How to Install and Remove Software in Manjaro Linux

Brief: This complete beginner’s guide shows you multiple ways to install and remove software in Manjaro Linux.

There are many people who would like to use Linux instead of Windows but are deterred because they believe in Linux myths such as it is difficult to use. This tutorial will try to overcome that error by showing how easy it is to install and remove software on Linux.

You probably already know by now that I love Manjaro Linux, so in this article, I will be focusing on Manjaro. There is a similar article on managing software in Ubuntu that Ubuntu users can follow.

Since Manjaro is based on Arch Linux, this tutorial can also be used for Arch and Arch derivatives. The methods will be listed from easiest to more advanced. It will also include several tricks that I use to make things easier.

For this tutorial, I will be using Manjaro 17.0.2 with both the XFCE and KDE desktop environments. This tutorial also works with other desktop environments.

1.1 Install Software in Manjaro Linux with Pamac

Pacman is the package manager created by the Arch team and used by Manjaro. We will cover it in depth later on. Right now, will focus on Pamac. Pamac is a graphical application created to make Pacman easy to use.

You can either access Pamac by selecting “Add/Remove Software” the menu or by right clicking the icon in the system tray.

Pamac allows you to view software already installed, search for new software by name or by category. You can also search the Arch User Repository (AUR).

Let me explain. There are quite a few applications that have been packaged by the Manjaro team to specifically install on Manjaro. If there is a package you want to install and it’s not available in the Manjaro repositories, you can probably find it in the AUR. The AUR consists of a bunch of scripts to install software on your computer. Often these are beta builds of software or software that haven’t been officially added to the repos.

When you find an application that you want to install, you can view a description by double clicking on it or right clicking and selecting “Details”. To install it you can either right click on it and select “Install” from the search results or click “Install” on the description page. This works whether you are installing from the Manjaro repositories or the AUR.

Your application will not be installed until you click “apply”. You will be prompted to enter your password and after showing you a list of files it will download it will go to work. You can click “Details” to see the terminal output.

Enabling AUR support in Pamac

Using the AUR takes a couple of extra steps in Pamac. Click the hamburger menu in the upper right corner and select “Preferences”. You will be prompted to enter your password. Now, select the “AUR” tab. Now flip the switch and select the two options. Now, close the setting window. You will be able to install software from the AUR and keep them up-to-date.

1.2 Remove Software in Manjaro Linux with Pamac

Removing software using Pamac is easier than installing it. All you have to do is search for the package that you want to remove. Once you find it, right click and select “Remove”. Hit “Apply” and “Commit” and your program is now uninstalled.

2.1 Install Software in Manjaro Linux with Octopi

Octopi is a Qt based Pacman front end used in KDE and LXQt. Just like Pamac, it can install applications from the Manjaro repositories or the AUR.

 

In order to find an application to install, you can either search for it by name or search for it by a group. You can see a description of each application, as well as, what files are included. Octopi also offers distro new and usage instructions.

Once you find the application you are looking for, right click the name from the list and click “Install”. If you select several applications to install, they will be listed under the “Transactions” tab. When you are ready to install, click the checkmark icon on the left or press Ctrl-M to commit changes.

You will then be prompted to approve the installation process. You can also choose to see the output in the terminal. After you enter your password, your application will be installed.

In order to search for an application in the AUR using Octopi, click on the little green alien to the left of the search box. Once you right click on an application title and select “Install”, you will be taken to the terminal where the install will begin. You will be asked if you want to edit PKGBUILD. Select “no” for this query and “yes” for the rest. Unfortunately, this means you will only be able to install one application at a time from the AUR.

Please note that Octopi does not allow you to install applications from Mnajaro repositories and AUR at the same time.

2.2 Remove Software in Manjaro Linux with Octopi

Uninstalling applications with Octopi is just as easy as Pamac. Search for the application, right click the title from the list and select “Remove”. Once you click “commit”, it will be removed.

3.1 Install Software in Manjaro Linux with Pacman

Graphical applications are easy to use, but terminal or command line programs can be just easier to use while being more powerful and faster.

As I stated in section 1.1, Pacman is the command line package manager for Arch based distros. To install an application, all you have to do is enter sudo pacman -S PACKAGENAME. Just replace PACKAGENAME with the name of the application that you want to install.

You will be prompted to enter your password. Once you enter it, your application will be downloaded and installed.

You can also install a group of packages such a Gnome using this command: sudo pacman -S gnome.

It’s that easy!

3.2 Remove Software in Manjaro Linux with Pacman

Removing software with Pacman is just as easy. All you have to do is enter the following command: sudo pacman -R PACKAGENAME. Just replace PACKAGENAME with the name of the package you want to remove.

3.3 Tips to Improve Pacman Experience

Since it’s a terminal application, Pacman can run pretty quickly, Unfortunately, the process can be slowed down by a bad mirror. (A mirror is one of a number of servers around the world that host of the files that you are downloading.)

You can use this command to rank mirrors by speed and remove out of date mirrors: pacman-mirrors -g. When that is finished you will need to sync the Pacman database with this command: sudo pacman -Syy.

Finally, this command will optimize the database: sudo pacman-optimize && sync. Please note that this last command will defragment the Pacman database, which will make it run quicker, but can cause problems on solid state drives.

4.1 Install Software in Manjaro Linux with yaourt

While you can’t install an application from the AUR using Pacman, there are a number of terminal programs that allow you to do just that. One of the most well-known examples it is yaourt. You can install it by searching Pamac or using this command in the terminal sudo pacman -S yaourt.

Once nice thing about yaourt is that it gives you the ability to search for the application you want to install, all you have to do is use this command: yaourt PACkAGENAME. Don’t forget to replace PACKAGENAME with the name of the application you are looking for.

You will be presented with a list of applications with similar names to choose from. You can select several packages by typing the number for each with space in between and pressing “Enter”.

When you are asked if you want to edit the PKGBUILD, hit “n” because you don’t need to. You will be prompted to enter “y” to continue. You will be prompted to enter your password and asked a couple more questions verifying that you want to install this application.

Depending on how large the file is and how much work yaourt has to do to prepare the file, the install may be finished quickly or take a while to complete. For example, installing Chrome will take longer than installing

4.2 Remove Software in Manjaro Linux with yaourt

To remove an AUR application with yaourt, just use the following command: yaourt -R PACkAGENAME

How do you add and remove applications?

If you use Manjaro or any other Arch derivative, what is your preferred method for adding and removing applications?

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