Archlinux Installation Walkthrough

Refer to Official Archlinux Installation Guide for details.

• Verify boot mode, if it exits, you are booted in EFI mode.
  # ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
• Connect to Internet (e.g. WiFi)
  # wifi-menu
# ping -c 3 www.google.com
• Update the system clock
  # timedatectl set-ntp true
• Partition the disks (Example layout schemes)
  UEFI+GPT:
  # parted /dev/sda
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB//the recommended size is 512MiB
  (parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) mkpart primary linux-swap 513MiB 4.5GiB//swap space
  (parted) mkpart primary ext4 4.5GiB 100%
(parted align-check optimal N)// N=1,2,...
  (parted) quit
  BIOS+MBR:
  # parted /dev/sda
(parted) mklabel msdos
(parted) mkpart primary linux-swap 1MiB 4GiB //swap space
  (parted) mkpart primary ext4 4GiB 100% //root mount point
  (parted) set 2 boot on
(parted align-check optimal N)// N=1,2,...
  (parted) quit
• Format the partitions
  # mkswap /dev/sda1
# swapon /dev/sda1
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
  For UEFI:
  # mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdxY
  If you get WARNING: Not enough clusters for a 32 bit FAT!, reduce cluster size with mkfs.fat -s2 -F32 ... or -s1;
• Mount the file systems
  mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
  For UEFI:
  mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sdxY /mnt/boot
• Install Archlinux (zsh for later use of useradd)
  # pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel vim zsh
• Configuration

# genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
# arch-chroot /mnt
# vim /etc/locale.gen

uncomment the following:
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8 (gcin needs LC_CTYPE=zh_TW.UTF-8, and gnome-terminal will have locale issues if this line is commented)
zh_TW BIG5

# locale-gen
# echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/<yourtimezone> /etc/localtime
# hwclock --systohc
# mkinitcpio -p linux create /boot/initramfs-linux.img
# pacman -S grub os-prober efibootmgr

For MBR:
# grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For UEFI:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

# echo "<yourhostname>" > /etc/hostname
# vim /etc/hosts add yourhostname
# pacman -S dialog wpa_supplicant iw so we can use wifi-menu at next boot
# passwd change passwd for root
# useradd -m -s $(which zsh) -G wheel <username> Add your user account
# passwd <username> change passwd
# visudo uncomment wheel, giving it root privilege
# exit

• Reboot
  # umount -R /mnt && reboot

Archlinux Postinstallation Setup

• Check if all devices have their kernel modules in use
  # lspci -v
• Run this automatic setup script. You can use less setup.log to view what's installed.
  sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alex81527/archlinux-setup/master/arch-post-setup.sh)" | tee setup.log