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- <meta charset="utf-8">
- <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
-
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- body {
- background:#fff;
- color:#000;
- font-family:sans-serif;
- font-size:1em;
- }
- div.important {
- background-color:#ccc;
- }
- </style>
-
- <title>Configuring Parabola (post-install)</title>
-</head>
-
-<body>
- <header>
- <h1 id="pagetop">Configuring Parabola (post-install)</h1>
- <aside>Or <a href="../index.html">back to main index</a></aside>
- </header>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2>Table of Contents</h2>
- <ul>
- <li>
- <a href="#pacman_configure">Configuring pacman</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#pacman_update">Updating Parabola</a></li>
- <li>
- <a href="#pacman_maintain">Maintaining Parabola during system updates</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#pacman_cacheclean">Clearing package cache after updating</a></li>
- <li><a href="#pacman_commandequiv">Pacman command equivalents (compared to other package managers)</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#yourfreedom">your-freedom</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#useradd">Add a user account</a></li>
- <li><a href="#systemd">System D</a></li>
- <li><a href="#interesting_repos">Interesting repositories</a></li>
- <li>
- <a href="#network">Setup a network connection in Parabola</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#network_hostname">Setting hostname</a></li>
- <li><a href="#network_status">Network status</a></li>
- <li><a href="#network_devicenames">Network interface names</a></li>
- <li><a href="#network_setup">Network setup</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li><a href="#system_maintain">System maintenance</a> - important!</li>
- <li>
- <a href="#desktop">Configuring the desktop</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#desktop_xorg">Install Xorg</a></li>
- <li><a href="#desktop_kblayout">Xorg keyboard layout</a></li>
- <li><a href="#desktop_lxde">Install LXDE</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_clock">LXDE - clock</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_font">LXDE - font</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_screenlock">LXDE - screenlock</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_automount">LXDE - automounting</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_suspend">LXDE - disable suspend</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_battery">LXDE - battery monitor</a></li>
- <li><a href="#lxde_network">LXDE - network manager</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <p>
- While not strictly related to the libreboot project, this guide
- is intended to be useful for those interested in installing
- Parabola on their libreboot machine. This is also beneficial because development
- is now being done on Parabola, where Trisquel is no longer used by the maintainer
- at the time of writing.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- It details configuration steps that I took after installing the base system,
- as a follow up to <a href="encrypted_parabola.html">encrypted_parabola.html</a>.
- This guide is likely to become obsolete at a later date (due to the volatile
- 'rolling-release' model that Arch/Parabola both use), but attempts will be made to maintain it.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- <b>
- This guide was valid on 2014-09-21. If you see any changes that should to be made at the present date, please get in touch
- with the libreboot project!
- </b>
- </p>
-
- <p>
- You do not necessarily have to follow this guide word-for-word; <i>parabola</i> is extremely flexible.
- The aim here is to provide a common setup that most users will be happy with. While Parabola
- can seem daunting at first glance (especially for new GNU/Linux users), with a simple guide it can provide
- all of the same usability as Trisquel, without hiding any details from the user.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Paradoxically, as you get more advanced Parabola can actually become <i>easier to use</i>
- when you want to setup your machine in a special way compared to what most distributions provide.
- You will find over time that other distributions tend to <i>get in your way</i>.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- <b>
- This guide assumes that you already have Parabola installed. If you have not yet installed Parabola,
- then <a href="encrypted_parabola.html">this guide</a> is highly recommended!
- </b>
- </p>
-
- <p>
- A lot of the steps in this guide will refer to the Arch wiki. Arch is the upstream distribution that Parabola uses.
- Most of this guide will also tell you to read wiki articles, other pages, manuals, and so on. In general it tries
- to cherry pick the most useful information but nonetheless you are encouraged to learn as much as possible.
- <b>It might take you a few days to fully install your system how you like, depending on how much you need to read. Patience is key,
- especially for new users</b>.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- The Arch wiki will sometimes use bad language, such as calling the whole system Linux, using the term open-source (or closed-source),
- and it will sometimes recommend the use of proprietary software. You need to be careful about this when reading anything on the
- Arch wiki.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Some of these steps require internet access. I'll go into networking later but for now, I just connected
- my machine to a switch and did:<br/>
- # <b>systemctl start dhcpcd.service</b><br/>
- You can stop it later by running:<br/>
- # <b>systemctl stop dhcpcd.service</b><br/>
- For most people this should be enough, but if you don't have DHCP on your network then you should setup your network connection first:<br/>
- <a href="#network">Setup network connection in Parabola</a>
- </p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="pacman_configure">Configure pacman</h2>
- <p>
- pacman (<b>pac</b>kage <b>man</b>ager) is the name of the package management system in Arch, which Parabola
- (as a deblobbed parallel effort) also uses. Like with 'apt-get' on debian-based systems like Trisquel,
- this can be used to add/remove and update the software on your computer.
- </p>
- <p>
- Based on <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide#Configure_pacman">https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide#Configure_pacman</a>
- and from reading <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman</a> (make sure to read and understand this,
- it's very important) and
- <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Official_Repositories">https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Official_Repositories</a>
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="pacman_update">Updating Parabola</h3>
- <p>
- In the end, I didn't change my configuration for pacman. When you are updating, resync with the latest package names/versions:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Syy</b><br/>
- (according to the wiki, -Syy is better than Sy because it refreshes the package list even if it appears to be up to date,
- which can be useful when switching to another mirror).<br/>
- Then, update the system:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Syu</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- <b>
- Before installing packages with 'pacman -S', always update first, using the notes above.
- </b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Keep an eye out on the output, or read it in /var/log/pacman.log. Sometimes, pacman will show messages
- about maintenance steps that you will need to perform with certain files (typically configurations)
- after the update. Also, you should check both the Parabola and Arch home pages to see if they mention any issues.
- If a new kernel is installed, you should also update to be able to use it (the currently running kernel will
- also be fine). It's generally good enough to update Parabola once every week, or maybe twice. As a
- rolling release distribution, it's a good idea never to leave your install too outdated; update regularly. This
- is simply because of the way the project works; old packages are deleted from the repositories quickly, once they are updated.
- A system that hasn't been updated for quite a while will mean potentially more reading of previous posts through the website,
- and more maintenance work.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Arch forum can also be useful, if others have the same issue as you (if you encounter issues, that is). Parabola's
- IRC channel (#parabola on freenode) can also help you.
- </p>
- <p>
- Due to this and the volatile nature of Parabola/Arch, you should only update when you have at least a couple hours of spare time
- in case of issues that need to be resolved. You should never update, for example, if you need your system for an important event,
- like a presentation or sending an email to an important person before an allocated deadline, and so on.
- </p>
- <p>
- Relax - packages are well-tested regularly when new updates are made to the repositories. Separate 'testing' repositories
- exist for this exact reason. Despite what many people will tell you, Parabola is fairly stable and trouble-free,
- so long as you are aware of how to check for issues, and are willing to spend some time fixing issues in
- the rare event that they do occur.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="pacman_maintain">Maintaining Parabola</h3>
- <p>
- Parabola is a very simple distro, in the sense that you are in full control
- and everything is made transparent to you. One consequence is
- that you also need to know what you are doing, and what you have done before. In general, keeping notes (such as what I have done
- with this page) can be very useful as a reference in the future (if you wanted to re-install it or install the distro
- on another computer, for example).
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h4 id="pacman_cacheclean">Cleaning the package cache</h4>
- <p>
- <b>
- The following is very important as you continue to use, update and maintain your Parabola system:<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman#Cleaning_the_package_cache">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman#Cleaning_the_package_cache</a>.
- Essentially, this guide talks about a directory that has to be cleaned once in a while, to prevent it from growing too big (it's a cache
- of old package information, updated automatically when you do anything in pacman).
- </b>
- </p>
- <p>
- To clean out all old packages that are cached:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Sc</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- The wiki cautions that this should be used with care. For example, since older packages are deleted from the repo,
- if you encounter issues and want to revert back to an older package then it's useful to have the caches available.
- Only do this if you are sure that you won't need it.
- </p>
- <p>
- The wiki also mentions this method for removing everything from the cache, including currently installed packages that are cached:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Scc</b><br/>
- This is inadvisable, since it means re-downloading the package again if you wanted to quickly re-install it. This should only be used
- when disk space is at a premium.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h4 id="pacman_commandequiv">pacman command equivalents</h4>
- <p>
- The following table lists other distro package manager commands, and their equivalent in pacman:<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta</a>
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="yourfreedom">your-freedom</h3>
- <p>
- your-freedom is a package specific to Parabola, and it is installed by default. What it does is conflict with packages
- from Arch that are known to be non-free (proprietary) software. When migrating from Arch (there is a guide on the Parabola
- wiki for migrating - converting - an existing Arch system to a Parabola system), installing
- your-freedom will also fail if these packages are installed, citing them as conflicts; the recommended solution
- is then to delete the offending packages, and continue installing <i>your-freedom</i>.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="useradd">Add a user</h2>
- <p>
- Based on <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Users_and_Groups">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Users_and_Groups</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- It is important (for security reasons) to create and use a non-root (non-admin) user account for every day use. The default 'root' account is intended
- only for critical administrative work, since it has complete access to the entire operating system.
- </p>
- <p>
- Read the entire document linked to above, and then continue.
- </p>
- <p>
- Add your user:<br/>
- # <b>useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash <i>yourusername</i></b><br/>
- Set a password:<br/>
- # <b>passwd <i>yourusername</i></b>
- </p>
-
- <p><a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page</a></p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="systemd">systemd</h2>
- <p>
- This is the name of the system used for managing services in Parabola. It is a good idea to become familiar with it.
- Read <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd</a>
- and <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd#Basic_systemctl_usage">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd#Basic_systemctl_usage</a>
- to gain a full understanding. <b>This is very important! Make sure to read them.</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- An example of a 'service' could be a webserver (such as lighttpd), or sshd (openssh), dhcp, etc. There are countless others.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1149530#p1149530">https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1149530#p1149530</a> explains
- the background behind the decision by Arch (Parabola's upstream supplier) to use systemd.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- The manpage should also help:<br/>
- # <b>man systemd</b><br/>
- The section on 'unit types' is especially useful.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- According to the wiki, systemd 'journal' keeps logs of a size up to 10% of the total size your / partition takes up.
- on a 60GB root this would mean 6GB. That's not exactly practical, and can have performance implications later when the
- log gets too big. Based on instructions from the wiki, I will reduce the total size of the journal to 50MiB (the wiki
- recommends 50MiB).
- </p>
- <p>
- Open /etc/systemd/journald.conf and find the line that says:<br/>
- <i>#SystemMaxUse=</i><br/>
- Change it to say:<br/>
- <i>SystemMaxUse=50M</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- The wiki also recommended a method for forwarding journal output to TTY 12 (accessible by pressing ctrl+alt+f12,
- and you use ctrl+alt+[F1-F12] to switch between terminals). I decided not to enable it.
- </p>
- <p>
- Restart journald:<br/>
- # <b>systemctl restart systemd-journald</b>
- </p>
-
- <p>
- The wiki recommends that if the journal gets too large, you can also simply delete (rm -rf) everything inside /var/log/journald/*
- but recommends backing it up. This shouldn't be necessary, since you already set the size limit above and systemd will automatically
- start to delete older records when the journal size reaches it's limit (according to systemd developers).
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Finally, the wiki mentions 'temporary' files and the utility for managing them.<br/>
- # <b>man systemd-tmpfiles</b><br/>
- The command for 'clean' is:<br/>
- # <b>systemd-tmpfiles --clean</b><br/>
- According to the manpage, this <i>&quot;cleans all files and directories with an age parameter&quot;</i>.
- According to the Arch wiki, this reads information in /etc/tmpfiles.d/ and /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/
- to know what actions to perform. Therefore, it is a good idea to read what's stored in these locations
- to get a better understanding.
- </p>
- <p>
- I looked in /etc/tmpfiles.d/ and found that it was empty on my system. However, /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/ contained some files.
- The first one was etc.conf, containing information and a reference to this manpage:<br/>
- # <b>man tmpfiles.d</b><br/>
- Read that manpage, and then continue studying all of the files.
- </p>
- <p>
- The systemd developers tell me that it usually isn't necessary to touch the systemd-tmpfiles utility manually at all.
- </p>
-
- <p><a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page</a></p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="interesting_repos">Interesting repositories</h2>
- <p>
- Parabola wiki at <a href="https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Repositories#kernels">https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Repositories#kernels</a>
- mentions about a repository called [kernels] for custom kernels that aren't in the default base. It might be worth looking into what is available
- there, depending on your use case.
- </p>
- <p>
- I enabled it on my system, to see what was in it. Edit /etc/pacman.conf and below the 'extra' section add:<br/>
- <i>
- [kernels]<br/>
- Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
- </i>
- </p>
- <p>
- Now sync with the repository:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Syy</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- List all available packages in this repository:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Sl kernels</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- In the end, I decided not to install anything from it but I kept the repository enabled regardless.
- </p>
- <p><a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a></p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="network">Setup a network connection in Parabola</h2>
- <p>
- Read <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="network_hostname">Set the hostname</h3>
- <p>
- This should be the same as the hostname that you set in /etc/hostname when installing Parabola. You can also do it with systemd (do so now, if you like):<br/>
- # <b>hostnamectl set-hostname <i>yourhostname</i></b><br/>
- This writes the specified hostname to /etc/hostname. More information can be found in these manpages:<br/>
- # <b>man hostname</b><br/>
- # <b>info hostname</b><br/>
- # <b>man hostnamectl</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Add the same hostname to /etc/hosts, on each line. Example:<br/>
- <i>
- 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost <u>myhostname</u><br/>
- ::1 localhost.localdomain localhost <u>myhostname</u>
- </i>
- </p>
- <p>
- You'll note that I set both lines; the 2nd line is for IPv6. More and more ISP's are providing this now (mine does)
- so it's good to be forward-thinking here.
- </p>
- <p>
- The <i>hostname</i> utility is part of the <i>inetutils</i> package and is in core/, installed by default (as part of <i>base</i>).
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="network_status">Network Status</h3>
- <p>
- According to the Arch wiki, <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev">udev</a> should already detect the ethernet chipset
- and load the driver for it automatically at boot time. You can check this in the <i>&quot;Ethernet controller&quot;</i> section
- when running this command:<br/>
- # <b>lspci -v</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Look at the remaining sections <i>'Kernel driver in use'</i> and <i>'Kernel modules'</i>. In my case it was as follows:<br/>
- <i>
- Kernel driver in use: e1000e<br/>
- Kernel modules: e1000e
- </i>
- </p>
- <p>
- Check that the driver was loaded by issuing <i>dmesg | grep module_name</i>. In my case, I did:<br/>
- # <b>dmesg | grep e1000e</b>
- </p>
- <h3 id="network_devicenames">Network device names</h3>
- <p>
- According to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network#Device_names">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network#Device_names</a>,
- it is important to note that the old interface names like eth0, wlan0, wwan0 and so on no longer apply. Instead, <i>systemd</i>
- creates device names starting with en (for enternet), wl (for wifi) and ww (for wwan) with a fixed identifier that systemd automatically generates.
- An example device name for your ethernet chipset would be <i>enp0s25</i>, where it is never supposed to change.
- </p>
- <p>
- If you want to enable the old names (eth0, wlan0, wwan0, etc), the Arch wiki recommends
- adding <i>net.ifnames=0</i> to your kernel parameters (in libreboot context, this would be accomplished by following the
- instructions in <a href="grub_cbfs.html">grub_cbfs.html</a>).
- </p>
- <p>
- For background information,
- read <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames/">Predictable Network Interface Names</a>
- </p>
- <p>
- Show device names:<br/>
- # <b>ls /sys/class/net</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Changing the device names is possible (I chose not to do it):<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network#Change_device_name">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network#Change_device_name</a>
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="network_setup">Network setup</h3>
- <p>
- I actually chose to ignore most of Networking section on the wiki. Instead, I plan to setup LXDE desktop with the graphical
- network-manager client. Here is a list of network managers:<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications/Internet#Network_managers">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications/Internet#Network_managers</a>.
- If you need to, set a static IP address (temporarily) using the networking guide an the Arch wiki, or start the dhcpcd service in systemd.
- NetworkManager will be setup later, after installing LXDE.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="system_maintain">System Maintenance</h2>
- <p>
- Read <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance</a> before continuing.
- Also read <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Enhance_system_stability">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Enhance_system_stability</a>.
- <b>This is important, so make sure to read them!</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Install smartmontools (can be used to check smart data - note: HDD's use non-free firmware inside, it's transparent to you
- but the smart data comes from it. Therefore, don't rely on it too much):<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S smartmontools</b><br/>
- Read <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.</a> to learn how to use it.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <h2 id="desktop">Configuring the desktop</h2>
- <p>
- Based on steps from
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General_recommendations#Graphical_user_interface">General Recommendations</a> on the Arch wiki.
- The plan is to use LXDE and LXDM/LightDM, along with everything else that you would expect on other distributions that provide LXDE
- by default.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="desktop_xorg">Installing Xorg</h3>
- <p>
- Based on <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Firstly, install it!<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xorg-server</b><br/>
- I also recommend installing this (contains lots of useful tools, including <i>xrandr</i>):<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xorg-server-utils</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Install the driver. For me this was <i>xf86-video-intel</i> on the ThinkPad X60. T60 and macbook11/21 should be the same.<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xf86-video-intel</b><br/>
- For other systems you can try:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Ss xf86-video- | less</b><br/>
- Combined with looking at your <i>lspci</i> output, you can determine which driver is needed.
- By default, Xorg will revert to xf86-video-vesa which is a generic driver and doesn't provide true hardware acceleration.
- </p>
- <p>
- Other drivers (not just video) can be found by looking at the <i>xorg-drivers</i> group:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -Sg xorg-drivers</b><br/>
- </p>
- <p>
- Mostly you will rely on a display manager, but in case you ever want to start X without one:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xorg-xinit</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- &lt;optional&gt;<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Arch wiki recommends installing these, for testing that X works:<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;# <b>pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm</b><br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc</a>.
- and test X:<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;# <b>startx</b><br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When you are satisfied, type <b><i>exit</i></b> in xterm, inside the X session.<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Uninstall them (clutter. eww): # <b>pacman -S xorg-xinit xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm</b><br/>
- &lt;/optional&gt;
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="desktop_kblayout">Xorg keyboard layout</h3>
- <p>
- Refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Xorg uses a different configuration method for keyboard layouts, so you will notice that the layout you
- set in /etc/vconsole.conf earlier might not actually be the same in X.
- </p>
- <p>
- To see what layout you currently use, try this on a terminal emulator in X:<br/>
- # <b>setxkbmap -print -verbose 10</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- In my case, I wanted to use the Dvorak (UK) keyboard which is quite different from Xorg's default Qwerty (US) layout.
- </p>
- <p>
- I'll just say it now: <i>XkbModel</i> can be <i>pc105</i> in this case (ThinkPad X60, with a 105-key UK keyboard).
- If you use an American keyboard (typically 104 keys) you will want to use <i>pc104</i>.
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>XkbLayout</i> in my case would be <i>gb</i>, and <i>XkbVariant</i> would be <i>dvorak</i>.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Arch wiki recommends two different methods for setting the keyboard layout:<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_X_configuration_files">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_X_configuration_files</a> and<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_localectl">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_localectl</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- In my case, I chose to use the <i>configuration file</i> method:<br/>
- Create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf and put this inside:<br/>
- <i>
- Section "InputClass"<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Identifier "system-keyboard"<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;MatchIsKeyboard "on"<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Option "XkbLayout" "gb"<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Option "XkbModel" "pc105"<br/>
- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Option "XkbVariant" "dvorak"<br/>
- EndSection
- </i>
- </p>
- <p>
- For you, the steps above may differ if you have a different layout. If you use a US Qwerty keyboard, then
- you don't even need to do anything (though it might help, for the sake of being explicit).
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="desktop_lxde">Install LXDE</h3>
- <p>
- Desktop choice isn't that important to me, so for simplicity I decided to use LXDE. It's lightweight
- and does everything that I need.
- If you would like to try something different, refer to
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_environment">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_environment</a>
- </p>
- <p>
- Refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Install it, choosing 'all' when asked for the default package list:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S lxde obconf</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- I didn't want the following, so I removed them:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -R lxmusic lxtask</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- I also lazily installed all fonts:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S $(pacman -Ssq ttf-)</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- LXDE comes with a terminal. You probably want a browser to go with that; I choose GNU IceCat, part of the <i><a href="https://gnu.org/">GNU project</a></i>:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S icecat</b><br/>
- And a mail client:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S icedove</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- In IceCat, go to <i>Preferences :: Advanced</i> and disable <i>GNU IceCat Health Report</i>.
- </p>
- <p>
- I also like to install these:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xsensors stress htop</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Enable LXDM (the default display manager, providing a graphical login):<br/>
- # <b>systemctl enable lxdm.service</b><br/>
- It will start when you boot up the machine. To start it now, do:<br/>
- # <b>systemctl start lxdm.service</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Log in with your standard (non-root) user that you created earlier.
- It is advisable to also create an xinitrc rule in case you ever want to start lxde without lxdm.
- Read <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Open LXterminal:<br/>
- $ <b>cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~</b><br/>
- Open .xinitrc and add the following plus a line break at the bottom of the file.<br/>
- <i>
- # Probably not needed. The same locale info that we set before<br/>
- # Based on advice from the LXDE wiki
- export LC_ALL=en_GB.UTF-8<br/>
- export LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8<br/>
- export LANG=en_GB.UTF-8<br/>
- <br/>
- # Start lxde desktop<br/>
- exec startlxde<br/>
- </i>
- Now make sure that it is executable:<br/>
- $ <b>chmod +x .xinitrc</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="lxde_clock">LXDE - clock</h3>
- <p>
- In <b>Digital Clock Settings</b> (right click the clock) I set the Clock Format to <i>%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="lxde_font">LXDE - font</h3>
- <p>
- NOTE TO SELF: come back to this later.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="lxde_screenlock">LXDE - screenlock</h3>
- <p>
- Arch wiki recommends to use <i>xscreensaver</i>:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xscreensaver</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Under <i>Preferences :: Screensaver</i> in the LXDE menu, I chose <i>Mode: Blank Screen Only</i>,
- setting <i>Blank After</i>, <i>Cycle After</i> and <i>Lock Screen After</i> (checked) to 10 minutes.
- </p>
- <p>
- You can now lock the screen with <i>Logout :: Lock Screen</i> in the LXDE menu.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
- <h3 id="lxde_automount">LXDE - automounting</h3>
- <p>
- Refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_manager_functionality">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_manager_functionality</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- I chose to ignore this for now. NOTE TO SELF: come back to this later.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="lxde_suspend">LXDE - disable suspend</h3>
- <p>
- When closing the laptop lid, the machine suspends. This is annoying at least to me.
- NOTE TO SELF: disable it, then document the steps here.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="lxde_battery">LXDE - battery monitor</h3>
- <p>
- Right click lxde panel and <i>Add/Remove Panel Items</i>. Click <i>Add</i> and select <i>Battery Monitor</i>, then click <i>Add</i>.
- Close and then right-click the applet and go to <i>Battery Monitor Settings</i>, check the box that says <i>Show Extended Information</i>.
- Now click <i>Close</i>. When you hover the cursor over it, it'll show information about the battery.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
- <h3 id="lxde_network">LXDE - Network Manager</h3>
- <p>
- Refer to <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE#Network_Management">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE#Network_Management</a>.
- Then I read: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- Install Network Manager:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S networkmanager</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- You will also want the graphical applet:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S network-manager-applet</b><br/>
- Arch wiki says that an autostart rule will be written at <i>/etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- I want to be able to use a VPN at some point, so the wiki tells me to do:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S networkmanager-openvpn</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- LXDE uses openbox, so I refer to:<br/>
- <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager#Openbox">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager#Openbox</a>.
- </p>
- <p>
- It tells me for the applet I need:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S xfce4-notifyd gnome-icon-theme</b><br/>
- Also, for storing authentication details (wifi) I need:<br/>
- # <b>pacman -S gnome-keyring</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- I wanted to quickly enable networkmanager:<br/>
- # <b>systemctl stop dhcpcd</b><br/>
- # <b>systemctl start NetworkManager</b><br/>
- Enable NetworkManager at boot time:<br/>
- # <b>systemctl enable NetworkManager</b>
- </p>
- <p>
- Restart LXDE (log out, and then log back in).
- </p>
- <p>
- I added the volume control applet to the panel (right click panel, and add a new applet).
- I also later changed the icons to use the gnome icon theme, in <i>lxappearance</i>.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page.</a>
- </p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <p>
- Copyright &copy; 2014 Francis Rowe &lt;info@gluglug.org.uk&gt;<br/>
- This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions.
- A copy of the license can be found at <a href="../license.txt">../license.txt</a>.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See <a href="../license.txt">../license.txt</a> for more information.
- </p>
-
-</body>
-</html>