usermod -aG video $USER
NordVPN
Thanks to the AUR package nordvpn-bin
, I no longer have to manually
maintain my VPN connections with OpenVPN. However, it requires a service
that we should activate:
sudo systemctl enable --now nordvpnd
Let’s also set its default protocol to UDP. This will allow me to use any port while connected to any WiFi as long as the 443 port is available. Because yes, I do connect to a WiFi that blocks some important ports, such as the IMAP and SMTP ports. Thanks University of Paris 8 for being SO paranoid.
nordvpn s protocol udp
Symlink some system config files
We have some files in etc/ that are to be symlinked to /etc
.
for f in (find ~/.etc -type f)
set dest (echo $f | sed -n 's|^.*etc\(.*\)$|/etc\1|p')
sudo ln -s $f $dest
end
Let’s also symlink the plock
script (source here) to /usr/bin
so
xss-lock
can find it.
sudo ln -s (which plock) /usr/bin/plock
Install packages from git
Now, let’s install some packages from git directly.
mkdir -p ~/fromGIT
Reveal.JS
I sometimes use Reveal.JS to make presentations, and I set its location in
my dotspacemacs file to be in ~/fromGIT
, so let’s clone it there.
printf "\n# Install Reveal.JS ###########################################################\n\n"
cd ~/fromGIT
git clone https://github.com/hakimel/reveal.js.git
Install Rust
Install the toolchains
When using Rust, I bounce between two toolchains, the stable
toolchain and
the nightly
toolchain, although I try to stick with Rust Stable. To
install them, I will use rustup
which has already been installed
previously.
printf "\n# Install the rust toolchains, nightly is the default one #####################\n\n"
rustup default stable
This will both download the stable toolchain and set it as the default one. Now to install the nightly toolchain, let’s run this:
rustup toolchain install nightly
Install some utilities
We’ll need some utilities when developing Rust from Emacs, namely rustfmt
and racer
. Let’s install them with cargo
.
printf "\n# Add rust utilities ##########################################################\n\n"
cargo install rustfmt racer
We will also need some components for development purposes.
Component | Why |
---|---|
rust-src | Rust documentation in Emacs |
rls | LSP backend for Emacs |
clippy | A better version of cargo’s check command |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (format "rustup component add %s" x))
components
"\n")
rustup component add rust-src rustup component add rls rustup component add clippy
Here is the code to do so:
<<rust-components-gen()>>
Install some python packages
Some packages will be needed from pip in order to get our Emacs setup correctly working.
Package | Why |
---|---|
python-language-server[all] | Python LSP packages |
pyls-isort | Import sortings for LSP |
pyls-mypy | Mypy linter for LSP |
pyls-black | Black plugin for pyls |
(format "pip install --user %s"
(s-join " " packages))
pip install --user python-language-server[all] pyls-isort pyls-mypy pyls-black
Let’s install them locally for our user.
printf "\n# Installing Python packages ##################################################\n\n"
<<python-packages-gen()>>
Set up Chicken (Scheme interpreter/compiler)
Chicken needs to be set up before being used. First, we need to install its documentation.
printf "\n# Setting up Chicken ##########################################################\n\n"
chicken-install -s apropos chicken-doc
Then, we’ll complete the documentation like so:
cd (chicken-csi -b -e "(import (chicken platform))" -p "(chicken-home)")
curl https://3e8.org/pub/chicken-doc/chicken-doc-repo.tgz | sudo tar zx
Set up our fish shell
The last thing we want to do is to set up our fish shell with some extensions in order to improve the user experience.
Install fisher
We will be using fisher
as our extensions manager for Fish. Let’s install
it.
printf "\n# Installing fisher ###########################################################\n\n"
curl https://git.io/fisher --create-dirs -sLo ~/.config/fish/functions/fisher.fish
Install our extensions
I generally use the following extensions in my Fish shell.
Package name | Description |
---|---|
decors/fish-colored-man | Color man pages to make them more readable |
franciscolourenco/done | Automatically receive notifications when a long process finishes |
jethrokuan/fzf | Improved key bindings for junegunn/fzf |
jethrokuan/z | Pure-fish rupa/z-like directory jumping |
jorgebucaran/fish-bax | Run bash scripts, replaying environment changes in fish |
jorgebucaran/fish-getopts | CLI options parser; alternative to the argparse fish builtin |
laughedelic/pisces | Autoclose parentheses, braces, quotes and other paired symbols |
oh-my-fish/theme-bobthefish | A Powerline-style, Git-aware fish theme optimized for awesome. |
(mapconcat (lambda (x) (format "fisher add %s" x))
extensions
"\n")
fisher add decors/fish-colored-man fisher add franciscolourenco/done fisher add jethrokuan/fzf fisher add jethrokuan/z fisher add jorgebucaran/fish-bax fisher add jorgebucaran/fish-getopts fisher add laughedelic/pisces fisher add oh-my-fish/theme-bobthefish
printf "\n# Installing Fisher Extensions ################################################\n\n"
<<fish-extensions-gen()>>