Post-installation checks

Remove the installation USB drive and confirm the machine boots from the target disk.

Update the complete system

sudo pacman -Syu

Do not maintain a partially upgraded Arch-based system.

Kernel, time and mounts

uname -a
timedatectl
findmnt /
findmnt /boot/efi
lsblk -f
swapon --show

Confirm the expected root filesystem, ESP and swap configuration.

Boot entries

On UEFI systems:

efibootmgr -v

For GRUB, inspect generated entries:

grep -E '^menuentry ' /boot/grub/grub.cfg | head

For Limine, systemd-boot, UKI and EFI Stub, verify their generated configuration and EFI files.

Snapshots

On Btrfs:

snapper list
systemctl status snapper-cleanup.timer

When using GRUB, Limine or systemd-boot snapshot integration, also verify that snapshot entries appear in the boot menu.

Graphics and hardware

lspci -k -d ::03xx
nmcli device
systemctl status NetworkManager
systemctl status bluetooth

NVIDIA users should also run:

nvidia-smi

Test internal and external displays, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio, microphone, camera, touchpad, suspend and resume.

Desktop session

Confirm the login session matches the selected desktop or window manager. When several environments are installed, verify the display manager and XDG Portal used by the primary desktop.

Keep diagnostic information

Useful information for bug reports:

journalctl -b
lspci -nnk
lsblk -f
efibootmgr -v

The Calamares log is normally stored in the live session at:

~/.cache/calamares/session.log

Include the image filename, offline or online mode, repository, boot method, partition table, filesystem, desktop and GPU model.

Finally, create an independent backup. Btrfs snapshots do not protect against loss of the physical disk.