Arch Linux is a popular Linux distribution known for its simplicity, minimalism, and high level of customization. It is favored by experienced Linux users who appreciate a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to creating their ideal computing environment. Key features of Arch Linux include:
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Rolling Release Model: Arch Linux follows a rolling release model, which means that it doesn't have fixed release versions. Instead, it offers continuous software updates, allowing users to access the latest software versions as soon as they are available.
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Minimal Installation: Arch Linux provides a minimal base installation with only essential components. Users have the flexibility to install and configure additional software, packages, and desktop environments according to their preferences.
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Arch User Repository (AUR): The Arch User Repository is a community-driven repository of user-contributed package builds. It enables users to easily install software that is not available in the official repositories. AUR packages require users to build them, but helper tools like "yay" simplify the process.
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Customization: Arch Linux is known for its high degree of customization. Users have full control over their system's configuration, allowing them to build a Linux environment that precisely suits their needs.
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Pacman Package Manager: Arch Linux uses the "pacman" package manager, a command-line tool for installing, updating, and managing software packages. It is lauded for its simplicity and efficiency.
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Documentation: Arch Linux offers comprehensive documentation, including the Arch Wiki, which provides detailed information and guides on various aspects of the system, software installation, and troubleshooting.
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Community Involvement: The Arch Linux community is strong and active. Users are encouraged to participate in discussions, forums, and share their knowledge with one another.
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Lightweight: Arch Linux's minimalist nature makes it a lightweight distribution, making it suitable for older hardware or systems where resource efficiency is a priority.
While Arch Linux's DIY philosophy and focus on simplicity may not be the best fit for beginners or users seeking an out-of-the-box experience, it remains an excellent choice for those who want to learn more about Linux, have full control over their computing environment, and build a system tailored to their specific needs.
This guide will walk you through the installation of Arch Linux on your machine. Make sure to follow each step carefully for a successful installation.
Before you can begin the installation, you need to obtain the Arch Linux installation media and create a bootable USB drive. Follow these steps:
- Visit the official Arch Linux download page at https://archlinux.org/download/.
- Select the ISO image that matches your system architecture (e.g., x86_64) and your preferred download mirror. You can download it using a web browser.
Arch Linux provides SHA-1 and SHA-256 checksums for their ISOs. After downloading the ISO, you can verify its integrity by comparing the checksum of the downloaded file with the provided checksum. To calculate the SHA-256 checksum, you can use a tool like sha256sum. For example:
sha256sum archlinux-<version>-x86_64.isoCompare the generated checksum with the one provided on the Arch Linux download page to ensure that your download is not corrupted.
Create a Bootable USB Drive:
To create a bootable USB drive, you can use a tool like Balena Etcher (available for Windows, macOS, and Linux) or Rufus (Windows only). Here's how to do it with Balena Etcher:
- Download and install Balena Etcher.
- Insert a USB drive with sufficient capacity (at least 2 GB) into your computer.
- Open Balena Etcher.
- Click the "Select Image" button and choose the Arch Linux ISO you downloaded.
- Click the "Select Target" button and choose the USB drive you want to write the ISO to.
- Click the "Flash" button to write the ISO to the USB drive. This process will erase all data on the USB drive, so make sure to back up any important files.
Now, you have a bootable USB drive with the Arch Linux ISO, and you can proceed to install Arch Linux following the steps provided in the original guide, starting with "Step 1."
This step increases the console font size to improve readability. The command setfont ter-132n sets the console font to ter-132n
setfont ter-132nThis section is all about connecting to a Wi-Fi network.
If your Wi-Fi adapter is hardware-locked, you can unblock it using rfkill.
rfkill unblock all
# This command unblocks any hardware-locked Wi-Fi adapters by using the rfkill utility. It ensures that the wireless hardware is enabled.
Check the status of devices using rfkill:
rfkill
# This command checks the status of wireless devices using the rfkill utilityScan for available networks and connect to your desired Wi-Fi network.
iwctl
# This command opens the iwctl interactive tool for managing wireless connections.
station wlan0 scan
# Scans for available Wi-Fi networks using the specified wireless interface (wlan0 in this case).
station wlan0 connect <ssid>
# Connects to the desired Wi-Fi network by specifying the network's SSID. It will prompt you for the Wi-Fi passwordYou will be prompted for the Wi-Fi password.
Test your network connection by pinging a website:
ping archlinux.org
# This command tests the network connection by pinging the archlinux.org website to ensure that you have internet accessThis section involves preparing your storage devices for installation.
View the current drive status using lsblk. Then, use gdisk to wipe the drive. Replace /dev/nvme0n1 with your drive if it's different.
Select 'x' for expert mode and 'z' to wipe the drive.
lsblk
# Lists information about block devices, showing the current drive status. It helps you identify the target drive.
gdisk /dev/nvme0n1
#Launches the gdisk utility to manage disk partitions. You specify the target drive as /dev/nvme0n1. Inside gdisk, you can select 'x' for expert mode and 'z' to wipe the drive. This clears existing partitions and prepares the drive for new ones.
Use cgdisk to partition the drive according to your needs. The example partitions are for reference; adjust them as required.
cgdisk /dev/nvme0n1
# Opens the cgdisk utility for creating and configuring partitions on the target drive, which is specified as /dev/nvme0n1. You can customize the partition layout according to your needs, creating boot, swap, root, and home partitions.
My personal drive setup, feel free to edit it
- Boot partition: 1024MiB, Hex Code: EF00
- Swap partition: 16GiB, Hex Code: 8200
- Root partition: 50GiB, Hex Code: 8300 (default)
- Home partition: All remaining, Hex Code: 8300 (default)
Write the changes to the disk and confirm by running lsblk to check the partitions.
Format the partitions with the required file system formats.
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
# Formats the first partition as a FAT32 file system, which is typically used for the EFI system partition.
mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p2
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p2
# Formats the second partition as a swap file system and activates it using swapon.
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p3
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p4
# These commands format the third and fourth partitions with the ext4 file system, which is commonly used for Linux system and home partitions.
mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt
# Mounts the root partition to the /mnt directory, which serves as the root of the new Linux file system.
mkdir /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/home
# Creates directories for the boot and home partitions.
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/home
# Mounts the EFI system partition and home partition to the appropriate directories under /mnt.
Pacman is Arch Linux's package manager, and this step configures its settings.
Edit the pacman.conf in /etc/pacman.conf file to configure Pacman settings.
vim /etc/pacman.conf
# Opens the pacman.conf file in the Vim text editor for editing. You'll modify various settings in this file.
# The following lines are edited to enable or configure specific options in pacman.conf, such as enabling color output, displaying download progress bars, and specifying the number of parallel downloads.
Edit the following lines:
# Misc Options
# UseSyslog
# Color
# NoProgressBar
Check Space
VerbosePkgLists
# ParallelDownloads = 5Uncomment this to
# Misc Options
# UseSyslog
Color
ILoveCandy
# NoProgressBar
Check Space
VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5Now run the following commands:
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux
# Initializes and populates the keyring for package verification.
pacman -Sy
pacman -S archlinux-keyring
# Updates the package databases and installs the Arch Linux keyring package.cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup
# Creates a backup of the mirror list in case you need to restore it later.Install the pacman-contrib package and use the rankmirrors utility to rank the mirrors.
pacman -S pacman-contrib
# Installs the pacman-contrib package, which includes the rankmirrors utility.
rankmirrors -n 10 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
# Ranks the mirror list, optimizing it for faster package downloads. This helps you select the best mirrors based on speed and availability.
This step uses pacstrap to install essential Arch Linux packages to the specified installation directory (/mnt).
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware linux-headers vim nano bash-completion
# Installs essential packages required for a basic Arch Linux system, including the base system, development tools, the Linux kernel, firmware, and various utilities for text editing and command-line usage
This step generates the fstab (file system table) to manage mounting of partitions at boot.
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# Uses genfstab to automatically detect and generate the fstab entries for the partitions mounted under /mnt. The -U flag indicates to use UUIDs, and the -p flag ensures that the process is non-interactive
Enter into the installation using the arch-chroot command
arch-chroot /mnt
# This command changes the root directory to the installation at /mnt, effectively entering the newly installed system environment.
Edit the /etc/locale.gen file, uncomment en_US.UTF-8, and run locale-gen. Set the locale in locale.conf and set the time zone.
# Do not fuck this up
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
# Sets the system's default locale to en_US.UTF-8.
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
# Exports the LANG variable to make the locale setting active
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata /etc/localtime
# Creates a symbolic link to set the system's time zone to "Asia/Kolkata."
hwclock --systohc
# Sets the hardware clock to match the system time.Set your device's hostname
echo <hostname> > /etc/hostname
# Sets the hostname for the device by echoing the desired hostname into the /etc/hostname file.
Enable SSD optimization by enabling the fstrim.timer service.
systemctl enable fstrim.timer
# Enables the fstrim.timer service, which is used to periodically trim SSDs for optimization.
Set the root user password, create a new user, and configure sudo access for that user.
passwd
# Sets the password for the root user.
useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash <username>
# Adds a new user with specific group memberships and a specified shell.
passwd <username>
# Sets the password for the newly created user.
Edit the sudoers file:
EDITOR=nano visudo
# Opens the sudoers file for editing, using the Nano text editor.
# The commands within the sudoers file edit the configuration to allow users in the "wheel" group to run commands with elevated privileges using sudo.
Uncomment the %wheel line and add the following at the end of the file:
Defaults rootpwmount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivarfs
# Mounts the efivarfs file system, which is required for UEFI firmware configuration.
The commands in this step install the GRUB bootloader for UEFI systems.
# Now install the required dependencies for grub
pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools os-prober mtools
# Create the EFI directory
mkdir /boot/EFI
# Install the bootloader to the disk
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB --recheck
# Copy the english locale to grub
cp /usr/share/locale/en@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.moInstall NetworkManager and enable its service.
The commands install NetworkManager, a network connection manager, and enable its service to manage network connections.
# Install networkmanager
sudo pacman -S networkmanager
# Start the network manager service
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.serviceThis step installs graphics drivers for both Nvidia and Intel integrated graphics.
install the required graphics drivers
sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-intel lib32-vulkan-intel
# These commands install Mesa (a graphics library), Vulkan libraries for Intel graphics, and configure mkinitcpio.conf to include the i915 module.
Edit the mkinitcpio.conf in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file to add i915 to the MODULES section.
sudo pacman -S nvidia libglvnd nvidia-utils opencl-nvidia lib32-libglvnd lib32-nvidia-utils lib32-opencl-nvidia nvidia-settingsEdit the mkinitcpio.conf file to add nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm to the MODULES section.
Finally the mkinitcpio.conf should look like this
MODULES=(i915 nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)
BINARIES=()
FILES=()
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems fsck)Run the mkinitcpio command
mkinitcpio -P
# Regenerates the initramfs to include the new modules and configurations for graphics drivers.
Add the following line to /etc/default/grub:
The specified lines are added to /etc/default/grub to set kernel parameters for Nvidia graphics.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nvidia_drm.modeset=1 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau"now regenerate the GRUB configuration:
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
# Regenerates the GRUB configuration to apply the new settings.
Add a Pacman hook to ensure Nvidia driver is recompiled on kernel updates.
Create /etc/pacman.d/hooks/nvidia.hook with the following content:
[Trigger]
Operation=Install
Operation=Upgrade
Operation=Remove
Type=Package
Target=nvidia
[Action]
Depends=mkinitcpio
When=PostTransaction
Exec=/usr/bin/mkinitcpio -PYou have successfully installed Arch Linux. Reboot your system and enjoy your new setup.
exit
umount -R /mnt
rebootsuccesfully completed the mininmal install of Arch Linux now you are free to install whichever Desktop Environment or Window Manager