User Guide Manjaro

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MANJARO LINUX

USER GUIDE

THE MANJARO DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Copyright © 2018 the Manjaro Development Team.
Licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (the “Licence”); you may not use this
file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the Licence at:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the Licence is
distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied. See
the Licence for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the Licence.
The source code for this documentation can be downloaded from:
https://github.com/manjaro/manjaro-user-guide/

user guide

The Manjaro Development Team
Core Team
Philip Müller Owner, Project Leader, Project Management and Coordination, Mirrors Manager, Server Manager, Packager, Developer, Web Developer
Guillaume Benoit Developer, Moderation
Ramon Buldó Developer, Packager
Stefano Capitani Maintainer, Packager
Bernhard Landauer Community Manager, Packager, Maintainer, Moderation, News
Rob McCathie Maintainer
Marcus Developer, Packager
Teo Mrnjavac Developer
Alexandre A. Arnt Developer, Moderation
Ringo de Kroon Community
Hugo Posnic Developer

Artwork
David Linares Designer

Documentation
Jonathon Fernyhough Editor of the User Guide 0.8.9-0.8.13, 15.09-15.12,
Community Management, Cover art of the User Guide
Sabras Wiki
Manuel Barrette Editor of the User Guide 16.08-17.1, French translation of the User Guide 17.0-17.1

Alumni
Roland Singer Founder, Designer, Developer, Web Developer, Administrator
Carl Duff Community, Documentation and Wiki Management, Scripting and Configuration
Cumali Cinnamon and Gnome Community Editions Maintainer

manjaro linux

Dan S. Openbox Editions Maintainer
Handy Global Moderator, Wiki Contributor, Community Support
Joshua Strot Developer, Graphics Developer

Acknowledgements
The awesome community on forum.manjaro.org and #manjaro

user guide

A note about Manjaro and Arch
Manjaro is based on another distribution called Arch Linux. As
such, it is also able to draw software packages from the communitymaintained Arch User Repository (AUR). However, please note that
Manjaro is not Arch, and any enquiries about the Manjaro operating
system should be directed towards the Manjaro forums and Internet
Relay Chat (IRC) channels alone. For example, although Ubuntu is
derived from Debian - and therefore shares some similarities with its
parent - there are still substantial differences between these operating
systems and how they work. Such is the case with Manjaro, which
is far from just being an “easy to install” or “pre-configured” Arch
operating system. Here are some of the key differences between the
Manjaro and Arch operating systems:
• Manjaro is developed independently from Arch, and by a completely different team.
• Manjaro is designed to be accessible to newcomers, while Arch is
aimed at experienced users.
• Manjaro draws software from its own independent repositories.
These repositories also contain software packages not provided by
Arch.
• Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the
Manjaro Hardware Detection (MHWD) utility, and the Manjaro
Settings Manager (MSM).
• Manjaro has numerous subtle differences in how it works when
compared to Arch.
To reiterate, although Manjaro is indeed an Arch-derivative, it is not
Arch!

Contents

Introduction

I Getting Manjaro
Downloading Manjaro

13
15

Checking a downloaded disc image for errors
Writing a disc image
II

Installing Manjaro

23
29

Booting the Live environment
Some useful definitions

Dual-booting with Microsoft Windows 10
Assisted installation methods

Manual installation on a BIOS system

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Manual installation on a UEFI system
Encrypting your partitions
III

Welcome to Manjaro

The Manjaro desktop
Getting help

131

95
97

103

Maintaining your system
Index

107

Introduction
About Manjaro
Manjaro is a user-friendly GNU/Linux distribution based on the independently developed Arch Linux. Within the Linux community,
Arch itself is renowned for being an exceptionally fast, powerful,
and lightweight distribution that provides access to the very latest
cutting-edge software. However, Arch is also traditionally aimed at
more experienced or technically-minded users. As such, it is generally considered to be beyond the reach of many, especially those who
lack the technical expertise (or persistence) required to use it.
Developed by a worldwide team, Manjaro aims to provide all of
the benefits of Arch Linux combined with a focus on user-friendliness
and accessibility. Manjaro is suitable for newcomers as well as experienced Linux users. For newcomers, a user-friendly installer is
provided, and the system itself is designed to work fully“straight out
of the box” with features including:
• Pre-installed desktop environments
• Pre-installed graphical applications to easily install software and
update your system
• Pre-installed codecs to play multimedia files
• Pre-installed access to the latest games

Features
Manjaro shares many of the same features as Arch, including:
• Speed, power, and efficiency
• Access to the very latest cutting- and bleeding-edge software
• A “rolling release” development model that provides the most upto-date system possible without the need to regularly install a new
operating system release

manjaro linux

• Access to the Arch User Repositories
• The versatility to be shaped and moulded in every respect to suit
personal taste and preference.
However, Manjaro boasts a few extra features of its own, including:
• A simplified, user-friendly installation process
• Automatic detection of your computer’s hardware (e.g. graphics
cards)
• Automatic installation of the necessary software (e.g. graphics
drivers) for your system
• Dedicated software repositories that deliver fully tested and stable
software packages
• Support for the easy installation and use of multiple kernels

1: Welcome to Manjaro!

Important note: End of 32-bit support
Starting with Manjaro 17.1, 32-bit support has been dropped and
only 64-bit builds of the disc images will be released. If you are using
1
a 32-bit system, a new project called Manjaro-321 has recently been
https://manjaro32.org/
started, but is still in development. For a list of some Linux distributions that still support 32-bit systems, please see this page: https://
forum.manjaro.org/t/list-of-distributions-for-32bit-x86-hardware-wiki/
31969.

Part I

Getting Manjaro

Downloading Manjaro
Manjaro editions
There are four official editions of Manjaro available for download,
as well as a number of unofficial “community” editions. With the
exception of the Architect edition, they come complete with a preinstalled desktop environment and a selection of popular software
applications, and either of these would be a great choice for anyone
who wants to try out Manjaro on a Live-CD without having to install
it first. If you have the time it’s worth taking each for a test run to see
which you like best!
Xfce The Xfce desktop environment is designed to be lightweight
while retaining a familiar desktop interface. If you’re not sure
which edition to choose, this one is a good bet. Xfce edition disc
image files start with manjaro-xfce.
KDE This version includes the K Desktop Environment. It offers a
highly integrated environment with plenty of functionality and
options. It is also highly customizable and offers a slightly different feel than the other editions. KDE edition disc image files start
with manjaro-kde.
GNOME This edition of Manjaro includes the GNOME desktop,
which is part of the GNU project. It offers an unconventional but
intuitive desktop aiming to help productivity. It comes with a very
complete and aesthetically coherent set of applications to fill the
most common needs. GNOME edition disc image files start with
manjaro-gnome.
Architect This edition does not come with a preinstalled desktop like
the other three. Instead, you are offered the opportunity to tailor
your Manjaro installation the way you want it to be by choosing
which packages to install. It can also be used to install any of the
other available editions, either official or community ones. This
edition is not meant for beginners, but more for intermediate

To download Manjaro go to this
web address:https://manjaro.org/
get-manjaro/

When you purchase retail software it
generally comes on a disc, whether
a CD or a DVD. A ’Live-CD’ has
a version of the operating system
that will run without needing to be
installed. This is a feature of most
GNU/Linux and BSD-based operating
systems.

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and advanced users. Architect edition disc image files start with
manjaro-architect.

Manjaro community editions
In addition to the four main Manjaro editions, there are a number
of editions that have certain software or desktop environments preinstalled. This user manual assumes you are using the Xfce version,
and all screenshots will be from this. However, the installation process and other software works in exactly the same way!
The edition names should give a clear indication of the desktop
environment (or window manager) they install. Unless you have a
strong preference, we suggest you stick with the Xfce version. You
can of course change later, or install other desktop environments too!
There are many community editions to choose from, including: Cinnamon, Lxqt, i3, Deepin, Budgie, MATE, Enlightenment,
JWM and many others! The complete list is available at https:
//sourceforge.net/projects/manjarolinux-community/files/.

Downloading a disc image
Every release of Manjaro is available for download, whether the
current stable release, upcoming test builds, or previous versions
for historical interest. When you visit the download page you will
find a link to each of the four main editions , as well as a checksum
file for each. A checksum can be used to check the integrity of the
disc image file you download to make sure it hasn’t been corrupted
during the download. This will be covered in the next chapter.
Stable releases of Manjaro are intended to be used by the general
public, so this will be the appropriate choice for the majority of
users. The current Manjaro release can always be downloaded
from the Get Manjaro page.2
Older stable releases can also be downloaded from the Stable
Release section of the Sourceforge website.3
Development releases of Manjaro give you a glimpse of what is to
come soon in the stable release. Do keep in mind that it is not as
solid as the stable release and should not be used on a production
machine. It is mainly intended for testing purposes. The latest development release available can be downloaded from the Manjaro
Preview Releases page.4
Test builds of Manjaro are intended to be used by developers and
testers to identify any bugs or issues during the development pro-

https://manjaro.org/get-manjaro/

https://sourceforge.net/
projects/manjarolinux/files/
release/

https://manjaro.org/
manjaro-preview-releases/

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Xfce edition

KDE edition

GNOME edition

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cess. These are not suitable for use as a main operating system
by the general public. However, should you wish to try out a
test build (preferably in a virtual machine), each current release
can be downloaded from the from the Test Build section of the
Sourceforge website.5

https://sourceforge.net/
projects/manjarodev/files/
testbuild/

Checking a downloaded disc image for errors
Before burning your downloaded disc image (or using it as a virtual
disc in VirtualBox6 ) we strongly recommend that you first check that
it hasn’t been corrupted. The potential result of not checking first,
especially if you want to install Manjaro as your main operating system, should be obvious. In the best case, the installation will fail. In
the worst case a corrupted image will result in a corrupted installation.
To verify the integrity of the disc image you have to download the
appropriate checksum file. This will be available at the same place
where you downloaded the disc image file. For example, the file
manjaro-xfce-17.1-pre2-stable-x86_64.iso.sha1 contains the SHA-1
checksum hash for the Xfce disc image and will have content similar
to this:

3b47288a10cba6b5ce1e41582604342babf558cb

https://www.virtualbox.org/

manjaro-xfce-17.1-pre2-stable-x86_64.iso

SHA-1
SHA and others like MD5 are different types of hashing algorithms;
the “sha” part of the checksum file name stands for Secure Hash Algorithm. These algorithms are used to generate a hash code unique
to the disc image file. The checksum file itself is just a text document
that contains hash codes that should match the code generated by
the MD5 or SHA algorithms. Copies of the file can be checked to
make sure they are exactly the same - if the file is changed in any
way, either intentionally or by corruption, the code generated will be
different.
Whilst MD5 is commonly used, SHA-1 and SHA-256 are newer
and more secure and are beginning to replace MD5. For the purpose of checking the integrity of the downloaded file MD5 is “good
enough” but SHA-1 is a better solution. The checking process is the
same for both algorithms. For more about hashing algorithms Wikipedia has lots of information.7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Secure_Hash_Algorithm

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If the code generated from the disc image matches that contained
in the checksum file, then the disc image file is fine. If the two codes
don’t match then it means that the disc image file has changed in
some way, most likely due to being corrupted. You can think of it like
someone using a password to identify who they are: if they provide
the wrong password, then something is probably wrong.
From this point on we’ll assume you are using the file manjaroxfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso.sha1.

Checking in Linux
Automatic verification
The program sha1sum can automatically compare the checksum of
the disc image you downloaded against the value in the text file. The
process should be very straightforward!
For this example, I first open a terminal and change to the directory where I downloaded the disc image file and checksum file. I use
the command ls to check which files are present:
jonathon@box:~$ cd download
jonathon@box:~/download$ ls
manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso.sha1

manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso

As you can see I have downloaded the 64-bit Xfce edition. Next, I run
the sha1sum program to check against the value in the checksum file:

jonathon@box:~/download$ sha1sum -c manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso.sha1
The line below shows the result of the checks. In this case, it shows
that sha1sum has successfully verified the disc image I downloaded
against the checksum value in the file.
manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso: OK
If it failed, I’d need to download the image again...

Manual verification
To manually check the integrity of your downloaded file, first open
the downloaded manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso.sha1 checksum
file using a text editor such as Gedit. Once the checksum file has
been opened, and the code is visible, open up your terminal and
change to the directory where your downloaded disc image is stored.
For example, if your disc image file is located in a directory named
download, you would first change to that directory:

user guide

jonathon@box:~$ cd download
Then you can generate an SHA-1 hash code for the disc image using:

jonathon@box:~/download$ sha1sum manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso
This command generates a hash code for the 64-bit Manjaro Xfce disc
image which can then be manually compared to the code contained
in the checksum file.

Checking in Microsoft Windows
Unlike Linux, Microsoft Windows does not have any suitable built-in
tools so you will need to download and install a checksum utility
application. A web search will turn up several examples of free software, or you can look on the Download.com website.8 Another free
checksum utility which has positive reviews is Raymond’s MD5
& SHA Checksum Utility.9 This is the program we will use in the
following example.

http://download.cnet.com/

https://raylin.
wordpress.com/downloads/
md5-sha-1-checksum-utility/

1: Verifying the checksum in
Microsoft Windows using Raymond’s MD5 & SHA Checksum
Utility.

Once you have downloaded the checksum utility, the checking
process is very straightforward. Simply Browse to the downloaded
disc image, select it, and click Open. The program will then calculate
the checksums for the disc image file. To verify if the checksum is
correct, open the manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso.sha1 file in a
text editor such as Notepad, copy the checksum for the disc image
file you have downloaded, and paste it into the Hash verification box.
Then click Verify. If there are no problems with the disc image file
the program will inform you that the hash matched.

To speed up the process it’s probably
a good idea to deselect the hashes you
are not verifying.

Writing a disc image
A disc image is not a copy-and-paste duplication of files: it’s a bitfor-bit copy of the raw data that makes up the files and folders of
that disc. This is why just copying a disc image file to a disc (or USB
flash drive) to begin installing won’t work: you’ll need to use a disc
burning or image writing application to translate that raw data into
the files and folders.
Once converted, the files can be used to run Manjaro in LiveCD mode without having to install it to your system, and/or install
Manjaro on your system. It’s important to note Manjaro will not have
full functionality when run in Live-CD mode. For example, you will
not be able to save any changes to the system.
Due to the amount of software included on the full edition disc
images you may need to use a DVD instead of a CD. Check the following table as a guide if you’re not sure:
Edition
Xfce
KDE
GNOME
Architect

Filename
manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso
manjaro-kde-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso
manjaro-gnome-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso
manjaro-architect-17.0.4-stable-x86_64.iso

Size
1.2 GB
2.0 GB
1.7 GB
473 MB

Media
DVD Table 1: Manjaro Edition disc
DVD image file sizes
DVD
CD

Many people routinely use a DVD rather than a CD even for the
smallest disc image files. Not only is a DVD faster to burn but they
allow higher data access rates so the Live-CD loads faster and the
installation completes sooner.
However, with the increasing capacity and decreasing cost of USB
flash media this presents an even more attractive method than the
traditional burning process; it is far faster and more flexible than
using optical media. Both CD/DVD burning and USB flash media
installation methods are covered in this guide.

Burning to a CD/DVD in Linux
If not already installed, several different software burning applications should be available for installation from your distribution’s

There is an exception to this rule. If you
intend on installing Manjaro in a virtual
machine environment using Oracle’s
VirtualBox, then there will be no need
to burn the image as VirtualBox will
be able to read from the disc image file
directly as a virtual disc.

If your system will boot from a USB
device, and you have one of sufficient
capacity that you can erase, we recommend the use of a USB flash drive over
traditional CD/DVD media.

manjaro linux

Software Center / Software Manager / Package Manager / repositories. Popular burners include XFBurn, K3b, and Brasero. Which
one you choose is entirely down to personal choice, though your
operating system will usually install one suitable for your desktop
environment. To simplify things a little, the following steps for burning your downloaded Manjaro disc image use Brasero.

Xfce environments tend to include
XFBurn. KDE environments tend to
include K3b. GNOME environments
tend to include Brasero.

Burning using Brasero
1. Insert a blank CD/DVD.
2. Start the Brasero software burner.
3. Click the Burn Image - Burn an existing CD/DVD image to disc
button to open the Image Burning Setup window.

It’s a good idea to use a rewriteable disc
(e.g. CD-RW or DVD-RW). Although
slightly more expensive individually
than a write-once disc you can reuse the
disc again and again, for example when
the next version of Manjaro is released!

4. Click the button beneath the title Select a disc image to write to
open up your file manager. Locate and double-click the downloaded disc image file to load it. Upon automatically returning to
the Image Burning Setup window, note that the disc image file is
now listed as the disc image to write.
5. The blank CD/DVD you inserted should be automatically listed underneath the title Select a disc to write to. If not, click the
button to select it manually.
6. Click the properties button to open the properties window, and
then click the button beneath the title Burning Speed. We strongly
recommend you select the slowest speed available. Once selected,
click the Close button.
7. Click the Burn button to start the burning process. If necessary,
follow any on-screen instructions provided.

Burning to a CD/DVD in Microsoft Windows
Newer versions of Microsoft Windows (Windows 7 and later) include
a disc image burner. If you do not have a newer version of Microsoft
Windows you will need to download one of the many free disc burning software utilities.

Burning using Windows Disc Image Burner
Right-clicking on the disc image file and selecting Burn disc image
will start the Windows Disc Image Burner program. This makes the
process of burning to a disc very straightforward:
1. Insert a blank CD/DVD into your disc drive.

We strongly recommend you select the
slowest speed available when burning
to disc in order minimise the possibility
of corruption during the burning
process.
It’s also a good idea to avoid using
any applications which make intensive
use of system resources while burning,
and in particular avoid heavy disc
access. If the burner software can’t read
the disc image file quickly enough the
burning process can be interrupted.

user guide

2. Start Windows Disc Image Burner.
3. Select your CD/DVD drive in the Disc burner menu.
4. Click Burn.

1: Windows Disc Image Burner
in Microsoft Windows 10

Burning using a third-party application
For versions of Microsoft Windows earlier than Windows 7 (e.g.
Windows XP) you may need to download and install third-party disc
burning software. There are many free examples available that will
be found by a web search, but here are some of the most popular:
Name
Imgburn
CDBurnerXP
InfraRecorder

Website
http://imgburn.com/
https://cdburnerxp.se/en/
http://infrarecorder.org/

Video tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XihCQgmeGV4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxYkFdwn1qI

The burning process for each of these applications is similar, with
small differences in user interface. The websites listed above will

Table 2: Third-party disc burning software for Microsoft
Windows

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provide information about features and screenshots of the applications themselves. Of course, it might also be worthwhile to take the
time to read around and choose one for yourself!

Writing to a USB flash drive in Linux
To take advantage of the faster access times and much quieter nature
of a USB flash drive, there are a number of methods of writing the
disc image file. One of the easiest is to use SUSE Studio Imagewriter.
SUSE Studio Imagewriter should be available for installation from
your distribution’s Software Center / Software Manager / Package Manager / repositories. Once SUSE Studio Imagewriter has
been downloaded and installed, ensure that your USB flash drive
is plugged in before starting the application.
The process of using SUSE Studio Imagewriter is very straightforward:

2: SUSE Studio Imagewriter
https://en.opensuse.org/
SDB:Live_USB_stick

1. Click on the centre icon.
2. Navigate to where you downloaded the disc image file, and select
it.
3. Ensure that your USB flash drive has been selected from the dropdown menu.
4. Click on the Write button.
5. Once it has finished, reboot your system, making sure to select the
USB flash drive as the boot device in the BIOS menu (or its UEFI
equivalent).

Using the CLI
If you don’t want to install extra software, and you are comfortable
using the command line, there’s an even easier way of writing a disc
image to a USB device.
1. Connect the USB flash drive to your PC, open a terminal and cd to
where you downloaded the disc image.
2. Check the device identifier with:

sudo fdisk -l.

3. Write the image with:
sudo dd if=manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso of=/dev/(Device
identifier from above) bs=4M
My USB drive is at /dev/sdc so I would use:

user guide

sudo dd if=manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdc
bs=4M
To view how the writing process progresses, use the option status=progress:
sudo dd if=manjaro-xfce-17.1-stable-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdc
bs=4M status=progress
4. Once completed reboot your system and boot from the USB drive
by selecting it as the boot device in the BIOS menu (or its UEFI
equivalent).

Writing to a USB flash drive in Microsoft Windows
For Windows users using USB media, Rufus10 is highly recommended.
Select the USB key to be used in the Device menu. Then, on the
line beginning with Create a bootable disk using, click on the DVD icon
to select your downloaded disc image. After doing so, in the menu
left of the DVD icon, select DD Image.
Finally, click Start to begin the writing process!

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

3: Rufus with recommended
settings

Part II

Installing Manjaro

Booting the Live environment
Booting the Live environment, whether from CD/DVD or USB flash
drive, will give you an overview of the Manjaro Linux environment
and let you test how well it will run on your machine. This is very
useful to check before committing to install a new operating system!
For best results you should be connected to the Internet. If you
have a wired Ethernet connection, and plug in before booting the
Live environment, Manjaro will automatically set up a connection.
If you have a wireless (Wi-Fi) connection you can set up the wireless
network once you have reached the Manjaro desktop.
The method of selecting the boot device varies considerably across
machines. You may need to hold one key, for example , ,
or , to select the boot device. Or, you may need to set the option in your BIOS. If you’re not sure, your machine’s user guide will
have detail of the method you need, alternatively a web search will
also quickly turn up the answer.

BIOS vs UEFI
UEFI is the commonly agreed on name for both the EFI & UEFI standards which merged. It does not include the old EFI v1, or Apple’s own
non-standard version of EFI.

Some newer hardware do not use the well-known BIOS to manage
boot options. Instead, a new one named UEFI (Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface) is used. It still has BIOS-like menus and often
has a legacy mode, which uses BIOS. UEFI often goes hand in hand
with the infamous Secure Boot option that makes it more difficult
to boot operating systems outside of a select few. If your computer
came with Microsoft Windows 8 or later installed, your computer
probably uses UEFI and has Secure Boot enabled by default. However, the Linux community reacted to this and developed means to
install and boot Linux on those systems as well. Some installers,
such as Calamares which is used by Manjaro, can even automate the
process so it makes virtually no difference to the user whether their
machine uses UEFI or BIOS.

manjaro linux

Booting in UEFI mode
The most important step is to ensure that your machine does not
have Secure Boot enabled. Only a very limited number of operating
systems will boot with this enabled. You must disable Secure Boot
in your UEFI/BIOS before proceeding; if you don’t know how to do
this please refer to your computer’s user manual, as it differs for all
computers.

The boot menu
When you boot from your installation media (CD/DVD or USB flash
drive) you should be presented with the Manjaro boot screen. This
screen provides several options to help get the best experience from
the Live environment.

Boot menu in BIOS mode

Boot menu in UEFI mode

It is possible at this stage to set your preferred language and keyboard layout before using Manjaro. This means that you will be able
to use and install Manjaro in your native language straight away.

user guide

Setting your language and keyboard layout
First, set your preferred language by moving the selection to lang=en_US
entry using the arrow keys and pressing the key. A list of
available languages will appear.

1: Language selection

Use the arrow keys to select your language and press to
confirm and to be taken back to the boot menu.
Next, to select your keyboard layout, select the keytable=us entry
and press .
In the menu that appears, each entry refers to a different layout.
The last two letters indicate the country or language in which they
are used, or a combination of the two. Select the one appropriate for
you and press . If you cannot find the one you are used to,
do not worry, you will be able to select it once in the Live environment (see subsection Change the keyboard layout).

manjaro linux

2: Keyboard layout selection

Choosing the drivers
There are two main sets of drivers that can be used by Manjaro: Free
and non-Free. The differences are not minor, and your choice can
depend on your computer hardware. Some of the drivers are used for
display. The one associated with your graphics card will be selected
in both of these categories.
Free drivers are open-source, like Manjaro itself, written and updated
by a large community. For AMD graphics cards and hardware
with Intel-based integrated graphics, this is the best choice.
Non-Free drivers are closed-source, written and updated only by
the hardware manufacturers. This is generally the best choice for
newer Nvidia dedicated graphics. For older Nvidia hardware the
Free drivers work very well.
To select which drivers to use, select the driver=free entry and press
. In the menu that appears, select the desired driver type
using the arrow keys and press .
Finally, to start the Manjaro Live environment with the chosen
parameters, select the entry starting with Boot and press .

If in doubt, choose Free drivers. If you
want to play games with an Nvidia
graphics card, choose non-Free drivers.

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3: Start Manjaro Linux

Welcome to Manjaro
Once you select Start, Manjaro will boot up. You may see a lot of
scrolling text - don’t worry, this shows the system is working! After
a little while, assuming your hardware is compatible, you will be
presented with a Live desktop environment and a nice friendly welcome screen.
The welcome screen gives some links to common tasks, documentation and the support channels. There is also a link to the Calamares
graphical installation program. Don’t worry if you close the welcome screen: you can load it again, and all the links are also present
elsewhere in the menus.
On the desktop, a shortcut to the Manjaro Architect installer is also
available, although it is not aimed at beginners. It is the same that is
available in the Architect edition.

Change the keyboard layout
If you could not find your keyboard layout in the boot menu, there
are still other ways to set it.

4: Welcome to Manjaro!

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5: The keyboard layout can
be changed in the Calamares
installer. It will instantly be
applied to the Live environment. However, you can also
change it in the Xfce settings.
They can be found through the
applications menu.

6: In the window that opens,
choose the Keyboard settings.

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7: Once there, go to the Layout
tab, select the English (US)
language and click on Edit.

8: Find your language in the
list, select it and click OK. Once
this is done, you can close the
window. The layout of your
keyboard has been changed!

Some useful definitions
If you sometimes feel like saying “What do these words mean, is he just
making them up?”, this chapter is for you. Installing a new operating
system may force you to face some concepts you have barely even
heard of before, such as partitions and file systems. This can be a bit
overwhelming at first, but do not despair, as this short chapter is
here to help you! Most of these terms will only be important if you
choose to manually install Manjaro. In the three different assisted
installation options, the installer will do almost all the work for you.
First of all, installing a new operating system will require you (or
the installer) to perform some disc management tasks in order to free
some space on your drive to be able to install it. You will most likely
encounter the following terms.
Partition A partition is a portion of a drive which stores data (files)
using a certain format named file system. It may be part of an
operating system installation, or simply be used for storing files. A
drive may be split into multiple partitions, each acting as its own
separate entity and using its own file system. All drives, be they
hard drives or flash drives such as USB keys, contain one or more
partitions. An example of a partition is the famous C: drive used
by Microsoft Windows.
File system A file system is a format used to write files in a partition.
Some popular file systems are ntfs (used by Microsoft Windows),
ext4 (used by Linux), fat32, btrfs and xfs. Each one is used in a
different context and has its own strengths and weaknesses. For
instance, fat32 can be read by about any operating system, but
each file stored must be smaller than 4 GB.
Partition table A partition table is a list of all the partitions existing
on a drive. The two main types are Master Boot Record (MBR)
and GUID Partition Table (GPT). Different partition tables allow
for different types of partitions on them, such as primary and extended. MBR partition tables are generally used on older BIOS
systems and can only contain a limited number of primary parti-

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tions, while GPT is generally used on newer UEFI systems and do
not have such a restriction. This is not always the case though.
Directory A directory is what is often called a folder on Windows.
You can treat them as one and the same.
Directory Tree The directories on Linux are arranged in the form
of a tree, originating from the / directory, called the “root” directory. Each one has a specific use. For example, the /home
directory stores the users’ personal files, while the /etc directory stores system-wide configuration files. A complete description of the directory tree can be found on Wikipedia: https:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard.
Mount point A mount point represents the directory from which a
partition is accessible. Just like clicking on the C: drive in your
file manager on Windows allows you to see the contents of this
partition, clicking on a directory where a partition is mounted will
allow you to view its contents.
Moreover, several programs are used when booting your computer,
from starting the hardware to logging in the operating system.
Live-CD A Live-CD is a version of an operating system that runs in
the computer’s memory, without needing to access the hard drive.
It is generally loaded from a CD, DVD or USB key that was used
at boot. Changes made to the Live environment are not saved.
Live-CDs are often used to give a preview of an operating system
and include tools to install it. They can also be used to manage the
hard drive’s partitions and rescue lost data.
BIOS The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is a firmware used
when booting to initialize hardware. It offers various settings
in menus accessible when pressing a specific key during boot.
Systems using BIOS often have a MBR partition table. It can be
used to boot on a USB stick, start a Live environment and install
Manjaro.
UEFI The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is the successor of the BIOS. It is often used on newer computers. It still has
BIOS-like menus and often has a legacy mode, which uses BIOS.
The partition scheme used by operating systems on a computer
using UEFI is slightly different from the one used on a BIOS system. For instance, a small fat32 partition is needed to contain some
files used when booting. Systems using UEFI often have a GPT
partition table.

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Boot loader A boot loader is a program which enables you to choose
which operating system to boot when you turn on your computer.
At boot, a list of all detected operating systems on the computer is
displayed. One of the most widely used boot loaders is GRUB. It
is the one installed by Calamares, the installer used by Manjaro.
Feel free to come back to this short list if you ever need it! Some links
are scattered throughout the guide for quick access.

Dual-booting with Microsoft Windows 10

The graphical installer used by Manjaro is called Calamares. If you
are installing Manjaro on a computer which already has Windows
installed, chances are you will want to dual-boot between the two
of them. This section will show you how to accomplish this without
going through the trouble of partitioning the disk yourself. This part
will be handled automatically by the installer.

Choose your language

1: This screen is the first one
you will see when starting the
installer. You can select your
language from the Language
menu. Also, if you differ from
the recommended settings,
such as not being connected
to the Internet or not being
plugged in, this is where you
will receive a warning.

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Choose your location

2: You can select your time
zone by either clicking on the
map close to your location or by
browsing the Region and Zone
menus.

3: When clicking on one of
the Change... buttons, a menu
will pop up, allowing you to
respectively choose the system
language and the format of the
numbers and dates. Choosing
the ones corresponding to your
language and country is best.

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Choose your keyboard layout

4: Next, you will be able to
choose your keyboard layout.
Choose your language in the
list to the left and then the desired subcategory in the list
to the right. This will ensure
the characters you type are the
same on the screen as they are
on your keyboard.

5: You can also choose your
keyboard model from the Keyboard Model menu. The list
is very extensive, so yours will
likely be listed there!

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Select the partitioning method

In this section, we will choose to install Manjaro alongside an
existing operating system, namely Windows, by shrinking a partition
to make room for Manjaro. For a refresher on partitions, see chapter
Some useful definitions. Keep in mind that changes will only be applied
at the very end of the installation process, so do not be shy to look around.

6: It will then be time to decide which method to use to
partition your hard drive. The
selected hard drive is displayed
at the top of the window. Left
of it is an indication stating if
it uses BIOS or UEFI. The partition table type, MBR or GPT,
is indicated at the right of the
disk. The current state of your
drive is displayed at the bottom
of the window. Several partitioning options are available.
The options presented depend
on the state of your drive and
may not all be available at the
same time. For instance, you
will not have the option to replace a partition on an empty
hard drive.

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7: When selecting the option
to install Manjaro alongside
another operating system, the
bottom of the window will
display a bar representing the
current state of the hard drive
and another representing its
state after modifications, which
at first is identical.

8: We will choose to shrink the
partition used as the C: drive
by Windows. It should be the
biggest one. When clicking on a
partition in the bar representing
the current state, the bottom
bar will change to show this
partition split in two.

You can also choose to encrypt your Manjaro partition. That way,
anyone trying to access to the data it contains will have to enter a
password of your choosing. For more information, see chapter Encrypting your partitions.

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Set user information

9: Click and drag the separation between the two parts to
change the amount of space
that will be freed to install
Manjaro. On this picture, Manjaro will be installed on the part
indicated in red. Please note
that you cannot shrink the existing partition to a size smaller
than the space needed to store
the data on it. This limits how
much the separation can be
moved to the left. However, you
must also free enough space to
be able to install Manjaro. This
limits how much the separation
can be moved to the right.
10: Next, you will be asked
for your name, which will be
used by some programs to
greet you, a username to log in
the system, the name of your
computer as it will be seen by
others on the same network as
you, and a password. The password must be entered twice to
make sure there are no typos.
Finally, you can decide whether
or not you want to be asked
your password when logging
in and if you want to use the
same password for the administrator account. Recommended
settings are already selected.
Unless you really prefer it another way, we suggest you leave
it as is.

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Look back at your choices and confirm

11: As the last step before the
installation takes place, you
will be presented with a short
summary of all the choices you
made in the other sections.
Make sure the partition scheme
is to your liking, as this is the
point of no return. When clicking Next, a dialog will appear
asking if you wish to proceed
with the installation. Once
you click on Install now, you
will no longer be able to edit
the partition scheme and all
data stored on the partitions
you chose to overwrite will
be lost. If you changed your
mind, you can go Back a few
times to choose another setup.
The information stored in other
filled fields will be kept, so
you will not need to write it
again. Once you are satisfied
with the summary, continue the
installation.

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Installation...

12: You can now kick back and
let the installation proceed!
While the installation takes
place, a slideshow will present
you some key features of your
new operating system, Manjaro.
The installation should take but
a few minutes. The progress
bar will fill up slowly at first
but it will soon pick up speed.

... complete!

13: The installation is now
done! To restart your system
immediately and boot into your
new operating system, select
Restart now and then click
Quit. If you want to continue
exploring the Live version of
Manjaro, click Quit without
selecting Restart now. When
restarting, if you changed the
boot order to boot on the Live
media, you will need to put it
back as it was to boot on your
hard drive.

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Update the GRUB boot loader, or “Where did Windows go?”
Sometimes the boot loader GRUB2 does not detect an existing Microsoft Windows installation when installing. This means that only
Manjaro Linux will appear in the list of installed operating systems
when you boot the machine.
To solve this problem, run the command:
sudo update-grub
in a terminal after booting into Manjaro and it will detect Windows
and add an entry to the boot menu.

Assisted installation methods
Calamares offers a choice of three different assisted installation options, which we will cover here one by one. The manual installation
is presented in chapter Manual installation on a BIOS system for a
BIOS system and Manual installation on a UEFI system for a UEFI
system.

Differences in the partition setup between BIOS and UEFI systems
The key difference in the way the partitions are arranged on a UEFI
system compared to the case with BIOS is that a small partition of
a few hundred MB must be created to house some of the files used
when booting the system. This partition must use the fat32 file system. Luckily, in all assisted installation options, Calamares handles
the creation of this partition if it does not already exist and writes
the necessary files to it. If the partition already exists, it is detected
and used to write the files. In this chapter, for UEFI systems, it is on
partition sda1. Also, on UEFI, no matter which method you choose to
install Manjaro, you won’t be asked whether you want to install the
GRUB boot loader or not. It will be installed automatically.

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BIOS system

UEFI system

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Other than that, the process involved in each assisted installation
option is the same whether you are on a UEFI or BIOS system. Calamares takes care of the differences for you. For specific instructions
about dual-booting with Windows, see chapter Dual-booting with
Microsoft Windows 10. Also, note that some installation options may
not be available if they are not necessary. For instance, you will not
have the option to replace a partition on an empty hard drive.

Install Manjaro alongside an existing operating system

1: When clicking on a partition in the bar representing
the current state, the bottom
bar will change to show this
partition split in two. Drag the
demarcation to adjust the size
of the new partition, as shown
in section Dual-booting with
Microsoft Windows 10. On
a UEFI system, the suggested
partition setup will mention if
an existing EFI partition was
detected.
BIOS system

UEFI system

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Replace an existing partition
Another option would be to select an existing partition and overwrite
it to install Manjaro. This could be useful if you are already dualbooting two different operating systems and want to replace one
of the two instead of installing a third one. You may also wish to
prepare an empty partition yourself beforehand and select it during
the installation. This will be covered in section Using GParted to
create, delete and modify partitions.

2: When selecting the option
to replace an existing partition with Manjaro, the bottom
of the window will display a
bar representing the current
state of the hard drive and another representing its state after
modifications, which at first is
identical.

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3: When clicking a partition in
the bar representing the current state, the bottom bar will
change to show this partition
overwritten by Manjaro. On
a UEFI system, the suggested
partition setup will mention if
an existing EFI partition was
detected.

BIOS system

UEFI system

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The rest of the process is similar to the one presented earlier in
section Dual-booting with Microsoft Windows 10. The Boot loader
location menu allows you to choose whether or not to install a boot
loader, and if so where to install it. A boot loader is a program which
enables you to choose which operating system to boot when you
turn on your computer. If you are unsure what to do, we recommend
keeping the default choice.

Erase the disk and let Calamares choose a partition scheme
The simplest installation method is to overwrite the entire hard drive
and let the installer suggest you a partition scheme for your new
operating system. This is a suitable method if you want to start from
scratch, since you will lose all data stored on your disk. If you want
to preserve your data, you can back it up on an external hard disk
before the installation and copy it back after.
The rest of the process is similar to the one presented earlier in
section Dual-booting with Microsoft Windows 10.

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4: When selecting the option
Erase disk, the bottom of the
window will change to display
your current hard drive setup
and the one proposed by the installer, which will be applied at
the very end of the installation
process, when accepting the
summary shown in subsection
Look back at your choices and
confirm.

BIOS system

UEFI system

Manual installation on a BIOS system
This option is the one that gives you the most control. You will get
the chance to adjust yourself the partition scheme of your hard drive
using the built-in partition manager and make it exactly the way you
want it.

Setting everything from within Calamares

1: Unlike in other scenarios,
selecting Manual partitioning
will not change the information
displayed at the bottom of the
window. Click Next to start
partitioning.

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Free some space

For a refresher on partitions and partition tables, see chapter Some
useful definitions.

2: The next screen displays the
disk being edited and its state,
both in the form of a bar and
a list of partitions. Both represent the same thing, only in
a different form. You can use
whichever form you prefer! The
button New Partition Table
allows you to create a new partition table, either of type MBR
or GPT. This will erase all data
and destroy all partitions on the
drive. You can also keep your
existing partition table and only
edit the partitions on it.

3: Clicking on a partition either
in the bar or in the list will
highlight it. The options to Edit
or Delete the partition will
become available.

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4: Clicking on Edit will bring
up another window indicating
information about the partition,
such as its size, what to do with
its content, its file system, its
mount point if you want to use
it for your Manjaro installation
and its flags. The portion of the
partition that has data on it is
located on the left side of the
bar and has a slight 3D effect.

5: Click and drag the edges
of the partition to resize it. It
cannot be made smaller than
the size required to store the
data on it. Clicking OK will
close the window and update
the diagram and the list of
partitions. Please note that no
actual modifications to your
hard drive will take place until
you accept the summary later
on.

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Create partitions

6: You can then select the space
freed and click on Create to
create a new partition using all
of the empty space, or just a
fraction of it.

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7: A new window will pop up
here as well with information
about the partition you wish
to create. Adjust its size as you
wish and choose a file system.
For Linux, ext4 is usually a
good choice. Then, choose a
mount point for the partition.
This represents under which
directory each partition will be
accessible. The only obligation
is that you must have a partition mounted under /, which
is the root directory of the
Linux directory tree, to which
all others connect directly or
indirectly. You can arrange
the rest to your liking. For a
refresher on file systems, see
chapter Some useful definitions.

8: Here I chose to create a separate partition for the /home
directory, which is used to
store user files such as music, pictures and videos. Once
everything is done, take a moment to verify if the setup is to
your liking. All partitions that
have a mount point specified
will be used during the installation of Manjaro. You can
abandon all changes by clicking
the Revert All Changes at the
top right of the window. The
Install boot loader on menu
at the bottom of the window
allows you to choose whether
or not to install a boot loader,
and if so where to install it. Not
installing one is useful if you
already have one installed and
you wish to keep using it.

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In this case a swap partition was already created. This partition
will be used if you ever run out of RAM to complete operations. If
you want or have to create a new one, create a partition as was done
for the other ones and choose linuxswap as the file system. You do
not have to select a mount point for it.

Look back and confirm

9: The rest of the process is similar to the one presented earlier
in section Dual-booting with
Microsoft Windows 10. You
will once again enter your user
information and get a summary
of your choices. Once you click
Next and then Install now in
the dialog, the installation will
begin. This is your last chance
to make changes.

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Using GParted to create, delete and modify partitions
GParted is a graphical program used to modify partitions on drives.
It is very powerful and yet has a very user-friendly interface. GParted
allows you to create and delete partitions, as well as change their
attributes, such as their size, their location on the disk and their file
system. It can also create partition tables of type MBR and GPT. For a
refresher on partitions and partition tables, see chapter Some useful
definitions.
In this section, we will demonstrate how to reduce the size of an
existing partition and use the freed space to create two new partitions, which will be used to install Manjaro later on!

1: First things first, let’s fire it
up! You can find GParted in
the menu of the Live version of
Manjaro. It can also be found in
the repositories of most Linux
distributions.

manjaro linux

2: After authenticating, a window similar to the one presented on the picture will appear.
A bar shows a diagrammatic
representation of your drive,
which is indicated on the
button at the top-right of the
window. If you have multiple
drives, you can select another
by clicking on this button. Each
partition is represented by a
rectangle in the bar. The coloured part shows the portion
that contains data. All partitions are also presented in the
form of a list with information
about them.

3: Clicking on either a partition
in the list or the rectangle in the
bar representing it will select it
and offer options as to what to
do with it.

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Shrink an existing partition

4: In the top panel are several
buttons each representing a
different action. The first one is
disabled for now as it creates a
partition from empty space, the
second deletes the selected partition and the third one allows
to resize the selected partition.
This is the one we are interested
in.

5: Clicking it will bring up
another window showing the
partition up close at the top as
well as the size of the partition.
To reduce the size of the partition, click and drag the edges
of the rectangle. Alternatively,
you can write how much space
you want to free on each side
of the partition in the fields below. Once some space has been
freed, you can also drag the
partition around to position it
in the space it used to fill. Click
the Resize/Move button once
you are done. Before resizing a
partition, it is strongly suggested to back the data stored on
it.

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Create new partitions

6: Once some space has been
freed on the drive, you can use
it to create a new partition!
Select it and click on the first
button in the top bar.

If your new partition does not take all of the available space, you
can repeat this step to create other partitions.

7: In the window that pops up,
you will get the chance to set
the size of the new partition
you will create. By default, it
takes all of the available free
space, but you can change
that in the same manner as
when resizing the partition
earlier. You can also, among
other options, choose the file
system used by the partition.
For Linux partitions, ext4 usually works fine, though other
choices such as xfs and btrfs
are also available. You can also
give a label to your partition,
which will make it easier for
you to identify it. Clicking the
+ Add button will close the
window. For a refresher on
file systems, see chapter Some
useful definitions.

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Apply changes

8: After all of this work, still
no actual changes have been
made to your drive. Instead,
your modifications have been
recorded into a list, visible at
the bottom of the window. To
apply the changes, click the
checkmark button at the top of
the window. This is your last
chance to make changes. Once
you click the checkmark button, the modifications will be
applied to the drive.

9: A new window will pop up
indicating the operations being
worked on...

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10: ... and at the end if the
modifications were applied
successfully!

11: Congratulations, you have
now successfully created new
partitions which you will be
able to use to install Manjaro!
This is especially useful when
partitioning manually or when
replacing an existing partition
(Replace an existing partition
).

Manual installation on a UEFI system
The manual installation option is the one that changes the most if
you are using a UEFI system compared to one with BIOS. The following steps will walk you through the process of creating a partition
scheme suitable for your system in three different scenarios. The first
one (Creating partitions from scratch) will show you how to create
your partition scheme from within Calamares without using existing
partitions. The second one (Using GParted to create partitions beforehand) will show you how to create the partitions with GParted
and then put them to use in the installer. Finally, the third one (Using
an already existing EFI partition ) will show you how to use a EFI
partition previously created and used by another operating system.

Creating partitions from scratch
This scenario will assume that you do not wish to use a single existing partition. We will thus start with a completely empty hard drive.
This will also be the case if you are using a brand new drive or are
using a virtual machine.

Create a partition table

manjaro linux

1: Once you select the Manual
partitioning option and click
on Next, the first thing to make
sure is that the partition table
is of type GPT. To create a new
partition table, click on the
New Partition Table button
and select GUID Partition
Table (GPT). For a refresher
on partitions and partition
tables, see chapter Some useful
definitions.

Create the EFI partition

2: Then, select the empty space
and click on Create to make a
new partition. The first one we
will create will be the EFI partition, which will house some
files used when booting.

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3: In the window that appears,
select a size of a few hundred
MB. Here I chose 500 MB. Then,
select fat32 as the file system.
For a refresher on file systems,
see chapter Some useful definitions.

4: Next, choose /boot/efi as the
mount point. The contents of
the partition will be accessible
from this directory once Manjaro is installed. Be careful not
to accidentally choose /boot!

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5: Finally, select the boot and
esp flags from the list. Once
this is done, click the OK button.

Create the swap partition

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6: The next partition we will
create is the swap. This partition will be used if you ever
run out of RAM to complete
operations. The suggested size
for this partition is a few GB.
Here I chose 4 GB. Choose
linuxswap as the file system.

7: You can also click and drag
the partition to move it elsewhere in the unallocated space.

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Create other partitions

8: Next are the partitions used
by Manjaro itself. There are a
variety of possible scenarios.
Here I chose the simplest case
where I only created a single
partition mounted under the
/ directory. Another scenario
with the /home directory being
housed on another partition is
presented in chapter Manual
installation on a BIOS system.

Look back and confirm

9: You can then proceed as
usual up to the summary,
which is the last step before
the changes are applied to your
drive.

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Using GParted to create partitions beforehand
The creation of the partition table and partitions shown above can
also be handled by GParted. The following steps will guide you
through the process.

Create a partition table

1: To create a new partition
table, select Device > Create
Partition Table... .

2: In the window that pops up
you can then choose the type
of partition table to be created.
For a UEFI system, a GPT partition table is recommended.
For a refresher on partitions
and partition tables, see chapter
Some useful definitions.

manjaro linux

Create the EFI partition

3: Once this is done, select the
unallocated space and click on
the first button at the top-left
of the window to create a new
partition. The first one we will
create is the EFI partition.

4: Like in the case where Calamares was used to create the
partitions, it is recommended
to choose a size of a few hundred MB. You may notice that
GParted uses a different unit
for the size of the partitions,
namely MiB. MiB are not the
same as MB, but close enough
for what we want to do. It is
necessary to use the fat32 file
system. You can also set a label
to make the partition easier to
recognize. For a refresher on
file systems, see chapter Some
useful definitions.

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Create the swap partition

5: Next, select the rest of the
empty space and create a new
partition. This one will be the
swap. This partition will be
used if you ever run out of
RAM to complete operations.
It is recommended to choose a
size of a few GB. It is necessary
to use the linux-swap file system. You can click and drag the
partition to move it elsewhere
in the unallocated space.

Create other partitions

6: Finally, create the partitions
that will be used by Manjaro.
Here I chose to make a single
one that will later be mounted
under the / directory. I chose
the ext4 file system, although
others such as xfs and btrfs are
available.

Apply changes

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7: It is finally time to apply the
changes! Make sure everything
is to your liking and then click
the checkmark button.

Set the flags for the EFI partition

8: A bit more work is required
once the operations have been
successfully completed. A few
flags then need to be set so the
EFI partition behaves correctly.
Right-click on the partition you
intend to use as the EFI partition and select Manage Flags
from the drop-down menu.

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9: In the window that appears,
select boot and esp. Close the
window once this is done.

10: That’s it! Your partitions are
all set up and ready to use in
the installer.

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Use the partitions

11: Once in the Manual partitioning option and click Next,
select the partition you want as
the EFI partition and click on
the Edit button.

12: In the window that appears,
choose to mount the partition under /boot/efi. You also
have the option to either keep
the contents of the partition
or format it. Keeping them
is especially important when
dual-booting with another operating system. Otherwise, it does
not really matter. Also, make
sure the boot and esp flags are
checked.

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13: Next, select the other partitions you want to use and
choose their respective mount
points.

Once everything is set up, you can proceed up to the summary.
As always, this is the very last step where you can go back to make
changes.

Using an already existing EFI partition
If you are dual-booting with another operating system, a EFI partition will probably already exist. In that case, you will probably want
to use the same EFI partition for Manjaro and the other operating
system. This section will show you how to do this. The other operating system used in this example is Microsoft Windows 10. The steps
below are very similar to the ones presented in other sections such as
Manual installation on a BIOS system and Creating partitions from
scratch.

Choose the EFI partition

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1: The EFI partition created and
used by Windows can also be
used by Manjaro. Select the EFI
partition that was created by
Windows and Edit it. It should
be the only one using the fat32
file system. For a refresher on
file systems, see chapter Some
useful definitions.

2: Choose to Keep the content
of the partition. This will make
sure that the files used by Windows are not deleted. If you
choose to format it, you will not
be able to boot into Windows
anymore, so keeping its content is very important. Then,
select /boot/efi as the mount
point and make sure the boot
and esp flags are checked. The
mount point indicates from
which directory the partition
will be accessible once Manjaro
is installed.

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Shrink the C: drive partition

3: Select the partition used as
the C: drive by Windows and
Edit it. It should be the biggest
one.

4: Then, use the slider at the
top of the window that pops
up to reduce its size. The left
part of the bar with a slight 3D
effect represents the portion of
the partition that contains data.
You cannot shrink the partition
below this threshold.

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Create a swap partition

5: Next, select the freed space
and click on Create.

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6: We will now create a swap
partition, which is used if your
computer runs out of RAM. It
is generally a few GB large and
uses the linuxswap file system.
You do not need to mount it.

Create the other partitions

7: Now you can create some
new partitions for Manjaro!
Here I chose the simplest partition scheme, as I created a
single partition mounted as /
and with the ext4 file system.
No matter the partition scheme
you choose, there must be one
partition mounted under /. The
rest is up to you.

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Look back and confirm

8: You can then continue
through the rest of the installer up until the summary.
As always, this is your very last
chance to review the changes
you are about to make. If you
are satisfied with them, you can
click Next and proceed with the
installation!

Encrypting your partitions
In order to prevent others from accessing the data stored on your
drive, you may want to encrypt your partitions. LUKS (Linux Unified
Key Setup) is a tool developped to that end. Luckily, the Calamares
installer has built-in support for LUKS, which makes encrypting your
system a breeze! To access the data stored on the drive, a passphrase
of your choosing will have to be given. Anyone who does not know it
will be unable to access the data. The process of encrypting your system is very similar on both BIOS and UEFI systems. A BIOS system
is used below as an example.

Assisted installation

9: In all assisted installation
options (Install alongside, Replace
a partition and Erase disk), a
checkbox above the two status
bars enables you to automatically encrypt your system during
the installation. Tick it to enable
encryption.

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10: You will then be asked for
the passphrase you want to use.
You will be prompted for this
passphrase every time you boot
your computer, before reaching the GRUB menu. Be sure
to choose something you will
remember!

The file system to be used will change to LUKS, confirming that
your new installation will be encrypted! The rest of the installation is
the same as in all the other cases.

11: When booting, a prompt
will appear asking for your
passphrase. Characters won’t
show up when typed, so don’t
be surprised! If the correct
passphrase is entered, you
will be redirected to the GRUB
menu. Otherwise, you will
be unable to access your system. You are given a single try
every time you boot up your
computer.

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Manual installation

12: In the manual installation
option, encryption can be set
up when creating a partition.
A checkbox will offer it to you,
just below the File System menu.

13: When ticking the box, you
will be asked to enter a passphrase. You will be prompted
for it everytime you boot up
your computer, much like in the
assisted installation options.

Part III

Welcome to Manjaro

The Manjaro desktop
Congratulations on installing Manjaro Linux!
Once you have logged in you will be presented with the Manjaro
desktop. The Manjaro Hello welcome screen will load automatically
and this gives you some useful links to documentation, ways to get
help and support from the Manjaro community, and some ways you
can get involved with the project. Remember that Manjaro is free
and open-source software: it relies on contributions from its user and
developer community!

1: The Manjaro Xfce Desktop
with Manjaro Hello.

If you don’t want the welcome screen to load each time you log in,
just set the Launch at start option off at the bottom right of the window. Don’t worry: you can always find it again in the applications
menu.
The applications menu is the easiest way of starting the software
programs that are installed on your Manjaro system. The icon for this

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is at the bottom left corner of the screen. Go ahead and click on it
now!

You can also press the “Windows” or
“Super” key on your keyboard. Handy!

2: Software applications that
are installed will be displayed
in the applications menu.

You can see that the five main software applications have an item
in the “Favourites” menu. This allows rapid access to software you
most often use. To add or remove an item from the Favourites menu,
just right-click on it and select the option you want.
For now, let’s look in turn at these five applications to give an idea
of what awaits you!
3: Add to Favourites

4: Remove from Favourites

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Terminal Emulator

File Manager

5: Terminal Emulator, or
terminal, allows you to perform text-based commands.
Although it initially seems
unfriendly it is incredibly
powerful and allows access to
commands that are difficult to
accomplish with a graphical interface. In this example, I have
listed (ls) the files in my home
directory.
Learning how to use the
terminal is not needed
for running Manjaro. It’s
highly recommended, however; check out sites like
http://linuxcommand.org/
!

6: File Manager is a graphical
interface for managing your
documents and directories.
Most file managers work in
a similar way; if you’ve used
another, you can use this one!

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Web Browser

7: Web Browser allows you
to visit and view web pages
so you can read news stories,
check the weather forecast, and
all the rest. If you have a particular preference for a browser
that is not installed by default,
you can easily add another one
as shown in section Installing
new software.

Mail Reader

8: Mail Reader allows you to
read and send email. You will
have to add your email account
when you first run the application (in a similar way to all
mail readers) but once that is
set up you should be good to
go! As with the web browser,
there are a range of choices for
mail reader. For example, if
you prefer Claws, Sylpheed or
Evolution you can install it!

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Add/Remove Software

9: The Package Manager allows
you to search for, install, and
remove software applications.
In this example I have searched
for the Chromium web browser,
and am about to install it. Once
I’m happy with my selections I
can click on Apply to continue.
There are two main software
managers in Manjaro : Pamac
(installed with the Xfce edition)
and Octopi (installed with the
KDE edition). Installation of
new software is covered in details in section Installing new
software.

Getting help
There are a variety of ways of getting help and support about Manjaro, as well as finding out more about the project. You can just
browse, or register if you want to get involved!
Remember that Manjaro is run by its community. Without a community there would be no Manjaro!

Whichever method you use, we look forward to meeting you!

1: The Manjaro Hello screen
has links to some excellent resources. It’s well worth taking
the time to have a look at each
of them.

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Discussion forum
https://forum.manjaro.org/

2: The Manjaro discussion
forum is a great place to find
out more about the project. You
can connect at any time, leave
questions or replies, and come
back to them later.

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IRC channels
https://manjaro.org/irc-channel/

3: Join #manjaro on
irc.freenode.net, whether via
a web or desktop client, and
you’ll find a very nice bunch of
people ready to chat! To talk on
the IRC channel you will have
to connect first. Hexchat, which
enables you to do so, comes
installed in the Xfce edition.

German, French and Russian IRC channels are also available,
respectively at #manjaro-de, #manjaro-fr and #manjaro-ru.

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Mailing list
https://lists.manjaro.org/listinfo/manjaro-general

4: If you prefer to use email
there are several mailing lists
that you can use to stay upto-date with announcements
and development, as well as
ask questions. At the moment,
though, most people use either
the forums or IRC. Maybe it
will be you who gets people
using the mailing lists!

Wiki
https://wiki.manjaro.org/

5: The wiki is essentially an online user manual. It has a huge
range of information, hints,
tips, and instructions on getting
the most out of your Manjaro
system. If you need to know
how to do something, chances
are it’s on the wiki!

Maintaining your system

Changing settings
While the Manjaro desktop comes with a set of defaults that should
work well for most people, you might want to change things like the
desktop wallpaper and colour scheme, or perhaps how your laptop
touchpad behaves.

Xfce settings manager

1: The Xfce desktop is highly
customizable. The settings for
your user account can be accessed both via the applications
menu and the Xfce settings
manager. Either way, there’s
a lot of tweaking you can do!
Don’t worry: the changes will
only affect your user account,
not any others you might have
added.

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Manjaro Settings Manager

2: The Manjaro Settings Manager provides a set of tools for
changing lower-level settings,
such as those you set during installation. System-wide
languages, keyboard layouts,
users, and hardware drivers are
all taken care of from here. It is
available under Settings in the
applications menu.

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Adding a printer
Manjaro comes with excellent printing support. Most printers are
detected automatically, and many others can be configured very
easily!
Depending on which edition you are using, you may have to install printing support. In that case, install the “manjaro-printer”
package from Pamac or Octopi (see next section), or from the command line:
sudo pacman -S manjaro-printer

1: To check on the available
printers, once the package has
been installed, find and open
Print Settings in the applications menu.

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2: Adding a printer to the list
requires administrator rights.
Click on the Unlock button at
the top-right of the window.
You will be prompted for the
administrator password.

3: Then, click Add to begin
configuring a printer.

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4: All detected printers will
show in the devices list. Select your printer, then click
Forward.
If your printer does not show
up it’s possible that your
printer isn’t compatible with
Manjaro. Due to the vast number of printers out there you
may need to install drivers
manually - please visit the
forum or IRC channel for help!

5: Manjaro will then search for
drivers that may be compatible
with your printer.

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6: If no specific driver is found,
do not despair! You will be
given the opportunity to select
one from a list. If your printer’s
manufacturer is not listed, you
can choose the Generic driver.
This is the one I chose here.
You also have the option to
choose a driver from a file or
search once again based on
your printer model. Once you
have made your choice, click
Forward.

7: You will then have the choice
to choose from a driver subcategory to refine your choice.

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8: As Manjaro installs your
printer you can change some
settings like its name and location. These provide an easy
way of identifying the printer.

9: You will then be asked if
you want to print a test page
before being redirected to the
properties of your printer. The
configuration is done! You can
click the OK button to close the
window.

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10: Your printer should now
show in Printer Settings, where
you can view the print queue
and change the printer settings.
To change the settings, you will
once again need to click the
Unlock button at the top-right
of the window. Happy printing!

Updating software
After logging in you may notice a couple of pop-ups informing you
of software updates. This is great! It means your internet connection is working correctly, and that there is new software ready and
waiting for you!

Pamac

1: Pamac’s Update Manager is
available from the system tray
at the bottom right corner of
the screen. In this screenshot it
has an icon with an exclamation
mark, indicating there are software updates. An update check
is performed automatically; all
you have to do is click Apply
and enter your password when
prompted and any updates will
proceed automatically!

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Octopi
Octopi is an alternative software manager for Manjaro. It is installed
with the Openbox and KDE editions as it is based on the Qt toolset.
It also has a very funky icon!

2: Octopi’s update notifier is
available from the system tray
at the bottom right corner of
the screen. In this screenshot
it has a red icon, indicating
there are software updates.
An update check is performed
automatically; all you have to
do is click Yes and any updates
will proceed automatically!

3: Alternatively, you can load
Octopi’s full interface. The
number at the bottom shows
how many updates there are.
To show what is available, click
on the button with the red icon
and the number of updates. To
install the updates, click on the
arrow next to the button and
then click on Install.

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Installing language packages
Once your software is up-to-date, you may want to check if all necessary language packages are installed. For that, head over to the
Manjaro Settings Manager. They can also be installed like regular
packages (see section Installing new software), but this method takes
care of them all in one fell swoop.

4: In the Manjaro Settings
Manager, double-click on Language Packages.

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5: Available language packages
will be listed here. If there are
any, click on the Install Packages button to install them.
You will be prompted for your
password before proceeding to
the installation. In the example
shown here, none are available.

Installing new software
There’s a huge amount of software freely available in the Manjaro
repositories.11 If you are connected to the internet you can download
and install as many of this as you want at no cost! No advertising is
embedded, no data gathering performed - you get just the software
application, unlike with some other operating systems.

Pamac

Be careful before enabling the AUR. It
is a community-maintained repository
of software so presents potential risks
and problems. Make sure you are
familiar with the build process.

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1: Pamac is a piece of software
that allows you to install software on your computer. You
can find it under the name
Add/Remove Software in the
application menu.

2: Pamac allows easy access
to the available software. All
software applications in the
repositories are free; no need
to worry about purchase or
licensing costs. To search for a
package, simply start typing or
use the tabs to the left!

3: To obtain more information
on a package, right-click on it
and select Details. This will
give you a description of the
package, a link to the official
website of the package, a list of
dependencies and much more.
You can also left-click on the
name of the application to show
its details.

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4: Once you’ve found the package you want to install, rightclick and select Install (or check
the box left of the application’s
name), then click on the Apply button that will appear at
the bottom of the window to
confirm.

5: The packages to be installed
are listed so you can check if
this is what you want to do. If
additional packages are needed
by the one or those you want to
install, they will also be listed
here. They are called dependencies. When you are happy
with the selection, click Commit and the software will be
downloaded and installed.

6: To stop other users from
removing important software
from the system you will have
to provide an administrator
password. If you kept the default settings when creating a
user during the installation,
your own password will work.
If you don’t know it, you can’t
go any further. There are methods to reset this password if
needed; visit the forum or
IRC channel to find out more.
Enter your password and click
Authenticate.

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7: The software packages will
be downloaded and installed.
You don’t have to do anything
else!

8: The new software will show
as installed within Pamac and
is available in the application
menu ready for you to use. You
can close Pamac now if you
want.

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Octopi
The process of installing new software using Octopi is very similar to
the one using Pamac.

9: Octopi allows easy access
to the available software. Do
note that the search process
is slightly different to Pamac
as you can select whether to
search by package name or
package description. Once
you’ve found the package you
want to install, right-click and
select Install.

10: Some software will have
other packages it can optionally
use if they are installed. These
“optional dependencies” can be
selected here or ignored - you
can always install them later if
you want to!

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11: A summary of the transactions is displayed at the bottom
of the window. Once you are
ready to apply them, click on
the checkmark at the top-left of
the window to Commit them.

12: The packages to be installed
are listed so you can check if
this is what you want to do.
When you are happy with the
selection, click Yes, type in the
root (administrator) password
when prompted and the software will be downloaded and
installed.

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13: Octopi will show a confirmation that it installed the
new software. You can close
Octopi now if you want. The
new software is now ready to
use!

Using Pacman
Pacman is the Arch Linux package manager. This underpins Pamac
and Octopi but doesn’t have a graphical interface. Instead, it is used
by typing commands on the terminal. The commands allow you to
install, upgrade, configure, and remove software.

Synchronising with the Manjaro repositories
As new packages are added to the repositories you will need to regularly synchronise the package lists. This is normally taken care of
automatically on a regular basis by the software managers, but to
perform this manually type the following into the terminal:
sudo pacman -Sy

This will only download the package lists if there has been a change.
Occasionally you may want to force the package lists to be downloaded. To do this, type:
sudo pacman -Syy

Updating software
Pacman will allow you to perform an update of software already
installed with the command:
sudo pacman -Su

It’s a good idea to check whether the package lists are up-to-date at
the same time. To do so, type:
sudo pacman -Syu

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You can also force a package list synchronisation before performing
an update with:
sudo pacman -Syyu

Searching for software
Finding a package by name is really straightforward. For example, to
search for a text editor called Leafpad, type:

1: sudo pacman -Syyu

sudo pacman -Ss leafpad

Installing software
Installing a package is equally straightforward. For example, to install Leafpad, type:
sudo pacman -S leafpad

Removing software
To remove a software package you need to know its name, but the
command is straightforward. To remove Leafpad, type:
sudo pacman -R leafpad

It’s also possible to remove a package and any dependencies it required when it was installed. Assuming those other packages are not
being used by another piece of software, they will become orphan
packages. These serve no function other than taking up space! To
remove a software package with its dependencies, type:
sudo pacman -Rs leafpad

A package may also create configuration files. Normally these are
left in place so your configuration is not lost, and can be reused if
you install the package again. However, if you want to remove these
configuration files too, the command is:
sudo pacman -Rns leafpad

If at a later date you want to remove all orphan packages and configuration files for packages that you removed some time ago, the
following command will do it:
sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq)

Be warned, though: this is an advanced command!

Many software applications depend on
other software packages. Thankfully,
Pacman will automatically detect and
install these!

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Other Pacman commands
It’s a good idea to become familiar with the Pacman commands. It
can be a very useful tool in case the other software managers refuse
to complete an installation, for example if an installation process is
interrupted. The Pacman manpage is very informational and can be
viewed with the command:

man is short for manual

man pacman

To exit, press q.

Updating the mirror list
Manjaro Linux packages are hosted on a number of servers across the
world; these servers mirror the official Manjaro software repository.
When you first install Manjaro it will try to work out which server
is closest to you so that software downloads complete as quickly as
possible.
Sometimes, though, the list of mirrors can get old. New mirrors
can become available, and some mirrors are removed. Updates to
Manjaro will regularly trigger an update of the mirror list, but sometimes it’s useful to do this manually.
To update the mirror list use the following command:
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 0

This will test the speed of all currently available mirrors and set your
machine to use the best for you. Once this command has completed,
you should force a download of the package lists with the command:

2: sudo pacman-mirrors -f 0

sudo pacman -Syyu

Choosing mirrors
If you would like more control over which mirrors to use, run the
command:
sudo pacman-mirrors -i

This will allow you to select which mirror, or mirrors, to try when
checking for software updates and downloading new packages. It’s
normally best to choose mirrors that are geographically close to you,
so if you’re in Canada then servers from Canada and the US are
generally a good bet. Of course, you’re free to choose whichever you
want!
To reset back to an automatic choice, run this command:
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 0 -c all

3: sudo pacman-mirrors -i

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Remember to force a download of the package lists to use the new
mirrors!

Updating mirrors from Pamac
Mirrors can also be refreshed from within Pamac. There you can
select the country from which to choose the mirrors. Choosing your
country or one close to yours is generally a good idea.

4: From Pamac, click the pancake menu at the top right of
the window and select Preferences. You will be prompted
for your password.

5: In the window that pops up,
go to the Official Repositories
tab. There, you will be able
to choose the location of the
mirrors and refresh them.

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Switching branches
When you install Manjaro, unless you specifically installed a preview
version, you will be using the stable branch. This set of packages has
the most testing and so is the best for most users. However, you may
want to help test packages before they move to the stable repository.
To do this, you can switch to the testing branch with the command:
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 0 -b testing

The testing repository has packages that have been checked by the
Manjaro development team to make sure they work correctly. However, the amount of testing done is much smaller than for the stable
branch - but this is how they get tested!
If you want to live on the bleeding edge, you can switch to the
unstable branch. This is normally used by the Manjaro developers.
Packages from the unstable branch can cause problems, so this is not
something to do lightly. If you ever decide to try it out, the command
is:
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 0 -b unstable

After switching branches you will need to force an update of the
package lists and packages, which can be done with the command:
sudo pacman -Syyu

If you switch away from the stable branch, but want to move back,
it’s actually pretty easy. You can switch back to the stable branch in
the same way you left it, with the command:
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 0 -b stable

This will leave the newer packages on your system and these will be
replaced as the stable branch catches up. However, if you want to
force a downgrade of packages back to the stable version, use:
sudo pacman -Syyuu

Fixing installation errors
Occasionally, an installation can go wrong. The downloaded file
might be corrupted, or the process might be interrupted if you lose
power. Most of the time it’s relatively easy to get your system back to
a working state!
The most common error you will be something like:
:: Synchronising package databases...
error: failed to update core (unable to lock database)
error: failed to update extra (unable to lock database)

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error: failed to update community (unable to lock database)
error: failed to update multilib (unable to lock database)
error: failed to synchronise any databases
error: failed to init transaction (unable to lock database)
error: could not lock database: File exists
if you’re sure a package manager is not already running,
you can remove /var/lib/pacman/db.lck

This means Pacman thinks it is already running. If it is, and you try
to force an installation or removal of software, the package database
can be left in an inconsistent state. This would be bad. So, the first
thing to check is whether an installer is running. One of the easiest
ways to check is to run a terminal command:
ps x | grep pacman

This might look complicated, but it’s just two small commands joined
(piped) together. First,
ps x

produces a list of running processes for all users. Second,
grep pacman

searches for the text “pacman”. The pipe, |, takes the output from
the first and feeds it to the second. To check whether another program is running you can just change the text “pacman” to something
else:
ps x | grep pamac
ps x | grep octopi

Once you are sure an installer is not running, you can delete Pacman’s lock file with the command:
sudo rm /var/lib/pacman/db.lck

Then try running the install process again!
If a problem persists, there is a series of commands that will fix
most issues:
sudo
sudo
sudo
sudo

rm -f /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
pacman-mirrors -g
pacman -Syyuu
pacman -Suu

In order, these commands:
• Remove Pacman’s lock file;
• Update the mirror list;
• Forces an update of the package lists and an update of any packages to bring them in line with the current repository state;
• Ensures no packages are left out of line with the current repository
state.

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More information
Remember - there is plenty of information on the wiki https://
wiki.manjaro.org/ and discussion forum https://forum.manjaro.
org/. Do not hesitate to use them!

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Index

Add/Remove Software, 101
Adding a printer, 109
Assisted installation, 53

Forum, 104

BIOS, 39, 53, 61
Boot loader, 39
Branches, 127
Burning to a CD/DVD, 23

Installing new software, 117
Introduction, 11
IRC, 105

Desktop, 97
Downloading, 15
Editions, 15
errors, Checking for, 19
Favourites, 98
Features, 11
File Manager, 99
File system, 39
Fixing installation errors, 127

Help, 103

Licence, documentation, 4
Live environment, 31
Mail Reader, 100
Mailing list, 106
Maintaining your system, 107
Manjaro Development Team, The, 5
Manual installation, 61, 73
Microsoft Windows 10, 43
Mirror, 125
Mount point, 39
Octopi, 115

Pacman, 123
Pacman-mirrors, 125
Pamac, 114
Partition, 39
Partition table, 39
Printer, 109
Settings, 107
Switching branches, 127
Terminal Emulator, 99
UEFI, 39, 53, 73
Updating software, 114
USB flash drive, 26
Web Browser, 100
Wiki, 106
Writing a disc image, 23

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Modify Date                     : 2018:02:28 09:26:29+01:00
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Title                           : User Guide
Creator                         : Manjaro Linux
Description                     : Manjaro Linux
Author                          : Manjaro Linux
Subject                         : Manjaro Linux

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User Guide Manjaro

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