Linux Solutions

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide a user with guidance and instructions on how to install and configure a LXDE desktop environment

LXDE, (for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), is a new project focused on providing a modern desktop environment which aims to be lightweight, fast, intuitive and functional while keeping system resource usage low. In order to install the LXDE, please run following command:
# pacman -S lxde

As the lxde group does not provide openbox, so it must be installed. Let’s install the openbox by running following command:
exec startlxde

If you are planning to run nm-applet, then please run following command:
exec ck-launch-session startlxde
to the ~/.xinitrc and start with startx or xinit

If you followed the advise and instructions as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully configured and installed a Desktop Environment (LXDE).

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The will provide a user with guidance and instructions on how to install Xfce desktop environment.

It is good to know what Xfce is. Xfce is another free software desktop environment for Linux. The major benefit is that it is a fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use.
Let’s go through the installation process for Xfce: You can install the Xfce by running following command:
# pacman -S xfce4

If you are interested in installing extras and themes then please run following command:
# pacman -S xfce4-goodies gtk2-themes-collection

If you encounter any errors about dbus-launch then you need to install dbus aswell by running following command:
# pacman -S dbus
If you interested in tips and tricks on login then please install the fortune-mod package by running following command:
# pacman -S fortune-mod

Please note following useful DAEMONS for Xfce
The hal and fam are useful daemons for Xfce.
These packages are installed when you install Xfce, but they must be invoked to become useful.
This can be done by starting hal and fam by running following command:
# /etc/rc.d/hal start
# /etc/rc.d/fam start

As the hal daemon relies on, and will automatically start, the dbus daemon. Now, you can edit the DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf by running following command:
# nano /etc/rc.conf
Please add hal and fam to your DAEMONS array, to invoke them at boot.

You can start Xfce by logging in in via the console and by running:
$ startxfce4

If you had followed the advise and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully installed the Xfce desktop environment.

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide a user with advise and instructions on how to install a KDE desktop environment.

KDE is a powerful Free Software graphical desktop environment for GNU/Linux and UNIX workstations.

Let’s start the installation process. This can be done by running following command

# pacman -S kdebase-workspace
If you would like to install the whole Desktop Environment then please run the following command:

# pacman -S kde

Helpful and useful KDE DAEMONS
Recall from above that a daemon is a program that runs in the background, waiting for events to occur and offering services.

As KDE will require the hal, so it is a good ideas to install the hal package. The hal package is installed when you install xorg-server, but must be invoked to become useful.

Let’s first of all, start hal by running following command:
# /etc/rc.d/hal start

You can edit the DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf by running following command:
# nano /etc/rc.conf

You can also add hal to your DAEMONS array, to invoke it on boot. Please try starting the X Server as normal user by running following command:
$ startx
or
$ xinit

If you followed advise and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully installed a KDE environment.

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide a user with guidance and instructions on how to install a desktop environment.

You can install the base GNOME environment by running following command:
# pacman -S gnome
If you are interested in insatalling extras, then please run the following command:

# pacman -S gnome-extra

Useful DAEMONS for GNOME
Before we have a look at useful Daemons for Gnome, it is good to know what a Daemon is. A daemon is a program that runs in the background, waiting for events to occur and offering services. Please note following daemons as below:

Hal daemon – The hal daemon can automate the mounting of disks, optical drives, and USB drives/thumbdrives for use in the GUI.

Fan Daemon – This will can allow real-time representation of file alterations in the GUI, allowing instant access to recently installed programs, or changes in the file system.

It is good to know that for a Gnome, gdm is recommendable. You can run following command as root:
# pacman -S gdm

You can start hal and fam by running following command:
# /etc/rc.d/hal start
# /etc/rc.d/fam start

If you want to add the hal and fam to /etc/rc.conf DAEMONS section, so that they will be invoked at boot, just run following command:
# nano /etc/rc.conf
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network crond alsa hal fam gdm)
If you prefer to log into the console and manually start X, just leave out gdm. You can then edit the /etc/gdm/custom.conf and please add following in the servers section:
0=Standard vt7
As normal user, start X:
$ startx
or
$ xinit
If ~/.xinitrc is not configured for GNOME, then you can start it with xinit, followed by the path to GNOME. This can be done by running following command:

$ xinit /usr/bin/gnome-session

Please note that by default, GNOME does not come with many themes and icons. You have an opportunity to install attractive artwork for GNOME:
- A nice gtk theme engine which includes themes is the murrine engine. A user can install this by running following command:
# pacman -S gtk-engine-murrine

If you want more themes then please run following command:
# pacman -S murrine-themes-collection

After the installation process is complete please - select it with System
– Preferences
- Appearance
- Theme tab.

As the Arch Linux repositories have a few really good themes and engines, it is a good idea to run the following command for installation:

# pacman -S gtk-engines gtk-aurora-engine gtk-candido-engine gtk-rezlooks-engine

If you followed advise and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully installed a Gnome desktop environment.

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide a user with guidance and instructions on how to install and configure a desktop environment

The X Window System provides the basic framework for building a graphical user interface (GUI), a Desktop Environment (DE), works atop and in conjunction with X, to provide a completely functional and dynamic GUI.

Let’s start with the process of installing fonts. Please run following command:

# pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera

~/.xinitrc
As non-root user, you have an opportunity to edit the /home/username/.xinitrc to specify the DE that you are planning to use. This will allow you to use startx/xinit from the shell, in the future, to open your DE/WM of choice:
$ nano ~/.xinitrc

For the Xfce4 desktop environment:
exec startxfce4
For the KDE desktop environment:
exec startkde
A startkde or startxfce4 command starts the KDE or Xfce4 desktop environment. This is exactly the same as entering:
$ xinit /usr/bin/startxfce4
or
$ xinit /usr/bin/starkde
from the shell prompt. It is good to know that such a command does not finish until you logout of the DE.

After the DE of choice is installed if you are having any trouble with automounting then please try using the following command in ~/.xinitrc instead.

exec ck-launch-session startxfce4

The main reason for using this command is to ensure that the various environment variables are set correctly by starting a clean consolekit session.

If you followed advise and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully learnt about installing and configuring desktop environment.

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide a user with guidance and instructions on how to install X and configure ALSA.

Let’s start with the process of configuring sound with alsamixer.

The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture is a Linux kernel component intended to replace the original Open Sound System (OSS) for providing device drivers for sound cards.

By default the upstream kernel sources ship with snd_pcsp, the alsa pc speaker module. snd_pcsp is usually loaded before your actual sound card module. In most cases, it will be more convenient if this module is loaded last. This will help as it will allow alsamixer to correctly control the desired sound card.

If you would like to have snd_pcsp load last, please add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:
options snd-pcsp index=2

If you do not want snd_pcsp to load at all then please add following command to /etc/rc.conf:
MODULES=(… !snd_pcsp)

ou can install the alsa-utils package by running command:
# pacman -S alsa-utils

If you would like to install the alsa-oss package then please run following command:
# pacman -S alsa-oss

If you would like to add the normal user to the audio group, then please use /usr/bin/gpasswd. As root do:
# gpasswd -a yourusername audio
As normal, non-root user, please invoke /usr/bin/alsamixer:
# su - yourusername
$ alsamixer

Unmute the Master and PCM channels by scrolling to them with cursor left/right and pressing M. You can increase the volume levels with the cursor-up key. If you want to leave alsamixer then please press ESC.

If you want to find out if the speakers are properly connected, then please test the sound configuration as normal user by using /usr/bin/aplay:
$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

If you want to save the sound settings then please exit the normal user shell and run following command /usr/sbin/alsactl as root:
$ exit
# alsactl store

This will create the file ‘/etc/asound.state’, saving the alsamixer settings.

If you would like to automatically restore the mixer settings then please add the alsa daemon to the DAEMONS section in /etc/rc.conf to automatically restore the mixer settings at boot.
# nano /etc/rc.conf
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network crond alsa)

Now, let’s see the process of installing X
The X Window System version 11 is a networking and display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays. It provides the standard toolkit and protocol to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on UNIX-like operating systems.

If you are planning to use an open-source video driver, and need 3d acceleration, it is recommended to install the libgl library before installing Xorg and for that you need to run the following command:
# pacman -S libgl

Now, in order to build a GUI, please run following command:

# pacman -S xorg

You can also run the mesa package. This is because it includes the 3d utilities glxgears and glxinfo. Please run the following command:

# pacman -S mesa

Now, let’s follow the process of installing the video driver package.
First of all, you need to know which chipset is found on the system. Please run the following command:

/usr/sbin/lspci program:
# lspci | grep VGA

In order to find out the list of all open-source video drivers, please run following command:
# pacman -Ss xf86-video | less

Please view list of open source drivers, and the corresponding video chipsets. These are as provided below:
• xf86-video-apm — Alliance ProMotion video driver
• xf86-video-ark — ark video driver
• xf86-video-ati — ATI(AMD) video driver
• xf86-video-r128 — ATI(AMD) video driver for X.org ati Rage128 video
• xf86-video-mach64 — ATI(AMD) video driver for X.org mach64 video
• xf86-video-radeonhd — open source radeonhd driver
• xf86-video-chips — Chips and Technologies video driver
• xf86-video-cirrus — Cirrus Logic video driver
• xf86-video-dummy — dummy video driver
• xf86-video-fbdev — framebuffer video driver
• xf86-video-glint — GLINT/Permedia video driver
• xf86-video-i128 — Number 0 i128 video driver
• xf86-video-i740 — Intel i740 video driver
• xf86-video-i810 — Intel i810/i830/i9xx video drivers (deprecated - use -intel)
• xf86-video-intel — Newer Version of Intel i810/i830/i9xx video drivers
• xf86-video-intel-legacy — Legacy-driver for older intel cards as 82865G (xf86-video-intel currently crashes with older cards)
• xf86-video-imstt — Integrated Micro Solutions Twin Turbo video driver
• xf86-video-mga — mga video driver (Matrox Graphics Adapter)
• xf86-video-neomagic — neomagic video driver
• xf86-video-nv — Nvidia nv video driver
• xf86-video-nouveau — Open Source 3D acceleration driver for nVidia cards (experimental), check: [1] for Current Status
• xf86-video-openchrome — VIA/S3G UniChrome, UniChrome Pro and Chrome9 video driver
• xf86-video-rendition — Rendition video driver
• xf86-video-s3 — S3 video driver
• xf86-video-s3virge — S3 Virge video driver
• xf86-video-savage — savage video driver
• xf86-video-siliconmotion — siliconmotion video driver
• xf86-video-sis — SiS video driver
• xf86-video-sisusb — SiS USB video driver
• xf86-video-tdfx — tdfx video driver
• xf86-video-trident — Trident video driver
• xf86-video-tseng — tseng video driver
• xf86-video-unichrome — VIA S3 Unichrome video drivers
• xf86-video-v4l — v4l video driver
• xf86-video-vesa — vesa video driver
• xf86-video-vga — VGA 16 color video driver
• xf86-video-vmware — vmware video driver
• xf86-video-voodoo — voodoo video driver

Please run following command to install the appropriate video driver for the video card/onboard video:

# pacman -S xf86-video-savage

Please install the NVIDIA Graphics Card by running following command:

# pacman -S nvidia-96xx

Please note that the NVIDIA package has a utility for updating your existing /etc/X11/xorg.conf for use with the NVIDIA driver:

# nvidia-xconfig

It also has several options which will further specify the contents and options of the xorg.conf file.

# nvidia-xconfig –composite –add-argb-glx-visuals

You can use some options as mentioned below:

Option “RenderAccel” “true”
Option “NoLogo” “true”
Option “AGPFastWrite” “true”
Option “EnablePageFlip” “true”

Please ensure that all instances of DRI are commented out by running following command:
# Load “dri”

You can update kernel module dependencies by running following command:
/sbin/depmod:
# depmod –a

After this a reboot is recommended.

In order to install radeon ATI Driver, please run following command:
# pacman -S xf86-video-ati libgl ati-dri

You can also install the radeonhd ATi Driver by running following command:
# pacman -S xf86-video-radeonhd libgl ati-dri

Please note following points regarding ATI drivers. The open source radeon driver provided by the xf86-video-ati package. This driver supports ATI R500 chipsets and newer.

The proprietary fglrx driver provided by the Catalyst package located in the AUR. The proprietary driver is covered below.

Install Input Driver Packages
Please note that the latest X requires a user to install drivers for the input devices, keyboard and mouse included.
If you would like to know a complete list of available input drivers, then please run following command:
# pacman -Ss xf86-input | less

You can use pacman to install the desired drivers for the input devices by running following command:
# pacman -S xf86-input-keyboard xf86-input-mouse.

If you followed the advise and instructions as provided in this tutorial guide, then you would have successfully installed X and configured Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA).

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will help the user to install and set up the Sudo.
A user can install th Sudo by running following command:

# pacman -S sudo vim

If you want to add a user as a sudo user then the visudo command must be run as root.

If you are not comfortable with vi then it is a good idea to set the EDITOR environment variable to the editor by running following command:
# EDITOR=nano visudo

If you are comfortable using vi, then just run following command:
# visudo

This command will open the file /etc/sudoers in a special session of vi. visudo copies the file to be edited to a temporary file, edits it with an editor

If you would like to grant a user full root privileges when he/she precedes a command with sudo, then please add the following line:
USER_NAME ALL=(ALL) ALL
where USER_NAME is the username of the individual.

If you followed the advise and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully installed and set up Sudo.

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The tutorial guide will provide a user with guidance and instructions on how to add a user and setup groups.
It is a good practice to add a normal, non-root user account using the /usr/sbin/useradd program. Simply run following command:
# useradd -m -G [groups] -s [login_shell] [username]

• -m will create a user home directory as /home/username. Please note that within the home directory, a user can write files, delete them, install programs, etc.
• -G is a list of supplementary groups which the user is also a member of.
• -s is the path and filename of the user´s default login shell.

Useful groups for a non-root user are provided below:
• audio - for tasks involving sound card and related software
• floppy - for access to a floppy if applicable
• lp - for managing printing tasks
• optical - for managing tasks pertaining to the optical drive(s)
• storage - for managing storage devices
• video - for video tasks and hardware acceleration
• wheel - for using sudo
• power - used w/ power options such as shutdown w/ off button

An example for adding a user will simply the process. Let’s assume that we are going to add a user named “Shafkat” specifying bash as the login shell:
# useradd -m -G users,audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,power -s /bin/bash shafkat
Next, add a password for your new user using /usr/bin/passwd.
An example for our user, ’shafkat’:
# passwd shafkat

Please note that you will be advised to provide the new UNIX password.

Your new non-root user has now been created, complete with a home directory and a login password.

There are two other ways to add a user
-You an also add a user by using /usr/sbin/adduser:
-You can also add a user by running following command:
# adduser

If you would like top delete a user account, you can :
use /usr/sbin/userdel:
# userdel -r [username]

-r will remove the user´s home directory along with the home directory itself and the user´s mail spool.

If you followed advise and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully added a user and setup the groups

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will cover guidance on how to upgrade the system with pacman.

Before we go ahead with the upgrade, it is good to know what is pacman. Pacman is the package manager of Arch Linux. It manages the entire package system and handles installation, removal, package downgrade, custom compiled package handling, automatic dependency resolution, remote and local searches and much more.
Please note that Pacman is the most important tool in the Arch Linux toolbox for building the base.

Package Repositories and /etc/pacman.conf
Arch currently offers the following 4 repositories which are accessible through pacman. These are core, extra, testing and community.

Core
The simple principle behind this repository is to provide only one of each necessary tool for a base Arch Linux system; The GNU toolchain, the Linux kernel, one editor, one command line browser, etc. It contains all the packages that MUST be in perfect working order to ensure the system remains in a usable state.

extra
The extra repository contains all Arch packages that are not themselves necessary for a base Arch system

Testing
This repository contains packages that are candidates for the core]or extra repositories. Please note that only experienced users should use this repository.

Community
The community repository is maintained by the Trusted Users (TUs) and is simply the binary branch of the Arch User Repository.

AUR - unsupported
The AUR contains the unsupported branch, which cannot be accessed directly by pacman. AUR does not contain binary packages.

/etc/pacman.conf
Please note that the pacman will attempt to read /etc/pacman.conf each time it is invoked. This configuration file is divided into sections, or repositories.

Please note that the defaults should work, so modifying at this point may be unnecessary, but verification is always recommended.

# nano /etc/pacman.conf

Let’s view an example as provided below:
#
# /etc/pacman.conf
#
# See the pacman.conf(5) manpage for option and repository directives

#
# GENERAL OPTIONS
#
[options]
# The following paths are commented out with their default values listed.
# If you wish to use different paths, uncomment and update the paths.
#RootDir = /
#DBPath = /var/lib/pacman/
#CacheDir = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
#LogFile = /var/log/pacman.log
HoldPkg = pacman glibc
# If upgrades are available for these packages they will be asked for first
SyncFirst = pacman
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget –passive-ftp -c -O %o %u
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl %u > %o

# Pacman won’t upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg =
#IgnoreGroup =

#NoUpgrade =
#NoExtract =

# Misc options (all disabled by default)
#NoPassiveFtp
#UseSyslog
#ShowSize
#UseDelta
#TotalDownload
#
# REPOSITORIES
# - can be defined here or included from another file
# - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
# - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
# - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
# have identical names, regardless of version number
# - URLs will have $repo replaced by the name of the current repo
#
# Repository entries are of the format:
# [repo-name]
# Server = ServerName
# Include = IncludePath
#
# The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
# uncommented to enable the repo.
#

# Testing is disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the following
# two lines. You can add preferred servers immediately after the header,
# and they will be used before the default mirrors.
#[testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[core]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[community]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# An example of a custom package repository. See the pacman manpage for
# tips on creating your own repositories.
#[custom]
#Server = file:///home/custompkgs

Please note that you can enable all desired repositories and for that you have to remove the # in front of the ‘Include =’ and ‘[repository]’ lines.

Also, when you choose repos, please ensure to uncomment both the repository header lines in brackets as well as the ‘Include =’ lines. If you fail to do so then the selected repository will be omitted.

/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
This provide a definition for the pacman repo mirrors and priorities.

If you want to build a mirrorlist then you can use the rankmirrors script as provided below:

/usr/bin/rankmirrors

This script will attempt to detect the mirrors which are closest to the installation machine based on the mirrors specified in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.

This script may be run periodically, especially if the chosen mirrors provide inconsistent throughput and/or updates.

If you are interested in using pacman to install python, then please run following script:
# pacman -Sy python
cd to the /etc/pacman.d/ directory:
# cd /etc/pacman.d

run following script to backup the existing /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist:
# cp mirrorlist mirrorlist.backup

In order to edit mirrorlist.backup and uncomment all mirrors on the same continent or within geographical proximity to test with rankmirrors, please run following script.
# nano mirrorlist.backup

You can also run the script against the mirrorlist.backup with the -n switch and redirect output to a new /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist file:
# rankmirrors -n 6 mirrorlist.backup > mirrorlist
-n 6: rank the 6 fastest mirrors

If you would like to refresh the package lists then please follow the steps as provided below:
Please note that you need to create /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist, by running following command:
/usr/bin/rankmirrors

Now, please run following command:
# pacman –Syy

If you pass two –refresh or -y flags, it will force pacman to refresh all package lists even if they are considered to be up to date.

Following command will update the entire the system.
# pacman –Syu

After executing the command “pacman -Syu”, the entire system will be updated.

If you would like to protect the configuration/system files from being overwritten during “pacman -Su”, please use the following option in the /etc/pacman.conf
NoUpgrade = etc/lilo.conf boot/grub/menu.lst

Learn about pacman
If you would like to learn about pacman then please run following command:
$ man pacman

If you are interested in speeding up the package retrieval then please install the powerpill. A powerpill is a pacman wrapper script which can speed up the package retrieval by using aria2c for concurrent/segmented downloads. The powerpill package can be installed by running following command:
# pacman -S powerpill

After installing the powerpill package, don’t forget to update the system by running following command:

# powerpill -Syu

You can Sync, refresh, and upgrade the entire new system with:
# pacman -Syu

Network Time Protocol
If you would like to set the system time then use OpenNTPD to sync the local clock to remote NTP servers. Please note that the OpenNTPD can also be added to the DAEMONS= array in /etc/rc.conf to provide this service at each boot.

If you followed the advise and guidance and guidance as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have successfully upgraded the Arch Linux system with pacman.

Welcome to the tutorial guide. The guide will provide you with information and guidance on localisation. The localisation will cover locale, hardware clock, userdirectisa, timezone, keymap, consolefont

LOCALISATION
• LOCALE=: This sets your system locale, which will be used by all i18n-aware applications and utilities. You can get a list of the available locales by running ‘locale -a’ from the command line. This setting’s default is fine for US English users.
• HARDWARECLOCK=: Specifies whether the hardware clock, which is synchronized on boot and on shutdown, stores UTC time, or the localtime=: UTC makes sense because it greatly simplifies changing timezones and daylight savings time. localtime is necessary if you dual boot with an operating system such as Windows, that only stores localtime to the hardware clock.
• USEDIRECTISA=: Use direct I/O request instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
• TIMEZONE=: Specify your TIMEZONE. (All available zones are under /usr/share/zoneinfo/).
• KEYMAP=: The available keymaps are in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps. Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or X.
• CONSOLEFONT=: Available console fonts reside under /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ if you must change. The default (blank) is safe.
• CONSOLEMAP=: Defines the console map to load with the setfont program at boot. Possible maps are found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans, if needed. The default (blank) is safe.
• USECOLOR=: Select “yes” if you have a color monitor and wish to have colors in your consoles.
LOCALE=”en_US.utf8″
HARDWARECLOCK=”localtime”
USEDIRECTISA=”no”
TIMEZONE=”US/Eastern”
KEYMAP=”us”
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR=”yes”

If you followed the guidance and instructions as provided in this tutorial guide then you would have learnt about locale, hardware clock, userdirectisa, timezone, keymap, consolefont.