TOOL » LINUX » ARCH

Install

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Reference:wiki.archlinux.org

Preparation ​

INFO

This installation guide is customized to my needs.

Enable japanese keyboard.

shell
loadkeys jp106

Check if boot mode is UEFI.

shell
ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Ensure system clock is accurate.

shell
timedatectl set-ntp true
timedatectl status  # Check

TIP

To connect to a Wifi, use iwd.

Installation ​

Partition the disks ​

Get a list of available disks.

shell
parted -l  # OR lsblk -f

Start partitioning the desired disk. I prefer using parted.

shell
parted /dev/nvme0n1  # fdisk /dev/nvme0n1

TIP

Don't worry too much about filling the correct fstype in parted (fat12 does not exist, use fat32 and it still works).

Here some partition tables I've used:

txt
Number  Start   End     Size    File system       Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB   537MB   fat32             EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      538MB   34.2GB  33.6GB                    SWAP Partition        swap
 3      34.2GB  1000GB  966GB   ext4              Root Partition

------------------------------------------------------

NAME        FSTYPE      FSVER LABEL   SIZE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1                             931.5G
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat        FAT32 EFI     500M /efi
├─nvme0n1p2 swap        1     swap     32G [SWAP]
└─nvme0n1p3 ext4        1.0   root    899G /
txt
Number  Start   End     Size    File system       Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                    EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      3146kB  17.2GB  17.2GB                    SWAP Partition
 3      17.2GB  51.5GB  34.4GB  ext4              Root Partition
 4      51.5GB  1000GB  949GB                     Home Partition

------------------------------------------------------

NAME        FSTYPE      FSVER LABEL   SIZE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1                             931.5G
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat        FAT12 EFI       2M /efi
├─nvme0n1p2 crypto_LUKS 2     swap     16G
│ └─encSwap swap        1              16G [SWAP]
├─nvme0n1p3 ext4        1.0   root     32G /
└─nvme0n1p4 crypto_LUKS 2     home  883.5G
  └─encHome ext4        1.0         883.5G /home

Format the partitions ​

Print the current partitions:

shell
parted -l
lsblk -f

INFO

If encrypting some partitions, check dm-crypt notes.

FilesystemFormat command
UEFImkfs.fat -F32 -nEFI /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swapmkswap -L swap /dev/nvme0n1p2
Ext4mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/nvme0n1p3
NFTSmkfs.ntfs -Q -L data /dev/sdXY

Mount the file system ​

/mnt will become the root of the new system.

Mount the root partition:

shell
mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt

Mount other partitions:

shell
mkdir /mnt/efi && mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/efi
mkdir /mnt/home && mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/home

Install the system ​

To speed up installation, update /etc/pacman.conf by enabling ParallelDownloads and [multilib]

ini
ParallelDownloads = 5

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

To be on the safe side, update GPG keys:

shell
pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring

Now use pacstrap to install the packages into the system.

shell
xargs pacstrap /mnt < media/packages  # If batch installing
pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware $ADD_MORE_HERE
  • base-devel - Development packages
  • networkmanager - Network connection manager and user applications
  • efibootmgr os-prober (grub) - For boot
  • neovim man-db man-pages - Basic tools

Configuration ​

Generate a default fstab file (using the current mount setup as base).

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

Login as root into the new system:

shell
arch-chroot /mnt

Set the time zone:

shell
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Japan /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Uncomment needed locales in /etc/locale.gen:

ini
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8

And run:

shell
locale-gen

Set the keyboard layout in /etc/vconsole.conf:

ini
KEYMAP=jp106

Set the network configuration:

  • Set the hostname in /etc/hostname
  • Add matching entries to /etc/hosts
txt
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1       localhost

Set the root password:

shell
passwd

Setup the boot loader.

Using grub: (requires grub efibootmgr):

shell
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Using UKI: (requires efibootmgr and at least 200M on UEFI partition):

shell
# /etc/kernel/cmdline
root=UUID=1a3448da-b6df-400b-b85e-695cca6eeba1 rw loglevel=3 quiet splash

# /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset
ALL_kver="/boot/vmlinuz-linux"

PRESETS=('default' 'fallback')

default_uki="/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux.efi"
default_options="--splash /usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp"
fallback_uki="/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux-fallback.efi"
fallback_options="-S autodetect"

# Then run on shell
mkdir -p /efi/EFI/Linux
mkinitcpio -p linux
efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --part 1 --label 'Arch Linux' --loader '\EFI\Linux\arch-linux.efi' --unicode

The most basic configuration is done. Now you can exit and reboot.

shell
exit
reboot

Post Install ​

As root ​

  • Configure grub or /etc/kernel/cmdline to support hibernation if going to use it
  • Configure dm-crypt to unlock your partitions if using encryption
  • Double check if /etc/fstab is correct
  • Create and configure the new user
shell
useradd -mG video,lp,wheel mateus
passwd mateus
usermod -s /usr/bin/fish mateus
  • Give sudo permissions to users in wheel (run EDITOR=nvim visudo)
txt
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
  • Give some extra permissions to users in wheel by editing /etc/security/limits.conf, if applicable
ini
#<domain>      <type>  <item>         <value>
@wheel         -       nice           -5
  • Enable some services
shell
systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl enable greetd
systemctl enable paccache.timer

As user ​

Set the language.

shell
localectl set-locale LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8

Import (and trust) your own GPG keys.

shell
gpg -d gpg-master-keys.asc.gpg | gpg --import -
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format short
gpg --edit-key KEYID
> trust

Restore password-store, ssh keys and other very basic stuff.

shell
gpg -d keys.tar.zst.gpg | tar --zstd -x

Git clone repository with linux configuration, and apply configuration:

shell
git clone git@github.com:Yutsuten/linux-config.git ~/.config/linux
cd ~/.config/linux
git submodule update --init
make
sudo make system

Set environment variables:

shell
EDITOR=nvim sudo -e /etc/environment
# Copy contents of ~/.config/linux/system/env_vars

Add setvtrgb to HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, and run sudo mkinitcpio -p linux.

shell
HOOKS=(base udev setvtrgb autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard resume fsck)

Start/enable some user timers:

shell
systemctl --user start/enable wallpaper.timer
systemctl --user start/enable trash.timer

Update pacman mirror list:

shell
curl -s "https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=CN&country=JP&country=TW&protocol=https&ip_version=4&use_mirror_status=on" | \
  sed -e 's/^#Server/Server/' -e '/^#/d' | \
  sudo rankmirrors /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Restore backup:

shell
bkptool -r

Mostly that's it. For now on it's probably easier to continue as we have the basic stuff in place.