arch-installation.md

Arch Installation Guide

Basic Setup

Make sure you have an internet connection.

ping 8.8.8.8

Now you can either use the installation script from this repository by cloning it and executing, or simple go through each of the steps.

git clone https://github.com/jmpargana/Dotfiles
./Dotfiles/.scripts/arch-install.sh

1. Load keyboard layout

loadkeys de-latin1

2. Update system clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

3. Create the partitions

A good and simple layout would be: 1. Boot - 512Mb 2. Swap - 8Gb 3. Root - Remaining

4. Setup the partitions

The -L flag creates a label, which will be usefull later with the booting system.

mkfs.ext4 -L p_arch /dev/nvme0n1p3
mkswap -L p_swap /dev/nvme0n1p2
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n EFIBOOT /dev/nvme0n1p1

5. Mount the partitions

mount -L p_arch /mnt
swapon -L p_swap
mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount -L EFIBOOT /mnt/boot

6. Prepare Mirrors for Germany

cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak
grep -E -A 1 ".*Germany.*$" /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak | sed '/--/d' > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

7. Install base system

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

8. Other needed packages

pacman --root /mnt -S dhcpcd bash-completion intel-ucode wpa_supplicant netctl dialog efibootmgr dosfstools gptfdisk

9. Generate fstab

genfstab -Up /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab

10. Enter /mnt

arch-chroot /mnt/

11. Add hostname

echo icm > /etc/hostname

12. Setup language

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
#delete line /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen

13. Keyboard layout

echo KEYMAP=de-latin1 > /etc/vconsole.conf
echo FONT=lat9w-16 >> /etc/vconsole.conf

14. Datetime

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

15. Setup hosts

echo archlinuxthinkpad > /etc/hostname
cat >> /etc/hosts <<EOF
127.0.0.1   localhost
::1         localhost
127.0.1.1   archlinuxthinkpad.localdomain   archlinuxthinkpad
EOF

16. Generate initramfs

mkinitcpio -p linux

17. Create root and user passwd

echo "Type root password:"
passwd
useradd -m -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash icm
echo "Type icm password:"
passwd icm
EDITOR=vim visudo

18. Automatically update time

systemctl enable --now systemd-timesyncd.service
hwclock -w

19. Setup Bootloader

bootctl install
cat > /boot/loader/loader.conf <<EOF
default arch-uefi
timeout 0
EOF

cat > /boot/loader/entries/arch-uefi.conf
title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /intel-ucode.img
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=LABEL=p_arch rw resume=LABEL=p_swap quiet loglevel=3 rd.udev.log_priority=3
EOF

cat > /boot/loader/entries/arch-uefi-fallback.conf
title   Arch Linux Fallback
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /intel-ucode.img
initrd  /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
options root=LABEL=p_arch rw resume=LABEL=p_swap quiet loglevel=3 rd.udev.log_priority=3
EOF

20. Exit and reboot

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Post Installation

After you reboot and setup the internet connection again, you can either run the post installation script or setup the next steps one by one:

git clone https://github.com/jmpargana/Dotfiles
./Dotfiles/.scripts/arch-post-install.sh

1. Get AUR package manager

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

2. Setup Xorg and WMs

Install all xorg needed

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-drivers xterm alacritty

Followed by the intel video drivers

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel xf86-input-synaptics mesa

Set the keymap in xorg

localectl set-x11-keymap de pc105 nodeadkeys

Install additional fonts

sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu

Configure sound cards.

sudo pacman -S alsa-utils
gpasswd -a icm audio

Prepare power interface for laptop.

sudo pacman -S acpid
sudo systemctl enable acpid
sudo systemctl start acpid

Finally install all packages for window managers

sudo pacman -S i3status rofi feh openbox ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation ttf-font-awesome

3. Setup Display Manager

sudo pacman -S lightdm
yay -S lightdm-webkit-theme-aether
sudo systemctl enable lightdm.service

4. Load Configs and Betterlockscreen

Get all other programs.

sudo pacman -S firefox thunderbird vlc keepassxc telegram-desktop thunar ranger
yay -S spotify

Install zsh or fish.

5. Basic Programming Packages

The rest should be installed either with a docker container or inside a virtual environment for any given project.

# Python
sudo pacman -S python-pip
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install pipenv

# C++
sudo pacman -S g++ gcc make cmake clang llvm the_silver_searcher dash fzf

# JS
sudo pacman -S nodejs npm yarn

# Latex
sudo pacman -S texlive-most texlive-lang biber

# Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

6. Setup Docker

sudo pacman -S docker
sudo systemctl enable docker.service
sudo systemctl start docker.service
groupadd docker
gpasswd -a icm docker

7. Generate SSH Key

   1. Install openssh

   sudo pacman -S openssh

   2. Generate key

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "icmjmp@protonmail.ch"

   3. Add to ssh-agent

   eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
   ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

8. Start Firewall

9. Install VPN