Desktop Arch- some tips and tricks.

Its been three months since my father had made me revive my old desktop with Arch Linux. I really thank him for this. He, however, have gone further and now have found more tweeks and keeps me updated.

To list a few :

1. Install YAPG. This excellent KDE based GUI for pacman works really well and is very easy for users who do not like konsole. Though it is still in beta and sometimes hangs. For myself, I prefer the command line pacman. EDIT: YAPG is also available in AUR.
   
2. Add yourself ( the user ) to the following group : wheel dbus hal network video audio optical storage camera users.
   
3. Add hal to DAEMONS in /etc/rc.conf. His computer's /etc/rc.conf DAEMONS entry reads DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond hal fam kdm alsa). This helps in auto-mounting USB devices and DVDs.
   
4. Install gimpshop instead of gimp. This gives a more familiar interface to Adobe photoshop users.
5. To install SUSE kickoff menu : pacman -S kdemod/kdemod-kdebase-kickoff
6. If you use kdemod, then never install direct kde packages. For instance if you want to install a few kde games, there are two options
1. install extra/kdegames. However, this will try to install the entire kdegames package.
2. install individual games like kdemod/kdemod-kdegames-ksnake. This provides much more command over the install process and does not allow unwanted games.
7. Be very careful when pacman -Syu updates your kernel. Do read the changelog before pressing "y".
   
8. Some programs like Citrix client do not show properly if transparency is enabled.
9. The best driver for video chipset via KM400 is xf86-video-via.
   
10. If you want to burn mp3 with k3b, install the gstreamer-mad plugins.
    

I will keep on adding his tips and tricks for Arch Linux, as and when he updates me.