Ultimate Idiot-Proof Guide: Setting Up GPT4All on Arch Linux w/ custom model input

Here is a simple, basic, beginner friendly way to begin creating some customer local GPT's on Linux. In this case we're creating a model to mimic Orion's Guard article style.

We're using the Flatpak version via Discover KDE Plasma store (easiest for Arch), Mistral Instruct model, clean wget downloads, pandoc for TXT conversion, and Flatseal for permissions.

Result: A local AI that "reads" ~15 Orion's Guard articles (cybersecurity/privacy blog, geeky tone) and spits out similar ones.

All offline after setup. Takes ~15 minutes total.

Prerequisites:

• Arch Linux updated (sudo pacman -Syu).
• Internet for downloads (then offline).
• 10-20 GB free space.
• wget, GPT4All, pandoc

Step 1: Install GPT4All via Discover (Flatpak—Super Easy)

1. Open Discover (search in menu or run plasma-discover).
2. Search for "GPT4All".
3. Click Install

Step 2: Download and Load the Mistral Instruct Model

1. In GPT4All window, click "Models" (left sidebar or top menu).
2. Look for Mistral Instruct (or other models as you wish)
3. Click Download
4. Back in main chat: Select "Mistral' from model dropdown > Load Model.
   • Test: Type "Hello!" and Enter. Response? Good to go.

Step 3: Download Orion's Guard Articles with Wget

• Takes 2-5 minutes (~50-100MB). Outputs folders like orionsguard.com/secure-note-taking-apps/index.html.
• Your path now: ~/orionsguard/orionsguard.com/ with ~15 HTML article files.

Install wget:

sudo pacman -S wget

Create base folder:

mkdir ~/orionsguard
cd ~/orionsguard

Run the mirror command in your terminal (downloads full content):

wget --mirror --convert-links --adjust-extension --page-requisites --no-parent https://orionsguard.com/

Verify:

ls ~/orionsguard/orionsguard.com/  # See index.html, article folders
firefox ~/orionsguard/orionsguard.com/secure-note-taking-apps/index.html  # Open one to check text

Step 4: Convert HTML to Clean TXT Files with PandocLocalDocs

• Creates ~15 .txt files (e.g., secure-note-taking-apps.txt) with just the good stuff: headers, paragraphs, lists.

Install pandoc:

sudo pacman -S pandoc

Create TXT output folder:

mkdir ~/orionsguard-text
cd ~/orionsguard/orionsguard.com/

Run this conversion script (one copy-paste—handles all articles):

for htmlfile in $(find . -name "*.html" -not -path "./*/*/*"); do
  dir=$(dirname "$htmlfile")
  slug=$(basename "$dir")
  if [ "$slug" != "." ]; then
    pandoc "$htmlfile" -f html -t plain -o ~/orionsguard-text/"$slug".txt --wrap=none
    echo "Converted: $slug.txt"
  fi
done

Verify:

ls ~/orionsguard-text/  # List TXT files
head ~/orionsguard-text/secure-note-taking-apps.txt  # See clean text like "Secure Note Taking Apps\n\nIn a world..."

Step 5: Fix Flatpak Permissions with Flatseal & Load into LocalDocsFlatpak sandboxes GPT4All, so it needs home access for folders.

1. Install and run flatseal, find "GPT4All" in the list.
2. Under Filesystem, toggle "All user files" or "home" to ON (allows ~/orionsguard-text access).
3. Restart GPT4All.
4. In GPT4All:
   • Click LocalDocs (sidebar or gear > LocalDocs tab).
   • Create New Collection: Name "orionsguard".
   • Add Folder: Browse to ~/orionsguard-text (select the TXT folder).
   • Click Index (1-2 minutes). Should show "15 files—~10,000 words". Toggle ON > READY!

Step 6: Chat with LocalDocs Enabled (Style-Mimicking Time)

1. Go to Chats tab (main window).
2. Select "Mistral" from model dropdown.
3. Top-right corner: Click LocalDocs icon > Check "orionsguard" (enables it—green glow).
   • Hit Enter. Response should cite sources (e.g., "[secure-note-taking-apps.txt]: ProtonMail's E2EE...") proving it's using your docs.
4. Refine: Add "Cite sources from docs" to prompts for verification.

Prompt example (to generate in their geeky, privacy-focused style):

Using examples from the Orion's Guard articles in LocalDocs, write a 700-word guide on "secure email alternatives in 2025" in their style: list-based, practical breakdowns, warnings about big tech surveillance.