Arch Quick Hacks

Pacstrap

pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware linux-headers linux-firmware-intel intel-ucode btrfs-progs dosfstools neovim networkmanager git man-db man-pages texinfo

Install glances

## Install Glances
pacman -Syyu --noconfirm python-brotli python-fs python-lxml python-lxml python-pyqt5 python-reportlab python-scipy python-unicodedata2 python-zopfli tk python-olefile python-defusedxml python-railroad-diagrams python-jinja pyside6 python-pyqt6 python-pyqt5 python-gobject python-wxpython python-cairo python-cairocffi python-tornado imagemagick ffmpeg ghostscript texlive-binextra texlive-fontsrecommended python-certifi python-inflect wdiff texlive-latexrecommended python perl-ipc-system-simple perl-file-homedir perl-yaml-tiny perl-tk java-runtime dialog ed mupdf-tools biber perl-tk python-twisted python-pycares gtk4 gdk-pixbuf2 python-xcffib python-pycurl python-pycares python-twisted webkit2gtk-4.1 python-pypubsub gdk-pixbuf2 python-xcffib

Install video codecs

yay -Syyu --noconfirm aom dav1d rav1e svt-av1  davs2 daala-git schroedinger libdv x265 libde265 x264 libmpeg2 xvidcore libtheora  libvpx

Install package with deps

yay -Syu expac
sudo pacman -Syu --needed --asdeps $(expac -Ss '%o' <pkg_name>)

Missing firmware fix

If you happen to run ArchLinux somewhere, you may find that when its time to rebuild your kernel with mkinitcpio you get output that looks like the following.

==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: '6.10.3-arch1-2'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
  -> Running build hook: [microcode]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux.img'
  -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful
==> Initcpio image generation successful
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> Starting build: '6.10.3-arch1-2'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [microcode]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'ast'
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'aic94xx'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'bfa'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qed'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla1280'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla2xxx'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'wd719x'
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img'
  -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful
==> Initcpio image generation successful

Problem

These warnings are harmless assuming you don't use any of the hardware that these missing packages are intended to provide drivers for. So, if you do use any of that hardware, or if, like me, you just don't like warnings in your kernel build, use the shell script below to install the required software.

Usage

Either copy the shell script to your system, make it executable and run it, or jsut copy the shell command below and run that (assuming you have yay installed). Of course, if you don't use yay and use some other means of accessing the AUR, this is useless to you, but if that's the case just use whatever your preferred tool is to install the listed packages.

Install with yay

yay -Syyu aic94xx-firmware ast-firmware linux-firmware-qlogic wd719x-firmware upd72020x-fw

Hat tip to DJ Fajardo for this very helpful post on the ArchLinux forums.

Solution

Once this completes (and builds the kernel for you a few times), you should be able to run mkinitcpio and see output similar to the following sans warnings.

==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: '6.10.3-arch1-2'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
  -> Running build hook: [microcode]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux.img'
  -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful
==> Initcpio image generation successful
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> Starting build: '6.10.3-arch1-2'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [microcode]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img'
  -> Early uncompressed CPIO image generation successful
==> Initcpio image generation successful

Even harmless warnings are still warnings, and when it comes to ones kernel it's best be clean. Hope this helps someone, as it took me a bit of digging to find the correct list of packages hidden behind all the "they're just warnings, ignore them" posts.

Cheers mate!