How to Install Cinnamon Desktop ( GUI ) in Arch Linux

To Install GUI (Cinnamon Desktop) and Basic Softwares in Arch Linux

Cinnamon is a desktop environment with modern graphical effects. It supports most of the GUI like wallpapers, icons, toolbars and desktop widgets. Its desktop environments includes a set of integrated applications and utilities. Installation of GUI (Cinnamon Desktop) is discussed in this article.

To install Xorg Server and Video Drivers

Run the following command to update the system.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman &ndash Syu

Install the X environment by running the following command.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils mesa

Run the below packages to get the extra Xorg functionality.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S xorg-twm xterm xorg-xclock

Run the following command to check the type of video card and then install it.

# lspci | grep VGA

Arch comes with the Vesa default video driver &ndash xf86-video-vesa and also supports Open Source and Proprietary video drivers. To list all the possible Open source video drivers, run the following command.

## Nvidia ##
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep nvidia
## AMD/ATI ##
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep ATI
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep AMD
## Intel ##
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep intel
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep Intel

Run the following command to check for multilib packages in 32 bit system.

## Nvidia ##
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep lib32-nvidia
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep lib32-nouveau
## ATI/AMD ##
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep lib32-ati
## Intel ##
# pacman &ndash Ss | grep lib32-intel

Run the following command to install video driver package. Here, we are installing vmware.

[root@linuxhelp:~ ]# pacman -S xf86-video-vmware

Once the installation process completed, run the following command to test video drivers and Xorg server.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# startx

Run exit to proceed further.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# exit

To install Desktop Environment &ndash Cinnamon

To start using Cinnamon package, install it by issuing the following command.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S cinnamon nemo-fileroller

Run the following command to install GDM display manager package.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman &ndash S gdm

Log in to Arch Linux. Start and enable GDM.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# systemctl start gdm
[root@linuxhelp :~]# systemctl enable gdm

A Login window prompts, select user and hit Sign In. Then select Cinnamon settings and fill the required fields.

An UXterm shell prompt from GUI application appears. Now start installing the net-tools package to manage network connections from GUI.

Execute the following command to install ifconfig file under net-tools package.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman &ndash S net-tools

Now check the execution of ifconfig command.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# ifconfig

Use the following command to install network manager application.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S network-manager-applet

Now start Network Manager and enable it.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# systemctl start NetworkManager
[root@linuxhelp :~]# systemctl enable NetworkManager

Once the setup is done, reboot the system.

To Install Basic Softwares

Use the following command to install the available basic Softwares.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa pavucontrol gnome-terminal firefox flashplugin vlc chromium unzip unrar p7zip pidgin skype deluge smplayer audacious qmmp gimp xfburn thunderbird gedit gnome-system-monitor

To encode/decode, audio/video files in multimedia applications, run the following command.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S a52dec faac faad2 flac jasper lame libdca libdv libmad libmpeg2 libtheora libvorbis libxv wavpack x264 xvidcore gstreamer0.10-plugins

Run the LibreOffice command to install office tool packages.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S libreoffice

Run ' -R' with the pacman command to remove any installed packages.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -R package-to-remove

To Customize a Cinnamon Desktop

Run the following command to install Numix theme, to customize Cinnamon settings.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S numix-themes

Open System settings and select themes icon.

Click ' Available themes(online)' , then Choose the required theme.

Now go to ' installated themes' tab, select the appropriate theme and click Apply theme.

The selected theme appears on the system.

Run the following command to install the display graphical monitoring tool called libgtop.

[root@linuxhelp :~]# pacman -S libgtop

Go to ' System Settings' choose ' Applets' .

Open ' Available applets(online)' tab, search applets for ' Multi-Core System Monitor' .

Now go to ' Installed applets' tab, right click and then select ' Add to panel' .