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My ArchLinux installation guide

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I will describe here how I install ArchLinux for my own desktop. With a little luck it could be usefull for others and maybe for you!

But I would never install it on a server for which I prefer debian. But that's another topic.

Note : This tutorial is largely inspired by the official installation guide.

Installation medium

  • First download iso media on the official download web page (see here to verify signature) :

https://archlinux.org/download/

  • Identify usb media :
[root@host ~]# fdisk -l
  • I personnaly create a usb boot media :
[root@host ~]# dd if=archlinux-XXXX.XX.XX-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=16M status=progress; sync
  • Disable UEFI secure boot (because the installation media does not support the feature) and boot to USB.

Pre-Install

  • Set the console keyboard layout (fr for french, us for us, de for german etc…) :
root@archiso ~ # loadkeys fr
  • Verify we are in UEFI boot mode :
root@archiso ~ # if [ -d /sys/firmware/efi/efivars ]; then echo "UEFI OK"; else echo "UEFI KO"; fi

Network Configuration

  • List and identify network interfaces :
root@archiso ~ # ip link 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: ens192: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 00:50:56:80:0b:32 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff altname enp11s0
  • Get network configuration via dhcp :
root@archiso ~ # dhclient ens192
  • Or set ip manually :
root@archiso ~ # ip addr add 192.168.1.10/24 dev ens192 root@archiso ~ # ip route add default via 192.168.1.254 root@archiso ~ # echo 'nameserver 192.168.1.254' >> /etc/resolv.conf
  • Check internet connectivity :
root@archiso ~ # ping 46.105.57.169
  • Check name resolution :
root@archiso ~ # host std.rocks std.rocks has address 46.105.57.169 std.rocks has IPv6 address 2001:41d0:301::20 std.rocks mail is handled by 1 mx4.mail.ovh.net. std.rocks mail is handled by 10 mx3.mail.ovh.net. Note : from this step, if necessary, you can log in from another machine to the installation program as root via ssh. Just use passwd command before in order to set a password.
  • Update system clock :
root@archiso ~ # timedatectl set-ntp true

Partition the disk

I'm gonna partition my 40G disk like this.

Partition Note Filesystem
EFI efi parition FAT32
/boot boot partition ext2
swap swap partition swap on LUKS
/ root partition btrfs on LUKS
  • The graphical view of the disk partitioning :
a linux disk partitionned with efi, boot, swap and root partitions

⚠️ Be advised that the sda disk will be completly erased and the data will be deleted as a result.⚠️

  • Identify destination disk :
root@archiso ~ # fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 40 GiB, 42949672960 bytes, 83886080 sectors Disk model: Virtual disk Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk /dev/loop0: 683.24 MiB, 716427264 bytes, 1399272 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  • Start partitionning, here with /dev/sda device :
root@archiso ~ # gdisk /dev/sda GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.9 Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
  • Delete existing partitions :
Command (? for help): d
  • Create EFI partition :
Command (? for help): n Partition number (1-128, default 1): First sector (34-83886046, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Last sector (2048-83886046, default = 83884031) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +512M Current type is 8300 (Linux filesystem) Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): EF00 Changed type of partition to 'EFI system partition'
  • Create /boot partition :
Command (? for help): n Partition number (2-128, default 2): First sector (34-83886046, default = 1050624) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Last sector (1050624-83886046, default = 83884031) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +500M Current type is 8300 (Linux filesystem) Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'
  • Create swap encrypted partition :
Command (? for help): n Partition number (3-128, default 3): First sector (34-83886046, default = 2074624) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Last sector (2074624-83886046, default = 83884031) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +2G Current type is 8300 (Linux filesystem) Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): 8309 Changed type of partition to 'Linux LUKS'
  • Create / encrypted partition :
Command (? for help): n Partition number (4-128, default 4): First sector (34-83886046, default = 6268928) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Last sector (6268928-83886046, default = 83884031) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: Current type is 8300 (Linux filesystem) Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): 8309 Changed type of partition to 'Linux LUKS'
  • Check and write partitions to disk :
Command (? for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 83886080 sectors, 40.0 GiB Model: Virtual disk Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 45AB06C7-DDAF-45D4-A781-B5C33DAF56D2 Partition table holds up to 128 entries Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33 First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 83886046 Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is 4029 sectors (2.0 MiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 2048 1050623 512.0 MiB EF00 EFI system partition 2 1050624 2074623 500.0 MiB 8300 Linux filesystem 3 2074624 6268927 2.0 GiB 8309 Linux LUKS 4 6268928 83884031 37.0 GiB 8309 Linux LUKS Command (? for help): w Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): Y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda. The operation has completed successfully.

Format the partitions

  • Format EFI partition :
root@archiso ~ # mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
  • Format /boot partition :
root@archiso ~ # mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda2
  • Create LUKS partition for swap :
Note : The complexity of the password will not be important here because we will use after a random password for the swap partition. root@archiso ~ # cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda3 WARNING! ======== This will overwrite data on /dev/sda3 irrevocably. Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES Enter passphrase for /dev/sda3: STDp@$$ Verify passphrase: STDp@$$ cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda3 16.55s user 1.08s system 86% cpu 20.303 total
  • Decrypt swap partition :
root@archiso ~ # cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 swap Enter passphrase for /dev/sda3: STDp@$$
  • Check swap device is present :
root@archiso ~ # ls /dev/mapper control swap
  • Format swap device :
root@archiso ~ # mkswap /dev/mapper/swap
  • Create LUKS partition for / :
root@archiso ~ # cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda4 WARNING: Device /dev/sda4 already contains a 'dos' partition signature. WARNING! ======== This will overwrite data on /dev/sda4 irrevocably. Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES Enter passphrase for /dev/sda4: ComplexSTDp@$$ Verify passphrase: ComplexSTDp@$$ cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda4 9.72s user 0.68s system 75% cpu 13.721 total
  • Decrypt / (root) partition :
root@archiso ~ # cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda4 root Enter passphrase for /dev/sda3: ComplexSTDp@$$
  • Check root device is present :
root@archiso ~ # ls /dev/mapper control root swap
  • Format / (root) partition :
root@archiso ~ # mkfs.btrfs /dev/mapper/root

Mount the file system and chroot to /mnt/

Mount to /mnt

  • Mount / (root) :
root@archiso ~ # mount /dev/mapper/root /mnt/
  • Enable swap :
root@archiso ~ # swapon /dev/mapper/swap
  • Mount /boot :
root@archiso ~ # mount --mkdir /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
  • Mount /efi :
root@archiso ~ # mount --mkdir /dev/sda1 /mnt/efi
Create btrfs subvolumes (Optional)

If necessary we can here add btrfs subvolumes, for example here with /home.

  • Create /home subvolume :
root@archiso ~ # btrfs subvolume create /mnt/home
  • Mount /home :
root@archiso ~ # mount /dev/mapper/root -o subvol=home /mnt/home

Install

Install essential packages

root@archiso ~ # pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs vim grub efibootmgr
  • Generate fstab file :
root@archiso ~ # genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
  • Edit /mnt/etc/fstab file and replace swap entry with this line :
/dev/mapper/swap none swap defaults 0 0
  • Chroot to /mnt :
root@archiso ~ # arch-chroot /mnt

Time zone

  • Identify your Time zone :
[root@archiso /]# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
  • Set your your Time zone :
[root@archiso /]# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
  • Exemple :
[root@archiso /]# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tokyo /etc/localtime
  • Generate /etc/adjtime :
[root@archiso /]# hwclock --systohc

Localization

  • Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 plus other needed locales, for exemple :
[…] #en_SG ISO-8859-1 en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 #en_US ISO-8859-1 […] #fr_CH ISO-8859-1 fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8 #fr_FR ISO-8859-1
  • Generate locales :
[root@archiso /]# locale-gen
  • Create /etc/locale.conf file and set the LANG variable accordingly :
    • For examples :
[root@archiso /]# echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf [root@archiso /]# echo 'LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
  • Set keyboard layout :
    • For examples :
[root@archiso /]# echo 'KEYMAP=fr' > /etc/vconsole.conf [root@archiso /]# echo 'KEYMAP=us' > /etc/vconsole.conf

Network configuration

  • Set hostname :
[root@archiso /]# echo 'stdesktop' > /etc/hostname

Initramfs

  • Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf to enable (luks (to decrypt encrypted devices)) :
MODULES=(dm_mod ext2 btrfs ext4 xfs) […] #add lvm2, mdadm if needed HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block keyboard keymap encrypt filesystems usr fsck shutdown)
  • Generate a new initramfs :
[root@archiso /]# mkinitcpio -P
  • Add the swap entry in /etc/crypttab file to set random key encrypted swap partition :
[root@archiso /]# echo 'swap /dev/sda3 /dev/urandom swap,cipher=aes-cbc-essiv:sha256,size=256' >> /etc/crypttab

Boot Loader

  • Edit /etc/default/grub, here I :
    • amdgpu.audio=0 : disable HDMI/DP Audio because I don't need it. (see complete Module parameters here).
    • announce my crypted root device : /dev/sda4:root
    • I removed quiet word because I like to have a verbose boot in case of debug needed.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 amdgpu.audio=0" #we can use /dev/sda4 UUID like that : cryptdevice=UUID=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX:root if we prefer GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=/dev/sda4:root"
  • Install GRUB EFI application to /efi/ (sda1) :
[root@archiso /]# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi/ --bootloader-id=GRUB Installing for x86_64-efi platform. Installation finished. No error reported.
  • Generate grub.cfg main configuration file :
[root@archiso /]# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg Generating grub configuration file ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-linux Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img Found fallback initrd image(s) in /boot: initramfs-linux-fallback.img Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions. Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration. Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry. Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ... done

Reboot

  • Set root password :
[root@archiso /]# passwd
  • Remove boot media and reboot system :
[root@archiso /]# exit root@archiso ~ # reboot

Post-Install

Add simple user

  • Create a user :
[root@stdesktop ~]# useradd -m newuser
  • Define user password :
[root@stdesktop ~]# passwd newuser

Network

We can configure Network manually, statically or via DHCP.

  • First thing to to is identify your network interface :
[root@stdesktop ~]# ip link show 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: ens192: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 24:1f:fe:d3:bc:2a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Manually with ip commands

Note : This configuration will be reset after each reboot.

  • Enable network interface :
[root@stdesktop ~]# ip link set ens192 up
  • Set ip address :
[root@stdesktop ~]# ip addr add 192.168.1.10/24 dev ens192
  • Set gateway :
[root@stdesktop ~]# ip route add default via 192.168.1.254
  • Set dns :
[root@stdesktop ~]# echo 'nameserver 80.67.169.12' > /etc/resolv.conf

Statically with systemd-networkd

  • Create a /etc/systemd/network/ens192.network file :
[Match] Name=ens192 [Network] Address=192.168.1.10/24 Gateway=192.168.1.254 DNS=192.168.1.254
  • Enable and start systemd-networkd service :
[root@stdesktop ~]# systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service && systemctl start systemd-networkd.service

DHCP with systemd-networkd

  • Create a /etc/systemd/network/ens192.network file :
[Match] Name=ens192 [Network] DHCP=yes
  • Enable and start systemd-networkd service :
[root@stdesktop ~]# systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service && systemctl start systemd-networkd.service

Desktop environment

  • Install GNOME (simply press enter to each question) :
[root@stdesktop ~]# pacman -S gnome
  • If your are not in qwerty, set the gdm keyboard layout according to your language :
[root@stdesktop ~]# localectl set-x11-keymap fr
  • Enable and start gdm service :
[root@stdesktop ~]# systemctl enable gdm [root@stdesktop ~]# systemctl start gdm archlinux gdm screen waiting to log in

Misc

Hardware acceleration for the AMD FirePro W5000

If like me you have a AMD FirePro W5000 you should want to enable hardware video acceleration.

  • Install libva-mesa-driver and mesa-vdpau :
[root@stdesktop ~]# pacman -S libva-mesa-driver mesa-vdpau
  • Install vainfo, vdpauinfo plus radeontop tools :
[root@stdesktop ~]# pacman -S libva-utils vdpauinfo radeontop
  • Create /etc/modprobe.d/amdgpu.conf file :
options amdgpu si_support=1
  • Create /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf file :
options radeon si_support=0 options radeon cik_support=0
  • Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file :
MODULES=(dm_mod ext2 btrfs ext4 xfs amdgpu) […] HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block keyboard keymap encrypt lvm2 filesystems usr fsck shutdown)
  • Generate a new initramfs :
[root@archiso /]# mkinitcpio -P
  • Reboot and check amdgpu is loaded :
[newuser@stdesktop ~]$ lspci -k | grep -A 3 -E "(VGA|3D)" 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Pitcairn LE GL [FirePro W5000] Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 0b06 Kernel driver in use: amdgpu Kernel modules: radeon, amdgpu
  • Add VDPAU_DRIVER environment variable :
[newuser@stdesktop ~]$ echo 'export VDPAU_DRIVER=radeonsi' >> ~/.bashrc
  • Verify VA-API :
[newuser@stdesktop ~]$ vainfo vainfo: VA-API version: 1.15 (libva 2.15.0) vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 22.1.7 for ATI FirePro V(FireGL V) Graphics Adapter (pitcairn, LLVM 14.0.6, DRM 3.47, 5.19.9-arch1-1) vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
  • Verify VDPAU :
[newuser@stdesktop ~]$ vdpauinfo display: :0 screen: 0 API version: 1 Information string: G3DVL VDPAU Driver Shared Library version 1.0 Video surface: name width height types ------------------------------------------- 420 16384 16384 NV12 YV12 422 16384 16384 UYVY YUYV 444 16384 16384 Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8 420_16 16384 16384 422_16 16384 16384 444_16 16384 16384 Decoder capabilities: […]

Open applications at login

When I log in, I like to have the applications I use the most open automatically.

  • Create ~/.config/autostart/ folder :
[newuser@stdesktop ~]$ mkdir ~/.config/autostart
  • Create ~/.config/autostart/apps.desktop file :
[Desktop Entry] Name=AutostartScript GenericName=Gnome Auto Start Script Comment=Script wich launch applications at startup Exec=/home/newuser/.config/autostart.sh Terminal=false Type=Application X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
  • Create ~/.config/autostart.sh file :
#Open terminal gnome-terminal& #Open Firefox firefox & #Open Explorer nautilus&
  • Add executions rights :
[newuser@stdesktop ~]$ chmod +x ~/.config/autostart.sh

Crontab

I usually use cron as a task scheduler. There are implementations of cron in ArchLinux but none of them are pre-installed. By default the base system uses systemd/Timers. We will see here how to create a systemd/Timers task.

  • Create a /etc/systemd/system/mytask.service file which will run a program (here we copy /home/newuser/a_file to a /backup location using date command substitution) :
[Unit] Description=Copy a file Wants=mytask.timer [Service] Type=oneshot User=newuser #Normaly $(/usr/bin/date +%Y%m%d) but $ and % need to be escaped ExecStart=/bin/bash -c '/usr/bin/cp /home/newuser/a_file /backup/a_file.$$(/usr/bin/date +%%Y%%m%%d)' [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
  • Create associated /etc/systemd/system/mytask.timer file where we will set the trigger :
[Unit] Description=Copy a file trigger Requires=mytask.service [Timer] Unit=mytask.service #It will run each day at 19h00 OnCalendar=*-*-* 19:00:00 [Install] WantedBy=timers.target
  • Enable and reload rule :
[root@stdesktop ~]# systemctl enable mytask.timer && systemctl daemon-reload
  • Check mytask.timer status :
[root@stdesktop ~]# systemctl status mytask.timer ● mytask.timer - Copy a file Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/mytask.timer; enabled; preset: disabled) Active: active (waiting) since Sun 2022-09-25 16:28:31 CEST; 26min ago Until: Sun 2022-09-25 16:28:31 CEST; 26min ago Trigger: Sun 2022-09-25 19:00:00 CEST; 2h 4min left Triggers: ● mytask.service sept. 25 16:28:31 stddesktop.local systemd[1]: Started Copy a file.

References

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