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Dell XPS 15

Installing Manjaro​

Here are my steps switching from Windows to Manjaro Linux on a Dell XPS 15 9500.

  • Backed up my Windows data with Acronis
  • Installed Manjaro Gnome using Ventoy
  • Update mirrors
    sudo pacman-mirrors -c de,at
  • Enable the AUR, update packages
  • Fingerprint
  • Disable wayland in /etc/gdm/custom.conf, because it
    • has no message API between windows, so CopyQ doesn't work
    • is still not supported by a lot of apps and XWayland is blurry on HiDPI
    • disables hardware acceleration in some apps
    • forces VSync
  • Configure additional apps
    brave-browser copyq neovim nvim-packer-git xsel wl-clipboard visual-studio-code-bin ttf-ms-win11-auto steam-native-runtime bitwarden speedtest-cli minecraft-launcher whatsapp-for-linux acronis-cyber-protect-bin tree platformio bind neofetch mutter-x11-scaling cowsay x11-emoji-picker cuda-tools spotify teams-for-linux youtube-dl nm-connection-editor vmware-workstation wireshark-qt dotnet-sdk python-pip rustup lldb packettracer go libreoffice-fresh
  • Shortcuts
    • Super + Arrow Up: Maximize window
    • Super + Arrow Down: Restore window
    • Super + E: Home folder
    • Super + T: gnome-terminal
    • Super + V: copyq "menu('clipboard', 20)"
    • Super + .: emoji-picker
  • Configure cursor speed
  • Gnome Extensions
    • Just Perfection
      • Preset: Super Minimal
      • Panel in Overview: On
      • OSD: On
      • Workspace Popup: On
      • Workspace Switcher: On
      • Animation: Fastest
  • Enable fractional scaling
    settings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['x11-randr-fractional-scaling']"
  • Desktop experience without tearing on intel
    • Install xf86-video-intel
    • Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf 
      Section "Device"
        Identifier "Intel Graphics"
        Driver "intel"
        Option "DRI" "3"
        Option "TripleBuffer" "true"
        Option "TearFree" "true"
      EndSection
  • Configure user dirs in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
  • Set VS Code terminal.integrated.fontFamily to NotoSansMono Nerd Font
  • Add myself to the wireshark group
    sudo usermod -a -G wireshark $USER
  • Install a resolve crack for mp4 codecs
    • Override desktop file to execute app with prime-run
  • VMWare setup
  • Rust setup
    • rustup default stable
    • rustup target add i686-unknown-linux-gnu
    • cargo install cargo-watch
  • Could not get linux-wifi-hotspot to work for my wifi adapter
    • sudo aa-complain -d /etc/apparmor.d dnsmasq
    • ...
  • More apps and config...