Continuing from our previous tutorial on the steps to install Arch Linux, in this tutorial we will learn how to install GUI on Arch Linux. Arch Linux is a light weight, highly customizable linux distro. Its installation does not include a desktop environment. It will only take a few steps to install your favorite Desktop Environment to your machine.
1. Installing Graphics Driver
The first thing that we are going to do is install all the necessary graphics drivers for the machine. Different machines will need different graphics driver, to check your machine’s graphic’s card you need to run the following command:
lspci | grep -e VGA
Now, you can refer to the official Arch Linux Xorg driver installation guide. It lists out all graphics card drivers which can then be installed by Pacman utility. Here, I will be installing Nvidia graphics drivers:
#To update System
sudo pacman -Syyu
#Installing Driver and related utilites
sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings
If you are using virtual box, you will need to install virtualbox drivers with the following command:
sudo pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-dkms
2. Installing Xorg
Xorg is a display server. Display Server is the building block of a desktop environment. It provides the basic framework for the GUI environment. To install Xorg and all the related utilities with the following command:
sudo pacman -S xorg xterm xorg-xinit
To test xorg installation run the following command:
startx
3. Installing Desktop Environment
Now we will be installing a desktop environment. There are multiple options available for us:
To install MATE Desktop Environment
sudo pacman -S mate mate-extra
To install Cinnamon Desktop Environment
sudo pacman -S cinnamon nemo-fileroller
To install Gnome Desktop Environment
sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extra
To install XFCE4 Desktop Environment
sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies
To install KDE Plasma Desktop Environment
sudo pacman -S plasma kdeplasma-addons
4. Installing Display Manager
Display manager is also known as login manager. It’s mainly responsible for the login screen that you see when you first start your machine. Display manager is also responsible to start the display server and load the desktop environment.
Again we have multiple options, you can choose anyone that you like:
Installing Gnome Display Manager
sudo pacman -S gdm
sudo systemctl enable gdm
sudo systemctl start gdm
Installing SDDM
sudo pacman -S sddm
sudo systemctl enable sddm
sudo systemctl start sddm
To install LXDM
sudo pacman -S lxdm
sudo systemctl enable lxdm
sudo systemctl start lxdm
5. Installing Other utilites
We also need to install a few essential utilities for smoother experience.
Installing Sound System
sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa pavucontrol
Installing Terminal and System Monitor
sudo pacman -S gnome-terminal gnome-system-monitor
Installing Firefox and Media Players
sudo pacman -S firefox vlc audacious
Installing LibreOFfice
sudo pacman -S libreoffice
Conclusion
We learned how to install GUI on arch linux. I hope you learned something from this tutorial. Have a great day ahead. Cheers!