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.
It details configuration steps that I took after installing the base system, as a follow up to encrypted_parabola.html. 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.
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!
You do not necessarily have to follow this guide word-for-word; parabola 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.
Paradoxically, as you get more advanced Parabola can actually become easier to use 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 get in your way.
This guide assumes that you already have Parabola installed. If you have not yet installed Parabola, then this guide is highly recommended!
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. 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.
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.
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:
# systemctl start dhcpcd.service
You can stop it later by running:
# systemctl stop dhcpcd.service
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:
Setup network connection in Parabola
pacman (package manager) 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.
Based on https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Installation_Guide#Configure_pacman and from reading https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman (make sure to read and understand this, it's very important) and https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Official_Repositories
In the end, I didn't change my configuration for pacman. When you are updating, resync with the latest package names/versions:
# pacman -Syy
(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).
Then, update the system:
# pacman -Syu
Before installing packages with 'pacman -S', always update first, using the notes above.
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.
The Arch forum can also be useful, if others have the same issue as you (if you encounter issues, that is). The Parabola IRC channel (#parabola on freenode) can also help you.
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.
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.
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).
The following is very important as you continue to use, update and maintain your Parabola system:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman#Cleaning_the_package_cache.
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).
To clean out all old packages that are cached:
# pacman -Sc
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.
The wiki also mentions this method for removing everything from the cache, including currently installed packages that are cached:
# pacman -Scc
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.
The following table lists other distro package manager commands, and their equivalent in pacman:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_Rosetta
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 your-freedom.
Based on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Users_and_Groups.
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.
Read the entire document linked to above, and then continue.
Add your user:
# useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash yourusername
Set a password:
# passwd yourusername
This is the name of the system used for managing services in Parabola. It is a good idea to become familiar with it. Read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd#Basic_systemctl_usage to gain a full understanding. This is very important! Make sure to read them.
An example of a 'service' could be a webserver (such as lighttpd), or sshd (openssh), dhcp, etc. There are countless others.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1149530#p1149530 explains the background behind the decision by Arch (Parabola's upstream supplier) to use systemd.
The manpage should also help:
# man systemd
The section on 'unit types' is especially useful.
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).
Open /etc/systemd/journald.conf and find the line that says:
#SystemMaxUse=
Change it to say:
SystemMaxUse=50M
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.
Restart journald:
# systemctl restart systemd-journald
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).
Finally, the wiki mentions 'temporary' files and the utility for managing them.
# man systemd-tmpfiles
The command for 'clean' is:
# systemd-tmpfiles --clean
According to the manpage, this "cleans all files and directories with an age parameter".
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.
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:
# man tmpfiles.d
Read that manpage, and then continue studying all of the files.
The systemd developers tell me that it usually isn't necessary to touch the systemd-tmpfiles utility manually at all.
Parabola wiki at https://wiki.parabolagnulinux.org/Repositories#kernels 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.
I enabled it on my system, to see what was in it. Edit /etc/pacman.conf and below the 'extra' section add:
[kernels]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Now sync with the repository:
# pacman -Syy
List all available packages in this repository:
# pacman -Sl kernels
In the end, I decided not to install anything from it but I kept the repository enabled regardless.
Read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network.
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):
# hostnamectl set-hostname yourhostname
This writes the specified hostname to /etc/hostname. More information can be found in these manpages:
# man hostname
# info hostname
# man hostnamectl
Add the same hostname to /etc/hosts, on each line. Example:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost myhostname
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost myhostname
You'll note that I set both lines; the 2nd line is for IPv6. More and more ISPs are providing this now (mine does) so it's good to be forward-thinking here.
The hostname utility is part of the inetutils package and is in core/, installed by default (as part of base).
According to the Arch wiki, udev should already detect the ethernet chipset
and load the driver for it automatically at boot time. You can check this in the "Ethernet controller" section
when running this command:
# lspci -v
Look at the remaining sections 'Kernel driver in use' and 'Kernel modules'. In my case it was as follows:
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
Kernel modules: e1000e
Check that the driver was loaded by issuing dmesg | grep module_name. In my case, I did:
# dmesg | grep e1000e
According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network#Device_names, it is important to note that the old interface names like eth0, wlan0, wwan0 and so on no longer apply. Instead, systemd 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 enp0s25, where it is never supposed to change.
If you want to enable the old names (eth0, wlan0, wwan0, etc), the Arch wiki recommends adding net.ifnames=0 to your kernel parameters (in libreboot context, this would be accomplished by following the instructions in grub_cbfs.html).
For background information, read Predictable Network Interface Names
Show device names:
# ls /sys/class/net
Changing the device names is possible (I chose not to do it):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network#Change_device_name
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:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications/Internet#Network_managers.
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.
Read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance before continuing. Also read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Enhance_system_stability. This is important, so make sure to read them!
Install smartmontools (it can be used to check smart data. HDDs use non-free firmware inside, but it's transparent to you
but the smart data comes from it. Therefore, don't rely on it too much):
# pacman -S smartmontools
Read https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T. to learn how to use it.
Based on steps from General Recommendations 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.
Based on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg.
Firstly, install it!
# pacman -S xorg-server
I also recommend installing this (contains lots of useful tools, including xrandr):
# pacman -S xorg-server-utils
Install the driver. For me this was xf86-video-intel on the ThinkPad X60. T60 and macbook11/21 should be the same.
# pacman -S xf86-video-intel
For other systems you can try:
# pacman -Ss xf86-video- | less
Combined with looking at your lspci 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.
Other drivers (not just video) can be found by looking at the xorg-drivers group:
# pacman -Sg xorg-drivers
Mostly you will rely on a display manager, but in case you ever want to start X without one:
# pacman -S xorg-xinit
<optional>
Arch wiki recommends installing these, for testing that X works:
# pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm
Refer to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc.
and test X:
# startx
When you are satisfied, type exit in xterm, inside the X session.
Uninstall them (clutter. eww): # pacman -S xorg-xinit xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm
</optional>
Refer to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg.
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.
To see what layout you currently use, try this on a terminal emulator in X:
# setxkbmap -print -verbose 10
In my case, I wanted to use the Dvorak (UK) keyboard which is quite different from Xorg's default Qwerty (US) layout.
I'll just say it now: XkbModel can be pc105 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 pc104.
XkbLayout in my case would be gb, and XkbVariant would be dvorak.
The Arch wiki recommends two different methods for setting the keyboard layout:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_X_configuration_files and
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_localectl.
In my case, I chose to use the configuration file method:
Create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf and put this inside:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbVariant" "dvorak"
EndSection
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).
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 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Desktop_environment
Refer to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE.
Install it, choosing 'all' when asked for the default package list:
# pacman -S lxde obconf
I didn't want the following, so I removed them:
# pacman -R lxmusic lxtask
I also lazily installed all fonts:
# pacman -S $(pacman -Ssq ttf-)
LXDE comes with a terminal. You probably want a browser to go with that; I choose GNU IceCat, part of the GNU project:
# pacman -S icecat
And a mail client:
# pacman -S icedove
In IceCat, go to Preferences :: Advanced and disable GNU IceCat Health Report.
I also like to install these:
# pacman -S xsensors stress htop
Enable LXDM (the default display manager, providing a graphical login):
# systemctl enable lxdm.service
It will start when you boot up the machine. To start it now, do:
# systemctl start lxdm.service
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 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc.
Open LXterminal:
$ cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~
Open .xinitrc and add the following plus a line break at the bottom of the file.
# Probably not needed. The same locale info that we set before
# Based on advice from the LXDE wiki
export LC_ALL=en_GB.UTF-8
export LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8
export LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
# Start lxde desktop
exec startlxde
Now make sure that it is executable:
$ chmod +x .xinitrc
In Digital Clock Settings (right click the clock) I set the Clock Format to %Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S
NOTE TO SELF: come back to this later.
Arch wiki recommends to use xscreensaver:
# pacman -S xscreensaver
Under Preferences :: Screensaver in the LXDE menu, I chose Mode: Blank Screen Only, setting Blank After, Cycle After and Lock Screen After (checked) to 10 minutes.
You can now lock the screen with Logout :: Lock Screen in the LXDE menu.
Refer to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_manager_functionality.
I chose to ignore this for now. NOTE TO SELF: come back to this later.
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.
Right click lxde panel and Add/Remove Panel Items. Click Add and select Battery Monitor, then click Add. Close and then right-click the applet and go to Battery Monitor Settings, check the box that says Show Extended Information. Now click Close. When you hover the cursor over it, it'll show information about the battery.
Refer to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE#Network_Management. Then I read: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager.
Install Network Manager:
# pacman -S networkmanager
You will also want the graphical applet:
# pacman -S network-manager-applet
Arch wiki says that an autostart rule will be written at /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop
I want to be able to use a VPN at some point, so the wiki tells me to do:
# pacman -S networkmanager-openvpn
LXDE uses openbox, so I refer to:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager#Openbox.
It tells me for the applet I need:
# pacman -S xfce4-notifyd gnome-icon-theme
Also, for storing authentication details (wifi) I need:
# pacman -S gnome-keyring
I wanted to quickly enable networkmanager:
# systemctl stop dhcpcd
# systemctl start NetworkManager
Enable NetworkManager at boot time:
# systemctl enable NetworkManager
Restart LXDE (log out, and then log back in).
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 lxappearance.
Copyright © 2014 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
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 ../license.txt.
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 ../license.txt for more information.