2024-04-15 18:17:14 -07:00
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## Introduction
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2024-04-24 13:33:16 -07:00
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Recently, I made the switch from Windows 11 to Arch Linux. I can confirm that Arch does live up to
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its meme reputation as an OS that takes hours of configuration to get working.
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2024-04-15 18:17:14 -07:00
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2024-04-24 13:33:16 -07:00
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I'm making a (non-exhaustive) list of the most important tweaks and setup I had to go through to get
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everything running smoothly on my system. This is partially intended for anyone who's running into
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the same issues, and partially for my own reference in case I have to go through this again.
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2024-04-15 18:17:14 -07:00
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2024-04-24 13:33:16 -07:00
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I'm running KDE Plasma 6 with the Layan rices from XeroLinux. I make heavy use of the XeroLinux
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utility script to get everything set up with sane defaults easily.
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2024-04-15 18:17:14 -07:00
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Here's the general gist of the main setup steps:
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2024-04-24 13:33:16 -07:00
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1. Follow the Arch Wiki's installation guide, until you set up GRUB and boot into the tty. Create a
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user for yourself, and add yourself to the `sudoers` list with `visudo`.
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2. Install `paru` and install `plasma`. Then, run the XeroLinux script. Install all of the
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recommended tweaks and KDE Plasma rices/addons, EXCEPT the GPU drivers (we'll do those later).
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3. Install `sddm` and enable its service with `systemctl`. Then, `sudo reboot`. You should restart
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into KDE Plasma.
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4. At the bottom left, make sure you're using X11 and not Wayland. Wayland is completely broken at
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the time of writing on Nvidia without some configuration. Log in.
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2024-04-15 18:17:14 -07:00
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5. Once loaded in, go to the XeroLinux GPU drivers installation guide. Run these commands
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<!-- TODO: add gpu driver guide -->
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2024-04-24 13:33:16 -07:00
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6. If you were successful in setting up the GPU drivers, you should now be able to enter Plasma with
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Wayland. For me, performance is much better and smoother, and I'm able to set up the display
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configurations that I want without weird `xrander` hacks. However, at this point, Wayland is
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still super problematic, and even more setup will need to be done.
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7. Set the environment variable to tell all electron apps to use native Wayland instead of xwayland.
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This will stop weird behavior in discord, vscode, obsidian. etc.
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8. Enable the experimental Nvidia kernel flag to preserve the entire video memory on suspend. This
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will allow you to use suspend properly and not break everything.
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