This is a simple set of scripts for installing Arch linux from the Arch Install ISO. The focus is to automate the steps you might manually step through when installing Arch Linux. The scripts are intentionally written to be straight-forward and simple.
I consider these scripts useful for intermediate linux users who want more control than available in archinstall. If you're new to linux, you will probably find archinstall makes it easier to get up and running quickly.
If you use these scripts as part of your installation automation adventure, I'd appreciate seeing what changes you made. I might find them useful! There's no requirements to share credit or changes, but I'd appreciate either.
Options can be configured in the 99-options.sh file, which is sourced by the other scripts.
You need to get networking up and running prior to running any of these scripts.
pacman -Sy git
git clone https://github.com/jefftp/arch.gitUse lsblk to list block devices on the system. The device name will be prefixed with /dev/.
First, update the variables in 99-options.sh to change any options such as the install disk or timezone.
Next run 01-install.sh. This will call 02-configure.sh as part of the installation.
Once the installation completes successfully, you'll get a reminder to set a root password, reboot, and then run 03-post-install.sh to finish the installation.
The script 01-install.sh partitions a single drive based on the variable INSTALL_DISK in the script 99-options.sh.
| Device | filesystem | space |
|---|---|---|
| /dev/sda1 | fat32 | 1G |
| /dev/sda2 | btrfs | remaining |
The sub-volumes for BTRFS are based on the sub-volume scheme used by the archinstall script. The @.snapshots sub-volume is intended to be used with snapper to create storage snapshots.
| Mount Point | Device |
|---|---|
/boot |
/dev/sda1 |
/ |
/dev/sda2/@ |
/home |
/dev/sda2/@home |
/var/log |
/dev/sda2/@log |
/var/cache/pacman/pkg |
/dev/sda2/@pkg |
/.snapshots |
/dev/sda2/@.snapshots |
Snapper is used to create snapshots on / when performing pacman updates. This is enabled through the snap-pac package. Time-based snapshots are explicitly disabled. In addition, these scripts install hooks into pacman which rsync the contents of /boot to /.bootbackup so that kernel and initrd are captured as part of this automatic snapshot process.
The goal of using snapper in this fashion is not backup, but protection against upgrades that need to be reverted. Additional tools will be added to provide backup.