Arch Linux tips 'n tricks

[dedanna1029]

Ah, okay, thanks. We must've been in GMTA mode, at the same time. That's what I did, too.

[viking60]

Ok I need to write this down:
To get a list over everything that is installed on your arch system type the following command in a terminal:

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pacman -Qqe | grep -vx "$(pacman -Qqm)" > /path/to/chosen/directory/pkg.list

And when lightening strikes you can restore all of them like this;

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xargs -a /path/to/chosen/directory/pkg.list pacman -S --needed

.
Making it a cron job that runs just before the backup cron with our excellent backup script, gives you the home directory and the programs from the same time.

[viking60]

Here is an easy one.
To control your Daemons in Arch:

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rc.d list

[STOPPED][ ] 915resolution
[STOPPED][ ] autofs
[STARTED][ ] avahi-daemon
[STOPPED][ ] avahi-dnsconfd
[STOPPED][ ] bluetooth
[STOPPED][ ] brltty
[STOPPED][ ] cpufreq
[STARTED][AUTO] crond
[STARTED][AUTO] cups
[STARTED][AUTO] dbus
[STOPPED][ ] deluge-web
[STOPPED][ ] deluged
[STOPPED][ ] derby-network-server
[STOPPED][ ] esd
[STOPPED][ ] fancontrol
[STOPPED][ ] fbcondecor
[STOPPED][ ] fluidsynth
[STOPPED][ ] ftpd
[STOPPED][ ] gdm
[STOPPED][ ] gpm
[STOPPED][ ] healthd
[STARTED][AUTO] httpd
[STARTED][AUTO] hwclock
[STOPPED][ ] ip6tables
[STOPPED][ ] iptables
[STOPPED][ ] irexecd
[STOPPED][ ] kadmind.rc
[STOPPED][ ] kdm
[STOPPED][ ] krb5-kdc.rc
[STOPPED][ ] libvirtd
[STOPPED][ ] lircd
[STOPPED][ ] lircmd
[STOPPED][ ] mdadm
[STOPPED][ ] mono
[STARTED][AUTO] mysqld
[STOPPED][ ] net-auto-wired
[STOPPED][ ] net-auto-wireless
[STOPPED][ ] net-profiles
[STOPPED][ ] net-rename
[STARTED][AUTO] netfs
[STOPPED][ ] network
[STARTED][AUTO] networkmanager
[STOPPED][ ] nfs-common
[STOPPED][ ] nfs-server
[STOPPED][ ] nscd
[STARTED][AUTO] polipo
[STOPPED][ ] ppp
[STOPPED][ ] proftpd
[STOPPED][ ] ptal-init
[STOPPED][ ] rpcbind
[STOPPED][ ] rsyncd
[STARTED][AUTO] samba
[STOPPED][ ] sensord
[STOPPED][ ] sensors
[STOPPED][ ] slim
[STOPPED][ ] slpd
[STARTED][AUTO] smbnetfs
[STOPPED][ ] snmpd
[STARTED][AUTO] sshd
[STARTED][AUTO] syslog-ng
[STARTED][AUTO] tor
[STOPPED][ ] vboxdrv
[STOPPED][ ] vboxtool
[STOPPED][ ] xinetd

To start specific daemons:

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rc.d start samba tor sshd

etc etc

[viking60]

I needed to remove anything containing gnome-shell on my laptop. If I do only

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sudo pacman -Rns gnome-shell

It will refuse to remove because of another package dependency and that package has dependencies again etc etc.

When I do a

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ls gnome-shell*

It lists packages starting with gnome shell but the * will not work in pacman.
This will do it though:

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sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qq | grep gnome-shell)

This queries the database for anything containing "gnome-shell" (in this case) and removes it.

I always forget so I needed to write this down too

More here

[dedanna1029]

Here is an easy one.

To start specific daemons:

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rc.d samba tor sshd

etc etc

OMG I love this one.

[viking60]

Yes I constantly encourage people to write down some tips - How simple they might bee. The modesty and "everybody knows it" attitude is bad. I don't know everything that you might find to be elementary. So don't wait for the help cry Gurus!
I don't even know how to ask

[viking60]

To list all installations from AUR only:

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pacman -Qm

[dedanna1029]

To list all installations from AUR only:

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pacman -Qm

Thank you!

[dedanna1029]

To get a list over everything that is installed on your arch system type the following command in a terminal:

Code: Select all

pacman -Qqe | grep -vx "$(pacman -Qqm)" > /path/to/chosen/directory/pkg.list

And when lightening strikes you can restore all of them like this;

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xargs -a /path/to/chosen/directory/pkg.list pacman -S --needed

.

Also, thank you! The wiki has the first command wrong! I've been trying this for ages their way, to no avail!!!

[viking60]

To install with wildcard:

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pacman -S $(pacman -Ssq gnome-shell*)

This will install everything starting with gnome-shell with dependencies.
Just needed to write this down
Discussed here

[viking60]

I find it useful to save some man pages as pdf especially those about network and connetions.
This will write man netcfg to a pdf file:

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man -t netcfg -->netcfg.pdf

man -t will write the file in postscript format (via ps2pdf) that can be transfered to pdf.
if you do a

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man  netcfg -->netcfg.pdf

the pdf file will be created but there will be no content.

[viking60]

When in space problems
Use ncdu -x / as root to see where space is taken.
Use pacman -Qdt to see orphan packages
Use bleachbit (AUR) to recover some
Use cacheclean (AUR) to limit # of old packages
Use pacgraph -c | less to
see which packages are largest disk users and ask yourself if you can do without them.