About

This is my personal guide for a minimal installation of arch linux

Note

I'm newbie in linux so this is so explanatory for me

[[#1. Prerequesites|1. Prerequesites]]
[[#2. Pre-installation|2. Pre-installation]]
- [[#2. Pre-installation#2.1 Prepare Installation medium|2.1 Prepare Installation medium]]
- [[#2. Pre-installation#2.2 Boot the live enviroment|2.2 Boot the live enviroment]]
[[#3. First steps: Basic Stuff|3. First steps: Basic Stuff]]
- [[#3. First steps: Basic Stuff#3.1 Keyboard|3.1 Keyboard]]
- [[#3. First steps: Basic Stuff#3.2 Internet Connection|3.2 Internet Connection]]
- [[#3. First steps: Basic Stuff#3.3 Update system clock|3.3 Update system clock]]
- [[#3. First steps: Basic Stuff#3.4 verify drivers and boot mode|3.4 verify drivers and boot mode]]
[[#4. partition, format and mount your disks|4. partition, format and mount your disks]]
- [[#4. partition, format and mount your disks#4.1 Create your partition scheme|4.1 Create your partition scheme]]
  - [[#4.1 Create your partition scheme#Old Scheme (Windows + arch)|Old Scheme (Windows + arch)]]
  - [[#4.1 Create your partition scheme#New Scheme (Only Arch)|New Scheme (Only Arch)]]
- [[#4. partition, format and mount your disks#4.2 Format|4.2 Format]]
- [[#4. partition, format and mount your disks#4.3 Mount|4.3 Mount]]
[[#5. Install packages|5. Install packages]]
- [[#5. Install packages#5.1 Rank Mirrors|5.1 Rank Mirrors]]
- [[#5. Install packages#5.2 Install base packages|5.2 Install base packages]]
[[#6. Configure the System|6. Configure the System]]
- [[#6. Configure the System#6.1 gen the fstab file|6.1 gen the fstab file]]
- [[#6. Configure the System#6.2 chroot|6.2 chroot]]
- [[#6. Configure the System#6.3 Timezone|6.3 Timezone]]
- [[#6. Configure the System#6.4 set locales|6.4 set locales]]
- [[#6. Configure the System#6.5 manage system users|6.5 manage system users]]
- [[#6. Configure the System#6.6 set the host name (name of your pc)|6.6 set the host name (name of your pc)]]
[[#7. Install bootloader (grub)|7. Install bootloader (grub)]]
- [[#7. Install bootloader (grub)#7.1 for a windows multi-boot system|7.1 for a windows multi-boot system]]
[[#8. Install Graphincs Drivers|8. Install Graphincs Drivers]]
- [[#8. Install Graphincs Drivers#11. Active some services|11. Active some services]]
[[#12. Exit from the installation an reboot|12. Exit from the installation an reboot]]
[[#13. Post installation|13. Post installation]]
- [[#13. Post installation#13.1 display server|13.1 display server]]
- [[#13. Post installation#13.2 Install your desktop enviroment (de) or window manager (wm)|13.2 Install your desktop enviroment (de) or window manager (wm)]]
- [[#13. Post installation#13.3 Additional packages|13.3 Additional packages]]
- [[#13. Post installation#14. Post installation|14. Post installation]]
- [[#13. Post installation#Credits|Credits]]

1. Prerequisites

Disable Secure Boot. It can be enabled after installation
Disable Fast Boot
Disable Hibernation.
If You are dual booting. Check if the EFI or the boot partition of windows is more than 100MB as it may cause problems.

2. Pre-installation

2.1 Prepare Installation medium

Install the Latest Arch-Linux ISO file from Arch (https://archlinux.org/download/)[ISO]
Burn it into a usb
You can use Balena Etcher, Rufus if you are on windows. If you are on Arch read the arch wiki to create an Arch USB USB flash installation medium

2.2 Boot the live environment

Plug the USB into a USB port and go into the BIOS by smashing that F2 or F12 or Del button and change the boot priority so that the Arch USB is on number 1. Save and Exit

3. First steps: Basic Stuff

You will be logged in on the first virtual console as the root user

3.1 Keyboard

Set the keymap

loadkeys es

Set your Keyboard Layout. Example for latin-american-spanish layout

localectl set-keymap la-latin1

3.2 Internet Connection

Ensure your network interface is listed and enabled

ip link

For wireless and WWAN, make sure the card is not blocked with rfkill.
Ethernet—plug in the cable.
Wi-Fi—authenticate to the wireless network using iwctl.

$ iwctl
[iwd]# device list
[iwd]# station device scan
[iwd]# station device get-networks
[iwd]# station device connect SSID
[iwd]# exit

Check if it is connected by pinging a website

ping -c 1 gnu.org

3.3 Update system clock

Example for Colombia

timedatectl set-timezone "America/Bogota"

3.4 verify drivers and boot mode

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size

4. partition, format and mount your disks

4.1 Create your partition scheme

I recommend you to use gparted throughout the gparted distro live usb to partition your disks, especially when you're dealing with multiple os in your pc

other alternative is to partition your disk running cfdisk command

There are many partitions schemes that you can use as reference, you should google for a scheme that fit with your needs. In my case i'm working with the following scheme: (output of lsblk command)

you should check the space for your swap partition accordingly with your hardware specs (google it)

Old Scheme (Windows + arch)

Note

The scheme right below is for dual boot (windows + arch, sdb is and ssd and sda is an hdd)

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0 871.1G  0 part /home
├─sda2   8:2    0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda3   8:3    0  52.4G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   0 223.6G  0 disk
├─sdb1   8:17   0   100M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2   8:18   0    16M  0 part
├─sdb3   8:19   0   223G  0 part
└─sdb4   8:20   0   512M  0 part

where:

sda1 is my /home part
sda2 is my swap part
sda3 is my / (root) partition
sdb1 is the where in installed the grub
Other sdb* partitions are for windows

New Scheme (Only Arch)

Update, I have removed Windows, leaving arch linux as my unique os, the my partitions now looks like this:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
└─sda1   8:1    0 931.5G  0 part /home
sdb      8:16   0 223.6G  0 disk
├─sdb1   8:17   0   100M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2   8:18   0 157.5G  0 part /home/jfmonsa/Desktop/extstorage
├─sdb3   8:19   0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sdb4   8:20   0    50G  0 part /      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk

sda is hhd, sdb is ssd

4.2 Format

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 #for /home
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 #for root ( / )

#swap format
mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2

4.3 Mount

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt #mount root partition
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/home #mount /home partition

If we are in a multiple-os pc , don't format the /boot/efi partition. only mount it

mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot/efi

5. Install packages

5.1 Rank Mirrors

Archlinux uses servers to get the packages we need to install. Having good mirrors means packages install faster as well may prevent packages from out of date due to server being out of sync
Create a backup of your current mirrorlist

cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak

Get the fastest mirrors for you

pacman -Sy
pacman -S pacman-contrib
rankmirrors -n 10 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

5.2 Install base packages

$ pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware linux-headers base-devel  vim git  dhcpcd man

If you need add the following packages

For wireless: networkmanager wpa_supplicant network-manager-applet
For Bluetooth: bluez bluez-utils
For intel CPU: intel-ucode
For amd CPU: amd-ucode

6. Configure the System

6.1 gen the fstab file

generate and fstab file that contains our UUID(house address) of our drives.

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

6.2 chroot

Change the root to your new system run arch-chroot /mnt

6.3 Timezone

#To show all Regions
ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
# To show cities example with canada
$ ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/
# Replace Region with Country and city with city
$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
$ hwclock --systohc

6.4 set locales

vim /etc/locale.gen

search your language and uncomment in my case I uncommented the lines en_US.UTF-8

locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

6.5 manage system users

#set root password
passwd
#create a normal (non-super-user) replace with your preferred user name
useradd -m user_name
ls -l /home
passwd user_name #password for the prev user
usermod -aG wheel user_name #adding user to groups
# is the same as edit sudoers
# Uncomment %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
# Also add     Defaults timestamp_timout=0              // just prompts user to type password again after a long time

visudo

6.6 set the host name (name of your pc)

in my case my hostname is main-pc

echo main-pc > /etc/hostname
cat /etc/hostname

then edit the file /etc/hosts

vim /etc/hosts

add the following lines:

127.0.0.1     localhost
::1           localhost
127.0.1.1     Archfish.localdomain    localhost

7. Install bootloader (grub)

Note

if you're working with a multi-distro pc (several linux distros), dont install the grub, only run grub-update in the other main distro

Note

os-prober only if you are dual booting with windows

pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools mtools os-prober
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
install os-prober

7.1 for a windows multi-boot system

the edit the following file vim /etc/default/grub and uncomment the following line

#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

8. Install Graphincs Drivers

For nvidia: https://github.com/QuantiniumX/Guide-to-install-Arch-Linux/blob/main/Graphics/Nvidia.md

11. Active some services

sudo pacman -S networkmanager wpa_supplicant dhcpcd
systemctl enable dhcpcd.service
systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
# optional
systemctl enable wpa_supplicant.service

12. Exit from the installation an reboot

exit #exit from chroot
umount -lR /mnt
reboot

13. Post installation

13.1 display server

To have a graphical enviroment you must install a display manager, the most common option is xorg, but there is other much interesting project called wayland which is a very new project with little support

to install xorg:

set-keymap la-latin1 # set keyboard again xd

pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring && pacman -Su # solve some isues with pacman

sudo pacman -Syu # update your system
sudo pacman -S xorg-apps xorg-server xorg-xinit

sudo pacman -S gnome gdm #install your display manager, you could use the more customizable lightdm

sudo systemctl enable gdm

13.2 Install your desktop enviroment (de) or window manager (wm)

sudo pacman -S awesome

I'm currently using awesomewm as my wm but you can use whatever you want.

list of de's:

gnome, kde, lxqt, lxde

list's of window managers:

awesomewm (beginners) (hyper-customizable)
qtile (beginners)
bspwm (hyper-customizable)
i3 (hyper-customizable)
sway (i3 for wayland)
xmonad (written in Haskell)
dwm

read this to get an idea of what a wm is

13.3 Additional packages

14. Post installation

See my guide about post installation programs

Credits

I Updated this personal guide base on https://github.com/QuantiniumX/Guide-to-install-Arch-Linux

Files

archInstallGuide.md

Latest commit

History

archInstallGuide.md

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About

Table Of Contents

1. Prerequisites

2. Pre-installation

2.1 Prepare Installation medium

2.2 Boot the live environment

3. First steps: Basic Stuff

3.1 Keyboard

3.2 Internet Connection

3.3 Update system clock

3.4 verify drivers and boot mode

4. partition, format and mount your disks

4.1 Create your partition scheme

Old Scheme (Windows + arch)

New Scheme (Only Arch)

4.2 Format

4.3 Mount

5. Install packages

5.1 Rank Mirrors

5.2 Install base packages

6. Configure the System

6.1 gen the fstab file

6.2 chroot

6.3 Timezone

6.4 set locales

6.5 manage system users

6.6 set the host name (name of your pc)

7. Install bootloader (grub)

7.1 for a windows multi-boot system

8. Install Graphincs Drivers

11. Active some services

12. Exit from the installation an reboot

13. Post installation

13.1 display server

13.2 Install your desktop enviroment (de) or window manager (wm)

13.3 Additional packages

14. Post installation

Credits