The MATE desktop is lightweight, and very customizable. It definitely fits in very well with the Arch Linux mentality of keeping it simple. In this video, the viewer is shown how to install the MATE desktop on Arch Linux.

Installation Steps

Note: This walkthrough assumes you already have a bootable Arch Linux installation. See the related video, above, if you need a walkthrough on installing Arch Linux.

Verify Internet Access

ip addr show
ping -c 5 www.learnlinux.tv

Connect to Wifi if no Internet Access

wifi-menu

If you get any errors, you may need to stop NetworkManager before using wifi-menu:

sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager

Update Repository Index

sudo pacman -Syyy

Install and enable Lightdm

Install the required packages for lightdm:

sudo pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter

Enable lightdm:

sudo systemctl enable lightdm

Install the MATE desktop

sudo pacman -S mate mate-extra