Setup Checklist

My personal checklist for setting up a fresh Arch Linux installation.

GNOME Settings

• Enable Mouse & Touchpad > Tap to Click

• Navigate to Keyboard > View and Customize Shortcuts:

  • Set Launchers > Home folder to Super + E

  • Set Navigation > Switch Windows to Alt + Tab

  • Create a shortcut in Custom Shortcuts:

    • Name: Console

    • Command: kgx --tab

    • Shortcut: Super + T

GNOME Apps

Install Calendar, Evolution and Endeavour:

sudo pacman -S gnome-calendar gnome-contacts endeavour evolution evolution-ews

GNOME with X11

Mouse Gestures

PLEASE NOTE: At the time of this writing (2023-01-29), screen sharing is broken in MS Teams under Wayland. In order to use this feature, make sure you are logging into an X11 session. Unfortunately under X11 the mouse gestures don't work out of the box - but this is fixable:

yay touchegg gnome-shell-extension-x11gestures
sudo systemctl enable touchegg.service
sudo systemctl start touchegg

# Enable the X11 Gesture Extension:
gnome-extensions enable [email protected]

For details see: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=265360

Fix Flickering in Screen Sharing

If you experiencing flickering while sharing your screen in for example Microsoft Teams or Zoom, make sure to use the modesetting driver in X11. To do so, simply remove xf86-video-intel, and possibly /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf - then reboot:

sudo pacman -Rs xf86-video-intel

For details see: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=218021

Flatpak

Install as documented for EndeavourOS:

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

Then restart your system.

Nextcloud Client

Install Nextcloud Client from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud

Then start the client and login to your Nextcloud to start the synchronization process. To enable Autostart, open GNOME Tweaks, go to Startup Applications and add Nextcloud Desktop there. This literally just creates the ~/.config/autostart/com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud.desktop file.

Git

Execute the following commands in the Terminal:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"
cat .ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Add the SSH Public Key to the following portals:

• GitHub.com

• freedesktop.org GitLab

• GitLab.com

• GNOME GitLab

VSCodium

Install VSCodium from AUR by executing the following command in the Terminal:

yay vscodium-bin

Verify whether Super + E still opens Nautilus in your home folder - or you end up in VSCodium now. If VSCodium is started, this is due to a bug which causes the default file ordering to be messed up:

$ cat /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache | grep inode/directory
inode/directory=codium.desktop;org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop;

To fix this, create a new file in ~/.config/mimeapps.list and fix the ordering there by adding the following content:

[Default Applications]
inode/directory=org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop;

Then Logout and Login again to restart your GNOME Session and Super + E should now open Nautilus again.

Paymo Widget

Install the Paymo Widget from AUR by executing the following command in the Terminal:

yay paymo-widget

Signal Desktop

Install the Signal Desktop application from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub org.signal.Signal

Online Accounts

Setup Online Accounts in GNOME Settings > Online Accounts:

Private

• Nextcloud for Calendar and Contacts (needs application specific password)

• IMAP and SMTP for Mail

	Server	Port	Encryption
Incoming Mail (IMAP)	mail.gandi.net	993	SSL
Outgoing Mail (SMTP)	mail.gandi.net	587	STARTTLS

docs.gandi.net/en/gandimail/standard_email_settings/

Study & Work

• Calendar and Tasks

• Mail

Install Evolution and Evolution EWS (sudo pacman -S evolution evolution-ews) and configure these accounts there:

1. Start Evolution

2. Start the New Mail Account Wizard: Click File > New > Mail Account

3. Enter your Email Address and uncheck Look up mail server details…, click Next

4. Select Server Type: Exchange Web Services

• Set Host URL: https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

• Click Check for Supported Types - this should select OAuth2 (Office 365)

• Check Override Office 365 OAuth2 settings

• Enter the Tenant ID of your account (copy the tid query parameter value from your account url in Outlook Web Access)

• Open the Help… link and follow the instructions provided there.

In case you run into any troubles due to the Evolution application ID not beeing authorized by your Office 365 administrator, use the last Evolution application ID with the Redirect URI set to urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob as descrdibed in the GNOME Wiki.

Unified Inbox in Evolution

To have a grouped inbox view in Evolution I am going to use the Search Folders feature. Go to Edit > Preferences and enable Search Folders. Then drag it the top. Then create a new Search Folder in Edit > Search Folders > Add with the following settings:

• Rule name: Inbox

• Find items which match: any of the following conditions

• Include threads: None

• Message Location: is: Your Account/Inbox

  • Add as many Message Location conditions as you have accounts and inboxes

• Check Automatically update on any source folder change

• Select All active remote folders

• Then click Ok

Repeat the above steps for any Unified Folder you want to have (e.g. for Archive).

Microsoft Teams

Install the Microsoft Teams application from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub com.microsoft.Teams

Cryptomator

Install the Cryptomator application from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub org.cryptomator.Cryptomator

Espanso

Install Espanso from AUR:

yay espanso-bin

# Autostart Espanso:
espanso service register
# Start Espanso now:
espanso service start

Skype

Install the Skype application from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub com.skype.Client

Zettelkasten

Install Zettlr, Zotero and Flatseal from Flathub:

flatpak install flathub com.zettlr.Zettlr flathub org.zotero.Zotero flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

• Open Flatseal, select Zettlr and enable filesystem=home permission

• Start Zettlr and in File > Open Workspace ... select ~/Nextcloud/Notes

• Last but not least, start Zotero and configure it as documented

PDF Studio Pro

• Go to the Qopppa Software download page

• Select PDF Studio 2022

• Enter the License Key stored at Resources/Akten to download PDF Studio 2022

• Start the installer from Terminal: sh ~/Downloads/PDFStudio_*.sh

• Activate the software using the License Key stored at Resources/Akten

• Go to File > Preferences > Display and select:

  • THeme: Dark

  • Document Resolution: System Setting

• Go to File > Preferences > Application and deactivate Run in background

• Restart the application

• Go to File > Preferences > General and select:

  • Units: Centimeters

  • Default Page Size: A4

• Go to File > Preferences > OCR and:

  • Click Download OCR Languages

  • Select English and German - Deutsch

  • Click Download

  • Set Primary Language: German - Deutsch

  • Check Enable Secondary Language: English

eGPU with X11

First, reboot with your eGPU attached. Then install the correct drivers for your graphic card:

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-amdgpu vulkan-radeon

Second, install and setup the egpu-switcher from AUR:

# Install:
$ yay -S egpu-switcher-bin

# Configure:
$ sudo egpu-switcher config

Found 2 possible GPU(s)...

1: 	Intel Corporation TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] (i915)
2: 	Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 23 [Radeon RX 6600/6600 XT/6600M] (amdgpu)

Which one is your external GPU? [1-2]: 2

[ok] Your selection was saved to the config file

# Enable
$ sudo egpu-switcher enable

At this stage you are fully set. Reboot your system once again and keep the eGPU attached. You should now be able to login and the eGPU is used by default.

To verify, go to GNOME System Settings > About - there it should display your eGPU's name.

For more information, check the External GPU article in the Arch Wiki.

AppImageLauncher

Install AppImageLauncher from AUR by executing the following command in the Terminal:

yay appimagelauncher-git

Steam

sudo pacman -Sy
...
sudo pacman -S steam
...
:: There are 5 providers available for vulkan-driver:
:: Repository extra
   1) amdvlk  2) nvidia-utils  3) vulkan-intel  4) vulkan-radeon  5) vulkan-swrast

Enter a number (default=1): 4
:: There are 4 providers available for lib32-vulkan-driver:
:: Repository multilib
   1) lib32-amdvlk  2) lib32-nvidia-utils  3) lib32-vulkan-intel  4) lib32-vulkan-radeon

Enter a number (default=1): 4
...

PLEASE NOTE: At the time of this writing (2022-08-26), SteamVR only works (sort of) on X11, not on Wayland.