Arch Linux Post-Install Setup Guide

A fresh Arch Linux install gives you a working kernel, a shell, and not much else. That blank canvas is the whole point, you build exactly the system you want. But there are 25+ things nearly everyone needs to configure before Arch feels like a daily driver. This guide walks through every one of them, from system updates and driver installation to gaming setup and security hardening.

Original content from computingforgeeks.com - post 609

Whether you followed the Arch install with LVM on UEFI guide, the archinstall guided installer, or the LUKS encrypted install, these post-install steps apply to all of them.

What You Need

• A working Arch Linux installation with a desktop environment (GNOME, KDE Plasma, or similar)
• A non-root user account with sudo privileges
• Active internet connection

1. Update the System

First things first – bring everything up to date. Arch is a rolling release, so even a day-old ISO can have dozens of pending updates.

sudo pacman -Syu

If the kernel was updated, reboot before continuing. Running on an old kernel with new packages is a recipe for weird module loading issues.

sudo reboot

2. Configure Pacman for Speed

Pacman’s default configuration is conservative. Three quick tweaks make package management significantly faster and more informative.

Enable parallel downloads (10 simultaneous instead of 1), color output, and detailed package lists:

sudo sed -i 's/#ParallelDownloads = 5/ParallelDownloads = 10/' /etc/pacman.conf
sudo sed -i 's/#Color/Color/' /etc/pacman.conf
sudo sed -i 's/#VerbosePkgLists/VerbosePkgLists/' /etc/pacman.conf

Verify the changes took effect:

grep -E '^(ParallelDownloads|Color|VerbosePkgLists)' /etc/pacman.conf

You should see all three options uncommented. The difference is noticeable immediately on your next pacman -Syu – downloads that used to crawl now finish in seconds.

3. Optimize the Mirror List with Reflector

The mirror list you got during installation is a snapshot in time. Mirrors go down, get slow, or fall behind on syncing. Reflector automatically finds the fastest, most up-to-date mirrors for your location.

sudo pacman -S reflector

Generate an optimized mirror list sorted by download speed:

sudo reflector --country 'United States' --latest 10 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Replace United States with your own country. You can list available countries with reflector --list-countries.

To keep your mirrors fresh automatically, enable the built-in reflector timer:

sudo systemctl enable --now reflector.timer

This runs reflector weekly so you never have to think about stale mirrors again.

4. Enable the Multilib Repository

The multilib repository provides 32-bit libraries needed for Steam, Wine, and many other applications. It’s disabled by default.

Open /etc/pacman.conf in your editor:

sudo vi /etc/pacman.conf

Find and uncomment both lines in the multilib section so it looks like this:

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Then sync the database:

sudo pacman -Syu

Skip this step only if you’re running a pure 64-bit system with no gaming or Wine needs – but most desktop users will want multilib enabled.

5. Install an AUR Helper

The Arch User Repository (AUR) contains thousands of community-maintained packages not in the official repos. An AUR helper automates building and installing these packages. The two most popular options are yay and paru.

Make sure you have the build tools installed first:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

To install yay (Go-based, the most widely used AUR helper):

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay && makepkg -si --noconfirm

Or install paru (Rust-based, newer with some extra features like review-before-build):

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru && makepkg -si --noconfirm

Both work well. Paru is slightly stricter about reviewing PKGBUILDs before building, which is a good security habit. Pick one and stick with it.

6. Install CPU Microcode Updates

CPU microcode patches fix hardware bugs, security vulnerabilities, and stability issues at the processor firmware level. These are applied early during boot and are essential for any production or daily-driver system.

For Intel CPUs:

sudo pacman -S intel-ucode

For AMD CPUs:

sudo pacman -S amd-ucode

After installing, regenerate your bootloader configuration so the microcode gets loaded at boot:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

If you use systemd-boot instead of GRUB, the microcode is loaded automatically – no extra step needed.

7. Install Graphics Drivers

The right graphics driver setup depends on your GPU vendor. Getting this right affects everything from desktop compositing to gaming performance.

Intel Graphics

Intel integrated GPUs use the open-source Mesa driver stack. Install the full set:

sudo pacman -S mesa intel-media-driver vulkan-intel

The intel-media-driver package handles hardware video decoding (VA-API) for newer Intel GPUs (Broadwell and later).

AMD Graphics

AMD GPUs also use open-source Mesa drivers with excellent performance:

sudo pacman -S mesa xf86-video-amdgpu vulkan-radeon libva-mesa-driver

NVIDIA Graphics (Proprietary)

NVIDIA’s proprietary driver delivers the best performance for NVIDIA GPUs:

sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings

If you run a non-standard kernel (like linux-lts or linux-zen), use nvidia-dkms instead of nvidia so the module gets rebuilt automatically on kernel updates.

For early KMS (kernel modesetting), add nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm to the MODULES array in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and rebuild:

sudo mkinitcpio -P

8. Set Up Audio with PipeWire

PipeWire is the modern audio and video server that replaces both PulseAudio and JACK. It handles everything from desktop audio to professional low-latency applications. Most desktop environments include it by default now, but if yours doesn’t:

sudo pacman -S pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-alsa wireplumber

The pipewire-pulse package provides PulseAudio compatibility so all existing applications work without changes. WirePlumber is the session manager that handles audio device routing.

PipeWire starts automatically through the user session on GNOME and KDE. Verify it’s running:

systemctl --user status pipewire wireplumber

9. Install Essential Fonts

A fresh Arch install has minimal font coverage. Web pages, documents, and terminal applications will look rough without proper fonts installed. This set covers Latin, CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean), emoji, and monospace for coding:

sudo pacman -S noto-fonts noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-emoji ttf-liberation ttf-dejavu ttf-jetbrains-mono

ttf-jetbrains-mono is an excellent monospace font for terminal emulators and code editors – it has programming ligatures and sharp rendering at any size. noto-fonts-emoji gives you full color emoji support across all applications.

Refresh the font cache after installing:

fc-cache -fv

10. Enable Bluetooth

Bluetooth support needs two packages and a service enable. Without this, your wireless headphones, keyboards, and mice won’t connect.

sudo pacman -S bluez bluez-utils
sudo systemctl enable --now bluetooth

GNOME and KDE both have built-in Bluetooth settings panels. If you use a lightweight desktop or window manager, install blueman for a standalone GTK Bluetooth manager:

sudo pacman -S blueman

Verify the Bluetooth service is running:

systemctl status bluetooth

11. Set Up Printing with CUPS

Even if you rarely print, setting up CUPS now saves you the scramble when you actually need it. The Common UNIX Printing System handles network and USB printers.

sudo pacman -S cups cups-pdf system-config-printer
sudo systemctl enable --now cups

Access the CUPS web interface at http://localhost:631 to add and manage printers. The system-config-printer package provides a GTK GUI for printer management.

For network printer auto-discovery, also install Avahi:

sudo pacman -S avahi nss-mdns
sudo systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon

12. Configure a Firewall

Arch doesn’t enable any firewall by default. If your machine is on a public network or you run any services, a firewall is non-negotiable.

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is the simplest option for desktop use:

sudo pacman -S ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw enable
sudo systemctl enable ufw

Check the firewall status and rules:

sudo ufw status verbose

If you want a graphical interface, install gufw:

sudo pacman -S gufw

13. Enable SSD TRIM

If your system drive is an SSD or NVMe, enabling periodic TRIM keeps write performance consistent over time by telling the drive which blocks are no longer in use.

sudo systemctl enable --now fstrim.timer

This runs fstrim weekly on all mounted filesystems that support discard. Verify it’s active:

systemctl status fstrim.timer

The timer-based approach is preferred over continuous TRIM (the discard mount option) because it batches operations and has less performance impact.

14. Set Up Automatic Snapshots

Arch’s rolling release model means updates can occasionally break things. Having system snapshots lets you roll back in minutes instead of hours.

For ext4 or XFS filesystems, Timeshift is the simplest option:

yay -S timeshift

For Btrfs filesystems, snapper with snap-pac is the better choice because it integrates directly with pacman to create automatic before/after snapshots on every package operation:

sudo pacman -S snapper snap-pac

Create a snapper config for the root filesystem:

sudo snapper -c root create-config /

With snap-pac installed, every pacman -Syu automatically creates a pre and post snapshot. If an update breaks your system, boot from an old snapshot and roll back. This catches most people off guard the first time they need it – the relief of having snapshots is worth the few minutes of setup.

15. Optimize Swap with zram

Traditional swap uses disk space. zram creates a compressed swap device in RAM itself, which is significantly faster. On a desktop with 16GB+ of RAM, zram eliminates the need for a swap partition entirely.

sudo pacman -S zram-generator

Create the configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/systemd/zram-generator.conf

Add the following configuration:

[zram0]
zram-size = ram / 2
compression-algorithm = zstd

Reboot to activate the zram device. After rebooting, verify it’s working:

zramctl

You should see a /dev/zram0 device with your configured size and the zstd compression algorithm.

16. Install Multimedia Codecs

Out of the box, Arch can’t play most video formats or proprietary audio codecs. Install the GStreamer plugin set and FFmpeg for full multimedia support:

sudo pacman -S gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav ffmpeg

This covers MP4, MKV, FLAC, AAC, MP3, H.264, H.265, and practically every other format you’ll encounter. Video players like GNOME Videos and media apps use GStreamer under the hood, so they start working immediately after this install.

17. Choose a Modern Terminal Emulator

The default GNOME Terminal or Konsole work fine, but if you spend serious time in the terminal, a GPU-accelerated emulator makes a real difference in responsiveness.

The top options:

• Kitty – GPU-accelerated, feature-rich with image display, tabs, splits, and extensive configuration: sudo pacman -S kitty
• Alacritty – Minimalist and blazing fast, configured via TOML file: sudo pacman -S alacritty
• WezTerm – Built-in multiplexer (like tmux), Lua-configurable: yay -S wezterm

For most users, Kitty strikes the best balance between features and performance. Alacritty is the choice if you want raw speed and nothing else.

18. Customize Your Shell

Bash works, but switching to a more powerful shell transforms your terminal experience. Two popular alternatives:

Zsh with Oh My Zsh

Zsh adds tab completion, spelling correction, and plugin support. Oh My Zsh gives you a framework of themes and plugins on top:

sudo pacman -S zsh
chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

Log out and back in, then install Oh My Zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Fish Shell (Beginner-Friendly)

Fish gives you autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, and a web-based configuration UI out of the box with zero setup:

sudo pacman -S fish
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

Starship Prompt

Regardless of which shell you pick, the Starship prompt is a huge quality-of-life upgrade. It shows git status, current directory, language versions, and more in a clean single-line prompt:

sudo pacman -S starship

Add the init script to your shell configuration. For Bash, add to ~/.bashrc:

eval "$(starship init bash)"

For Zsh, add to ~/.zshrc. For Fish, add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish.

19. Install Flatpak for Sandboxed Apps

Flatpak provides sandboxed application installs from Flathub. It’s useful for apps that aren’t in the Arch repos or AUR, and for apps you want to isolate from your system (browsers, chat clients, etc.).

sudo pacman -S flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Log out and back in for the Flatpak paths to take effect. Then install apps from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub com.spotify.Client
flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord

Flatpak apps integrate with your application menu automatically. On GNOME, they appear alongside native packages in GNOME Software.

20. Gaming on Arch Linux

Arch is arguably the best Linux distribution for gaming thanks to its up-to-date packages. Here’s the full gaming stack.

Steam

Make sure multilib is enabled (step 4), then install Steam:

sudo pacman -S steam

After launching Steam, go to Settings > Compatibility > Enable Steam Play for all titles. This activates Proton, Valve’s compatibility layer that runs Windows games on Linux. Most AAA titles work out of the box – check ProtonDB for game-specific compatibility reports.

Lutris and Wine

For non-Steam games (Epic, GOG, Battle.net), Lutris provides a unified launcher with automated installers:

sudo pacman -S lutris wine-staging

Performance Tools

GameMode optimizes CPU governor and I/O scheduling while gaming. MangoHud gives you an in-game FPS overlay:

sudo pacman -S gamemode lib32-gamemode mangohud lib32-mangohud

Launch games with MangoHud enabled to see real-time FPS, GPU temp, and frame time graphs: mangohud %command% in Steam launch options.

21. Power Management for Laptops

Laptop users should install TLP for automatic power management. It optimizes CPU frequency, disk I/O, WiFi power saving, and USB autosuspend without any manual tweaking.

sudo pacman -S tlp tlp-rdw
sudo systemctl enable --now tlp
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service systemd-rfkill.socket

The mask commands prevent conflicts between TLP and systemd’s radio device management.

For ThinkPad users, install additional packages for battery charge thresholds:

sudo pacman -S tp_smapi acpi_call

Check TLP status and battery information:

sudo tlp-stat -b

22. Set Up Development Tools

If you do any development work, get the essentials installed early:

sudo pacman -S base-devel git docker docker-compose python python-pip nodejs npm

Enable Docker and add your user to the docker group to run containers without sudo:

sudo systemctl enable --now docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and back in for the group change to take effect. Verify Docker works:

docker run hello-world

For KVM/QEMU virtualization on Arch, see our KVM and Virt Manager setup guide for Arch Linux.

23. Install Productivity Applications

Arch ships with nothing but the base system. Here are the productivity essentials most desktop users need:

sudo pacman -S libreoffice-fresh thunderbird firefox

A few more useful desktop applications:

• File archiver: sudo pacman -S file-roller p7zip unrar
• Image editor: sudo pacman -S gimp
• Video player: sudo pacman -S vlc or sudo pacman -S mpv
• Screenshot tool: sudo pacman -S flameshot
• Disk usage analyzer: sudo pacman -S baobab

24. Desktop Theming and Customization

One of the biggest draws of Arch is making the desktop look and feel exactly how you want it.

GNOME Customization

GNOME Tweaks unlocks settings not exposed in the regular Settings app – fonts, themes, titlebar buttons, startup apps, and more:

sudo pacman -S gnome-tweaks

For GNOME extensions, install the Extension Manager from the AUR:

yay -S gnome-shell-extension-manager

Some must-have GNOME extensions: Dash to Dock (persistent dock), AppIndicator (system tray icons), Blur My Shell (desktop blur effects), and GSConnect (KDE Connect for GNOME).

KDE Plasma Customization

KDE Plasma has the most customization built right into System Settings. Go to Appearance > Global Theme to download and apply complete desktop themes. The KDE Store has thousands of themes, icons, and widgets.

For a macOS-like look, the Latte Dock is popular:

sudo pacman -S latte-dock

25. Security Hardening

Desktop Linux systems benefit from basic kernel hardening even if you’re not running a server. These sysctl parameters reduce attack surface with no impact on daily use.

Create a security sysctl configuration:

sudo vi /etc/sysctl.d/99-security.conf

Add the following parameters:

kernel.kptr_restrict = 2
net.core.bpf_jit_harden = 2
kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1

Apply the changes:

sudo sysctl --system

These settings hide kernel pointers from non-root users, harden BPF JIT against spraying attacks, restrict ptrace to parent processes only, and enable reverse path filtering to prevent IP spoofing.

For maximum security, consider the hardened kernel:

sudo pacman -S linux-hardened linux-hardened-headers
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

The hardened kernel adds additional exploit mitigations but may have minor performance overhead and can break some applications (notably NVIDIA proprietary drivers). Keep the standard kernel as a fallback in your bootloader.

26. System Monitoring Tools

Install a set of modern monitoring tools that replace the old standards:

sudo pacman -S btop fastfetch bandwhich

• btop – A modern htop replacement with CPU, memory, disk, and network graphs in a single dashboard
• fastfetch – System information at a glance, perfect for screenshots and quick system checks
• bandwhich – Real-time network bandwidth usage per process, connection, and remote IP

Run fastfetch to see your full system configuration:

fastfetch

27. Keep Your System Clean

Over time, package cache and orphaned dependencies pile up. Set up regular cleanup to keep things tidy.

Remove orphaned packages (dependencies that are no longer needed):

sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

If there are no orphans, the command outputs an error – that’s expected and means your system is clean.

Install pacman-contrib for the cache cleanup utility:

sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib

Clear the package cache while keeping the last 3 versions of each package:

sudo paccache -r

Automate cache cleanup with the weekly paccache timer:

sudo systemctl enable paccache.timer

This prevents the package cache from growing indefinitely. On a system that gets regular updates, the cache can easily reach several gigabytes without cleanup.

Essential Keyboard Shortcuts to Know

Whether you’re on GNOME or KDE, knowing these shortcuts saves significant time navigating your desktop.

GNOME Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Super	Open Activities overview
Super + A	Show all applications
Super + L	Lock screen
Ctrl + Alt + T	Open terminal
Super + Left/Right	Tile window to half screen
Super + Up	Maximize window
Super + Down	Restore/minimize window
Alt + Tab	Switch between applications
Alt + F2	Run command dialog
Super + Page Up/Down	Switch workspaces

KDE Plasma Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Meta (Super)	Open application launcher
Meta + E	Open file manager (Dolphin)
Meta + L	Lock screen
Ctrl + Alt + T	Open terminal (Konsole)
Meta + Left/Right	Tile window to half screen
Ctrl + F1-F4	Switch virtual desktops
Alt + Tab	Switch between windows
Meta + Tab	Switch between activities
Print Screen	Take screenshot (Spectacle)

Troubleshooting Common Post-Install Issues

No Sound After Installation

If audio isn’t working, PipeWire or WirePlumber likely isn’t running. Check both:

systemctl --user status pipewire wireplumber

If they’re not active, start them manually:

systemctl --user enable --now pipewire wireplumber

WiFi Not Working

NetworkManager needs to be enabled and running. Many minimal installs miss this:

sudo systemctl enable --now NetworkManager

Screen Tearing on NVIDIA

For NVIDIA users experiencing screen tearing, enable ForceFullCompositionPipeline:

sudo nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"

To make it persistent, add it to your Xorg configuration or use the NVIDIA settings GUI to save it to your X config file.

Pacman “unable to lock database”

This happens when a previous pacman operation was interrupted. Remove the stale lock file:

sudo rm /var/lib/pacman/db.lck

Only do this if you’re sure no other pacman process is actually running. Check first with ps aux | grep pacman.

AUR Package Build Fails

Most AUR build failures come from missing build tools. Make sure base-devel is fully installed:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel

The --needed flag skips already-installed packages so it’s safe to run anytime.

Wrapping Up

With these 27 steps completed, your Arch Linux install has gone from a bare-bones shell to a fully configured desktop system ready for daily use, development, and gaming. Arch is what you make it – every package on the system is one you chose to install.

The Arch Wiki General Recommendations page is your long-term reference for anything not covered here. For package discovery, browse the official Arch package repository to find exactly what you need.