Manjaro is a fantastic way to get a fully-featured Linux desktop up and running in minutes. Its graphical installer, sensible defaults, and curated package selection making it a great choice for both newcomers and power users. However, over time, I found that Manjaro’s repositories lagged behind Arch, and—at least for the XFCE flavor—stability was not what I expected. I wanted to keep my working setup, but move to a system that is easier and more stable to maintain: pure Arch Linux.
Installing Manjaro Linux with system-wide encryption and a modern Btrfs filesystem can significantly enhance your system’s security and functionality. However, the default GRUB configuration doesn’t account for non-US keymaps at boot, potentially causing headaches when entering your encryption password. This guide walks you through setting up encryption, replacing GRUB with Systemd-boot, and configuring Secure Boot for increased security (and cooliness 😁).