UEFI ONLY

arch-linux-full-installation-guide

Check if there is an Internet connection (if on wired)

ip addr show

For WiFi, you can use iwctl

Access the iwd prompt:

iwctl

Obtain a list of Wifi devices in your system:

device list

Take note of the device name for your WiFi device, we’ll need it later.

Note: If you don’t see a Wifi device there, and you’re sure you do have WiFi capability, you shouldn’t proceed any further with installing Arch. You’ll want to check hardware compatibility with your Wifi card and Linux, and then resume installation at a later date.

Scan for wireless access points:

station <device> scan

View a list of detected networks:

station <device> get-networks

Connect to a wireless network:

station <device> connect <wireless-network-name>

Preparing the hard disk (UEFI)

See partitions/drives on the system (find the name of your hard drive)

fdisk -l

== Start the partitioner (fdisk)

fdisk /dev/<DEVICE> (substitute <DEVICE> for your device name, example: /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1)

Show current partitions

p

Create EFI partition

g (to create an empty GPT partition table)
n
enter
enter
+500M
t
1 (for EFI)

Create LVM partition

n
enter
enter
enter
t
enter
43 (for Linux LVM)

Show current partitions again

p

Finalize partition changes

w

Format the EFI partition

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 (or whatever the device name of the first partition is)

Set up lvm

pvcreate --dataalignment 1m /dev/sda2 (or whatever the device name is of the second partition)
vgcreate volgroup0 /dev/sda2 (or whatever the device name is of the second partition)
lvcreate -L 30GB volgroup0 -n lv_root
lvcreate -l 100%FREE volgroup0 -n lv_home (or use something like "-L 250GB" if you want to make the volume size lower)
modprobe dm_mod
vgscan
vgchange -ay

Format the root partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/volgroup0/lv_root

Mount the root partition

mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_root /mnt

Format the home partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/volgroup0/lv_home

Create the home partition mount point

mkdir /mnt/home

Mount the home volume

mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_home /mnt/home

Create the /etc dirctory

mkdir /mnt/etc

Create the /etc/fstab file

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

Check the /etc/fstab file

cat /mnt/etc/fstab

Install Arch Linux

Install Arch Linux base packages

pacstrap -i /mnt base

Access the in-progress Arch installation

arch-chroot /mnt

Install a kernel and headers

pacman -S linux linux-headers

For LTS:

pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers

Or both:

pacman -S linux linux-lts linux-headers linux-lts-headers 

Install a text editor

pacman -S nano

Install optional packages

pacman -S base-devel openssh

Enable OpenSSH if you’ve installed it

systemctl enable sshd

Install packages for networking

pacman -S networkmanager wpa_supplicant wireless_tools netctl

Install dialog (required for wifi-menu)

pacman -S dialog

Enable networkmanager

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Add LVM support

pacman -S lvm2

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

On the “HOOKS” line, add support for lvm2 and optionally encryption.

unencrypted hard disk:

Add “lvm2” in between “block” and “filesystems”

encrypted hard disk:

Add “encrypt lvm2” in between “block” and “filesystems”

It should look similar to the following (don’t copy this line in case they change it, but just add the required new items):

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems keyboard fsck)

Create the initial ramdisk for the main kernel

mkinitcpio -p linux

Create the initial ramdisk for the LTS kernel (if you installed it)

mkinitcpio -p linux-lts

Uncomment the line from the /etc/locale.gen file that corresponds to your locale

nano /etc/locale.gen (uncomment en_US.UTF-8)

Generate the locale

locale-gen

Set the root password

passwd

Create a user for yourself

useradd -m -g users -G wheel <username>

Set your password

 passwd <username>

Install sudo (may already be installed)

pacman -S sudo

Allow users in the ‘wheel’ group to use sudo

EDITOR=nano visudo

#######Uncomment:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Setting up GRUB

GRUB is the bootloader that was used in the video. Follow ONE of the following sections, depending on whether you are using UEFI, encryption, etc

Installing GRUB for UEFI, with no encryption

Install the required packages for GRUB:

pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools os-prober mtools

Create the EFI directory:

mkdir /boot/EFI

Mount the EFI partition:

mount /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 1> /boot/EFI

Install GRUB:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck

Create the locale directory for GRUB

mkdir /boot/grub/locale

Copy the locale file to locale directory

cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo

Generate GRUB’s config file

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

Testing the installation

Check the /etc/fstab file to make sure it includes all the right partitions

cat /etc/fstab

You should have a mountpoint for all of the partitions that were created.

Moment of truth: Reboot your machine

Exit the chroot environment

exit

Unmount everything (some errors are okay here)

umount -a

Reboot the machine

reboot

Post-Install Tweaks/Enhancements

Create swap file

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2048 status=progress
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile

Back up the /etc/fstab file

 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

Add the swap file to the /etc/fstab file

echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | tee -a /etc/fstab

Set time zone

List time zones:

timedatectl list-timezones

Set your time zone:

timedatectl set-timezone America/Detroit

Enable time synchronization via systemd:

systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd

Set the hostname

Consider setting the hostname of your new installation. You can do so with the following command:

hostnamectl set-hostname myhostname

Also, make the same change in /etc/hosts:

nano /etc/hosts

####### Example lines to add:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 (myhostname)

Install CPU Microde files (AMD CPU)

Install CPU Microde files (Intel CPU)

pacman -S intel-ucode

Install Xorg if you plan on having a GUI

pacman -S xorg-server

Install 3D support for Intel or AMD graphics If you have an Intel or AMD GPU, install the mesa package:

pacman -S mesa

Install Nvidia Driver packages if you have an Nvidia GPU

pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils

Note: Install nvidia-lts if you’ve installed the LTS kernel:

pacman -S nvidia-lts

Install Virtualbox guest packages If you’re installing Arch inside a Virtualbox virtual machine, install these packages:

pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils xf86-video-vmware

Installing a Desktop Environment GNOME To install GNOME, install the gnome package:

sudo pacman -S gnome

Also consider installing GNOME Tweaks:

 sudo pacman -S gnome-tweaks

To enable the login screen to appear automatically at boot, run:

sudo systemctl enable gdm

Note: At first login, one or more GNOME apps may fail to start. You might see a spinning circle or equivelant, and then the app never appears. To prevent this situation, you should first open GNOME’s settings, then “Region and Language”, and set your info there