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Arch Linux Questions

I finally managed to get arch linux working on my laptop. The main challenge was wifi because I have a broadcom BCM4352 (keep that in mind because I have a question about it) and broadcom-wl just did not want to install at all. However, I still need to work out a few things. 

 

  • How on earth am I supposed to change my wallpaper in i3?
  • Is there any way I can get the app menu to look more like spotlight on a mac (with icons showing and I came over from macOS)
  • Am I able to get a mac style dock on i3 (once again, came from macos)
  • The wifi is way slower than it should be. On macOS (it was a hackintosh before and will likely be one again) I could get 75mbps and I'm only supposed to get 60. I'm on AC wifi so it should not be this slow. What's causing this? (This is on firefox. I'm using that until I can get chrome working)
  • What file manager do you recommend?
  • Can I get a settings panel on here so It isn't a huge pain in the ass to set up wifi?
  • And finally, when I use pacman -S, I can only get some software from the AUR. Some of it is on their website (like google chrome) but when I install it, it can't find it.

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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18 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

I finally managed to get arch linux working on my laptop. The main challenge was wifi because I have a broadcom BCM4352 (keep that in mind because I have a question about it) and broadcom-wl just did not want to install at all. However, I still need to work out a few things. 

 

  • How on earth am I supposed to change my wallpaper in i3?
  • Is there any way I can get the app menu to look more like spotlight on a mac (with icons showing and I came over from macOS)
  • Am I able to get a mac style dock on i3 (once again, came from macos)
  • The wifi is way slower than it should be. On macOS (it was a hackintosh before and will likely be one again) I could get 75mbps and I'm only supposed to get 60. I'm on AC wifi so it should not be this slow. What's causing this? (This is on firefox. I'm using that until I can get chrome working)
  • What file manager do you recommend?
  • Can I get a settings panel on here so It isn't a huge pain in the ass to set up wifi?
  • And finally, when I use pacman -S, I can only get some software from the AUR. Some of it is on their website (like google chrome) but when I install it, it can't find it.

Mac dock - Docky

Thunar

go to the pacman software manager gui.

go to settings and appearance.

 

I personally prefer manjaro

A8-7600 {} Gigabyte FM2+ Board {} CX430 {} Corsair Vengeance LP 8gb {} MSI GTX 760 2GB {}

 

Console.WriteLine("C# is aids");

 

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15 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

The wifi is way slower than it should be. On macOS (it was a hackintosh before and will likely be one again) I could get 75mbps and I'm only supposed to get 60. I'm on AC wifi so it should not be this slow. What's causing this? (This is on firefox. I'm using that until I can get chrome working)

Its hard to ask google if the broadcom drivers support AC speed for your chipset. I cant see any documented problems with your chipset on the debian or arch wiki. have a look at the commands on this page to confirm network is as it should be https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-find-out-wireless-network-speed-signal-strength.html

16 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

What file manager do you recommend?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCManFM

its lightweight and has a crazy name

17 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

Can I get a settings panel on here so It isn't a huge pain in the ass to set up wifi?

you have many choices. My only recommendation is to install a full desktop like gnome or mate. I have some pretty low end hardware that can handle the supposedly bloated Unity and Gnome3 without any problems

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_network_configuration

21 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

And finally, when I use pacman -S, I can only get some software from the AUR. Some of it is on their website (like google chrome) but when I install it, it can't find it.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository

please tell me where you went wrong in the archwiki instructions

             ☼

ψ ︿_____︿_ψ_   

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If you're looking for something similar to mac os i3 is not it. KDE or (if you want something lighter) MATE will suit you better.

 

Arch has binary repositories, which are accessed with pacman, and the AUR, which is either accesses manually through git or with a script like yaourt. As @SCHISCHKA pointed out, all this information is available on the arch wiki.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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6 hours ago, nobiggieBIG said:

Mac dock - Docky

Thanks. I will look at that.

6 hours ago, nobiggieBIG said:

Thunar

What features make it stand out and what are the advantages over PCManFM? SCHISCHKA mentioned that one earlier and I want to know what the advantages are.

6 hours ago, nobiggieBIG said:

go to the pacman software manager gui.

I don't think Arch Has that. It is just a barebones linux install and it doesn't even include a window manager.

6 hours ago, nobiggieBIG said:

go to settings and appearance.

i3 doesn't include that. I don't think so anyway. It's just a window manager. I actually had to install the application menu separately.

6 hours ago, nobiggieBIG said:

I personally prefer manjaro

I prefer arch because I like to configure everything myself. I know I will be able to proudly use it when I'm done. Also, I'm on a robotics team and when I'm at robotics (whether it's a meeting or a competition), People always ask you about it and a lot of times, you make new friends. 

7 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

Its hard to ask google if the broadcom drivers support AC speed for your chipset. I cant see any documented problems with your chipset on the debian or arch wiki. have a look at the commands on this page to confirm network is as it should be https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-find-out-wireless-network-speed-signal-strength.html

I will try those later. I might have to modify the driver. It's not uncommon with linux. I don't mind doing this luckily.

7 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCManFM

its lightweight and has a crazy name

What advantages does it have over thunar? Just comparing the recommendations.

7 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

you have many choices. My only recommendation is to install a full desktop like gnome or mate. I have some pretty low end hardware that can handle the supposedly bloated Unity and Gnome3 without any problems

I like the tiling in i3 but I'm just trying it out. I'm not a fan of Gnome because it's not very customizable. It's good if you like the way it looks out of the box though.

16 minutes ago, Sauron said:

If you're looking for something similar to mac os i3 is not it. KDE or (if you want something lighter) MATE will suit you better.

 

Arch has binary repositories, which are accessed with pacman, and the AUR, which is either accesses manually through git or with a script like yaourt. As @SCHISCHKA pointed out, all this information is available on the arch wiki.

I'm just trying out i3. I thought you could get the packages from the AUR with pacman. I'll deal. I like compiling it myself anyway.

 

I like the tiling of i3. I just think a dock would look nice and it would be easier to see what's running in the background. I was also going to try out these

  • XFCE
  • Cinnamon
  • Openbox
  • KDE
  • JWM
  • Enlightenment.

I heard the someone got the XFCE dock working on i3. I might just install all of them, configure them and use whatever I feel like using each time I log in. I think you can get i3 tiling on all of these. I'll probably stick with i3 though because I really like it so far. I would just want the dock for aesthetics and I want icons in the application menu (I forget what it's actually called but it comes up when I hit Modkey+D) because I, like a lot of other people recognize icons faster than text.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. I will switch to the LTS kernel first because it says on the wiki page for broadcom (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/broadcom_wireless) that if the connection is unstable, that might help. It has stopped working for me a few times so I want to see if it works. Also, I want it to be stable because this is going to be my daily driver.

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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3 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

Thanks. I will look at that.

What features make it stand out and what are the advantages over PCManFM? SCHISCHKA mentioned that one earlier and I want to know what the advantages are.

I don't think Arch Has that. It is just a barebones linux install and it doesn't even include a window manager.

i3 doesn't include that. I don't think so anyway. It's just a window manager. I actually had to install the application menu separately.

I prefer arch because I like to configure everything myself. I know I will be able to proudly use it when I'm done. Also, I'm on a robotics team and when I'm at robotics (whether it's a meeting or a competition), People always ask you about it and a lot of times, you make new friends. 

I will try those later. I might have to modify the driver. It's not uncommon with linux. I don't mind doing this luckily.

What advantages does it have over thunar? Just comparing the recommendations.

I like the tiling in i3 but I'm just trying it out. I'm not a fan of Gnome because it's not very customizable. It's good if you like the way it looks out of the box though.

I'm just trying out i3. I thought you could get the packages from the AUR with pacman. I'll deal. I like compiling it myself anyway.

 

I like the tiling of i3. I just think a dock would look nice and it would be easier to see what's running in the background. I was also going to try out these

  • XFCE
  • Cinnamon
  • Openbox
  • KDE
  • JWM
  • Enlightenment.

I heard the someone got the XFCE dock working on i3. I might just install all of them, configure them and use whatever I feel like using each time I log in. I think you can get i3 tiling on all of these. I'll probably stick with i3 though because I really like it so far. I would just want the dock for aesthetics and I want icons in the application menu (I forget what it's actually called but it comes up when I hit Modkey+D) because I, like a lot of other people recognize icons faster than text.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. I will switch to the LTS kernel first because it says on the wiki page for broadcom (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/broadcom_wireless) that if the connection is unstable, that might help. It has stopped working for me a few times so I want to see if it works. Also, I want it to be stable because this is going to be my daily driver.

Manjaro is arch based, it makes it much easier to install. and you dont have to worry about all this

A8-7600 {} Gigabyte FM2+ Board {} CX430 {} Corsair Vengeance LP 8gb {} MSI GTX 760 2GB {}

 

Console.WriteLine("C# is aids");

 

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Just now, nobiggieBIG said:

Manjaro is arch based, it makes it much easier to install. and you dont have to worry about all this

I prefer doing it like this. It's more fun and I'm very proud of it when I'm done. I just am confused on a few things. The only real problem is the slow wifi. It's still a miracle that I got it working at all considering that broadcom wifi is a huge pain on linux.  I made it this far, no point in switching at this point.

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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@nobiggieBIG @SCHISCHKA @Sauron

So I was googling around and I found this, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=139911

 

It's for BCM4360 but BCM4360 is almost the exact same as BCM4352 (I know this because I have hackintoshed my laptop before and It runs on the same driver. You just need to patch it so it recognizes it). Think it will work?

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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45 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

@nobiggieBIG @SCHISCHKA @Sauron

So I was googling around and I found this, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=139911

 

It's for BCM4360 but BCM4360 is almost the exact same as BCM4352 (I know this because I have hackintoshed my laptop before and It runs on the same driver. You just need to patch it so it recognizes it). Think it will work?

hard to know until you try :P

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

hard to know until you try :P

I don't see why it won't work considering it's just checking a config, registering mac addresses, and rebuilding the kernel. I will try it after I get home and have swapped out for the ck-lts kernel because the lts kernel in the aur is apparently out of date even though it's based on the same kernel version. What is the difference anyway?

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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55 minutes ago, AA-RonRosen said:

I don't see why it won't work considering it's just checking a config, registering mac addresses, and rebuilding the kernel. I will try it after I get home and have swapped out for the ck-lts kernel because the lts kernel in the aur is apparently out of date even though it's based on the same kernel version. What is the difference anyway?

It's possible the chip works differently or has some functionality that won't work. It will probably be fine tho

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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52 minutes ago, Sauron said:

It's possible the chip works differently or has some functionality that won't work. It will probably be fine tho

broadcom-wl supports ac wifi right?

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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1 hour ago, AA-RonRosen said:

broadcom-wl supports ac wifi right?

I have no idea, the wiki page doesn't mention it

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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19 hours ago, AA-RonRosen said:
  • How on earth am I supposed to change my wallpaper in i3?
  • Is there any way I can get the app menu to look more like spotlight on a mac (with icons showing and I came over from macOS)
  • Am I able to get a mac style dock on i3 (once again, came from macos)
  • Can I get a settings panel on here so It isn't a huge pain in the ass to set up wifi?
  • And finally, when I use pacman -S, I can only get some software from the AUR. Some of it is on their website (like google chrome) but when I install it, it can't find it.

 

feh --bg-fill /path/to/image. You can put it into your .xinitrc to do this permanently, or even stick a little background loop in which picks a random one every few minutes.

 

You can get icons in i3 using i3-wm-iconpatch from the AUR, or you could even switch out i3-bar for something like lemonbar or lxpanel/xfcepanel, which can do macOS style stuff quite easily.

WPA_GUI is a ok for setting up wifi if wifi-menu isn't enough for you.

 

For the AUR, it's probably best to use a download helper, so you can more easily update when necessary. (I use packer).

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20 hours ago, Sauron said:

I have no idea, the wiki page doesn't mention it

I will find out later. If it does, I should get higher than my advertised speed. (I don't know why that happens)

 

15 hours ago, Fourthdwarf said:

feh --bg-fill /path/to/image. You can put it into your .xinitrc to do this permanently, or even stick a little background loop in which picks a random one every few minutes.

Awesome, thanks.

15 hours ago, Fourthdwarf said:

You can get icons in i3 using i3-wm-iconpatch from the AUR, or you could even switch out i3-bar for something like lemonbar or lxpanel/xfcepanel, which can do macOS style stuff quite easily.

Could I get a dock and an applet/statusbar together? And could I autohide the dock only when a window is over it? I still want to access it when a window is open. If not, I will keep it there. I don't mind sacrificing screen real estate but would prefer not to.

15 hours ago, Fourthdwarf said:

WPA_GUI is a ok for setting up wifi if wifi-menu isn't enough for you.

I just don't know how to get an applet for it on i3. I was also wondering about a settings panel but I think that's not happening at this point. I'm just going to find/make programs to change those settings and find a way to make an application that links them into one window. Something like control panel on windows or system preferences on mac.

15 hours ago, Fourthdwarf said:

For the AUR, it's probably best to use a download helper, so you can more easily update when necessary. (I use packer).

Can it update programs I compiled myself that I got from the AUR? I prefer compiling it myself.

 

Also, I tried to install the linux-lts-ck kernel last night and it could not verify signatures for the linux tar file and another one (I don't remember). I installed the latest LTS kernel before attempting to compile it because the wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/linux-ck) said the coresponding kernel needs to already be there. What do I do about this?

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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On 15/03/2017 at 5:53 AM, nobiggieBIG said:

How on earth am I supposed to change my wallpaper in i3?

I use nitrogen. You just add like "exec --no-startup-id nitrogen --restore" to your i3 config. It also provides a nice lil GUI for picking the image you use. I know a lot of people who have backgrounds that don't use i3-gaps or some form of composite manager (so they only see their background when they're not doing anything or floating windows - lolwat).

 

As for file manager, I tend to stick to pcmanfm or nautilus (nautilus has a weird thing about how many windows can actually be visible - it's nice though). All the cool kids use ranger though!

 

I've never seen someone attempt to make an i3 install similar in appearance to Mac OSX. If you succeed, be sure to hit us up with a screenshot.

And, if my thought-dreams could be seen,
they'd probably put my head in a guillotine.
But, it's alright, ma, it's life, and life only.

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So I have gotten it mostly working. I set up the LTS kernel and it fixed my wifi but now, my window manager won't load. I load SDDM and it just freezes and my cursor is an X. I do have it loading on startup. Anyone know how to fix this?

 

"You think your Commodore 64 is really neato! What kind of chip you got in there a Dorito?" -Weird Al Yankovic, All about the pentiums

 

PC 1(Lenovo S400 laptop): 

CPU: i3-3217u

SSD: 120gb Super Cache mSATA SSD

HDD: Random seagate 5400rpm 500gb HDD

RAM: 8GB Crucial DDR3-SODIMM

OS: Windows 10 education

 

PC 2(2014 Mac Mini):

CPU: i5-4260u

HDD: 5400rpm 500gb

RAM: 4gb DDR3 (soldered on :( )

OS: MacOS Sierra/Windows 10 pro via bootcamp

 

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