Arch Linux

JeloJelo

Member

Registered: 2019-09-27

Posts: 3

Arch Linux on Laptop.First steps.

Cheers!

Just few days install Arch on my laptop (Dell Inspiron 7460 i7-7500U) before I had a little experience running Debian on VM.
All devices are looking fine and functioning without any problems.
I choose Xfce as my desktop, install the Xfce power manager to customize battery life.

1 - Do I need to install any addition power management tools for better battery saving?
2 - Do  I need to install any additional drivers for better hardware performance? ( I installed Intel_microcode package but didn't notice any difference)
3 - Also I want to have some system process and the thermal monitor displayed at desktop like in Antix Linux - what package is it?

Last edited by JeloJelo (2019-09-27 22:21:52)

Swiggles

Member

Registered: 2014-08-02

Posts: 266

Re: Arch Linux on Laptop.First steps.

1 - Do I need to install any addition power management tools for better battery saving?
2 - Do  I need to install any additional drivers for better hardware performance? ( I installed Intel_microcode package but didn't notice any difference)
3 - Also I want to have some system process and the thermal monitor displayed at desktop like in Antix Linux - what package is it?

1 - You should install TLP in my experience a very good service for almost any machine. Powertop can be used to identify and implement further tweaks
2 - microcode is important for CPU bugs and should always be applied, this is unrelated to performance. You should make sure mesa and vulkan-intel are installed for the GPU, but besides that there is not much to tweak unless you have a real pain point.
3 - No idea, never used the system, but I would guess it is Conky

Your question is asking mostly about opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. This is just how I would address the points. Please take a look at this wiki page if you have not yet: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ge … mendations

Have fun!

Last edited by Swiggles (2019-09-27 22:40:58)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,100

Re: Arch Linux on Laptop.First steps.

Welcome to the arch linux forums JeloJelo.

1 - Do I need to install any addition power management tools for better battery saving?

See Power_management#Power_saving,  Laptop_Mode_Tools and Powertop

2 - Do  I need to install any additional drivers for better hardware performance? ( I installed Intel_microcode package but didn't notice any difference)

Microcode updates can improve performance if it makes a new mitigation available that is faster than one the system would otherwise use but primarily provides security and stability improvements.

3 - Also I want to have some system process and the thermal monitor displayed at desktop like in Antix Linux - what package is it?

Conky?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,527

Website

Re: Arch Linux on Laptop.First steps.

You have some good recommendations above of tools that you'd be wise to consider, but to answer questions 1 and 2 as they are written: No.  No, you do not need any such tools.  I've use laptops exclusively, and have never had any of the above installed, my systems run just fine for me.

If your question were instead phrased as whether there may be tools to optimize battery life and/or performance, then the above 2 posts are among the best possible answers.  But also note that batterly life and cpu/gpu performance will almost always be in direct opposition (i.e., a trade-off).

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman