Arch linux installation¶

Download .iso from https://www.archlinux.org/download Then write the iso to a bootable flash, where X is the flash device identifier. (can be found using lsblk command).

dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/sdX

Reboot computer and boot into the arch stick.

Check for efivars and internet connection.

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
ping archlinux.org

If the efivars returns a list of files instead of an error, you will need to make an EFI partition in later steps.

Format drives¶


fdisk -l
fdisk /dev/sdX

Where X is the drive you want to install the arch to. This will open an interface where you can manage drive partitions, to delete them all - enter the command d a few times.

Create EFI partition (skip if no efivars found)¶

Press n
Select p (primary)
Press enter (1)
Press enter (start at the very start)
Write +550M - this will create a 550M partition

Create boot partition (skip if efivars found)¶

Press n
Select p (primary)
Press enter (2)
Press enter (start at the very start)
Write +200M - this will create a 200M partition

Create SWAP partition¶

Press n
Select p
Enter
Enter
+24G -- 150% of RAM

Create / root partition¶

Later on switched to using root `/` and home `/home` in the same partition because 
sometimes by root directory would run out of space because of docker images, which sometimes becomes annoying to deal with.

Could have increased the root partition, but aside from that, I don't really need that much.

Press n
Select p
Enter
Enter
+50G

Create /home partition¶

Press n
Select p
Enter
Enter
Enter (takes up the rest of the drive)

Apply changes¶

There are no changes made to the drive yet. To apply them press w. Note that it will wipe your hd clean and all the data on it will be lost.

Make file systems¶


mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 or mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 # (no efivars vs efivars)
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4
mkswap /dev/sda3

Mount drives¶

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot /mnt/home /mnt/efi
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/efi
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home

Install Arch¶

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel

Write the mounts to `fstab`¶

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

Change root to freshly installed arch¶

arch-chroot /mnt

Apply time settings & locales¶


ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Riga /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

nano /etc/locale.gen # uncomment wanted locales
locale-gen

nano /etc/locale.conf # put LANG=en_US.UTF-8
nano /etc/hostname # put your machine hostname like `davis-arch`

Set up hosts¶

nano /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   localhost
::1     localhost
127.0.1.1   davis-arch.localdomain davis-arch

Change root password¶

passwd

Install grub¶

pacman -S grub os-prober
grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Install network manager¶

pacman -S networkmanager
systemctl enable NetworkManager

Exit setup¶

Press CTRL+d or exit and type reboot.