Getting Started with AUR

(Archlinux User Repository)

First, make sure sudo is installed and configured:

# pacman -S sudo

Edit the sudoers file:

# visudo

and un-comment this line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Next we need to install base-devel:

pacman -S --needed base-devel

You’re more than likely on a 64 bit system and some applications will need multilib enabled so do it now:

Uncomment the [multilib] section in /etc/pacman.conf (Please be sure to uncomment both lines):
[multilib]

Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Then upgrade the system.
# pacman -Syu

So now you should be good to go for installing applications for AUR. I’ll walk you though the process. We will use spacefm as an example, (not implying that spacefm is something you need, it is only an example for demonstration purposes):

Download the “Snapshot” from https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/spacefm/
(“Download snapshot” is near the top o the right and is a clickable link.)
It will probably end up in Downloads, right? So open a terminal and:
cd Downloads
tar xvf spacefm.tar.gz
cd spacefm/
makepkg -sri

Just follow the prompts, it will install the package spacefm and any dependencies it needs, (eventually, you will be asked to supply your user’s password – the commands for installing AUR packages are executed as user, as long as sudo is installed and cofigured properly the package will be installed.)