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System Changelog ​

This is the record of my Arch linux second installation, desktop stack & modification

Convention :

  • Types : fix | patch | feat | chore | refactor | rollback
  • Categories : service | daemon | kernel | apps | gui | shell | filesystem | opt-apps | misc

Version Managements :

Syntax ${num1}.{num2}.{num3}, where :

  • num1 is for breaking changes or massive update
  • num2 is for medium & small changes
  • num3 is for small & medium fixes

1.13.0 - Feat[shell] XDG Portal Extends ​

Summary ​

xdg seems to describe the current state of the desktop env for the apps, eg $XDg_CONFIG_HOME whom specify which dir is home dir

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S xdg-desktop-portal xdg-utils yazi
yay -S xdg-desktop-portal-termfilechooser-git

1.12.0 - Feat[shell/service] OS Keyring ​

Summary ​

Added an os keyring in order to store secrets

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S gnome-keyring libsecret \ # required
                seahorse                 # gui-manager

1.11.0 - Feat[apps] Web to App (Nativefier) ​

Summary ​

Installed nativefier for standalone web app

Commands ​

fish
pnpm add -g nativefier
sudo pacman -S dex # app autostart management

NOTE

Installed whatsapp-web living at /opt/my-nativefier-apps/whatsapp-web/, Icon can be found at /usr/share/pixmaps/ and .desktop at /usr/share/applications/

Modifiedhyprland.conf to exec-once dex -ad

1.10.0 - Feat[shell/misc] Text to speech setup ​

Summary ​

Speech to text sound support, bare minimum with espeak-ng,

note undescribly awfull remember to change for piper

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -D speech-dispatcher # speech dispatcher daemon
spd-conf -uc # generate a basic config with for user

sudo pacman -D espeakup # output comes with espeak-ng
sudo systemctl enable --now espeakup # reboot if necessary

1.9.0 - Feat[shell/misc] Extened Gaming Setup ​

Summary ​

thourgh introduction of ge-proton and gamescope run games with better perf using upscaling

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S gamescope
sudo pacman -S mangohud lib32-mangohud
sudo pacman -S libxcursor libxres vlc

1.8.0 - Feat[shell/misc]: Gaming Setup ​

Summary ​

General purpose gaming setup for linux & windows based apps

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S wine lutris
sudo pacman -S winetricks zenity unrar

Packages Descriptions:

  • wine windows compatibility layer
  • lutrus general purpose game launcher
  • winetricks wine's windows spec lib/implementation manager

Note ​

installed winetricks packages:

  • cmd
  • dirac
  • dotnet40
  • dxvk
  • vcrun2008
  • vcrun2015
  • vcrun2022
  • vcrun6
  • vkd3d
  • xna40
  • xvid
  • xaudio_29
  • dotnet48

All microsoft/adobe/ubuntu fonts

1.7.0 - Feat[shell]: Added screen brightness control ​

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S brightnessctl

1.6.1 — Fix[filesystem]: Btrfs Incoherent Disk Usage ​

Summary ​

The problem arise from a my fundamental misunderstanding of how Btrfs's Copy-on-Write (CoW) mechanism interacts with long-lived snapshots.

In Btrfs, when a file is modified, the filesystem does not overwrite the existing data. Instead, it writes the new data to a different location and updates the file's metadata to point to the new data blocks. The original data blocks remain unchanged. This is the Copy-on-Write behavior.

This is a very efficient process, but it has a key side effect: if a snapshot exists, it maintains a reference to the original, unmodified data blocks. As the system continues to change, these "stale" data blocks accumulate, even if the files they belong to have been deleted or modified. Btrfs cannot free this space because the snapshots still reference the data, preventing the filesystem from reclaiming it.

Over time, this accumulation of referenced but "unseen" data blocks can lead to a significant discrepancy between the actual disk usage and what is reported by commands like du, which only accounts for the currently active filesystem. The issue was exacerbated by my use of Snapper, which created snapshots on a regular basis, thereby maintaining these references and causing the disk space usage to snowball.

Note on Defragmentation: Attempting to defragment the Btrfs filesystem with btrfs filesystem defragment can actually worsen this problem. Defragmentation also uses CoW, creating new, contiguous data blocks and leaving the old, fragmented blocks behind. If a snapshot references the original, fragmented blocks, they will not be freed, resulting in a net increase in disk usage.

Fix ​

The solution is to delete the old snapshots. By removing a snapshot, you break the references to the stale data blocks it holds, allowing Btrfs to reclaim the space. To prevent the problem from reoccurring, I've configured Snapper to keep a strict minimum of snapshots and to automatically clean up older ones.

1.6.0 — Feat[apps/shell]: Linux Full Sub system for Windows ​

Summary ​

Through winapps, run windows only applications on linux

Source Documentation "on github"

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -Syu --needed -y curl dialog freerdp git iproute2 libnotify openbsd-netcat
# this command will remove gnu-netcat required by zed

sudo pacman -Syu --needed yad
yay -S ironbar-git

Notes ​

  • misc:

    • installed ironbar

  • currently installed apps:

    • cmd
    • powershell
    • full office suite
    • illustrator
    • winrar
    • power iso

!ToFix ​

  • exposed /home/my_username dir to windows
  • no usb access in full windows mode
  • windows kernel hardening required

1.5.0 — Fix[service/daemon]: Docker & Docker desktop conflict over socket 🐳 ​

Summary ​

Due to docker & docker-desktop reimplementing there own docker.sok, commands eg docker compose failed due to mismatched files ownership as it was trying to use docker-desktop's socket version

Commands ​

fish
sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
docker context use default

1.4.1 — Patch[service/daemon]: Docker Security Patch 🐳 ​

Summary ​

1. Installing Core Security Packages ​

bash
sudo pacman -S iptables-nft apparmor
  • iptables-nft: Installs the modern iptables backend, nftables, for advanced network filtering and firewall management. This is the default for recent Linux distributions.
  • apparmor: Installs the AppArmor Mandatory Access Control (MAC) system, which restricts what programs can do by enforcing security profiles.

2. Configuring and Enabling AppArmor ​

bash
systemctl enable --now apparmor

This command enables and starts the AppArmor system service immediately. This allows AppArmor to load and enforce security profiles for applications, including Docker containers.

3. Cleaning Up and Installing Docker ​

bash
# Removing the old Docker binary if it exists
rm /usr/local/bin/docker

# Installing the official Arch Linux Docker package
sudo pacman -S docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
  • rm /usr/local/bin/docker: A precautionary step to remove a potentially outdated or manually installed Docker binary, ensuring the official Arch package is used.
  • sudo pacman -S docker: Installs the Docker daemon and client from the official Arch repositories.
  • sudo systemctl enable docker: Configures the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot.

4. Configuring Kernel Security Modules via GRUB ​

The following lines were added to the /etc/default/grub file.

bash
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 quiet lsm=landlock,lockdown,yama,integrity,apparmor,bpf"
GRUB_GFXMODE="1024x768,800x600,auto"
  • lsm=...: This option enables a chain of Linux Security Modules (LSMs) at boot time, which significantly hardens the kernel.
    • landlock: Allows unprivileged processes to create sandboxes.
    • lockdown: Prevents even the root user from compromising kernel security.
    • yama: Restricts the ptrace system call, preventing process snooping.
    • integrity: Enables the Integrity Measurement Architecture (IMA) to verify file integrity.
    • apparmor: Explicitly loads the AppArmor LSM.
    • bpf: Enables the BPF LSM, providing enhanced security for BPF programs.

5. Applying GRUB Changes ​

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

This command regenerates the GRUB boot configuration file, applying the changes made to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. The system must be rebooted for these kernel LSMs to take effect.

1.4.0 — Feat[shell/apps]: Added Docker Integration for Service Daemon 🐳 ​

Summary ​

This entry introduces Docker integration, allowing the service daemon to run in a containerized environment.

Installation and Setup ​

1. Install Docker Engine ​
fish
# Download and extract the static Docker binary
wget https://download.docker.com/linux/static/stable/x86_64/docker-28.4.0.tgz -qO- | tar xvfz - docker/docker --strip-components=1

# Move the binary to a system-wide path
sudo mv ./docker /usr/local/bin
2. Install Docker Desktop ​
fish
# Install the Docker Desktop package using pacman
sudo pacman -U ./docker-desktop-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
# Note: By default, Docker Desktop is installed at /opt/docker-desktop.
3. Configure kvm ​

Ensure the kvm module is enabled and your user is part of the kvm group for proper virtualization support.

fish
# Check if the kvm module is loaded
lsmod | grep kvm

# Add your user to the kvm group
sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER

Notes ​

  • pass and GPG: You'll need to generate a GPG key and initialize pass for secure credential management, which is often used in a containerized workflow.
fish
gpg --generate-key
pass init <gpg_key_id>
  • Login to Docker Desktop: After installation, launch Docker Desktop and log in to begin using the service.

1.3.0 — Feat[service/daemon]: Added Notification daemon** ​

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S dunst fortune-mod 

# test
notify-send "$(fortune)"

1.2.0 — Feat[service/daemon]: Added Bluetooth support ​

Summary ​

Package Descriptions:

  • bluez: Daemons for the bluetooth protocol stack
  • bluez-utils: Development and debugging utilities for the bluetooth protocol stack
  • bluetui: A TUI for managing Bluetooth devices.

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S bluez bluez-utils bluetui
systemctl enable --now bluetooth

Tips ​

  • use lsmod to show loaded kernel module
    • Eg: lsmod | grep btusb where btusb is the bluetooth kernel module
  • use modinfo <module-name> to show info about a specific module

Fixed ​

  • Discord now launch
    • reason: desktop & usr/bin referenced /opt/Discord/Discord/Discord expect the real/up to date version live at ~/Discord/Discord

1.1.0 — Feat[shell]: Ollama Setup ​

Summary ​

Package Descriptions:

  • ollama: The Ollama AI model server, which allows you to run large language models on your local machine.

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S ollama
ollama pull qwen3:8b
ollama pull qwen3:4b

1.0.0 — Feat[kernel]: Intel Graphics Setup ​

Summary ​

This changelog entry documents the installation and configuration of the core graphics stack, including drivers for OpenGL, Vulkan, and hardware video acceleration. This setup is optimized for a modern Intel GPU on a Wayland-based system.

Changes:

  • Edited /etc/pacman.conf to activate the multilib repository to allow for the installation of 32-bit packages, which are required for compatibility with many applications, including games.

Package Descriptions:

  • mesa: The foundational open-source graphics library. It provides the DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) driver for 3D acceleration and includes modern drivers like iris and crocus. This package is the cornerstone of the graphics stack.
  • vulkan-intel: The official open-source driver that enables support for the Vulkan graphics and compute API on Intel GPUs from the Broadwell generation (Gen8) and newer.
  • lib32-mesa: Provides the 32-bit versions of the Mesa libraries, which are essential for running 32-bit applications and games in a 64-bit environment.
  • lib32-vulkan-intel: Provides the 32-bit Vulkan drivers, ensuring 32-bit applications can utilize the Vulkan API.
  • libva-utils: A utility package that provides the vainfo command, a critical tool for verifying that hardware video acceleration is correctly configured and working.
  • vulkan-tools: A collection of tools for the Vulkan ecosystem, including the vulkaninfo command, which is used to check that the Vulkan API is functioning on your hardware.
  • mesa-utils: A set of essential utilities for Mesa, which includes the glxinfo command. glxinfo is the standard tool for checking your OpenGL version and verifying that the OpenGL driver is properly loaded.
  • intel-media-driver: The recommended VA-API driver for hardware-accelerated video decoding and encoding on Intel GPUs from Broadwell and newer, including the latest Intel Arc GPUs. This offloads video processing from the CPU to the GPU.

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S mesa vulkan-intel lib32-mesa lib32-vulkan-intel libva-utils vulkan-tools mesa-utils intel-media-driver

Fixed ​

  • Zeditor now respond/appear when launched

0.10.0 — Feat[kernel]: Intel Microcode and GRUB Theme Update ​

Summary ​

Changes:

  • Installed Intel CPU microcode updates and ensured early loading via GRUB.

  • Installed mkinitcpio to regenerate initramfs.

  • Applied custom GRUB theme (HyperFluent):

    • Extracted the Arch-specific theme to: /usr/share/grub/themes/fluent/theme.txt

    • Set the theme in /etc/default/grub:

      ini
      GRUB_THEME="/usr/share/grub/themes/fluent/theme.txt"

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S intel-ucode mkinitcpio
mkinitcpio -P
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

0.9.0 — Feat[apps]: added keepassxc for password management ​

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S keepassxc

0.8.0 — Feat[apps]: added megasync & megasync thunar bindings ​

Commands ​

fish
wget https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Arch_Extra/x86_64/megasync-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst && sudo pacman -U "$PWD/megasync-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst"

Note ​

Added Dependency : xorg-xrdb

Thunar Megasync Binding lib extracted from thunar-megasync-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst and added at /usr/lib/thunarx-3

0.7.0 — Feat[service/daemon]: added ntfs-3g for ntfs read/write/fix support ​

Summary ​

The ntfs3 kernel driver provides read and write support for the file system.

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S ntfs-3g wget

Note ​

There are no userspace utilities alongside the kernel driver. To format partitions or perform maintenance you still need a Windows machine or external tools like NTFS-3G. But minimal maintenance is still possible through ntfsfix.

Misc: added wget

0.6.0 — Feat[service/daemon]: added udisks2 for removable devices management ​

Summary ​

udisks provides a daemon udisksd, that implements D-Bus interfaces used to query and manipulate storage devices, and a command-line tool udisksctl, used to query and use the daemon.

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S  udisks2
sudo systemctl enable --now udisks2

0.5.0 — Feat[opt-apps]: added discord & thunderbird ​

Summary ​

Added discord & thunderbird at :

  • /opt/mozilla/thunderbird
  • /opt/Discord/Discord

Note ​

  • added through sm linking thunderbird-bin
  • added wofi & hyprpicker as miscellaneous
  • re-optimized Btrfs partition :
fish
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment -r -v -czstd /docker/
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment -r -v -czstd /home
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment -r -v -czstd /

0.4.1@stable — Fix[service/daemon]: pipewire audio management ​

Summary ​

Due to incompatible audio Built-In profiles, any application/process client of pipewire was redirected to a dummy audio sinks instead of the physical audio sinks

Fix: pavucontrol and set built in profile to Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input

0.4.0@unstable — Feat[service/daemon]: Added pipewire for audio management ​

Summary ​

  • Installed and configured PipeWire stack:
    • Installed: pipewire, pipewire-pulse, wireplumber
    • Enabled user services: pipewire.service, pipewire-pulse.service, wireplumber.service
    • Created ~/.asoundrc to route ALSA → PulseAudio
    • Set PULSE_SERVER manually for Firefox to use Pulse backend
    • Verified with pactl and about:support (firefox url)

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S  pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber rtkit
sudo systemctl enable --now pipewire
sudo systemctl enable --now pipewire-pulse
sudo systemctl enable --now wireplumber

Note ​

Installed and configured rtkit daemon, rtkit stands for Real-Time Policy and Watchdog Daemon.

It is a small D-Bus system service that safely grants real-time scheduling privileges to user processes (like PipeWire or JACK), without giving them full root privileges. required by wireplumber

!ToFix ​

  • Firefox stuck on alsa as audio backend instead of pulse (pipewire-pulse)

0.3.1 — Fix[filesystem]: Fixed mount error for /.snapshots dir ​

Summary ​

Due to overlapping sub volume reference in fstab for /home/.snapshots's subvolume referencing the root's /.snapshots instead of his

Fix:

  • Before:
ini
UUID=9b1362d6-af80-4a51-9dce-f6f6fb606fc2 /home/.snapshots btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/.snapshots 0 0
  • After
ini
UUID=9b1362d6-af80-4a51-9dce-f6f6fb606fc2 /home/.snapshots btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/home/.snapshots 0 0

0.3.0 — Feat[filesystem]: Added Btrfs snapshot boot via grub-btrfs ​

Packages ​

  • grub-btrfs auto detect snapper snapshot

Commands ​

fish
sudo pacman -S grub-btrfs #
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

0.2.0 — Feat[filesystem]: Added Snapper system + home snapshot management ​

Snapper Setup ​

fish
sudo snapper -c root create-config /
sudo snapper -c home create-config /home

# Create .snapshots subvolumes manually (required for Snapper)
sudo btrfs subvolume create /.snapshots
sudo btrfs subvolume create /home/.snapshots

# Fix ownership and permissions
sudo chown -R :users /.snapshots /home/.snapshots
sudo chmod 750 /.snapshots /home/.snapshots

# Enable auto-snapshotting and cleanup
sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-timeline.timer
sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-cleanup.timer

Initial Test Snapshots ​

fish
sudo snapper -c root create --description "v0.2.0@stable"
sudo snapper -c home create --description "home baseline"

fstab Updates ​

Root snapshots ​

ini
UUID=a607911d-df25-483f-9a29-c17e65578ec9 /.snapshots btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=.snapshots 0 0

Home snapshots ​

ini
UUID=9b1362d6-af80-4a51-9dce-f6f6fb606fc2 /home/.snapshots btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=.snapshots 0 0

NOTE: Old @snapshots subvol was removed and replaced with .snapshots via Snapper.

0.1.1 — Fix[filesystem]: ensure full compression across mounted dirs ​

Summary ​

Previously, files under /mnt, /mnt/home, etc. escaped compression; Fixed by defragmenting with compression enabled; Current compression ratio: 40–70%;

Commands ​

fish
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment -r -v -czstd /docker/
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment -r -v -czstd /home
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment -r -v -czstd /

0.1.0 | Feat[shell/gui/misc]: Added fish shell environment & JS package managers ​

Summary ​

Installed Multiple pkg manager for fish and javascript; Side note added quickshell

Packages ​

  • yay (with unzip)
  • fisher (Fish plugin manager)
  • pnpm, deno, bun
  • nvm.fish(via Fisher), node, npm
  • quickshell (via AUR)

0.0.1 — Fix[misc]: Fixed Locale error with "C" (missing UTF-8) ​

Summary ​

Fixed minor error with system fonts

Tech Spec ​

Setup Commands ​

fish
sudo localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8

# Add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish:
set -x LANG en_US.UTF-8
set -x LC_ALL en_US.UTF-8

0.0.0 — Feat[service/gui/filesystem]: System Core ​

Summary ​

Post installed Arch linux, bare bone but with network support; System Information :

  • Distribution: Arch Linux
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Filesystem: Btrfs with zstd:3 compression
  • Desktop: Hyprland (Wayland)
  • Shell: Fish
  • Editor: Zed, VS Code, Neovim
  • ZRAM: 9.9GB
  • SWAP: 7.8GB

Commands ​

fish
# wm & network
sudo pacman -S iw hyprland 

# dev compiler/interpreter
sudo pacman -S nodejs rust cargo gcc

# shell & terminal 
sudo pacman -S kitty fish

# text editor
sudo pacman -S code zed nano nvim vi

# fonts
sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation noto-fonts noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-emoji ttf-jetbrains-mono nerd-fonts

Notes ​

  • All partitions except nvme0n1p1 (boot) use btrfs with zstd:3
  • DNS manually set to 1.1.1.1 via resolv.conf
  • Btrfs subvol layout:
pathsubvolume
//@
/var/log/@log
/.snapshots/@snapshots

!ToFix ​

  • Zed editor does not start (unknown issue)