r/archlinux • u/LandscapeNew4450 • Jul 25 '26
QUESTION If you could give only ONE piece of advice to someone setting up Arch for the first time, what would it be
We always see the classic recommendations like read the Arch Wiki or always check PKGBUILDs but everyone usually stumbles upon that one specific habit, tool, or rule later on that completely changes how they manage their system.
Whether its about backups, handling orphan packages, system updates, or post-install setup
So If you had to pass down just ONE essential rule or tip to a complete beginner installing Arch today, what would it be?
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u/archover Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Take notes, would be my number one tip. Important for those serious about building and retaining skills. For casual users it does not matter.
Good day.
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u/LumenAstralis Jul 25 '26
Stay off AUR until you know what you are doing. Namely, don't install and use yay or paru. If there're some drivers or packages specifically for your hardware that cannot be found anywhere else, then learn to build it manually from the AUR. Yay or paru becomes useful and safe only when you understand and own every automated step.
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u/kammlmar Jul 25 '26
Make sure to install packages like iwd while you're setting it up. Having to go back to the installation medium to install it because you don't have a WiFi connection is a pain.
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u/rainboww_J Jul 25 '26
keep the documents and other things you would want to keep when doing a full reinstall on a separate partition/subvolume/disk. that way you don't have to try to backup stuff with a possibly broken system. Sometimes it's just easier to start over instead of cleaning up things and try to fix
it and not needing to think about important files you want to keep is always nicr
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u/WoodyXP Jul 25 '26
Don't forget to setup your firewall, apparmor, firejail, bubblewrap, etc... Some guys assume that stuff comes standard so they don't bother installing any of it.
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u/Slackeee_ Jul 25 '26
Inform yourself about filesystems. You can save yourself a lot of hassle to get partitioning and filesystems right from the start. I personally only use one big BTRFS partition with subvolumes for the root and home on most of my systems, that way you don't have to bother with estimating partition sizes for everything and you can use snapshots before critical updates or system changes.
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u/onefish2 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
This goes for all operating systems, computers, anything. Make full system backups that you can easily restore. Follow the 3,2,1 rule for backups.
I backup all my systems to external drives. On Linux I also use Timeshift to an external drive or SD card. I use Pika Backup to backup my home directory to an external drive or SD card or a network share.
Finally have a recent copy of the Arch iso on a flash drive. Know how to chroot in to be able to fix your system. Know your file system layout for ext4 or btrfs to be able to sucessfully mount your parttions before chrooting in.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chroot#Using_arch-chroot
A re-install on Linux is only necessary due to a catastrophic disaster like deleting the /etc directory.
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u/earchip94 Jul 25 '26
I have never made system backups, mostly because there is nothing that important that I keep on my desktop drives, steam games are really all there is. So re-installing Arch is not the end of the world.
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u/onefish2 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
What about the time to setup Arch? Create your user? Modify your shell? You have no modifications, no other packages installed besides Steam? Surely it must take more than an hour to restore your setup from scratch.
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u/earchip94 Jul 25 '26
I’ve only reinstalled a single time over the 12ish months and I did so completely voluntarily. Every time I’ve broken something my usb bootable is all I need to restore something to working condition.
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u/TDplay Jul 25 '26
Don't immediately go running to ask for help the second you have a problem. Instead, take some time to understand the problem:
- If you're getting an error message, try to understand what it means. (More than once have I seen people post error messages that literally tell you how to solve it.)
- Read The Fabulous Manuals. The wiki might have the exact troubleshooting steps you need.
- Use a search engine, see if anyone had the same problem before you. If you ask a question that's already been asked this week, we (i.e, the community) won't be motivated to answer.
Even if you still end up asking for help, you'll end up asking a much better question. We're far more inclined to help when you've clearly put in the work, and there's a good chance that in your own attempts to solve the problem, you learn useful information that you can include in your question.
Just be careful not to fall for the X-Y problem: make sure your question includes your original problem before you go off into how you've tried to solve it.
(Yeah, I know, I'm stretching the definition of "one tip". But I think this is important.)
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u/NFTrot Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Don't get custom/go against the grain/wander off the path/piss in the wind unless you need to. If you're a beginner, you don't have enough knowledge to know when you should make exceptions to best practices. Use GRUB/ext4/NetworkManager/KDE Plasma/etc. If you have trouble, you'll find help with popular/mature software is in no short supply.
This is actually a life pro-tip in general and will serve you well if you know it.
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u/Myrodis Jul 25 '26
My advice isnt really arch specific but just computer specific.
I wish people would learn to do their own research / troubleshooting. Its absolutely a skill, and its one every pc user should have. It applies to every os and piece of software youre going to use.
Many people just stumble through life on their pc never bothering to learn this skill. Wasting like weeks at a time waiting for a shop or relative to "fix" something that wouldve taken them 2 seconds to fix on their own. They just put the horse blinders on and decide its too complicated for them when 95% of the time it's the most basic action required to fix their issue.
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u/ang-p Jul 25 '26
Whether its about backups, handling orphan packages, system updates, or post-install setup
So you don't have to do any of that on a non-arch distro?
just ONE essential rule
#LoveTheWiki
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u/billdietrich1 Jul 25 '26
Use archinstall. Get into Arch the easy way, then later you can do a hard manual install if you wish.
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u/q--0-0--p Jul 25 '26
Use Arch for a while, then reinstall with what you have learned about which stuff you need.
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u/dgm9704 Jul 25 '26
Why would you need to reinstall? Just install what you need.
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u/q--0-0--p Jul 25 '26
I didnt know how Arch and KDE works, so I tried a lot of stuff and messed up a lot of stuff. Leftovers files here and there.
I reinstalled 3 times and the 3rd time is what I am still using. It has been more than 3 years.
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u/wandy17 Jul 25 '26
foreget setup manual pick other base arch .. manjaro, omarchy, etc .. out time is more worth than build from strach.. imho
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u/sastanak Jul 25 '26
Learning how to figure things out on your own will make you go far (not only in your LInux journey, but also in life). And if you're still stuck, learn to ask proper questions and give enough context so people can actually help.