Using Arch Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad x201 almost everything works out of the box but one needs to tweak the configuration a bit for some special cases…

/dev/sda1 boot 512 MiB
/dev/sda2 -> /dev/mapper/lvm

vgcrypt-system -> 25G
vgcrypt-swap -> 8G
vgcrypt-home -> 800G

• Boot: ext3
• System: ext4
• Home: ext4

Boot from an Arch Linux live system.

loadkeys de
fdisk /dev/sda

cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda2
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 lvm

pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm
vgcreate vgcrypt /dev/mapper/lvm

lvcreate -L 25G -n system vgcrypt
lvcreate -L 8G -n swap vgcrypt
lvcreate -L 800G -n home vgcrypt

mkswap /dev/mapper/vgcrypt-swap
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vgcrypt-system
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vgcrypt-home

mount /dev/mapper/vgcrypt-system /mnt

mkdir /mnt/home

mount /dev/mapper/vgcrypt-home /mnt/home

mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
pacstrap /mnt grub-bios

genfstab -p -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
echo "/dev/mapper/vgcrypt-swap        none    swap    defaults        0       2" >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Now edit /mnt/etc/fstab and replace “relatime” by “noatime”.

arch-chroot /mnt
vi /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

Create the file /etc/vconsole.conf and edit:

KEYMAP="de"

Timezone:

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime

echo yourhostname > /etc/hostname

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add “keymap”, “encrypt” and “lvm2” in this order before filesystems in HOOKS.

mkinitcpio -p linux

grub-install /dev/sda

Edit /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:vgcrypt resume=/dev/mapper/vgcrypt-swap"

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

passwd

exit

umount /mnt/home
umount /mnt/boot
umount /mnt

sync
sync
reboot

pacman -S plasma-meta xorg-xinitrc mc firefox chromium FIXME
...

Install yaourt: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Yaourt

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mirrors#List_by_speed

systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl start NetworkManager

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MAC_address_spoofing – NetworkManager method

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MAC_address_spoofing#macchanger

Create the following file in /etc/systemd/network/:

• myeth.network

    [Match]
    Name=enp0s25
    [Network]
    DNS=192.168.0.1
    Address=192.168.0.100
    Gateway=192.168.0.1

• Enable it…

  systemctl enable systemd-networkd

Does not work for me: <s>Use the “NetworkManager” methot from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IPv6#Disable_IPv6</s>

vim /etc/sysctl.d/50-disable-ipv6.conf:

# Disable IPv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.enp0s25.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.wlp2s0.disable_ipv6 = 1

Or alternatively do not disable ipv6 and enable privacy extensions https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IPv6#NetworkManager

Add to /etc/ssh/ssh_config:

ServerAliveInterval 5
ServerAliveCountMax 100

Technical background.

Add the following to /etc/systemd/system.conf:

DefaultTimeoutStartSec=10s
DefaultTimeoutStopSec=10s

Technical background

Disabled … :), because of https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt

Use of this file can cause performance problems.  Since it discards cached
objects, it may cost a significant amount of I/O and CPU to recreate the
dropped objects, especially if they were under heavy use.  Because of this,
use outside of a testing or debugging environment is not recommended.

Create /etc/systemd/system/drop_caches.service: <source> [Unit] Description=Drop caches [Service] ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/drop_caches.sh [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target </source> Create /etc/systemd/system/drop_caches.timer: <source> [Unit] Description=Drop caches once an hour [Timer] OnBootSec=30min OnUnitActiveSec=1h Unit=drop_caches.service [Install] WantedBy=timers.targe </source> systemctl enable drop_caches.timer systemctl start drop_caches.timer [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Timers Information about timers in systemd]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd#Journal_size_limit

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd#Forward_journald_to_.2Fdev.2Ftty12

Disable Copy on Write for /var/log/journal: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd#Journal

pacman -S smartmontools
systemctl start smartd
systemctl status smartd
systemctl enable smartd
journalctl -u smartd

Technical background

If https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Specialties#Discard.2FTRIM_support_for_solid_state_drives_.28SSD.29 is not a concern for you, then pass the “allow-discards” option to your grub.cfg and then run manually a fstrim every x time.

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#TRIM
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#Apply_periodic_TRIM_via_fstrim

The package “util-linux” contains a fstrim timer…

Enable and start it with:

systemctl enable --now fstrim.timer

It will run once a week and trim all supported filesystems (fstrim -a).

If you need to specify the exact time the timer has to start, you can do this with:

systemctl edit fstrim.timer

Paste:

  [Timer]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  OnCalendar=Sun 19:00                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  Persistent=false                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  Unit=fstrim.service

systemctl restart fstrim.timer

And check with:

systemctl list-timers

Create the file named startboot.service inside /etc/systemd/system/

[Unit]
Description=My script

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/startup.sh
#old /etc/rc.local script

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target 

Enable it:

systemctl enable startboot.service

The script must contain “#!/bin/bash” in the first line.

Technical background

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode#Grub

Enable time sync with:

timedatectl set-ntp true

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-timesyncd

pacman -Sy kde-gtk-config

The ionice binary is available in the package schedtool.

In case you have a very fast mouse where even the lowest speed is too fast, use:

  Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "Mouse"
        MatchIsPointer "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Option "ConstantDeceleration" "2.55"
  EndSection

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/sound_system

Clementine needs the old version of gstreamer.

Install:

pacman -Sy gstreamer0.10-plugins

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/JACK

• Keymap for Xorg: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Setting_keyboard_layout
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/System_configuration
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_console
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide
• Set swappiness to 1 (default is 60), see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Swappiness#Swappiness
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_configuration_in_Xorg#Using_localectl

For KDE SC install kcm-touchpad|community and for Plasma 5 install kcm-touchpad-frameworks|community.

Not needed anymore; SSD is faster :)

* https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Swap_encryption I use the [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Swap_encryption#LVM_on_LUKS first] mentioned method.

• http://askubuntu.com/questions/12069/how-to-stop-constantly-blinking-wifi-led

In my case the filename is /etc/modprobe.d/wlan.conf

And the content is:

options iwlwifi led_mode=1

pacman -S acpi_call ethtool lsb-release tp_smapi x86_energy_perf_policy
systemctl enable tlp
systemctl start tlp
systemctl enable tlp-sleep
systemctl start tlp-sleep

systemctl disable systemd-rfkill
systemctl stop systemd-rfkill

• Project page: http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/tlp.html
• http://thinkwiki.de/TLP_-_Linux_Stromsparen

See Gobi2000 on ArchLinux.

I use the following script to disable WWAN and Bluetooth again after starting Mumble:

#!/bin/bash
rfkill block $(/usr/bin/rfkill list | sed -r -n -e "s/([0-9]{1,2})\: tpacpi_wwan_sw.*/\1/p")
rfkill block $(/usr/bin/rfkill list | sed -r -n -e "s/([0-9]{1,2})\: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw.*/\1/p")

Use the rfkill list command to get the exact names for each device.

One can't just use static ids because they may change.

In this example the user who needs to run the script is user.

Paste the code from above to a file named /usr/local/bin/disable_wwan_bluetooth.sh, install sudo and add the file /etc/sudoers.d/user with the following content:

user ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/disable_wwan_bluetooth.sh ""

Now the user can execute the script without the need to enter a password:

sudo /usr/local/bin/disable_wwan_bluetooth.sh

On my setup with KDE SC 4.x and the dockingstation KDE always ask how to configure the screen when attaching my laptop to the dockinstation. Instead of configuring this again and again I just press “No” and let a script configure my screen layout:

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS1 -s 1280x800
/usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI1 -s 1980x1080
/usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI1 --right-of LVDS1
/usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS1 --primary

BTW: This works well on Plasma 5 without a helper script.

Not needed anymore; I do have an SSD :)

This daemon has access to motion sensors and monitors the movement of your laptop. It it is too much it parks your hard drive. A tutorial can be found at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hard_Drive_Active_Protection_System. But the configuration file there doesn't work for me because of the '-blp' parameters. Instead, my configuration file is: <source> [Service] ExecStart= ExecStart=/usr/bin/hdapsd –sensitivity=40 -l </source> The filename is '/etc/systemd/system/hdapsd@sda.service.d/override.conf'

An alsactl restore is not always reliable, so another approach may be better; for example store files from /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. One for undocked and one for docked. Then save both files and restore from these files.