Arch Linux + Pantheon + Btrfs Snapshots

Command reference for installing Arch Linux with the Pantheon desktop (elementary OS's DE) and openSUSE-style Btrfs snapshots via Snapper + GRUB rollback.

Part 1: Base System

iwctl
station wlan0 connect YOUR_SSID
exit

archinstall

In the menu: Btrfs filesystem, GRUB bootloader, no desktop environment.

Part 2: Pantheon

sudo pacman -Syu

Known issue: lightdm-pantheon-greeter currently depends on mutter46, which conflicts with the regular mutter that gala itself needs. This is an upstream packaging lag (Arch has a history of pinning gala/wingpanel to older mutter versions each release cycle while catching up). Until it's fixed, ignore that one package and use lightdm-gtk-greeter instead — same login manager, just a plainer greeter screen.

sudo pacman -S --needed --ignore lightdm-pantheon-greeter \
  pantheon lightdm-gtk-greeter network-manager-applet polkit-gnome openssh \
  sound-theme-elementary elementary-icon-theme elementary-wallpapers \
  pantheon-default-settings networkmanager

sudo systemctl enable lightdm
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
sudo systemctl enable sshd
sudo systemctl enable --now polkit
sudo reboot

network-manager-applet gives you a tray icon to manage networks, polkit-gnome handles privilege-escalation prompts inside the desktop, and openssh gives you an SSH fallback into the VM if the graphical session ever breaks (handy since TTY-switching can be unreliable in QEMU/KVM — find the VM's IP with virsh domifaddr <vm-name> from the host, then ssh youruser@<vm-ip>).

Optional apps:

sudo pacman -S pantheon-files pantheon-terminal pantheon-screenshot \
  gnome-keyring gvfs file-roller xdg-user-dirs xdg-utils
xdg-user-dirs-update

Optional AUR helper + tweaks panel:

sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

yay -S switchboard-plug-pantheon-tweaks-git

Note: Pantheon on Wayland is less mature than X11. If Plank or Wingpanel glitch, log out and pick the X11/"Classic" session.

Part 3: Btrfs Snapshots (Snapper)

sudo pacman -S --needed snapper grub-btrfs inotify-tools

yay -S snap-pac

sudo umount /.snapshots
sudo rm -rf /.snapshots
sudo snapper -c root create-config /
sudo btrfs subvolume delete /.snapshots
sudo mkdir /.snapshots
sudo mount -a
sudo chmod 750 /.snapshots

sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-timeline.timer
sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-cleanup.timer

sudo systemctl enable --now grub-btrfsd.service
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Test:

sudo pacman -S cowsay
sudo snapper -c root list

Rollback:

sudo snapper rollback <snapshot-number>

Optional GUI:

yay -S btrfs-assistant

Quick Reference

| Task | Command | |---|---| | List snapshots | sudo snapper -c root list | | Create manual snapshot | sudo snapper -c root create -d "description" | | Roll back to a snapshot | sudo snapper rollback <number> | | Delete a snapshot | sudo snapper -c root delete <number> | | Rebuild GRUB snapshot menu | sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg |