This repository is a guidance to install basic linux system on laptops or personal computers and configure it into a fully functioning operation system.
Reference
If you have a wired network connection, enter the following command.
ip link
to determine the interface name of your network adapter.
Replaceing interfacename in the following command with the name you retrieved
systemctl enable [email protected]
to enable the ethernet connection.
If you have a wireless network, enter in the following commands to enable it.
ip link
to determine the interface name of your network adapter.
pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant
to install the necessary software.
pacman -S dialog
to install the Wi-Fi menu.
pacman -S wpa_actiond
to install the software that allows you to automatically connect to known networks.
systemctl enable [email protected]
to turn on the auto-connection service for your wireless adapter.
Next time you reboot, type
wifi-menu interfacename
to access the wireless menu for your adapter. After you connect to the network for the first time, you will be automatically connected for subsequent boots.
Installed the required package
pacman -Syu ntp
Enable it at boot so every time you boot the system the clock will be synchronized
systemctl enable ntpd.service
Start it immediately
systemctl start ntpd.service
If you install i3 as your window manager on your laptop, you probably find your screen is too bright and no way to change it. You have to call some intrinsic program to do it, like what I did:
sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness <<< 400
You can run this command on your command line, or put it in one bash script so that you can run it repeatly without too many typing.
References
We would need to install fcitx and fcitx-googlepinyin first.
# Install fcitx input method system
$ sudo apt install fcitx-bin
# Install Google Pinyin Chinese input method
$ sudo apt install fcitx-googlepinyin
Run im-config and change the input method to fcitx, reboot the server.
Run fcitx-configtool after login, click + button to add new input method. In the popup selection box uncheck “Only Show Current Language” and then search for “google” to add Google Pinyin”.
In Global Config tab, choose the shortcut keys for switching input methods and also add Google Pinyin input method.
References
Caps Lock key is one of the best positioned keys in the keyboards, but it is seldom utilized. While Ctrl is often utilized for Linux command line and some popular editors, it is best to swap these two keys to make life easy.
A simple way is using xmodmap. You need to create a text file (e.g. you can name it as .Xmodmap) and put the following lines in the file:
!Swap Caps Lock with the Left Control key
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L
After this we just need to run the following to apply the changes:
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
The problem for the method above is you have to run the command every time you start your computer or you plug in your keyboard.
A fundamental way to swap Ctrl and Caps Lock is swaping the keycodes, that are emitted by those buttons. In the file /usr/share/X11/xkb/keycodes/evdev, find and modify the two lines:
<CAPS> = 37; //66;
<LCTL> = 66; //37;
You also need to log off from the window manager (X window system) to apply the changes.
References