Essential configurations before desktop components getting involved.

Series Index

  1. Linux Bootstrap Installation
  2. Linux A/B System Updates via BTRFS Snapshot
  3. Linux Post Installation
  4. Linux Desktop: Sway, Labwc, GUI Apps

Preface

This guide is distro independent, tested on Arch and Fedora.

Default Editor

(root)# echo "export EDITOR=/usr/bin/nvim" > /etc/profile.d/default-editor.sh

You could replace nvim with whatever you like.

Console Fonts

Install package:

Arch: terminus-fonts
Fedora: terminus-fonts-console

(root)# echo "FONT=ter-120b" >> /etc/vconsole.conf

Full font list:

Arch: ls /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/
Fedora: ls /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/

Change font temporally: setfont <font_name>

Ref: Linux_console#Fonts

PipeWire

Install PipeWire related packages:

Arch: pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack wireplumber
Fedora: pipewire pipewire-utils

Bluetooth

Install Bluetooth related packages:

Arch: bluez bluez-utils
Fedora: bluez bluez-tools

Enable systemd service: systemctl enable --now bluetooth.service.

Printer

Install CUPS related packages:

Arch, Fedora: cups cups-pdf

Enable systemd service: systemctl enable --now cups.service.

The CUPS server can be fully administered through the web interface, and there’s documentation for adding printer http://localhost:631/help/admin.html.

GPU Drivers

Linus Torvalds Fuck You Nvidia

I only use AMD GPU and Intel GPU on Linux for the well known reasons.

Install mesa and vulkan related packages:

Arch AMD: mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon
Arch Intel: mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-intel lib32-vulkan-intel intel-media-driver

For Fedora, it seems these drivers and firmwares are bundled with core package group.

Use mpv to test hardware acceleration , with command mpv --hwdec=auto <videofile>

Disable Watchdogs

This setting is for improving performance.

Check for a hardware watchdog module:

(root)# lsmod | grep wdt

Add to kernel module blacklist:

(root)# cat > /etc/modprobe.d/nowdt.conf << EOB
blacklist iTCO_wdt
blacklist sp5100_tco
blacklist intel_oc_wdt
EOB

Console Caps Ctrl

Remap CapsLock to Ctrl for console.

(root)# cd /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty
(root)# gzip -dc < us.map.gz > usa.map
(root)# sed -i '/^keycode[[:space:]]58/c\keycode 58 = Control' usa.map
(root)# echo "KEYMAP=usa" >> /etc/vconsole.conf

Ref: Linux_console/Keyboard_configuration#Creating_a_custom_keymap