List of Core Packages

There is no order or obligation to download all. Download with intension!

Notation styles:

• package or package (AUR, or just notes) [group]
• package1, package2 (AUR), package3 (cool one) [grp1]

Arch Installation

Linux Kernel & Firmware

• linux or linux-lts
• linux-firmware
• linux-headers (optional)

Core Packages

• base, base-devel
• grub, efibootmgr, os-prober
• sudo
• man-db (for manuals and man command)
• intel-ucode (or amd-ucode)

Wireless Internet Connection

• wpa_supplicant
• dhcpcd

  If intended to use GNOME DE, install NetworkManager alone is good enough. It uses wpa_supplicant and dhcp_client under the hood.

Text editors

• nano
• vi
• vim
• neovim

Tools & Drivers

• git
• curl, wget
• yay or yay-bin (requires base-devel above)

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay
cd yay
makepkg -si

• neofetch
• ntfs-3g (to use NTFS drive)
• nvidia, nvidia-utils
• [xorg], wayland

User Interface (post-installation)

Fonts & Visual

• ttf-firacode-nerd, ttf-fira-code (there is also woff2 version)
• noto-fonts-cjk, noto-fonts-emoji, noto-fonts-extra
• tree
• picom (transparency in X11)
• feh (view picture + set background)

Shell-related

• zsh, fish
• alacritty
• gnome-console (kgx), or gnome-terminal
• tmux
• bashtop, htop, gotop (AUR)
• oh-my-bash-git (AUR), oh-my-zsh-git (AUR)
• bash-completion, zsh-completions
• zsh-autosuggestions (AUR, git), zsh-syntax-highlighting (AUR, git)
• picom (for transparency of Alacritty and X11 transition)
• lf, ranger (file manager)
• xdotool (commandline automation | rofimoji insertion mode)

Window Manager (WM)

• xorg-xinit (to aquire startx)
• i3 experience (See i3Configuration.md for more):
  • i3-wm [i3]
  • i3blocks [i3]
  • i3lock [i3]
  • i3status [i3]
  • dmenu | rofi (dynamic menu)
• Dual Monitors:
  • xrandr
  • arandr

Utilities

• pipewire, wireplumber, pipewire-audio, pipewire-v4l2
• jack2 (for obs-studio), helvum (wiring devices), jack2-dbus & a2jmidid (Using MIDI devices, see ArchWiki for more)
• bluez, bluez-utils (for bluetoothctl)
• blueberry (managing bluetooth devices)
• gnome-keyring (keychain), seahorse (managing keys like GPG)
• touchegg (AUR, touchpad gesture for X11), touche (AUR, GUI for touchegg)
• ibus (multi-lang), ibus-bamboo (AUR, Vietnamese ibus interface ibus-bamboo GitHub)
• jq, hq, yq: parsing JSON, HTML, YAML, respectively
• android-udev: connecting Android device to linux

Desktop Environment

• GNOME experience:
  • [gnome] (select what you want/need)
  • [gnome-extra]
  • gdm, gdm-settings (AUR)
• KDE Plasma experience: [plasma] [kde-applications] [kde-utilities]

SDK

• jdk-openjdk
• android-tools
• base-devel, gcc, cmake, clang, ...

System Controllers

• pactl (PulseAudio controller), amixer (ALSA controller)
• brightnessctl (brightness controller)
• playerctl (Media Player Controller)
• zsa-udev (for ZSA Moonlander Keyboards)

Everyday apps

• Coding: (open-source version does not have profile sync)
  • visual-studio-code-bin (AUR)
  • code, code-marketplace (AUR)
  • vscodium (AUR), vscodium-marketplace (AUR)
• Communication
  • zoom (AUR)
  • slack-desktop (AUR)
  • discord
• Office Suite, Art & Music
  • onlyoffice-bin (AUR)
  • musescore [pro-audio], muse-hub-bin (AUR but it's broken there. I suggest download .deb and unpack using ar x and install using tar instead)
  • yoshimi [pro-audio lv2-plugins]
  • spotify (AUR)
  • obs-studio
  • vlc
• Entertainment (Games)
  • minecraft-launcher (AUR)
• Quality of life
  • nautilus [gnome] + sushi [gnome]
  • power-profiles-daemon (Managing power profiles)

Fun ones

• lolcat
• cowsay
• cmatrix, tmatrix (AUR)
• hollywood (AUR)
• obsidian (Markdown Text Editor)