I’m planning to install Arch Linux for the first time. Any recommendations on setup, must-have applications, or best practices? Also, what’s something you wish you knew before switching to Arch?

  • LittleBobbyTables@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    0·
    6 hours ago
    • ALWAYS avoid partial upgrades, lest you end up bricking your system: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_unsupported
    • The Arch Wiki is your best friend. You can also use it offline, take a look at wikiman: https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman
    • It doesn’t hurt to have the LTS kernel installed as a backup option (assuming you use the standard kernel as your chosen default) in case you update to a newer kernel version and a driver here or there breaks. It’s happened to me on Arch a few times. One of them completely borked my internet connection, the other one would freeze any game I played via WINE/Proton because I didn’t have resize BAR enabled in the BIOS. Sometimes switching to the LTS kernel can get around these temporary hiccups, at least until the maintainers fix those issues in the next kernel version.
    • The AUR is not vetted as much as the main package repositories, as it’s mostly community-made packages. Don’t install AUR packages you don’t 100% trust. Always check the PKGBUILD if you’re paranoid.