Install Arch Linux

It’s been a long time since I have been using Arch Linux and loving it since because of its flexibility. In the mean time, I have installed the same OS for many times because I tried new things and crashed a lot of installed things. Literally, thinking about the time to repair, I just re-installed the OS. It just feels quick and easy to clear out all your garbage. However, it’s a pain to setup all those applications and configuration. That’s why I am writing this where I can find the steps I have been following to install and setup my machine my way :).

Okay, let’s start with the installation. Previously, I tried to run a live Ubuntu OS and then install either by the bootstrap image or using the LiveCD Image. But, nowadays, it seems the installing from live arch USB seems to be the easiest and quickest as it skips a lot of steps.

1. Connect to the internet

   • Use ethernet or run wifi-menu command to connect to a WiFi Connection.

   • Check connection:

     ping archlinux.org
     

2. Partition the disks

   • The partitions can be listed from:

     fdisk -l
     

   • Usually, I prefer to prepare the partition before the installation. Still, you can find the steps here to perform the partition actions.

   • Format the partition

     mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
     

3. Mount the file system

   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
   

4. Installation

   • Select and rank the mirrors, ranking the mirrors would help to perform the installation quicker.

     # Backup
     cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup
     # Uncomment every mirror
     sed -i 's/^#Server/Server/' /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup
     # Rank mirrors
     rankmirrors /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
     

   • Install the base packages:

     pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
     

     base-devel is optional, can be installed later.

5. Configure the system

   • Fstab

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

   • Chroot

     arch-chroot /mnt
     

   • Time zone

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

   • Locale Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed localizations in /etc/locale.gen, and generate them with:

     locale-gen
     

     Set the LANG variable in /etc/locale.conf accordingly:

     LANG=en_US.UTF-8
     

     To set the keyboard layout, make the changes persistent in /etc/shell.conf:

     KEYMAP=us
     

   • Hostname Create the hostname file /etc/hostname:

     myhostname
     

     Add matching entries to /etc/hosts:

     127.0.0.1    localhost
     ::1          localhost
     127.0.1.1    myhostname.localdomain  myhostname
     

   • Network configuration

     pacman -S networkmanager dhclient
     

     For wifi:

     pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant dialog
     

   • Initramfs

     mkinitcpio -p linux
     

   • Root password

     passwd
     

   • Boot loader (GRUB - UEFI) Install the package grub and efibootmgr:

     pacman -S grub efibootmgr
     

     Mount EFI partition(/dev/sda3):

     mkir /boot/efi
     mount /dev/sda3 /boot/efi
     

     Install GRUB UEFI to /boot/efi:

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

     Generate the main configuration file:

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

     Note: For NVIDIA card holders, unless you install the nvidia drivers, add modprobe.blacklist=nouveau in /etc/default/grub and re-generate the main configuration file.

     GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet modprobe.blacklist=nouveau"
     

     Remove modprobe.blacklist=nouveau after installing nvidia drivers.

6. Reboot, enjoy.

7. For post-installation steps, refer to Arch Linux post installation.

References

• Installation guide - Arch