Arch-Linux-Install-guide

The complete Arch Linux install guide. Ext4 + grub

Getting started

• Make a bootable flash drive for Arch Linux ISO using Rufus.
• Make sure you are using UEFI and not BIOS booting.

Installation

1. To verify the boot mode, enter the following command:

   ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
   

2. Enable NTP to synchronize system clock

   timedatectl set-ntp true
   

3. Get an overview of your disks and plan your partition scheme

   lsblk
   

   I recommend making partitions for /efi, swap, /root and /home

4. Use a partition utility you are comfortable with, I will be using cfdisk

   cfdisk /dev/sdb
   

5. Setup your partition according to your needs, I will be using the following scheme:

   /dev/sdb1  EFI  300 MB
   /dev/sdb2  SWAP  8 GB
   /dev/sdb3  Root  40 GB
   /dev/sdb4  Home  70 GB
   

   Write changes to disk and exit

6. Format the partitions EFI

   mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdb1
   

   SWAP

   mkswap /dev/sdb2
   

   Root

   mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb3
   

   Home

   mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb4
   

7. Mount your partitions SWAP

   swapon /dev/sdb2
   

   Root

   mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt
   

   Home

   mkdir -p /mnt/home
   
   mount /dev/sdb4 /mnt/home
   

8. Configure mirrors using reflector

   reflector --latest 40 --download-timeout 10 --protocol http,https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
   

Install the Arch base system

1. Synchronize the repositories

   pacman -Sy
   

2. Bootstrap the system

   pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware sudo nano ntfs-3g networkmanager git curl kate dolphin firefox
   

3. Generate the fstab file

   The fstab file can be used to define how disk partitions, various other block devices, or remote file systems should be mounted into the file system.

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

4. Login to the newly created system

   arch-chroot /mnt
   

Configure the system

1. Configure time-zone

   ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata /etc/localtime
   

2. Configure the localization

   nano /etc/locale.gen
   

   Locate and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

   Execute the following command

   locale-gen
   

   Set default localization

   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   

3. Configure the Hostname Enter your hostname in the /etc/hostname file

   Arch
   

   Configure the hosts file Open /etc/hosts file

   127.0.0.1  localhost
   ::1        localhost
   127.0.1.1  Arch
   

4. Enable the NetworkManager service

   systemctl enable NetworkManager
   

5. Make your user

   useradd -m -G wheel tejas
   

   Setup user password

   passwd tejas
   

6. Enable sudo privileges for your user by editiing the /etc/sudoers file Locate and uncomment the following line:

   # %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
   

7. Install the system specific microcode

   # for amd processors
   pacman -S amd-ucode
   
   # for intel processors
   pacman -S intel-ucode
   

8. Install and configure the bootloader We will be using GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) If you have a dual boot system you will also need os-prober to detect other OS bootloader

   pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober
   

   If your EFI partition and Microsoft EFI are on different partitions you will need to add it manually to GRUB we will do it later

9. Make and mount the /boot/efi partition

   mkdir /boot/efi
   

   mount /dev/sdb1 /boot/efi
   

10. Install GRUB

    grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=Arch
    

11. If you're installing alongside other operating systems, you'll have to enable os-prober before generating the configuration file. To do so, open the /etc/default/grub file in nano text editor. Locate the following line and uncomment it:

    #GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
    

    Now execute the following command to generate the configuration file:

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

Final steps

You have installed the base system but we still need the Display server and graphics driver for using the operating system.

1. Install the Xorg server

   pacman -S xorg-server
   

2. Install the graphic driver/s

   # for nvidia graphics processing unit
   pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils
   
   # for amd discrete and integrated graphics processing unit
   pacman -S xf86-video-amdgpu
   
   # for intel integrated graphics processing unit
   pacman -S xf86-video-intel
   

3. Install the Desktop Environment You can choose either GNOME or KDE GNOME:

   pacman -S gnome
   

   Enable the desktop environment

   systemctl enable gdm
   

   KDE:

   pacman -S plasma
   

   Enable the desktop environment

   systemctl enable sddm
   

You have finally installed your system now we will unmount and reboot into your shiny new Arch Linux Desktop

Exit the arch-chroot environment:

exit

Unmount the root partition

umount -R /mnt

Now reboot the machine

reboot

Adding your Windows boot entry to GRUB

In your favorite terminal enter:

sudo fdisk -l

You should get a long return that includes something like this:

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1        2048     206847     204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sdb2      206848     239615      32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdb3      239616  268675071  268435456   128G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb4   268675072 1679302655 1410627584 672.6G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb5  1951934464 1953521663    1587200   775M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb6  1679302656 1679917055     614400   300M EFI System
/dev/sdb7  1679917056 1696694271   16777216     8G Linux swap
/dev/sdb8  1696694272 1801551871  104857600    50G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb9  1801551872 1951934463  150382592  71.7G Linux filesystem

Get the UUID of the EFI partition sudo blkid /dev/sdb1 #(replace sdb1 with the correct partition for you)

Return:

/dev/sdb1: UUID="4E18-B936" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="a794f5d7-beb1-4455-bd6a-74a122d6ab90"

Grant yourself write permission to the '40_custom' file in /etc/grub.d

Open the terminal (ctrl+alt+t) and run the following commands: cd /etc/grub.d sudo chmod o+w 40_custom

Open the 40_custom file sudo nano ./40_custom

Write the following at the bottom of the file and replace 4E18-B936 with the correct UUID:

menuentry 'Windows 11' {
    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root 4E18-B936
    chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

Save the file and close the editor.

Back in the terminal, remove write permissions. sudo chmod o-w 40_custom

Update GRUB using grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

(Optional) You can confirm that your change was successful by going to /boot/grub/grub.cfg and checking lines 243-251. It should reflect your edits in the 40_custom file

Reboot your computer reboot

Configuring makepkg.conf

makepkg can take a lot of time for AUR package installation if it compresses the image before installing as compression is only required of you are going to upload it to AUR

sudo nano /etc/makepkg.conf

PKGEXT='.pkg.tar.xz' to

PKGEXT='.pkg.tar'

Enable nano syntax highlighting

cat /usr/share/nano/sh.nanorc >> ~/.nanorc

Enter

ls /usr/share/nano/extra

to check out more nano syntax configuration for various languages.