Arch Linux Tips

• How to upgrade Arch Linux

  Fetch list of updates updates and Upgrade all packages:

  # pacman --sync --refresh --sysupgrade

  Just Upgrade:

  # pacman -Su

• Install Packages from UNSUPPORTED

  In the ArchLinux User-community Repository there are packages for Arch Linux that are not available elsewhere. For instructions on how to install a package from UNSUPPORTED see How to use the AUR in the ArchWiki.

• Get auto-starting of KDE screensavers working

  See my KDE Tips page.

• Set up Apache, PHP, and MySQL

  See the LAMP (Linux Apache MySql PHP) ArchWiki page.

• Easily disable a kernel module from being automatically loaded

  You can easily disable a kernel module by adding a line to /etc/modprobe.conf. I disabled one of my sound cards by adding the following line to the bottom of /etc/modprobe.conf:

  blacklist snd_ens1371

• Enable any user to write to a FAT32 partition

  See the Writing on a FAT32 partition as a normal user ArchWiki page.

• Get display of embeded PDFs in Mozilla Firefox working

  Install mozplugger and kpdf.

• Get playback of MIDI files in background of web pages working

  1. Install timidity++
  2. Install mozplugger
  3. Get a soundfont:

     wget ftp://ftp.personalcopy.net/pub/Unison.sf2.gz

  4. Extract soundfont:

     gunzip Unison.sf2.gz

  5. Make directory for soundfont:

     mkdir /usr/share/soundfonts

  6. Move soundfont to soundfont directory:

     mv Unison.sf2 /usr/share/soundfonts

  7. Add the following line to the bottom of /etc/timidity++/timidity.cfg

     soundfont /usr/share/soundfonts/Unison.sf2
     

  8. Open /etc/mozpluggerrc and change:

     audio/x-midi:midi,mid:MIDI audio file
             controls noisy stream: timidity -Od "$file"
             controls: playmidi "$file"

     to:

     audio/x-midi:midi,mid:MIDI audio file
             controls noisy stream: wget "$file" -O midifile.mid && timidity midifile.mid
             controls: wget "$file" -O midifile.mid && timidity midifile.midi