Introduction🔗

This is an installation guide for Arch Linux. This is NOT a generic guide on installing Arch Linux, it is customized towards my preferences.

The Arch Linux installation guide can be found on the Arch Linux website here

Dependencies🔗

Arch can be installed in a Virtual Machine or bare metal, installations on bare metal devices may include extra steps. Here are the dependencies

• Arch Linux ISO
• USB Thumbdrive (8GB) - Bare Metal Installations
• Separate Workstation to create USB Bootable Devices

Software to create USB Bootable Devices🔗

Linux🔗

dd

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

Windows🔗

balenaEtcher

Rufus

win32DiskImager

Virtual Machine managers🔗

Any Virtual Machine managers can be used. Here are some popular ones:

VirtualBox🔗

VMWare Workstation/Player🔗

Installation🔗

Hardware Configurations🔗

Here are the hardware configurations I will be using for the virtual machine

• 2GB Ram (2048MB)
• 2 Processors

Arch Installation🔗

Boot Selection🔗

Power on the Virtual/Physical machine. Select the first option

Internet Conectivity🔗

Ethernet connection is recommended. If on WI-FI use iwctl

NTP🔗

Sync the system time to NTP with timedatectl

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timedatectl set-ntp true

Partitioning Drives🔗

Use lsblk to find out your device name

Use this command to create a new partition table on your device

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cfdisk /dev/sda

Select dos label type

Using the arrow keys and Enter, navigate and create these partitions

Single Drive🔗

>1 Drive🔗

Write the changes and Quit

Formatting Partitions🔗

Do a lsblk again, /dev/sda should have 3 partitions

/dev/sda1🔗

This is the boot partition, formatted to fat32

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mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

/dev/sda2 and others🔗

Other partitions are formatted to ext4

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mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

Mount partitions🔗

Mount the root partition

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mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

Create a folder and mount the home partition

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mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home

Check the mount points with lsblk

Pacstrap🔗

Start the installation of arch with the Pacstrap script

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pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware sudo vim git base-devel

Select all and yes and wait for the installation to complete.

Fstab🔗

Generate the fstab file

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

Chroot🔗

Chroot into the system with BASH shell

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arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Locale🔗

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vim /etc/locale.gen

Find the languages you are going to use
I am going to install

• en_us both UTF and ISO
• zh_SG.UTF-8
• ko_KR.UTF-8

Save and exit the editor and generate locale

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locale-gen

Create locale.conf with the corrosponding languages

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echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

Timezone🔗

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ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Singapore /etc/localtime

Set local time🔗

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hwclock --systohc --utc

Check the date with

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date

Hostname🔗

Set the Hostname of your system

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echo arch > /etc/hostname

Edit your /etc/hosts file with vim /etc/hosts

Enter the following line

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127.0.1.1 localhost.localdomain arch

Save and exit the editor

Network🔗

Install and enable NetworkManager

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pacman -S networkmanager
systemctl enable NetworkManager

Bootloader🔗

Install grub and efibootmanager

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pacman -S grub efibootmgr

Install the Bootmanager into the system

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mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
lsblk # to check if everything is mounted correctly
grub-install /dev/sda # Worked for me
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --efi-directory=/boot/efi --removable
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Root Password🔗

Change the root password with passwd

Reboot🔗

Exit and reboot your system

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exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

You should see GRUB screen on boot, with Arch installed

Login with root and the password previously set

Post-Installation🔗

Arch is now installed, these are post installation processes like creating swap, user and installing a GUI

Swap🔗

Create a swapfile with the same size as your RAM

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dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2048 status=progress
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

Check that your swapfile is working with free -h

User🔗

Create a user and group

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groupadd sudo
groupadd username 
useradd -m -g username -G sudo -s /bin/bash username

Edit sudoers file

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EDITOR=vim visudo

Uncomment the line and add a line

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Defaults insult
# %sudo ALL=(ALL) ALL

Change the password of the user with passwd username

Reboot/Logout and login as user

DotFiles🔗

Clone and ‘install’ Dotfiles from GitLab

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git clone --recurse-submodules https://gitlab.com/devoalda/dotdrop-dotfiles.git
pip3 install --user -r ./dotdrop-dotfiles/dotdrop/requirements.txt
./dotdrop-dotfiles/dotdrop.sh install -p carnage

Install yay

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cd /opt
sudo git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-git.git
cd yay-git
makepkg -si

Install and change shell utilities

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yay -S zsh starship st-luke-git
chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh username

Display🔗

Xorg must be installed to be able to display a WM/DE

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yay -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa xorg xorg-xinit xorg-server

Install i3 (Optional) - More Stable

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yay -S i3-gaps i3blocks i3exit

Install Xmonad & Xmobar (Optional)

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yay -S xmonad xmonad-contrib xmobar-git
xmonad --recompile

Read more about my xmonad configurations here

Summary🔗

Arch is installed successfully!

Here are some programs I would install

Have fun with your arch installation!

i use arch btw