Graphical Configuration

First setup xorg and graphics.

Graphics

Install graphics drivers, my main system is nvidia.

pacman -S nvidia lib32-nvidia-utils

Xorg

pacman -S xorg-server

Set dpi in ~/.Xresources, I use 192 for my 4k screen.

nano ~/.Xresources

Xft.dpi: 192

Nvidia - Tearing Fix

My Nvidia card tears. This removes the tearing.

Desktop

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
    Option         "AllowIndirectGLXProtocol" "off"
    Option         "TripleBuffer" "on"
EndSection

Laptop

To fix laptop using DRM kernel mode setting.

nvidia 364.16 adds support for DRM kernel mode setting.

Add the nvidia-drm.modeset=1 kernel parameter, and add nvidia, nvidia_modeset, nvidia_uvm and nvidia_drm to mkinitcpio modules.

Pacman hook

To update initramfs after an NVIDIA driver upgrade, use a pacman hook:

/etc/pacman.d/hooks/nvidia.hook

[Trigger]
Operation=Install
Operation=Upgrade
Operation=Remove
Type=Package
Target=nvidia

[Action]
Depends=mkinitcpio
When=PostTransaction
Exec=/usr/bin/mkinitcpio -P

Setup a Window Manager or Desktop Environment

KDE Plasma

Install KDE Plasma package as well as some KDE meta-packages. I dont install kdeaccessibility-meta, kdeedu-meta, kdegames-meta, .kdemultimedia-meta, kdepim-meta, kdesdk-meta, kdewebdev-meta.

Choose phonon-qt5-gstreamer, libx264, cronie, phonon-qt4-gstreamer.

pacman -S plasma kdeadmin-meta kdebase-meta kdegraphics-meta kdenetwork-meta kdeutils-meta

I disable baloo since it seems to make my system chug.

balooctl disable

Display Manager

I use sddm, simple and works well. For an onscreen keyboard install qt5-virtualkeyboard.

pacman -S sddm qt5-virtualkeyboard

Setup config at /etc/sddm.conf.d/sddm.conf.

nano /etc/sddm.conf.d/sddm.conf

Tell it to start a desktop file from /usr/share/xsessions/, set dpi, and user.

# Set DPI based on display
ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp -dpi 192

# Name of session file for autologin session
Session=plasma.desktop

# Username for autologin session
User=john

# Current theme name
Current=breeze

Enable sddm.

systemctl enable sddm

To disable one screen if multimonitor on boot, adjust DisplayCommand:

Check via xrandr | grep -w connected

[X11]
# Path to a script to execute when starting the display server
DisplayCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

# Path to a script to execute when stopping the display server
DisplayStopCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop

/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup:

#!/bin/sh
# Xsetup - run as root before the login dialog appears

xrandr --output HDMI-1 --off

Reboot into KDE!

VNC

Can access current display or create new session.

System

To access the entire system over vnc, install tigervnc.

Configure startup run vncserver.

Setup a systemd unit to start vnc, note this connects to physical display, other options are available. Change user.

nano /etc/systemd/system/x0vncserver.service

[Unit]
Description=Remote desktop service (VNC)
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=john
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/x0vncserver -display :0 -rfbport 5900 -passwordfile /home/john/.vnc/passwd &'

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

systemctl start x0vncserver

Fonts

Install ttf-google-fonts-git (AUR).

aursync --update --temp --chroot ttf-google-fonts-git