As a way for me to practice shell scripting, I've created two scripts to automate Arch Linux setup for end users and schools. This script automates wine installation (gaming), chaotic AUR, minecraft, and many more. You may use this script for any purpose, and you may redistribute/modify it to suit you or your organization.
For end users:
git clone https://github.com/Mistreaper/strap-scripts
cd strap-scripts
chmod +x strap-user.sh && ./strap-user.sh
For computer labs in schools (education edition)
git clone https://github.com/Mistreaper/strap-scripts
cd strap-scripts
chmod +x strap-education-edition.sh && ./strap-education-edition.sh
yay, AUR, and chaotic-aur: So basically, in Arch Linux you have two types of software repositories: the official ones and the AUR (Arch User Repository). The official repositories contain the most popular software, and you install .pkg.tar.zst files into /var/cache/pacman/pkg or somewhere else specified in /etc/pacman.conf.
You can specify custom repositories in /etc/pacman.conf, but the AUR is special; you upload PKGBUILDS instead of .pkg.tar.zst files. The file is used to create a .pkg.tar.zst file, which is then installed into your system.
PKGBUILDS are a great way to distribute software, and it is one of the many features of pacman and Arch Linux that makes it great. The "manual" way to install it is like this:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/$PKGNAME.git
cd $PKGNAME
makepkg -si
But, with yay, you can just run yay -S $PKGNAME or even query the database with yay -Ss $PKGNAME. The tool will search the pacman repos first before searching the AUR.
What is the Chaotic AUR?
The Chaotic AUR is a pacman repository where you can install precompiled AUR binaries. This is useful for installing software that you don't want to compile yourself.
The Chaotic AUR distributes binaries in .pkg.tar.zst, and you can use pacman to install from the Chaotic AUR.
Websites: [
wine-staging and lutris: Windows compatibility layer + frontend.
opera-ffmpeg-codecs: These are proprietary codecs, not installed automatically when installing the opera package
steam: You know this.
minecraft-launcher: Minecraft is a sandbox game created by Mojang. Note that you need to buy a Minecraft account and migrate it to Microsoft to play the game.
polymc: This is a better Minecraft launcher that allows you to have several instances with different mods and texture packs.
fcitx5 and others: This is for Chinese/Korean/Japanese input.
blender and krita: Blender is a FOSS 3D modelling software, and Krita is a FOSS art software.
unityhub: Unity Hub, for game development. godot is also a game engine, but it's FOSS.
visual-studio-code-bin: This is a great text editor that can be turned into an IDE when you install several extensions. It also has an integrated terminal. If you don't want Microsoft telemetry and GitHub, get vscodium instead.
proton-ge-custom-bin: This is a version of Steam's Proton (compatibility layer), some games work better with it.
grapejuice-git: This is grapejuice, a launcher for Roblox wine.
veyon: FOSS software for classroom control in computer labs.
kolibri: You can use this to download teaching resources.
fritzing and librecad: These are software for Computer Aided Design (CAD). Useful for teaching computers and how they work.
scratch3-bin: Block-based programming, useful for learning algorithm before stepping into Python or other text-based languages.
ktouch: This is a touch typing tutor for noobs and experienced touch typers made by KDE.