Manual Install

Create an EFI, swap, and root partition. Mount the EFI and root partitions and enable the swap drive with swapon.

Settings for archinstall

  • Archinstall language: English
  • Keyboard layout: us
  • Mirror region: United States
  • Locale language: en_US
  • Locale encoding: UTF-8
  • Drives: 8.0 GB
  • Disk layout: Wipe all drives, ext4
  • Encryption password: None
  • Bootloader: grub-install
  • Swap: True
  • Hostname: linux-arch-i3wm
  • Root password: arch
  • User account: username:nathan | password:arch | sudo:true
  • Profile: desktop, i3-gaps, VMware/VirtualBox
  • Audio: pipewire
  • Kernels: linux
  • Additional packages: firefox, alacritty
  • Network configuration: Copy ISO configuration
  • Timezone: US/Central
  • NTP: True
  • Optional repositories: None

Settings for i3-gaps

Creating xinitrc config file:

  • cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
  • add twm & (newline) exec xrandr --output Virtual1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 60

Editing startup procedure, adding bg manager and polybar

  1. sudo pacman -S feh polybar
  2. vim ~/.config/i3/config
  3. Add three lines:
    1. exec_always --no-startup-id xrandr --output Virtual1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 60
    2. exec_always --no-startup-id feh --bg-scale ~/Downloads/file-name-background.jpg
    3. exec_always --no-startup-id polybar
      1. Note: the --no-startup-id flag is used to prevent startup notification support which eliminates the loading cursor on the i3wm desktop.
  4. Add three more lines:
    1. for_window [class=”.*”] border pixel 0
    2. gaps inner 10
    3. gaps outer 5

Editing default terminal https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Alacritty:

  1. sudo pacman -S alacritty
  2. vim ~/.config/i3/config
  3. Change the terminal launch line to bindsym $mod+Return exec alacritty

Installing picom https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Picom:

  1. sudo pacman -S picom
  2. cp /etc/xdg/picom.conf ~/.config/picom/picom.conf
  3. Change vsync = false; and inactive-opacity = 0.80
  4. Add exec --no-startup-id picom to ~/.config/i3/config

Install spotify from the AUR:

  1. sudo pacman -S git
  2. sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel
  3. git clone [https://aur.archlinux.org/spotify.git](https://aur.archlinux.org/spotify.git)
  4. cd spotify
  5. makepkg -si
  6. gpg --recv-keys PUBLIC_KEY
  7. makepkg -si
  8. spotify -version
  9. spotify --no-zygote (for GPU error that is possibly caused in VM’s only.)

Switching to the sddm login manager:

  1. sudo pacman -Ru lightdm-gtk-greeter followed by sudo pacman -Ru lightdm
  2. Remove the pointer file sudo rm /whateverpaththefileisin/file.file
  3. sudo pacman -S sddm
  4. sudo systemctl enable sddm
  5. git clone [https://aur.archlinux.org/sddm-sugar-candy-git.git](https://aur.archlinux.org/sddm-sugar-candy-git.git)
  6. cd sddm-sugar-candy-git
  7. makepkg -si
  8. sudo vim /usr/lib/sddm/sddm.conf.d/default.conf
  9. Under [Theme] change to Current=sugar-candy

Installing custom GRUB theme:

  1. Download Vimix-1080p.tar.xz from https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1009236
  2. sudo tar xf Vimix-1080p.tar.xz
  3. cd Vimix-1080p
  4. sudo ./install.sh -b

Installing and switching to zsh:

  1. List current shell using neofetch or echo $SHELL
  2. sudo pacman -S zsh
  3. zsh and chsh -l to verify zsh is installed
  4. chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh
  5. $mod+Shift+E to restart i3 and apply changes

Installing p10k fonts and zsh-for-humans

  1. Installing the fonts
    1. First, download the four fonts given here
    2. cd /usr/local/share/fonts/
    3. sudo mkdir ttf
    4. cd ttf
    5. sudo mkdir MesloLGS
    6. cd ~/Downloads
    7. sudo cp 'MesloLGS NF Regular.ttf' /usr/local/share/fonts/ttf/MesloLGS/ repeat for all four fonts
    8. cd /usr/local/share/fonts/ttf/MesloLGS
    9. Change the permissions so that all users can read, write, and execute the files with sudo chmod a=rwx 'MesloLGS NF Regular.ttf' repeat for all four fonts
    10. sudo Xorg :2 -configure to generate a new config file at /root/xorg.conf.new
    11. sudo cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    12. cd /etc/X11/ and ls -a to check for the file
    13. sudo vim xorg.conf and find Section "Files"
    14. Add FontPath "/usr/local/share/fonts/ttf/MesloLGS/"
    15. cd ~ and fc-cache to update fontconfig cache
    16. Change the default font in alacritty

      1. cd ~/.config/alacritty

      2. touch alacritty.yml

      3. sudo vim alacritty.yml

      4. Add the following code

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        font:
  normal:
    family: "MesloLGS NF"

      5. $mod+Shift+Q for changes to take effect

  2. Installing zsh-for-humans

    1. Reload i3 $mod+Shift+E

    2. Paste the code below into a shell

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      if command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/zsh4humans/v5/install)"
else
  sh -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/zsh4humans/v5/install)"
fi

    3. 2, 1, n, n for the initial setup questions

    4. Answer the following graphical questions as they come, everything should work if the fonts are properly installed

    5. 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 4, 2, 2, 1, n

Improving vim

  1. Make sure Alacritty is running in true color mode

    1. cd .config/alacritty/ then vim alacriltty.yml

    2. Add the following

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      env:
    TERM: xterm-256color

    3. Test the output using this script from: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/404414/print-true-color-24-bit-test-pattern

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      #!/bin/bash
# Based on: https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728

awk -v term_cols="${width:-$(tput cols || echo 80)}" 'BEGIN{
    s="/\\";
    for (colnum = 0; colnum<term_cols; colnum++) {
        r = 255-(colnum*255/term_cols);
        g = (colnum*510/term_cols);
        b = (colnum*255/term_cols);
        if (g>255) g = 510-g;
        printf "\033[48;2;%d;%d;%dm", r,g,b;
        printf "\033[38;2;%d;%d;%dm", 255-r,255-g,255-b;
        printf "%s\033[0m", substr(s,colnum%2+1,1);
    }
    printf "\n";
}'

  2. Run the following to install vim-plug

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    curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

  3. cd ~, then touch .vimrc

  4. sudo vim .vimrc

  5. Add the following code for the vim-airline plugin and the everforest theme

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    call plug#begin()

Plug 'vim-airline/vim-airline'
Plug 'vim-airline/vim-airline-themes'
Plug 'sainnhe/everforest'

call plug#end()

syntax on

if has('termguicolors')
    set termguicolors
endif

set background=dark
let g:everforest_background = 'hard'
let g:everforest_better_performance = 1
let g:airline_theme = 'everforest'

colorscheme everforest

  6. vim then :PlugInstall

Theming Alacritty

  1. Add the contents of this markdown file to ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml

Improving neofetch

  1. Backup the current config cd ~/.config/neofetch/ && rename config.conf configbackup.conf config.conf
  2. Clone the following git clone [https://github.com/Chick2D/neofetch-themes/](https://github.com/Chick2D/neofetch-themes/) into the home directory
  3. mv neofetch-themes/normal/config.conf ~/.config/neofetch/config.conf

Replacing htop with btm

  1. sudo pacman -Rs htop
  2. sudo pacman -S bottom
  3. call with btm
  4. custom coloring available in ~/.config/bottom.toml. Coloring should be fine if the Alacritty theme is already set.

Installing polybar themes

  1. Install the following packages first
    1. sudo pacman -Syu polybar rofi pywal calc networkmanager_dmenu
    2. Nerdfont should already be installed from the p10k setup
  2. git clone --depth=1 [https://github.com/adi1090x/polybar-themes.git](https://github.com/adi1090x/polybar-themes.git)
  3. cd polybar-themes
  4. chmod +x setup.sh