How to Install Manjaro Linux

Manjaro sits in a sweet spot: you get Arch Linux's rolling-release freshness and AUR access without manually partitioning drives in a TTY. The Calamares graphical installer handles the hard parts, and Manjaro's own kernel manager lets you switch kernels with a few clicks. This guide walks you through downloading and verifying the ISO, booting the live environment, running the installer, and tightening things up afterward.

Choose Your Edition

Manjaro ships three officially supported desktop environments. Pick one before downloading:

• GNOME — clean, Wayland-first by default since Manjaro 23.x, good for touchpad-heavy laptops.
• KDE Plasma — most configurable, Wayland session available and stable on modern hardware.
• XFCE — lightest on RAM, X11 only for now, ideal for older machines.

All editions use the same Calamares installer and package base, so the steps below apply to every flavor.

Download and Verify the ISO

Always verify what you download. Manjaro publishes SHA256 checksums and GPG signatures on the same page as the ISO.

# Download the ISO and its checksum file (example: KDE edition)
wget https://download.manjaro.org/kde/24.0/manjaro-kde-24.0-240501-linux66.iso
wget https://download.manjaro.org/kde/24.0/manjaro-kde-24.0-240501-linux66.iso.sha256

# Verify the checksum (output should say OK)
sha256sum -c manjaro-kde-24.0-240501-linux66.iso.sha256

The exact filename changes with each release — use the URL from manjaro.org/download. If the checksum fails, re-download; don't install a corrupted image.

Write the ISO to a USB Drive

You need a USB stick of at least 4 GB. This operation destroys all data on the target device.

On Linux

# Identify your USB device first — look for the right size
lsblk

# Write the ISO (replace sdX with your actual device, e.g., sdb — NOT sdb1)
sudo dd if=manjaro-kde-24.0-240501-linux66.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

On Windows or macOS

Use Ventoy (recommended — just copy the ISO onto the Ventoy partition) or Rufus (Windows) or Balena Etcher (cross-platform). Write in DD image mode when Rufus asks.

Boot the Live Environment

Insert the USB, reboot, and enter your firmware's boot menu. On most systems this is F12, F10, Esc, or Del — check your manufacturer's documentation. Select the USB device. If you see a GRUB menu, choose Boot with open source drivers first; switch to proprietary only if the live session fails to display correctly (relevant for NVIDIA cards).

Manjaro boots into a full working desktop. You can browse the web, test hardware, and decide whether everything works before committing to an install.

Run the Calamares Installer

Double-click Install Manjaro on the desktop or find it in the application menu.

Step through the wizard

1. Location & locale — sets timezone and system language. Pick your region on the map.
2. Keyboard layout — test the input field at the bottom before continuing.
3. Partitioning — three choices:
   • Erase disk: simplest; Calamares creates an EFI partition, a swap partition, and a root partition automatically. Fine for a dedicated machine.
   • Replace a partition: useful when shrinking a Windows partition you already resized in Disk Management.
   • Manual partitioning: required for custom layouts like separate /home, LVM, or encryption. Mount /boot/efi as FAT32 (at least 512 MB) and / as ext4 or btrfs.
4. Encrypt your disk — if you chose Erase disk, tick Encrypt system and set a strong passphrase. Calamares sets up LUKS2 automatically. Do not lose this passphrase; there is no recovery path.
5. User account — set a username (lowercase, no spaces) and a strong password. Keep Use the same password for administrator account unchecked if you want a separate root password, though most desktop users leave it checked.
6. Summary — review partition changes before clicking Install. This is your last chance to go back.

Installation takes 5–15 minutes depending on disk speed. When it finishes, remove the USB and reboot.

First Boot and Driver Setup

Manjaro's Hardware Detection (MHWD) runs automatically and installs the best available driver profile. If it picked open-source drivers but you have a recent NVIDIA GPU and want better performance:

# List available driver profiles
sudo mhwd -l -d

# Install proprietary NVIDIA driver (adjust profile name from the list above)
sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300

Reboot after driver installation. For AMD and Intel GPUs the open-source drivers are generally best — don't change them unless you have a specific reason.

Update the System

Manjaro holds packages briefly to test stability, but updates still accumulate. Run a full update before doing anything else:

sudo pacman -Syu

Accept the defaults. If pacman reports conflicting files, read the message carefully — usually you can pass --overwrite for specific paths, but search the Manjaro forum for your exact error first.

Manage Kernels

One of Manjaro's standout features is easy kernel switching through its Kernel Manager (GUI) or the command line.

# List installed and available kernels
mhwd-kernel -l

# Install a Long-Term Support kernel (e.g., 6.6 LTS) alongside the current one
sudo mhwd-kernel -i linux66

Keep at least two kernels installed. If a kernel update breaks something (rare, but possible), you can select the working kernel from the GRUB menu on next boot. The GUI Kernel Manager is at Manjaro Settings Manager → Kernel.

Post-Install Hardening

Enable and configure the firewall

Manjaro ships with ufw available but not enabled by default.

# Install ufw if not present, enable it, and set sensible defaults
sudo pacman -S ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo systemctl enable --now ufw
sudo ufw enable

# Verify status
sudo ufw status verbose

Enable automatic mirror ranking

Pacman mirrors go stale. Use rate-mirrors or the built-in pacman-mirrors to keep fast mirrors at the top:

sudo pacman-mirrors --fasttrack 10 && sudo pacman -Syyu

Enable periodic TRIM for SSDs

sudo systemctl enable --now fstrim.timer

Set up Flatpak or AUR access

Manjaro enables the AUR through pamac (GUI) or by installing an AUR helper. yay is the most popular:

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

Flatpak is pre-installed on most editions; add the Flathub remote if it isn't active:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Verify Everything Works

# Check kernel and OS version
uname -r
cat /etc/os-release

# Check systemd services for failed units
systemctl --failed

# Confirm firewall is active
sudo ufw status

If systemctl --failed returns nothing, your install is healthy. A failed unit usually has a descriptive name — run journalctl -u unit-name to read its log.

Troubleshooting

• Black screen after boot with NVIDIA — reboot, select the GRUB entry, press e, add nouveau.modeset=0 to the kernel line, boot, then install the proprietary driver via mhwd.
• No Wi-Fi in live environment — plug in via Ethernet, boot, then run sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300 if you have a Broadcom card. Intel and most Realtek cards work out of the box.
• Calamares crashes during partitioning — try the manual partitioning mode instead of automatic. Rarely, a pre-existing GPT table issue confuses the auto mode.
• Pacman keyring errors after install — run sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys then retry the update. This happens when system time is badly wrong; check with timedatectl and enable NTP with sudo timedatectl set-ntp true.
• Wayland session crashes on KDE — fall back to X11 at the SDDM login screen (click the session selector). NVIDIA + Wayland requires the proprietary driver version 545 or later.