How to Install KDE4 Arch Linux

1 - Change your hostname system wide

hostnamect sethostname ${Your_Desire_hostname} for example :

root@arch:~$hostnamect sethostname mehdi

exit

2 - Login again

now your shell should look diffrent after "@" you should have your hostname like the following :

root@mehdi:~$

3 - Check the internet connection availability , if you dont have the connection follow the instruction in the previous

4 - Install your sound utilitis by issue the following command :

pacman -S alsa-utils

5 - Now its time to create user & install everything with the user NOT ROOT

pacman -S sudo

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash ${Your_User}=mehdi

passwd ${Your_User}=mehdi

issue the command "visudo " and uncomment "%wheel ALL=(ALL)ALL" then save & exit from the file & current root user then login with your created user.

6 - Install X11 & other services

Note : since you are not "root" user anymore need to use "sudo" before every command that requires root previleges

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-init xorg-server-utils mesa ttf-dejavu samba smbclient networkmanager networkmanager-vpnc networkmanager-openvpn networkmanager-pptp networkmanager-applet networkmanager-openconnect gvfs-smb sshfs

let the download begin & goto step 7 when its finished.

7 - Find your VGA

lscpi -k | grep -A 2 -i "VGA" your out put may differ, below is an output example:

"01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] (rev a2)

Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 34ef

Kernel driver in use: nvidia"

after you know what is your VGA you can install the driver.

sudo pacman -S x86-video-intel ------------> this for intel VGA

sudo pacman -S x86-video-ati ------------> this for ATI

sudo pacman -S nvidia ------------> this for nvidia

sudo pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils ------------> this for Virtualbox

8 - Enable the network when system bootsup

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager

Note : the word "N" and "M" should be capital.

9 - Time to load the drivers by restarting.

10 - Time to install KDE

sudo pacman -S kde-meta

P.S : if you prompted with some configuration you can use defaults.

11 - Create your DE Skeleton

cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

vi .xinitrc

uncomment "exec startkde"

run "startx" and there you go.