Getting Started with Arch Linux 04 - Installing Desktop Environments

Overview

In the fourth video of the Arch Linux series, we install one or more desktop environments.

Relevant Links
Original Video
Arch AMD GPU documentation

Commands Used in this Video

Check if you have an IP address

ip a

Ping test

ping -c 5 www.google.com

Bring Ethernet online

systemctl status NetworkManager
systemctl start NetworkManager

Install Xorg packages

pacman -Syyy
pacman -S xorg-server

List PCI cards to see what video card you have (look for VGA)

lspci

Install packages required for Intel graphics cards

pacman -S xf86-video-intel libgl mesa

Install packages required for Nvidia graphics cards

pacman -S nvidia nvidia-libgl mesa

If you installed the LTS kernel:

pacman -S nvidia-lts

Install packages required for ATI graphics cards

pacman -S mesa xf86-video-amdgpu 

Install packages required for graphics on Arch Linux VirtualBox VMs

pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-modules-arch mesa mesa-libgl

Create a user for yourself

useradd -m -g users -G wheel jay

Set a password for your account

passwd jay

Install packages for the GNOME display manager

Note: Activate GDM OR SDDM, not both!

pacman -S gdm
systemctl enable gdm

Install packages for SDDM

pacman -S sddm
systemctl enable sddm

Install GNOME packages

pacman -S gnome gnome-terminal nautilus gnome-tweaks gnome-control-center

Optional:

pacman -S firefox gnome-backgrounds adwaita-icon-theme arc-gtk-theme

Install packages required for the Plasma desktop

pacman -S plasma konsole dolphin

Install packages required for the Xfce desktop

pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies xfce4-terminal

Enable Network Manager

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Reboot the system and test

reboot