Manjaro Linux: Installation and Setup Guide 2026

Tested on: Manjaro Linux 24 KDE Plasma · GNOME · XFCE — Last updated: June 2026

Manjaro takes Arch Linux's rolling-release model and 90,000+ package AUR ecosystem and wraps it in a graphical installer, automatic hardware detection, and pre-configured desktops. You get cutting-edge software and full pacman access without the multi-hour manual Arch install. This guide covers everything from ISO to a fully configured, driver-ready system.

Prerequisites

• 64-bit x86 CPU (2010 or newer)
• 4 GB RAM minimum, 8 GB recommended
• 30 GB free disk space minimum (60 GB recommended)
• USB drive, 4 GB or larger, for the installer
• Stable internet connection for post-install updates
• UEFI or legacy BIOS — Manjaro handles both

Manjaro Overview

• Based on: Arch Linux (rolling release)
• Package manager: pacman + pamac (GUI/CLI wrapper)
• Package format: .pkg.tar.zst
• Repositories: Arch repos + Manjaro repos + AUR (90,000+ packages)
• Official desktops: KDE Plasma 6, GNOME 46, XFCE 4.18
• Release model: Rolling release — no reinstalls, continuous updates
• Hardware tooling: MHWD auto-detects GPUs, installs drivers, manages kernels

Manjaro vs Arch Linux

The ~2-week package delay is intentional. Manjaro's team holds packages in an unstable branch, promotes them to testing, then to stable. This catches regressions before they reach most users. If you need the absolute latest packages or want to learn Arch internals, use Arch directly. If you want a working desktop today with AUR access and don't want to maintain everything manually, Manjaro is the right choice.

Choose Your Edition

KDE Plasma is the recommended starting point — it has the most configuration options, good performance, and the Manjaro team puts the most work into it. XFCE is the right pick for machines under 4 GB RAM.

Download and Write the ISO

Download from manjaro.org/download. Verify the checksum before writing — a corrupted ISO will produce a broken install with no obvious error.

# Verify SHA256 (compare against the checksum published on the download page):
sha256sum manjaro-kde-24.2-x86_64.iso

# Find your USB device — look for your drive's size, e.g. /dev/sdb:
lsblk

# Write the ISO (replace sdX with your actual device, NOT a partition like sdb1):
sudo dd bs=4M if=manjaro-kde-24.2-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress conv=fsync

# Wait for dd to finish fully — the prompt returns when done.
# On macOS, use /dev/rdiskX (raw disk) for faster writes.

Alternatively, use Ventoy — copy the ISO to a Ventoy USB and boot it directly. Ventoy lets you keep multiple ISOs on one drive and is useful when testing distros.

Installation with Calamares

Boot from USB. On the live boot screen, select your language and driver mode — choose proprietary drivers if you have an NVIDIA GPU. Once the desktop loads, try your hardware before committing: test Wi-Fi, audio, and display output. Then launch the installer from the desktop shortcut.

1. Location — set timezone; this also sets the system clock
2. Keyboard — test your layout in the text field before continuing
3. Partitioning — see options below
4. Users — set username, password, hostname; decide whether root uses the same password
5. Summary — review everything, especially partition changes
6. Install — 10–20 minutes depending on disk speed
7. Reboot — remove USB when prompted

Partitioning Options

Erase disk — simplest option, Calamares handles everything. Installs a 512 MB EFI partition (UEFI) or 1 MB BIOS boot partition (legacy), plus root and optional swap.

Manual partitioning (dual boot or custom layout):

For dual boot with Windows, shrink the Windows partition first from within Windows (Disk Management → Shrink Volume). Never resize a Windows NTFS partition from Linux during live install — it risks data loss if Windows has pending updates.

Post-Installation Setup

The first thing to do after rebooting into a fresh install is update the package database and all packages. Manjaro's staged updates mean your ISO might be weeks behind current stable.

# Full system update — run this first, before installing anything else:
sudo pacman -Syu

# Essential development tools and utilities:
sudo pacman -S --needed 
  git vim curl wget 
  htop btop neofetch 
  base-devel          # required for building AUR packages

# Multimedia codecs (for video/audio playback in browsers and media players):
sudo pacman -S gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good 
               gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav

# Flatpak support (optional — adds access to sandboxed Flathub apps):
sudo pacman -S flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

# Add a swapfile if you skipped swap during install (adjust size to match your RAM):
sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

# Make it persistent across reboots:
echo '/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

# Verify:
free -h

Package Management with pacman

pacman is Manjaro's (and Arch's) core package manager. It's fast, simple, and deterministic. Learn these operations — pamac is a convenience wrapper, but pacman is what actually runs under the hood.

# Sync database and upgrade all packages:
sudo pacman -Syu

# Install a package:
sudo pacman -S firefox

# Install multiple packages at once:
sudo pacman -S vim git curl htop

# Remove package (keeps config files and orphaned deps):
sudo pacman -R firefox

# Remove package and its unneeded dependencies:
sudo pacman -Rs firefox

# Remove package, dependencies, and config files (cleanest removal):
sudo pacman -Rns firefox

# Search the online repos:
pacman -Ss "text editor"

# Search only installed packages:
pacman -Qs vim

# Show detailed package info (online):
pacman -Si firefox

# Show info for installed package:
pacman -Qi firefox

# List all explicitly installed packages (not pulled in as deps):
pacman -Qe

# Find which package owns a file:
pacman -Qo /usr/bin/git

# List orphaned packages (installed as deps, no longer needed):
pacman -Qdt

# Remove all orphans:
sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

# Clean package cache — keep last 3 versions of each package:
sudo paccache -r

# Remove all cached packages except currently installed versions:
sudo pacman -Sc

pamac: Manjaro's Package Manager

pamac wraps pacman, adds AUR support, Flatpak integration, and both a GUI and CLI interface. It handles AUR package builds automatically without needing to clone repos manually.

# Search (searches repos and AUR simultaneously):
pamac search visual-studio-code

# Install from official repos:
pamac install firefox

# Build and install an AUR package:
pamac build google-chrome

# Update everything — official repos and all installed AUR packages:
pamac upgrade

# Remove a package:
pamac remove firefox

# Check for orphaned packages:
pamac list --orphans

Enable AUR support in pamac if it's not already active:

# Via command line:
sudo sed -i 's/#EnableAUR/EnableAUR/' /etc/pamac.conf

# Verify the change:
grep EnableAUR /etc/pamac.conf

# /etc/pamac.conf — relevant AUR settings:
EnableAUR
CheckAURUpdates
KeepBuiltPkgs

You can also enable AUR from the GUI: Add/Remove Software → Preferences (hamburger menu) → Third Party → Enable AUR support.

Using the AUR

The Arch User Repository contains community-maintained PKGBUILDs — build scripts that download source or pre-built binaries and package them for pacman. Almost any software you need that isn't in the official repos will be here: proprietary apps like Google Chrome, Slack, Zoom, development tools, fonts, and game launchers.

# Common AUR packages — install via pamac build:
pamac build google-chrome
pamac build visual-studio-code-bin   # Microsoft's VS Code with telemetry
pamac build code-oss                  # open-source VS Code build, no telemetry
pamac build zoom
pamac build slack-desktop
pamac build discord
pamac build heroic-games-launcher-bin  # Epic + GOG games on Linux

To understand what pamac does automatically, here is the manual AUR workflow — always review the PKGBUILD before building:

# Manual AUR package install (example: yay AUR helper):
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay

# ALWAYS read the PKGBUILD — it's a shell script that runs as your user:
cat PKGBUILD

# Build and install:
makepkg -si

# yay usage — nearly identical to pacman syntax:
yay -S google-chrome
yay -Syu        # updates repos and all AUR packages
yay -Ss zoom    # search including AUR

Security note: AUR packages are community-maintained. Anyone can submit one. Always read the PKGBUILD, check the comment section on the AUR package page, and prefer -bin packages from official vendor sources (e.g., google-chrome pulls directly from Google's servers) over builds that compile unreviewed source.

Kernel Management

Manjaro ships the mhwd-kernel tool to install, switch, and remove kernels without touching GRUB manually. Always keep at least two kernels installed