Archlinux, Hyprland (wayland), breaking old habits.

[cod3poet]

Story time!

So I got bored, and with that comes the urge to tinker. I did not want to break my desktop (any more than I already had) and I wanted to get back into a linux first approach again.

My goto is a base install and installing X and Openbox and urxvt as my terminal emulator. And then building up from there rather than starting with a top down approach of installing a full desktop environment with all the trimmings.

8th gen i7, 32gb of Ram 1tb SSD, and older model Toshiba Tecra (Now called Dynabook). 15 inches, 1080p display.

I started with a base (CLI) install with an install script that I hand crafted to automate 90% of the process. And I made a promise to install only "contemporary" software so using things that have been actively developed in the last 3 or so years. I had to break old habits and work outside of my comfort zone.

So I looked at current trends and found Hyprland a window manager for wayland, which begged a new terminal emulator that supported all this shiny newness.

I am currently running Hyprland, Kitty (terminal emulator) waybar, firefox, qutebrowser, wofi (a program runner), and I have working wifi, working Bluetooth, working audio, working hardware acceleration for video. I am also using Tauon music box (a python based music player), and MPV for video files.

And I am absolutely blown away at the performance and efficiency I get out of this setup. I can get up to 6 hours of battery life in light browsing / tinkering. I am running about 2gb of ram with a copy of firefox open, and VSCode running with some items open. I can see how much battery life I have left at a glance, how much memory / cpu I am using and the temperature of my machine, networking info and a quote of the day embedded at the bottom of my random wallpaper.

I enjoy the joys of emojis in my terminal, and readable fonts, and smooth UI transitions. Rather than jagged sharp fonts, and flashing screens with tearing and choppy response. I was willing to make some sacrifices for efficiency but now it appears I do not have to.

Questions are always welcome and encouraged. It's been a while but I am happy to be typing this in linux, on my couch, in arch, in a minimal install.

P.s. I also got remote gaming working with a utility called Moonlight. I can stream games in house to this laptop from my Desktop gaming rig. So cool!

https://hyprland.org/
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty
https://sr.ht/~scoopta/wofi/
https://tauonmusicbox.rocks/
https://moonlight-stream.org/

[ssfc72]

Nice, thanks for sharing your build with us, Brian.
That Toshiba Tecra notebook computer must have the right kind of hardware, in it, to work well with Linux.

[Jason]

That's pretty cool, Mr. Code. I love that you explained how you set things up and what you're using. And you did it in a way that even I can understand it! Is your install script among those links? I covered a base install of Arch once. Unscripted. I think I included a very basic GUI - IceWM perhaps? Might be useful to see your install script if it's something you think might apply to the average user.

The game streaming sounds interesting, too. I was looking at various online gaming services, some of which let you run a game using a remote PC desktop with much better specs than many of us have, certainly me. Is the desktop PC using Windows? I wouldn't berate you for that. The best diverse gaming setup is still on Windows. With some sadness, I play my games on Windows. I tried Steam on Linux but I can't get some of my go-to games on it. I am surprised at some of the games that will run on it, though.

Glad to see you a bare metal Linux install again, btw.

[cod3poet]

Ryzen9 5950x/128gb/2tbNVME/8TB(Current)Win11 is the streaming box. It's running all the games!

I even use the game streaming feature for buttery smooth remote desktop. The tower is wired the tecra is wireless. I need to test it with a Bluetooth controller but everything works and I get 60 frames per second and no noticeable lag.

The install script is a brute force barebones install, so it is well suited for a VM or a bare metal single drive install. It does not however graciously handle dual boot or partitioning. It installs Arch and does not pass go, does not collect $200 and does not apologize. BUT it works on EFI and bios depending on which version of the script you run (no autodetect).

I have a further customized version that sets a random hostname each time, and will install a salt-minion agent that reports back to a server I have that gives me instant remote access / automation over the rest of the install on first boot. (if the device gets internet on the first boot)

As for Linux gaming, I paid to win. I have a Valve Steamdeck that runs linux and games. AND uses the same game streaming tech as the laptop! And it is also arch based and also highly modified / customized.

Honestly I am glad to be back on bare metal linux. It's a lot of work but for me it's my home garden / hobby. Might not be everyone's cup of tea but it's mine!