Arch¶

Upgrade All¶

yay; mise upgrade --minimum-release-age=0s; mise prune -y

# :: bash
yay && mise upgrade --minimum-release-age=0s && mise prune -y

Initial Setup¶

Note

This guide is intended for -- and assumes -- Arch KDE with plasma-meta as base.

Tip

For a better starting experience, install the following apps during archinstall.

extra/chromium
extra/wezterm
extra/nushell

This guide goes over installing these regardless, this is just a time saver.

1. Install `yay`¶

Follow instructions on https://github.com/Jguer/yay/blob/next/README.md to install yay or yay-bin.

Tip

Restart terminal, run yay, and reboot to ensure we're working with the latest core updates.

2. Install `nushell`¶

# :: bash
yay -S --needed extra/nushell

Important

Following commands are written for Nushell. Activate using nu.

3. Install Apps and Utils¶

yay -S --needed ...[
  aur/desktop-plus-bin
  aur/microsoft-edge-stable-bin
  core/curl
  extra/ark
  extra/chromium
  extra/dolphin
  extra/git
  extra/gwenview
  extra/ksshaskpass
  extra/kwallet-pam
  extra/mise
  extra/spectacle
  extra/unzip
  extra/wezterm
  extra/wget
  extra/zed
]

4. Sync Dotfiles¶

Initialize dotfiles

SSH¶

Abstract

Hooking into KDE’s systemd boot process, we can ensure that SSH agent starts on boot, uses login password to unlock the SSH key, and makes it available globally to both terminal and GUI apps.

systemctl --user enable --now ssh-agent.service

mkdir ~/.config/environment.d
nano ~/.config/environment.d/ssh.conf

~/.config/environment.d/ssh.conf

SSH_AUTH_SOCK="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/ssh-agent.socket"
SSH_ASKPASS="/usr/bin/ksshaskpass"
SSH_ASKPASS_REQUIRE="prefer"

mkdir ~/.local/bin
nano ~/.local/bin/ssh-add-kwallet.sh

~/.local/bin/ssh-add-kwallet.sh

#!/bin/bash
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 < /dev/null

Warning

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 is just an example. Ensure you have added the correct SSH key.

chmod +x ~/.local/bin/ssh-add-kwallet.sh

All the script and files are now configured. Now, we need to add the script to autostart.

KDE System Settings > Autostart
Add > Add Login Script
Browse to and select ~/.local/bin/ssh-add-kwallet.sh.

Indexing¶

Abstract

To keep system snappy, I prefer to tone down the indexing. Following instructions are for KDE.

Search "File Search" in Application Launcher (Start Menu)
Change data to index option to "File names only"
Add an exclusion for the development folder (e.g., ~/Dev)