karbs/guides/archinstallation.md

Arch Linux Installation Guide

• Pre-installation
  • Update the system clock
  • Partition the disks
    • Example layout
  • Format the partitions
  • Mount the file systems
    • Flag explanation
• Installation
  • Install essential packages
• Configure the system
  • Fstab
  • Chroot
  • Time zone
  • Localization
  • Variations
  • Boot loader
    • For BIOS systems
    • For UEFI systems
  • Root password
  • Add user(s)
  • Configure sudo
  • Package manager
  • Network configuration
  • Reboot the system
• Post-installation configuration
  • Desktop Environment
  • Display Login Manager
    • KDE
    • GNOME
  • Wi-Fi
  • Optional
    • Reflector
    • Paru

Pre-installation

Update the system clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

Partition the disks

Partition your hard drive with cfdisk.
It can be sda, sdb, sdc, nvme0n1 or other drive names.

cfdisk /dev/sdx

Chose dos if available.

Example layout

• boot - 256M
• swap - (optional, recommended size is the size of RAM or half of it)
• root - 30GB (10GB for root in VM will be enough, but on physical hardware 30GB-50GB is recommended)
• home - rest of the drive

Format the partitions

mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sdx1           # boot partition
fatlabel /dev/vda1 boot

mkswap -L swap /dev/sdx2           # swap partition, if created
mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/sdx3        # root partition
mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/sdx4        # home partition

You can replace ext4 with btrfs.

Mount the file systems

mount -L root /mnt
mount -Lm boot /mnt/boot
mount -Lm home /mnt/home
swapon /dev/sdx2

Flag explanation

• -L, --label - Mount the partition that has the specified label.
• -m, --mkdir - Allow to make a target directory (mountpoint) if it does not exist yet.

Mount additional drives/partitions if exist and needed with:

mount /dev/sdy /mnt/exampleFolder

Installation

Install essential packages

Use the pacstrap script to install the base package, Linux kernel and firmware for common hardware:

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware

Configure the system

Fstab

Generate an fstab file:

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot

Change root into the new system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Time zone

Set the time zone:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Run hwclock to generate /etc/adjtime:

hwclock --systohc

Localization

Install any text editor (vim, nano) of your choice.

pacman -S vim

Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales.

vim /etc/locale.gen

Generate the locales by running:

locale-gen

Create the locale.conf file, and set the LANG variables accordingly:

vim /etc/locale.conf

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Variations

If you want to specify which time, number, etc. formats to use, you can do so using the following variables:

• LANG
• LANGUAGE
• LC_ADDRESS
• LC_COLLATE
• LC_CTYPE
• LC_IDENTIFICATION
• LC_MEASUREMENT
• LC_MESSAGES
• LC_MONETARY
• LC_NAME
• LC_NUMERIC
• LC_PAPER
• LC_TELEPHONE
• LC_TIME

For example:

LC_ADDRESS=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=lv_LV.UTF-8
LC_TIME=lv_LV.UTF-8

Boot loader

First install grub and os-prober (to detect other operating systems installed):

pacman -S grub os-prober efibootmgr

If ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars lists files, you have a UEFI system.

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Install grub:

For BIOS systems

grub-install --recheck /dev/sdx

For UEFI systems

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub

To enable os-prober uncomment GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false in /etc/default/grub file: To enable os-prober, GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false in /etc/default/grub:

vim /etc/default/grub

Must be at the end of the file.

Make config

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Root password

Set the root password:

passwd

Add user(s)

Create a regular user and password. Replace username with your desired username.

useradd -mG username wheel
passwd username

Configure sudo

Uncomment %whell ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL or %whell ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL for no password option:

vim /etc/sudoers

Package manager

Enable several handy features of pacman package manager:

vim /etc/pacman.conf

Uncomment/add the following lines:

Color                             # Automatically enable colors only when pacman’s output is on a tty.
VerbosePkgLists                   # Displays name, version and size of target packages formatted as a table for upgrade, sync and remove operations.
ParallelDownloads = 12            # Specifies number of concurrent download streams. The value needs to be a positive integer. The number of CPU threads on your computer is recommended.
ILoveCandy                        # Otherwise what is the point of using Arch Linux at all?

[multilib]                        # Enable 32bit repository (required by steam)
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Network configuration

Create the hostname file and enter machine name. Replace myhostname with a name that will be seen by other devices on the same network.

vim /etc/hostname

myhostname

Add matching entries to hosts:

vim /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   localhost
::1         localhost
127.0.1.1   myhostname.localdomain myhostname

If the system has a permanent IP address, it should be used instead of 127.0.1.1.

Install and enable networkmanager and/or bluez:

pacman -Syu networkmanager bluez wget git
systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl enable bluetooth

Reboot the system

exit                # exit chroot environment
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Post-installation configuration

Once shutdown is complete, remove your installation media. If all went well, you should boot into your new system. Log in as your root to complete the post-installation configuration. See Arch linux's general recommendations for system management directions and post-installation tutorials.

Desktop Environment

Install your favorite desktop environment, for example KDE, GNOME or other:

pacman -S plasma kde-applications

pacman -S gnome

Display Login Manager

Enable login manager at launch.

KDE

sudo systemctl enable sddm
sudo systemctl start sddm

GNOME

sudo systemctl enable gdm
sudo systemctl start gdm

Wi-Fi

To connect to Wi-Fi run:

nmcli dev wifi list               # list all available networks
nmcli dev wifi -a connect "name"  # connect to network

Optional

Reflector

Install reflector for better Arch Linux mirror setup:

sudo pacman -S reflector
sudo reflector --sort rate --protocol https --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist --latest 200

Configure reflector to run on startup:

sudo systemctl start reflector.timer
sudo systemctl enable reflector.timer
sudo vim /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf

Uncomment/add the following lines:

--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
--protocol https
--sort rate
--latest 200

Paru

Install paru - AUR helper:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru-bin
cd paru-bin
makepkg -si