Searching for tips or advice on a Manjaro clean install

Support
1

So, after more than 4 years using Manjaro I’m gonna do a clean install and I’m looking for any advice or tips since many things must have changed since all those years.
I know for example I must have base-devel package installed if I wanna use AUR,
meld to use pacdiff, Install-grub to detect updates on the grub package…
I don’t know if I have to install codecs like some other distros (don’t remember doing that last time),
I have to do something regarding screen tearing (a friend helped me with that last time), so probably I’m gonna make a thread about that after.
The laptop that I’m gonna do a clean install is not available right now (fan replacement) but here’s the last inxi output I did a time ago if it helps:

  Kernel: 6.1.69-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    clocksource: tsc available: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1-x86_64
    root=UUID=e3de76d7-c1cb-416c-98c7-3d4b9c416c5f rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=4a3bd434-53f1-4ffb-b6e2-883bdd0768e9
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm
    v: 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC
    v: 0975110000405F00000620180 serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 2269 v: 73.41 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: F.43 date: 08/19/2015
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 4 GiB note: est. available: 3.27 GiB
    used: 1.87 GiB (57.2%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD A8-6410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP
    arch: Puma level: v2 built: 2014-15 process: GF 28nm family: 0x16 (22)
    model-id: 0x30 (48) stepping: 1 microcode: 0x7030105
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 2 MiB desc: 1x2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1922 high: 2000 min/max: 1000/2000 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: performance cores: 1: 2000 2: 2000
    3: 1689 4: 2000 bogomips: 15979
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acc_power aes aperfmperf apic arat avx bmi1 bpext
    clflush cmov cmp_legacy constant_tsc cpb cpuid cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de
    decodeassists extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid fpu fxsr fxsr_opt ht
    hw_pstate ibs lahf_lm lbrv lm mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe
    msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae pat
    pausefilter pclmulqdq pdpe1gb perfctr_llc perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pni
    popcnt pse pse36 ptsc rdtscp rep_good sep skinit ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1
    sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm svm_lock syscall topoext tsc tsc_scale vme vmmcall
    wdt xsave xsaveopt
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT disabled
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling,
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Mullins [Radeon R4/R5 Graphics] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu arch: GCN-2 code: Sea Islands
    process: GF/TSMC 16-28nm built: 2013-17 ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:9851 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: AMD Topaz XT [Radeon R7 M260/M265 / M340/M360 M440/M445 530/535
    620/625 Mobile] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: amdgpu v: kernel
    arch: GCN-3 code: Volcanic Islands process: TSMC 28nm built: 2014-19 pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 4 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6900 class-ID: 0380 temp: 44.0 C
  Device-3: Chicony HP Truevision HD camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 2-1.2:3
    chip-ID: 04f2:b40e class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.10 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu,radeon unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
    dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: eDP model: Samsung 0x4951 built: 2013
    res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 101 gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64")
    diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1366x768 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
    device: 1 drv: radeonsi device: 2 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast
    surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 23.1.9-manjaro1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: KABINI ( LLVM 16.0.6 DRM 2.50
    6.1.69-1-MANJARO) device-ID: 1002:9851 memory: 500 MiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.274 layers: 4 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: AMD
    Radeon R7 M260 (RADV ICELAND) driver: mesa radv v: 23.1.9-manjaro1.1
    device-ID: 1002:6900 surfaces: xcb,xlib
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.69-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: off tools: pw-cli
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
    type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtl8723be v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:b723
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: c000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-1.3:3 chip-ID: 0bda:b001
    class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 262.41 GiB (56.3%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABF050
    size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> fw-rev: 2C scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: hp model: DVDRW DU8A5SHL rev: ZH63
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 458.26 GiB size: 449.99 GiB (98.20%)
    used: 262.35 GiB (58.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: e3de76d7-c1cb-416c-98c7-3d4b9c416c5f
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 312 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: 0136-D163
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
    compressor: zstd max-pool: 20%
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 7.21 GiB used: 65.5 MiB (0.9%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 label: swap
    uuid: 4a3bd434-53f1-4ffb-b6e2-883bdd0768e9
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Advanced Micro Devices Root Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 0438:7900 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-1.3:3 info: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.1 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:b001 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Advanced Micro Devices Root Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 0438:7900 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1.2:3 info: Chicony HP Truevision HD camera type: video
    driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 2.0 power: 500mA chip-ID: 04f2:b40e class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-1:2 info: Microsoft Xbox360 Controller type: <vendor specific>
    driver: xpad interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 045e:028e class-ID: ff00
  Device-2: 3-2:3 info: Sunplus Innovation GameMouse type: mouse,keyboard
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 1bcf:08b8 class-ID: 0300
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.4 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
  GPU: device: amdgpu temp: 44.0 C device: radeon temp: 43.0 C
Info:
  Processes: 229 Uptime: 1h 42m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 254
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 clang: 16.0.6
  Packages: 1629 pm: pacman pkgs: 1541 libs: 428 tools: pamac pm: flatpak
  pkgs: 84 pm: snap pkgs: 4 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 running-in: xfce4-terminal
  inxi: 3.3.31
2

If you have a spare HDD/SSD maybe make the fresh install on that and keep the original as a backup?

Apart from the things you mentioned, I can’t think of anything else you’d need to install.

Cheers!

1 Like
3

Untrue.
pacdiff manages pacnew/pacsave/etc’s and will facilitate the comparisons using DIFFPROG.
DIFFPROG can be set to any diff application.
meld is probably the most popular due to its ease of use and the ability to apply granular diffs.
(many diff programs are not GUI, and many GUI ones will only do full merges not line by line, etc)

And as many dont take the time to set a number of basic environment variables then the suggestion often looks like

DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff -s

Not strictly necessary, but probably a good idea.
Besides simplifying a long and dependent string that is different on different systems
(ex: sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=Manjaro --recheck)
Its biggest benefit is the HOOK that will reinstall the grub bootloader when packages are updated.

To this end I might suggest another hook; kernel-modules-hook.
To see more about it you can see its mention in the archwiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_troubleshooting#Cannot_use_some_peripherals_after_kernel_upgrade

But for any and all packages you might need or want … its simply an insurmountable task.
We cant know what you want or need.
I always take the time to replace openresolv with systemd-resolved
I also prefer bash over zsh so I would make sure to have bash-completion installed.
Similarly I disable ZSWAP, install zram-generator and configure it to be twice my physical RAM.
etc.

PS.

I am pretty sure you have BIOS updates available.
But I am not 100% confident in the available BIOS I could search up.
See here:

1 Like
4

Can’t you run Wayland? That should fix any tearing issues.

Only things I can think of is taking a copy of .config-folder in your /home. In case you modified some programs settings and want them back. The other being iptables-file, if you modified it. In /etc/iptables. If you even use iptables.
The rest feels like personal choices. Apps etc.

5

Maybe I will try Manjaro KDE on this, don’t know if it will perform well as Manjaro XFCE…

6

Never heard of zram-generator, I will research a bit more about it, thanks !
Last time the installer configured Swap automatically (double the size of ram) and the system worked well with it.

7

Its more like compression in RAM rather than utilizing a SWAP partition.
Due to this its generally faster - with even more impact on older machines that would otherwise rely on a spinning disk for SWAP, and likely more often due to smaller memory in the first place on an aged system.
Despite it residing in memory you can still set it to 2xRAM safely because of the compression.

There are also a number of approaches to using ZRAM. I use zram-generator because its easy.

Because of incompatibilities its a good idea to disable ZSWAP when using ZRAM.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zram

3 Likes
8

Thanks for the clarification and the link :slight_smile:

9

I’d also suggest creating a separate /home partition which will not only keep your user data physically isolated from the Linux system itself, but also allow a greater ease in managing your personal data in the event you ever need to reinstall the system.

The easiest way to create a separate partition for /home is to do so during Manjaro installation; using the manual partitioning method. This will require you to do some extra thinking during install to decide respective partition sizes for your needs, for example; however, if you like to learn, this is a great opportunity.

Cheers.

2 Likes
10

Thanks for the advice, I usually just clone my installation and also use Timeshift, Timeshift itself saved me a couple of times; I’m very carefull with that.
BTRFS filesytem probably better for snapshots but I never tried it.

11

With a separate /home partition, you can still do that. The main difference is that you are then able to clone the /home partition by itself, if you choose to.

The other advantage is that you can fully reinstall Manjaro while leaving /home untouched - the result is a cleanly installed system with your previous user settings remaining intact.

1 Like
12

Hmm, depends what you mean by ‘well’.

Go to the “Support” section of KDE, count down the last 100 threads and you end up at a date about a 2 weeks ago. Go to the “Support” section of XFCE, count down the last 50 threads (statistically only half as many people use it) and you end up at the beginning of the year.

XFCE might be boring but if it’s stability you’re after, which your post implies, it will certainly deliver.

1 Like
13

Thanks, I really like XFCE so I probably go for that but still I’m gonna try the Manjaro KDE on usb to see how it feels…
I usually use Ventoy for that…
In case I choose XFCE the only thing I need to resolve is the screen tearing (last time a friend did that for me) but if needed I will open a thread on support for that.

14

Good Morning,
I would do it as @soundofthunder suggested.

I was helped very well here, in the forum to shrink my /root partition and create a separate /home.

Then I reinstalled Manjaro.
As @soundofthunder said:

Save the /home before and restore it later.

All my settings were carried over, everything was as before.

I did this on my notebook while the system was running.

/root partition I shrinkend it to create a new partition.

Content copied into it.

See [Move /home to another partition] (My thread for Move /home to another partition)

translated by Bing-com
Greetings
Tony

2 Likes
15

My disk has 465 GiB so I have to choose the size of /root and /home wisely, at one time I had only ~40 GiB free space available but If I just back up /home and then on the new install replace that /home for it, isn’t the result the same?

16

You asked for tips and advice; it’s up to you what you do with it. So far I’ve only seen you find fault in whatever may be suggested.

However, if your backup fails for whatever reason, you’d surely find yourself in a predicament. At least with /home on a separate partition, you have the option to reinstall the system with your personal data remaining in situ; should it ever come to that.

I agree that a 500G disk can potentially be difficult to manage; however, mine has survived admirably while including a / of 100G and 64G swap. The saving grace is in having external disks to offload (backup) infrequently needed data to.

At the end of the day, as is said, it’s only a question of what you’re comfortable with. Cheers.

17

Morning all,

@ARSManiac I think what @soundofthunder said fits to me and I think even to you right now.

That is how I done it.

Free_Space_of_Root_and_home_Partition
Free_Space_of_Root_and_home_Partition940×430 52.2 KB

Free_Space_of_Root_Partition

So I installed with the minimal ISO and installed already some Programms. Still some space over for other Programms.

Greeting
Tony

1 Like
18

Firstly, I use KDE (now Plasma 6) on Wayland. So far I’ve managed to negotiate any difficulties; but then, I also use AMD graphics which tends to be less troublesome than a combination of Wayland and Nvidia. Manjaro KDE suits the needs of my intended use case; I don’t foresee any major reason for it not to in future.

However, I still recall the general transition from Qt4 to Qt5; where there was always something (compatibility of applications, for example) not quite right for as much as a year after the fact. Considering how recent Plasma 6 is, some might consider waiting a while longer before adopting it for general use, despite its obvious appeal.

Of course, every OS and DE suffers to some degree during these types of transitions; even XFCE, which I used for a number of years. Screen tearing was an issue for me too, as I remember, until deciding to use proprietary drivers.

19

Since I’m gonna do a clean install I have no problem trying that (/home in a separate partition) and if I have a problem with the sizes of partitions in future I can always resize them with GParted right (I have to do it in a live iso if I’m not mistaken) ?
As for the screen tearning I’m consulting this in arch wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Tear_free_rendering

I think I’m not finding fault in anything (I saw on a post someone suggesting just replacing /home directory), It’s just hard to get out of the zone of confort and experiment new things, still thank you for all your feedback.

20

If you’re performing a clean install, the easiest is to choose the manual partitioniong method in Calamares during install, and create it then. Later, if you need to resize you can; and yes, from the Live Installer; I’d recommend GParted and not the KDE Partition Manager.

Well, maybe not, but a little resistant :slight_smile: …and understandably, too;
the worst person to try to convince that change might be needed, is oneself.

1 Like