Linux tips from Zoe

My distribution of choice is Artix Linux. It is similar to Arch Linux (it's just as beginner-unfriendly) but does not include systemd.

IMO Artix's main install guide is not quite as helpful as their runit install guide.

I have switched back to Arch just because Artix has various small problems that I did not want to keep putting up with. (Such as how their installer is so out of date that it is difficult to get pacman to work at all.)

I switched distros again, to Manjaro. When I have some Free Time™ (note: may be a while from now) I will substantially update this page based on what I have actually found useful

Recommended apps

yay - for arch/artix users you can use this to easily download packages from the AUR (Arch User Repository). For me on Artix, I can get yaourt from the official repos, and then I use yaourt to download yay. yay is more modern and seems to be faster too
pro tip: aseprite is free on arch because when you install it from the AUR, it downloads and compiles their source code which is allowed by their EULA. I am still looking for a good open source alternative though

Tips for using a minimalist linux distro on a laptop

NetworkManager is a little bit too controlling of the OS but the other alternatives for using wifi seem to be too complex to use efficiently.
lightdm and light-locker add easy login and locking functionality without pulling a whole desktop environment with it
LVM on LUKS keeps your data and swap encrypted on the disk without adding much overhead.. I will write a guide on this if someone wants
acpilight provides the command "xbacklight" but doesnt seem to require any config to use unlike the actual xbacklight.
On systems with elogind, you can open /etc/elogind/logind.conf and change HandleLidSwitchExternalPower to "ignore". Then do "sudo loginctl reload", and the system will keep running when you close the lid. There are also many other interesting changes you can make in that file!

mpd tutorial

mpd is a music player which runs as a linux service. it will make you feel very cool and linux hacker-y if you listen to music with it.

Install mpd: On arch or artix this is just
```
sudo pacman -S mpd
```
, for other distros the package is probably also named mpd
You can choose to configure mpd, (see the arch wiki page) but the default will work just fine with a folder called "music" in your home folder.
Make mpd always run: On most distros you can run
```
systemctl --user enable mpd
```
then
```
systemctl --user start mpd
```
. On artix you'll have to start it some other way, I have it in my i3 config
Install ncmpcpp: This is a client for mpd. It isn't the only client but I like it. It runs in the terminal. The name just stands for NCurses (text-based gui library) MPC (music player client), with the "C" changed to "CPP" bcuz it's written in C++. install it on arch/artix with
```
sudo pacman -S ncmpcpp
```

What keys to press in ncmpcpp: (This isn't every key, but just the ones that I think are useful.)

Different screens of the app (playlist, library, etc) are accessed with the numbers 1-8, just keep going through each one and eventually youll remember them.
p is play/pause
+ and - are volume
f and b are seek (forward and backward)
< and > are prev and next track
Playback modes: "r" to toggle repeat, "z" to toggle random, "y" to toggle single track (turn on with repeat to get repeat one), "R" for consume mode (tracks exit the playlist after they are played)
u rescans your music folder so it picks up new files
You can select things with the arrow keys and the enter key
q is quit

More to this page coming soon!

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