KAES-ARCH

Post Install for vanilla Arch KDE. A single setup script from a default install.

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Get the installation medium

Can download the x86_64 ISO here: ArchDownload

Use rufus or dd to flash USB. Use GPT/MBR appropriate to hardware (usually GPT for most UEFI newer devices).

Boot off the USB with DEL or f10 or f12 to get to BIOS.

Setup network

Ethernet works out of the box. Plug a cable and go.

For wifi: iwctl station wlan0 connect "SSID" SSID being the name of your WiFi (case sensitive) and it should prompt you for password.

Test: ping google.com, you should see 64 bytes from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xx.xxx.xxx.xxxx): icmp_seq=1 ttl=109 time=13.9 ms then it means you are all good to go!

Run pacman-key --init && pacman -Sy archinstall then y.

Then archinstall (for noobs, btw) make sure to go through all the steps:

Forked our own simplified installer here which you can do to skip most of the steps bellow. Vase

Archinstall walkthrough

You can skip this section if you are familiar with arch installations.

• Keymap select your own.
• Locales: Use en_GB.UTF-8 for European format, en_US.UTF-8 for PM/AM.

Locale encoding can be left as UTF-8 if not using some special alphabets.

• Mirrors: Select a region where download speed will be fast.

• For formatting: Use-best effort (This WILL wipe data on this disk)

I usually use Ext4. (With seperate home partition)

• Swap zram: Enabled (Creates a 4GB in case of memory need)

• Bootloader: Grub

• Hostname: lowercase and descriptive

• Authentification: Also lowercase. Strong root password.

Create a user with sudo (required for KDE/SDDM) lowercase. Make the password different from root ideally.

• Profile: Type Desktop/Plasma

  • Graphics drivers: select appropriate to your hardware.
  • Greeter: sddm

• Applications: Pipewire for audio as it's dep of KDE + Bluetooth set-up if needed.

• Kernels: try linux-zen for gaming ! You can even install mutiple and they should show up in your Grub entries.

• Network Configuration: NetworkManager for GUI access.

• Timezone: Select your region in list.

• NTP: Enabled

Personal preferences for reference. Use your prefered set-ups. Only real dependancy is Sddm and KDE-Plasma.

IMPORTANT DO NOT SKIP ANY STEPS: Make sure to select mirrors, time zone, etc... etc! Please check you didn't miss any.

ALSO IMPORTANT! Reboot to hard disk. (Make sure to switch boot orders in BIOS, or you install again?)

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After first reboot

Login normally using the user you created. This will let KDE create all the files it needs (or I need). Also if you are using several screens, make sure to only plug-in the main one at first, you can then plug others ones in after.

Access the post-install script

After login with your user, open Konsole and navigate to Vase:

cd Vase

This is where the post-install script lives and more assets.

Edit the script

Edit to desired values using:

DE Choices: plasma | gnome | xfce4 | sway | hypr

sudo ./main -pe <DE>

This will open the post script in your configured editor (vim by default, configurable in ... file).

Key settings to configure:

DTHEME=dark
KB_LAYOUT=us
VARIANT=""

Variant is optional, can be left empty. Applies for the current sudo user by default.

Using vim you can use insert to edit, ESC to enter command mode and :wq to write changes. You can also go through some of the rest of the code as there might be some programs you want to add/remove.

Run the post-install

When ready, run: sudo ./main -p <DE>

You are done !

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What the dog doing?

Full source code is available here

All I wanted to be able to do is to install my preferred OS with my prefered DE, but not have to do too many things (I'm lazy and impatient). A good example is fresh sessions, when I boot up I wanted a clean Desktop, not to re-open old stuff. But over the months it became a lot more tweaks, so I documented them one by one and tested. Until I arrived at a point where I think it's ready.

Current Scope

• Keymaps SDDM & KDE
• KDE Default values I didn't like: Empty sessions, Lock-out grace, Powerprofiles, KRunner search
• KDE Dolphin interaction menus
• KDE Look & feel
• SDDM Auto-change theme
• Sysctl & UFW
• Bash/Zsh: Aliases & look-feel
• Pacman GUI

More useful stuff...

Use comms for commands :)

To configure aliases:

alias ecomms="vim ~/.config/aliases"

Modify what you need then source: . ~/.config/aliases This should work both for bash and zsh.

The 4 shells

Basically sets up zsh and bash for both the user and root. And a lot of KDE stuff.

New context menus!

Pacman GUI

Pac2Pac can be found here: PacToPac

The idea was having a settings section > common operations you do on an arch system to do anything... Flatpak, multi-lib, etc + For people who don't like the terminal, could do common system operations.

Further config

Effects & Multiple Virtual Desktops

System Settings > Window Management > Desktop Effects/Virtual Desktops

Accent color

System Settings > Colours & Themes > Colors > Select

Tiling

System Settings > Window Management > Kwin > Get New > Krohnkite

Or Bg blur

System Settings > Wallpaper > Get New > Active Blur

Preview

More info:

Project code name: Winblows

• Arch ISO size: 1,4 GB
• With decent internet total install time should be around 20-30 minutes. With good internet less then 15 minutes.

Cool rolling release fact: With Arch in a single command pacman -Syu you get system upgrades right at next reboot, but also sometimes even get net negative of update weight meaning your system is now updated and lighter.