After install ArchLinux and awesome, in console, run following as root:

pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies variety networkmanager network-manager-applet xfce4-notifyd gnome-keyring
systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl start NetworkManager

Without gnome-keyring, you can find wireless hot-point, but you will disconnecting from it immediately.

Add "exec startxfce4" in ~/.xinitrc. Then run "startx" in console.

Dell PC

Video

You need install video drivers and fonts for this DELL PC.

Firstly, use lspci|grep VGA to get video driver information, for example, for "Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller", you need to install "xf86-video-intel", see Intel Graphics on Arch Wiki.

Font

Use "dajavu" to make font in Xfce desktop nicer, the second make system display Chinese character properly.

pacman -S ttf-dejavu adobe-source-han-sans-otc-fonts
// or adobe-source-han-sans-cn-fonts for only Chinese character
pacman -S ttf-ubuntu-font-family
// good-looking fonts for Variety: Ubuntu Condensed

Time

# timedatectl status
# timedatectl list-timezones
# timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Hong_Kong

Web browser

# pacman -S firefox    // chromium can't display Chinese character properly

Other

# pacman -S git openssh

Input Method

# pacman -S fcitx-im fcitx-configtool fcitx-googlepinyin fcitx-libpinyin

Search "archlinux fcitx" on Arch Wiki for installation details.

For now fcitx is much better than ibus.

# pacman -S ibus-libpinyin
# su - chad
$ ibus-setup

Then select "Chinese - Intelligent Pinyin" under "Input Method" tab, and click "Preferences" to customize it. The package "ibus-sunpinyin" is OK, too. "ibus-pinyin" can't work properly. "ibus-rime" can only input traditional Chinese.

Ref:

Xfce Installation on ArchWiki NetworkManager on ArchWiki