How to install Elementary OS desktop on Arch Linux – Easy Steps

Elementary OS is an excellent operating system with a beautiful desktop environment. Unfortunately, the Elementary OS desktop is attached to Ubuntu. While Ubuntu is a decent operating system, it is not as versatile as Arch Linux.

If you love Arch Linux and want to use the Elementary OS desktop environment, you can. The Pantheon desktop is now in the official Arch Linux repositories and can be installed. Here’s how to make it work on your system.

Pantheon installation

The first step in running the Elementary OS desktop environment on an Arch Linux system is to set up the Pantheon desktop environment. For Pantheon to work, you will need to install the “pantheon” package group. This group will include all the packages you need.

To configure Pantheon packages on your Arch Linux computer, you need to open a terminal window on the desktop. You can open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Or search for “Terminal” in the application menu.

Use the pacman -S command to install the “pantheon” package group with the terminal window open.

sudo pacman -S pantheon

If you prefer to have a minimal installation of the Pantheon desktop environment rather than a packaged installation, you can install the “pantheon-session” package instead.

sudo pacman -S pantheon-session

When any of these packages are installed, you should have the Pantheon desktop environment working and ready to go. However, it is a long way from being configured correctly, and there is still much more to configure.

AppCenter Installation

The core of Elementary OS is AppCenter, its excellent app store. AppCenter provides applications to users through the Elementary OS Flatpak repository and the official Elementary OS repositories.

It is possible to use AppCenter on Arch Linux with your installation of Pantheon. However, you will first need to create the store from source code through the Arch Linux user repository. That’s how.

To get started, make sure you have a terminal window open. Then use the pacman -S command to install the “git” and “base-devel” packages.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

With both packages installed, use the commands below and configure the Trizen AUR wizard. This tool will automate the AppCenter installation on your Arch Linux system.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

cd trizen/
makepkg -sri

Finally, install the AppCenter application on your Arch Linux system using the trizen -S command.

trizen -S appcenter

Enabling the AppCenter Flatpak Repository

AppCenter uses a custom Flatpak repository to distribute many of its applications. Having a custom Flatpak repository is great news, as it means that many AppCenter applications from AppCenter developers will work on Arch Linux.

To enable the AppCenter Flatpak repository on your Arch Linux system, you will need to have the Flatpak runtime installed on your computer. You can install the Flatpak runtime on Arch Linux by installing the “flatpak” package.

Note: Are you having trouble setting up Flatpak? Follow our guide on the subject.

Once the Flatpak runtime is configured on your computer, the AppCenter Flatpak repository can be added. Using the remote flatpak-add command then set it.

flatpak remote-add --user appcenter https://flatpak.elementary.io/repo.flatpakrepo

Install theme packs

Pantheon won’t look good on Arch Linux without Elementary OS theme packs. To configure all theme packs on Arch Linux, open a terminal window on the desktop. Once the terminal window is open, install all the packages listed below.

sudo pacman -S elementary-icon-theme elementary-wallpapers gtk-theme-elementary ttf-droid ttf-opensans ttf-roboto sound-theme-elementary switchboard pantheon-default-settings

These packages, once installed, should fix all theme issues within Pantheon when used on Arch Linux.

Pantheon app installation

If you want an Elementary-OS-like experience on Arch Linux, you will need to configure all the official Pantheon applications such as Pantheon Files, Calculator, etc. Then, using the following commands in a terminal window, install the applications.

 sudo pacman -S capnet-assist epiphanypantheon-calculator pantheon-calendar pantheon-camera pantheon-code pantheon-files pantheon-mail pantheon-music pantheon-photos pantheon-screenshot pantheon-shortcut-overlay pantheon-terminal
pantheon-videos simple-scan plank

Once all of these packages are installed on your system, Pantheon will have all the default programs up and running.

Pantheon Settings

While modifying Pantheon is generally not required on Elementary OS, it is critical on Arch Linux. This is because when Pantheon is installed, it may not use the icons, theme, etc. Elementary OS officials.

To change these settings to make Pantheon look good, you will need to install the Arch Linux AUR program pantheon-tweaks.

trizen -S switchboard-plug-pantheon-tweaks-git

With the program installed, open “System Settings” in Pantheon, find “Settings” and change the icons and theme to the official Primary OS themes. When everything has changed, Pantheon is ready to use on Arch Linux.