Arch Linux Installation
This is a list of the commands I’d run to set up a machine with Arch Linux as of today (25th April 2020).
First of all, create a bootable USB (or CD) based on the ISO downloaded from the main Arch Linux website and boot it up.
Initial steps
Set keyboard layout to UK
loadkeys uk
Connect to the Internet (Ethernet is easier, but Wireless is just as easy) before continuing…
Set timezone and enable NTP
Set the time zone to London and enable NTP for keeping the time/date synchronised.
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/London
timedatectl set-ntp true
Disk setup
Create your disk partition layouts at this point using the preferred disk partition tool (fdisk, cfdisk, parted etc.) but remember that if you’re enabling encryption, create the partitions accordingly.
Remember that I always recommend /home being on a separate partition!
Formatting a partition (assuming ext4 which is most common)
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
or without journaling enabled
mkfs.ext4 -O "^has_journal" /dev/sda1
or with BTRFS instead
mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda1
Formatting the swap partition
mkswap /dev/sda2
Get ready to install (mount drives)
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda4 /home
and if you created a separate /boot partition
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /boot
and finally enable the swap partition
swapon /dev/sda2
Install the basics
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware
Create the fstab file
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Chroot into the installed OS
arch-chroot /mnt
Next steps…
Set the root password - make it secure!
passwd
Set the locale
Edit /etc/locale.gen to uncomment any en_GB entries before generating the locale file
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
echo KEYMAP=uk > /etc/vconsole.conf
Set the hardware clock
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
Name the computer (set up hostname)
echo {name} > /etc/hostname
echo 127.0.1.1 {name}.localdomain {name} >> /etc/hosts
Install zsh (if you prefer it to bash)
pacman -S zsh
Add your everyday user account and set the password
(replace zsh with bash if you skipped the last step)
useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/zsh {username}
passwd {username}
Add user to sudoers (optional)
Replace {editor} with the editor of choice - nano should already be installed.
EDITOR={editor} visudo
Uncomment the line below to allow all users in wheel group to run root commands
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
Create a new initramfs file
Remember to update /etc/mkinitcpio.conf if you’re using an encrypted disk to make sure the correct things are loaded before running the following:
mkinitcpio -P
Set up grub (bootloader)
pacman -S grub
grub-install /dev/sda
If you have any customisations to make to the boot command line, make them in /etc/default/grub now!
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Install any additional utilities, window managers etc.
KDE/Plasma & SDDM
pacman -S plasma sddm
Enable the SDDM service so it’s launched on boot:
systemctl enable sddm
Openbox
This is my choice on low powered machines, and I don’t include a display manager (but you can add one if you like though). Remember that you’ll need to start X yourself with startx.
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-apps openbox obconf lxappearance
Use the example xinitrc file as your base:
cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
edit the file to comment out the last block (starts with twm and includes references to xterm etc.) and then add the following at the bottom:
exec openbox-session
Terminal
Take your pick from konsole (my preferred in KDE), xterm (very simple), sakura (basic with some features).
Network connectivity
You’ll probably need to install some packages to help you get a network connection post-reboot. Here are a few options:
NetworkManager
Should get installed with KDE, but if you’ve opted for something else, needs installing manually:
pacman -S network-manager network-manager-applet
and then the service needs enabling:
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
sudo systemctl start NetworkManager
WPA Supplicant (wifi only)
pacman -S dialog wpa_supplicant
once installed:
sudo wifi-menu
it will save your profile as a network service, view all options:
sudo netctl list
and enable the one you want:
sudo netctl enable {profile_name}
iwd
Install the iwd package from the registry and start it with:
iwctl
At the interactive prompt:
# show the installed wifi adapters
devices list
# scan for networks
station {wlan} scan
# show the networks found in the scan
station {wlan} get-networks
# connect to a network (it will prompt for PSK)
station {wlan} connect {network_name}
I also had to install the dhcp package and then enable the daemon, along with the DNS resolver in systemd:
systemctl enable dhcpd
systemctl enable systemd-resolved
Final steps (and reboot)
Exit from the chroot shell, unmount all partitions and reboot:
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot
Additional packages
There are additional packages that I tend to install after a base install. Some of these are related to software development, some are not.
- Yay (AUR helper, saves a few keypresses for installing packages via AUR)
- nvm (Node Version Manager - this is available on AUR and can be installed with Yay)
- OpenSSH (ssh - because it’s not installed by default)
- Visual Studio Code - I install the MS one from AUR because some plugins that I’ve become pretty used to aren’t in the open repository:
visual-studio-code-bin - docker and docker-compose (both available from official Arch Linux repositories)
- kamoso (camera utility for KDE)
- pulseaudio-equalizer (audio equaliser for pulseaudio - it sets itself up as an additional audio controller, so it affects all audio output)
Fonts
These can be installed from the standard Arch Linux package registry.
- Hack: ttf-hack
- Noto Fonts: noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji noto-fonts-extra
Gotchas
Signature is unknown trust
signature from "{name} <{email}>" is unknown trust
As per the Arch docs here, there are a few possible solutions but I’ve had success with installing the archlinux-keyring package and then doing a pacman update:
sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring
sudo pacman -Su