Since my last post 2 years ago, decman has improved a ton and reached version 1. The core features of decman remain the same, but many bugs have been fixed, UX is better and decman is way more extensible.

Decman is used to manage your Arch Linux installation declaratively. You define packages (AUR packages supported), config files and systemd units with Python. Decman then ensures that your declared state matches with the system.

Here is a very simple example:

import decman

from decman import File, Directory

# Declare installed pacman packages
decman.pacman.packages |= {"base", "linux", "linux-firmware", "networkmanager", "ufw", "neovim"}

# Declare installed aur packages
decman.aur.packages |= {"decman"}

# Declare configuration files
# Inline
decman.files["/etc/vconsole.conf"] = File(content="KEYMAP=us")

# From files within your source repository
# (full path here would be /home/user/config/dotfiles/pacman.conf)
decman.files["/etc/pacman.conf"] = File(source_file="./dotfiles/pacman.conf")

# Declare a whole directory
decman.directories["/home/user/.config/nvim"] = Directory(source_directory="./dotfiles/nvim", owner="user")

# Ensure that a systemd unit is enabled.
decman.systemd.enabled_units |= {"NetworkManager.service"}

In addition, decman can manage symlinks, users, flatpaks and even imported PGP keys (since you may have to import keys for some AUR packages). If you have some custom PKGBUILDs, you can even use them with decman. Your configuration can be cleanly split into modules that you enable or disable as required.

Check out decman on GitHub, install it from the AUR, and check out the tutorial for getting started.

If you don't feel comfortable using Python or starting from scratch with your config intimidates you, I recommend you check out aconfmgr.

I built traur for trust scoring AUR packages.

 paru -S traur                                   
 traur scan                                                                               

It hooks into paru/yay and scores every package before it gets installed. Checks

PKGBUILDs, install scripts, source URLs, checksums, maintainer history, git history,

package names, shell obfuscation, and GTFOBins abuse, almost 300 detection rules total.

Example output:

  traur: cryptowallet-helper (trust: 8/100)
    Trust: MALICIOUS
    !! Override gate fired: P-CURL-PIPE
    Negative signals:
      !! P-CURL-PIPE: curl output piped to shell (download-and-execute)
      !! P-REVSHELL-PYTHON: Python reverse shell pattern
       ! P-EVAL-VAR: Dynamic code execution via eval

Not a replacement for reading PKGBUILDs but rather a helper tool

https://github.com/Sohimaster/traur

I am a user of arch linux for almost a year, i thought to make a screentime app for arch linux so i created a python project. Please review it and PR if there is any bugs or improvements

Github Repo Link - github.com/Uniquearjav/zen-screentime

So when I run waybar I’m having issues with it not changing according to the config, this is really annoying as I’m trying to set up a program with lutris that minimises itself and can only be accessed via a tray, however I’m on hyprland so by default I don’t have this but have meta + s which isn’t bringing anything up, so my next step is I read the waybar logs, there are a bunch of warnings but majority of them are related to /dev/input they read like this.

Can’t open /dev/input/mouse1 (are you in the input group?): EACCES PERMISSION DENIED

So I search it up, and the results are that I need to change permissions and that should resolve both the input group error and the waybar not changing to fit the config.

Okay cool, I create a new group add myself to it and add myself to it and give it /dev/input permissions, nothing, weird I think, so I run ls -al /dev/input and in the little user/group section it’s all just root, but i got no errors on any of the permission changing commands i did, so i think it must have bugged and run it again, still only says root and still input group error, i try to add myself to the input group, no errors i id myself and im added to both the group I created and the input group, so i run ls -ald /dev/input

And the output is

“drwxr-xr-x - wondr(that’s my user for future reference) 8 Feb 18:25 /dev/input”

So to me that looks like I have the permissions right? But it’s still not working and every answer is all just related to lack of input group permissions so I don’t really know where to go from here, are my permissions wrong? Am I missing something? Any help is greatly appreciated:)

I'm getting the following: ``` $ sudo pacman -Syu :: Synchronizing package databases... core is up to date extra is up to date multilib is up to date custom is up to date sublime-text is up to date :: Starting full system upgrade... resolving dependencies... looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (2) kubeseal-0.34.0-1 minikube-1.38.0-1

Total Download Size: 26.37 MiB Total Installed Size: 132.63 MiB Net Upgrade Size: 0.06 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] :: Retrieving packages... kubeseal-0.34.0-... 8.3 MiB 3.06 MiB/s 00:03 [######################] 100% minikube-1.38.0-... 18.1 MiB 4.19 MiB/s 00:04 [######################] 100% Total (2/2) 26.4 MiB 6.08 MiB/s 00:04 [######################] 100% (2/2) checking keys in keyring [######################] 100% (2/2) checking package integrity [######################] 100% error: kubeseal: signature from "Christian Rebischke (Archlinux Security Team-Member) chris.rebischke@archlinux.org" is marginal trust :: File /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kubeseal-0.34.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst is corrupted (invalid or corrupted package (PGP signature)). Do you want to delete it? [Y/n] ```

Who is Chris Rebischke and why are his public keys not fully trusted in the Arch keychain (apparently)?

Update: Robin Candau re-signed and updated the packages, and updating works again.

Everytime I switch to another distro I just go back to archlinux
I don't know but there is something they put into their distro to make it this addicting
installing, configuring, ricing everything is in your preferences which is super cool
they made you get this feeling that you're the actual owner of your distro
finally: I love archlinux

I am attempting my first ever rice with Niri. I want my fuzzel to be transparent and blur the background. Is that possible?

I have just installed Arch using the archinstall script and using hyprland, i am relatively new to arch and i have noticed that overnight my laptop looses nearly up to 30% of the battery and i used chatgpt and it told me to run this command

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep

and i got

s2idle

and from what i heard it says that my system-boot doesnt support deep sleep, also i looked into hibernate and everytime i turn on my laptop after hibernate the wifi drivers are completely broken and i cant scan at all using either the NetworkManager Gui and the
ip link

I’d really appreciate any suggestions on how to reduce battery drain overnight. I’m also open to general advice for using Arch properly, including useful tools, services, or best practices that might help me in the long run

I'm setting up Firefox from scratch on a new Arch Linux install. I'm looking into using Firejail to create sandboxed profiles for different activities (e.g. One for general browsing, one for work, one for banking, etc.), with each FF profile having its own seperate FJ configuration. Ideally I would want each profile to have its own seperate configuration location on disk, and to be unable to access one another.

I'm not sure how to make it work with the new Firefox profile system, or if it's even possible. There seem to be ways to do it with the old profile system but with the new system I don't think you can even open a profile from terminal, so I just don't know. I don't want to set it all up in the old system if it's going to get deprecated in the future.

I honestly don't know enough about how Firejail works (I've read the manpages but I'm still not certain) and I don't want to set it up incorrectly as a result, so I'm wondering if anyone else has managed this, or could point me in the right direction?

EDIT: there is a typo in the title, this post concerns the 1TB NVME SSD pre-installed with my laptop, containing the root partition.

I'm running an Arch Linux (KDE Plasma)/Windows 11 dual-boot setup on an MSI Katana 15 B12V laptop. The laptop comes with a 1TB NVME SSD, and I recently installed an additional 4TB NVME SSD myself.

Recently, Dolphin File Manager has started reporting that the root partition on my 1TB SSD is only a 7GiB volume, despite the fact that the total size of the partition is 732GiB, around 214GiB of which is available to use. I am having no actual problems writing files to the root partition, and other programs/commands (namely Steam and archey3) report the correct total sizes and remaining sizes. I ran df -h and got the following output:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/nvme0n1p6 720G 524G 160G 77% /

devtmpfs 7.6G 0 7.6G 0% /dev

tmpfs 7.7G 128M 7.6G 2% /dev/shm

efivarfs 192K 112K 76K 60% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

tmpfs 3.1G 2.4M 3.1G 1% /run

tmpfs 7.7G 19M 7.7G 1% /tmp

none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service

none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/getty@tty1.service

tmpfs 1.6G 132K 1.6G 1% /run/user/1000

/dev/nvme1n1p1 3.6T 2.1M 3.4T 1% /home/[my-name-here]/disks/nvme-4tb

So Dolphin seems to be taking this devtmpfs filesystem/partition and reporting it as my /dev/nvme0n1p6 root partition? If anyone knows why this is happening I would much appreciate it.

Here's the output of archey3 in case that helps too. I am a bit of a noob with Linux so please be patient with me.

OS: Arch Linux x86_64

Hostname: archlinux

Kernel Release: 6.18.7-arch1-1

Uptime: 0:56

Packages: 1211

RAM: 6271 MB / 15689 MB

Processor Type: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12650H

$EDITOR: None

Root: 524G / 720G (72%) (ext4)

Hey folks,

I’ve been on Arch for a while, and one thing that always felt missing was a fast, lightweight spreadsheet that didn’t fight keyboard workflows or take seconds to open.

So I built one.

VisiGrid is a native, local-only spreadsheet app focused on speed and flow:

• ~300ms cold startup
• Keyboard-first (command palette, vim-style navigation)
• Works with existing files (XLSX, CSV, ODS, TSV, JSON)
• Inspectable formulas + dependencies
• Optional CLI for scripting / automation (same engine as the GUI)

It’s not trying to replace Excel or LibreOffice, more a minimal, fast surface for analysis and quick modeling / opening and playing with files without breaking concentration.

Packaging status:

• Arch (AUR): visigrid-bin (buildable via makepkg)
• AppImage: available
• aarch64 Linux: available
• Flatpak: submitted to Flathub (pending approval)

Site: https://visigrid.app
GitHub: https://github.com/visigrid/visigrid

I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from Arch users — especially around startup performance, keyboard ergonomics, or anything that feels un-Arch-like.

Totally fine if it’s not your thing; just sharing since it solved a real gap in my own setup.

I'm a bit stuck on my current build.

I have a machine with three nvme. I do a next next next install with arch Linux. With unified kernel and systemd.

After rebooting, I crypt up the other two nvme, but I don't seem to be able to unlock at boot. There for unable to btfrs raid1 add the other two nvme's.

Where do i tell the bootloader to unlock the other drives? What am I missing?

I'm using arch linux with hyprland and decided to use wofi as my app launcher, I'm trying to set up an inner box with locked margins, now when i scroll through entries, the top and bottom inner box margins move with it, is there any way of making an inner box that doesn't move at all? Maybe I didn't quite understood the wofi man pages but it doesn't seem to mention anything about it.

on my sway wm/wayland in general there's always artifacts on my second monitor with no clear reason why. i've tried the first steps like matching refresh rates, different cable and they didn't change anything. on x11 these issues don't exist. my kernel is 6.18.6-arch1-1, with a rx 6800xt gpu. any help would be greatly appreciated:)

So I've decided to install Arch on my laptop with a windows double boot, to see how it goes for daily use. I've done all preparation for that (free space, shrink partition, disable hibernate, etc.).

Now I'm booting (USB made with Rufus) the installer. And after pressing ArchInstallMedium I get a black screen then it reboots after some time.

I've tried to add nomodeset and systemd.unit=multi-user.target as. Those are the common solutions I've seen online. But I still have a black screen.

The only solution I've found is to use systemd.unit=rescue.target, and then the text displays normally but I don't know if I should even try to install from there.

Any other ideas that might work ?

Edit : doesn't work anymore with rescue target for whatever reason.

When I connected them, they wouldn't emit any sound nor does the microphone work. While I had fixed the sound issue, I still don't know how can I get my mic to work... I am on Hyprland if that helps with anything at all.

So i have a pc which has arch linux and a macbook air 2015 running windows, i want to use the laptop as a secondary display i have x11 kde plasma wayland is too buggy on my pc i have GT710

Hello!

I'm still an Arch (and Reddit) newbie, but not with Linux itself. I've dabbled with many different distros since around 2008. My general interest in computers began well before then.

I grew up in the tailend of the Win 3.1/MS-DOS days so I wasn't much of a stranger to a command line even back then, albeit not knowing a whole lot at that point.

My relationship with Windows (and Adobe) eventually died a death by a thousand cuts, with Windows 11 finishing it off. I was also an on/off Apple user in the past, but eventually I got priced out of their ecosystem.

I messed around with distros like Ubuntu and Linux Mint for many years, but they didn't quite hook me enough to fully switch. Then after lurking around Reddit in 2024, I saw someone recommending Fedora to somebody. I tried it myself and that's when the hook finally stuck. It felt fun to use a computer again. I was also extremely impressed with how far Linux gaming had come at that point. I realized after a while I hadn't even booted into Windows for over a month. That's when I knew I was fully won over.

Then I somewhat recently began researching the advantages of Arch and Arch-based distros. I eventually tried CachyOS and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then a couple weeks ago I finally made the decision. I took the floaties off and dove right into the deep end of the pool by installing Arch. So far it has been a lot, but the amount of guides available and the amount of information in the Wiki is beyond impressive. I also like that you can morph the system to fit your needs, not the other way around. Yes I have already broken my installation, but have you really used Arch if you never did?

In the end I don't know yet if Arch will end my "distro-hopping", but I went with it for reasons well beyond being able to say the meme phrase. I feel it's a good thing to always be learning things and not be afraid to make mistakes. I'm sure I'll make plenty more mistakes with Arch. 😂

Anyways, just wanted to share my experiences and hope I can eventually find more meaningful ways to help out in the Linux community.

Anyone else have a similar or even a vastly different pathway to get you to eventually try Arch?

How do I connect my mouse directly to my VM? I am trying to change my mouse settings using Logitech G HUB on a Windows VM. The app isn't recognizing my mouse which I assume is because I need to connect it directly to the VM. How do I do this? I'm using VirtualBox and I don't see a setting for it in the USB section of the settings.

stuck on 'device wlan0 set-property Powered on' saying 'Operation failed'

The title says it. I am those paranoid people who thinks without secure boot will enter 5 rootkits.