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How to install Arch Linux

These instructions were written by me, following the Arch Wiki, to install Arch in a VM &/or real machine. These instructions include both the installation process and the post-install process, as well as some additions

NOTE: the editor used in this guide is vim.

I suggest also checking out the arch wiki. If you haven't already, download the Arch ISO.

If you want to see the RAW Markdown instructions (this file) in a terminal, run curl -L https://git.io/Archlinux.

Alternatively, you can also format the file so that it won't have a lot of the Markdown specific syntax:

If you want to save them into a file called "Archlinux": curl -L https://git.io/Archlinux | sed 's/^#* //;/^!/d;s/^+ //;s/IPv*/# IPv/;s/Misc/# Misc/' > Archlinux
If you want to display them onto the screen without saving: curl -L https://git.io/Archlinux | sed 's/^#* //;/^!/d;s/^+ //;s/IPv/# IPv/;s/Misc/# Misc/' | less

Pre-installation
Initial Configuration
Setting up the base system
Modifying languages
- 9) Localization
Network configuration
- 10) Network Configuration: hostname
- 11) Network Configuration: hosts
Setting-up users
- 12) Set the root password
- 13) Add a new user
Installing required tools
- 14) Install the bootloader
- 15) Install the network tools
Post-installation
Additions

See also How to manage packages on Arch Linux

If you use a VM:

Open VirtualBox
Click "New"
Click "Expert Mode"
- Name: Arch (or whatever you want to put)
- RAM: At least 512 MB (though >1024MB is recommended if you want to use a DE like GNOME or KDE)
- Hard disk: Create a virtual hard disk now
Click "Create"
- File Size: At least 5 GB (though >10GB is recommended)
- Hard disk file type: VDI
- Storage on physical HDD: Dynamically allocated
Click "Create"
Select the new VM
Click "Settings"
Go into the "Storage" tab
- Click on the CD/DVD icon
- On the right, select the location of the Arch iso
- Select "Live CD/DVD"
Go into the "Network " tab
- Click on "NAT"
- Select "Bridged adapter"
- Choose the network interface you want to use for the Virtual Machine (for example wlp4s0 and enp3s0 are two network interfaces)
Click "Ok"
Start the VM

NOTE: this will use MBR, meaning you'll use BIOS, not UEFI! If you want to use UEFI, follow these instructions: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#efi

If you use a real machine

Get a hold of a DVD/USB with at least 1GB of storage
- USB: Using a tool like Etcher, flash the ISO onto the USB
- DVD: using a tool like Brasero on Linux or ImgBurn on Windows, flash the ISO onto the DVD.
Put the DVD/USB in your machine
Open the BIOS/UEFI and modify the boot order, choosing the DVD/USB as the first boot device.

If you already have a machine running Linux, you can use dd to flash the ISO to your usb/dvd. For example, if you usb drive is /dev/sdc (check with lsblk), run the following command:

dd if=archiso.iso of=/dev/sdc status=progress bs=512M

Likewise, if you DVD slot is /dev/sd0, run the following command:

dd if=archiso.iso of=/dev/sd0 status=progress bs=512M

After starting the VM/Computer, choose "Arch Linux" from the bootloader (GRUB), then hit [ENTER]

Set the keyboard layout

To find out available keyboard layouts, run: ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz

Once you find your keyboard layout, run: loadkeys <keyboard-layout>: For example, I ran loadkeys it because my keyboard has an italian keyboard layout.

Verify the boot mode

Run this command: ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars.

If the command shows the directory without error, then the system is booted in UEFI mode. If the directory does not exist, the system may be booted in BIOS (or CSM) mode.

If the system did not boot in the mode you desired, refer to your motherboard's manual, or check your BIOS/UEFI settings; look for an option under "Boot" called "Prefer boot mode", it should be set to UEFI.

1) Connect to the internet

Let's connect using iwctl:

Run iwctl
In the iwctl prompt, type device list
Then, scan for available networks: station [DEVICE] scan ([DEVICE] is the Wi-Fi card, like wlp3s0)
Get a list of the Wi-Fi networks: station [DEVICE] get-networks
Connect to a network: station [DEVICE] connect [SSID] ([SSID] is the name of the Wi-Fi network)

If a passphrase is required, you will be prompted to enter it.

Alternatively, you can supply it as a command line argument: iwctl --passphrase "[WIFI PASSWORD]" station [DEVICE] connect [SSID]

If, for some reason, iwctl fails, run these two commands:

(If the wireless network interface isn't wlan0, use the one you have)

wpa_passphrase "My Network" "My passphrase" > wpa.conf
wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c wpa.conf

1.1) Check the network interfaces: ip link
1.2) If the above looks good, check if internet works: ping archlinux.org

1.3) If you can't connect to archlinux.org, make sure you run: dhcpcd <interface>
- 1.3.1) if you connect wirelessly, use wlp4s0, wlan0 or any other wireless interface
- 1.3.2) if you connect via ethernet, use enp2s0, eth0, or any other wired interface

1.4) If the above looks good, sync the clock: timedatectl set-ntp true

2) Partition the disk

Disk partitioning will be different if you use MBR or GPT:

On MBR systems, you'll use the BIOS, meaning you won't need the EFI System Partition.
On GPT systems, you'll use UEFI, meaning you will need the EFI System Partition.

NOTE: If you already have partitions (from Window$ or another Operating System), we need to delete them and convert the partition table to MBR/GPT.

First of all, remove all pre-existing file systems from SATA HDD/SSD: wipefs -a /dev/sda (If you use an NVMe drive, it is going to be called something like /dev/nvme0n1, check available disks with fdisk -l)

To make sure your changes to the partitions are synced with the Kernel, run partprobe.

Swap

Say you have a 250GB HDD and 4GB RAM. If you are going to be using your system as a Desktop, not compiling anything huge (for example, Firefox), I recommended that you reserve at least 4GB for swap space. If you have a lot of RAM (say, 32GB), 4GB will do just fine. However, if you have ~8GB RAM and you look forward to compiling big stuff (even infrequently), I recommend having a swap partition of at least 2 + (2 * RAM). In this case, we'll set a swap partition size of 8GB.

If you want to use other filesystems instead of Ext4, please see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_systems#Types_of_file_systems

MBR: Run fdisk /dev/sda, then type o, then w. Run cfdisk /dev/sda, then select dos. Now we need to create two partitions: the first partition will be the biggest partition, used for storage, the second partition will be the smallest partition, used for the swap.
- First partition (Ext4): DISK SPACE - SWAP = 250GB - 8GB = 242GB
- Second partition (SWAP): SWAP = 8GB.
How to partition the disk:
- Press New, Partition size 242G, Choose primary;
- Select Bootable;
- Press the down-arrow key, press New;
- Partition size 8G, Choose primary;
- Go to Type, Select Linux swap / Solaris.
- Press Write, then y to save changes to disk.
GPT: Run fdisk /dev/sda, then type g, then w. Run cfdisk /dev/sda, then select gpt. Now we need to create three partitions: the first partition will be the smallest partition, used for EFI, the second partition will be the biggest partition, used for storage, the third partition will be used for the swap.
- First partition (EFI System partition): EFI = 512M
- Second partition (Ext4): DISK SPACE - SWAP - EFI = 250G - 8G - 512M = 242G - 512M = 242 - 0.5G = 241.5G = 241G (remove any decimal places by rounding down)
- Third partition (SWAP): SWAP = 8G
How to partition the disk:
- Press New, Partition size 512M, Choose primary;
- Go to type, Select EFI System;
- Press the down-arrow key, press New;
- Partition size 241G, Choose primary;
- Go to type, Select Linux root (x86-64);
- Press the down-arrow key, press New;
- Partition size 8G, Choose primary;
- Go to type, Select Linux swap;
- Press Write, then y to save changes to disk.

Your partition table should look like this (sizes may vary):

MBR:

Device	Partition Type	Partition Size
/dev/sda1	Ext4	242G
/dev/sda2	Linux Swap	8G

GPT:

Device	Partition Type	Partition Size
/dev/sda1	EFI System	512M
/dev/sda2	Ext4	241G
/dev/sda3	Linux Swap	8G

3) Create the file system

MBR:
- Ext4: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
- SWAP: mkswap /dev/sda2
GPT:
- EFI: mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
- Ext4: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
- SWAP: mkswap /dev/sda3

4) Mount the partitions

MBR:
- Mount the Ext4 partition: mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
- Mount the SWAP partition: swapon /dev/sda2
GPT:
- Mount the EFI System partition: mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
- Mount the Ext4 partition: mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
- Mount the SWAP partition: swapon /dev/sda3

The partitions should be mounted like this (check with lsblk):

MBR:

Partition to mount	Mountpoint
/dev/sda1	/mnt
/dev/sda2	[SWAP]

GPT:

Partition to mount	Mountpoint
/dev/sda1	/mnt/boot/efi
/dev/sda2	/mnt
/dev/sda3	[SWAP]

5) Installation: modifying the mirror list

Update /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist:
- 5.1) vim /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
- 5.2) Select a server closest to you, for example Italy, and delete all of the lines, keeping only the server you chose. Alternatively, use the Pacman Mirrorlist Generator
- 5.3) Save and quit

6) Install essential packages

6.1) pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware linux-headers man-db man-pages bash-completion

7) Configuring the system: Fstab

7.1) Create fstab: genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

8) Configuring the system: Chroot

8.1) Change root into the new system: arch-chroot /mnt
8.2) Install vim to modify files: pacman -S vim

9) Localization

I will be using the Italian time; to see available timezones, run ls /usr/share/zoneinfo and select accordingly.

9.1) Timezone: ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Rome /etc/localtime
9.2) Sync the clock: hwclock --systohc
9.3) Set the language(s):
- 9.3.1) Edit /etc/locale.gen: vim /etc/locale.gen
- 9.3.2) Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8, then save and quit
- 9.3.3) Edit /etc/locale.conf: vim /etc/locale.conf
- 9.3.4) Add LANG=en_US.UTF-8, then save and quit
- 9.3.5) Generate the locale: locale-gen
9.4) Set the keyboard layout:
- 9.4.1) Edit /etc/vconsole.conf: vim /etc/vconsole.conf
- 9.4.2) Write KEYMAP=YOUR-KEYMAP:

Here after KEYMAP you need to type your keyboard's layout, you chose this before when you ran loadkeys <code>. I chose it because I use a keyboard with an Italian keyboard layout, meaning I wrote KEYMAP=it. See more here: https://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/vconsole.conf.5

After you're done, save and quit.

10) Network Configuration: hostname

10.1) Modify /etc/hostname: vim /etc/hostname
10.2) Write an hostname of your choice, like arch

11) Network Configuration: hosts

11.1) Modify /etc/hosts: vim /etc/hosts
11.2) Add the following lines:

# IPv4
127.0.0.1	localhost
127.0.1.1	<your hostname>.localdomain <your hostname>

# IPv6
::1		localhost

Where <your hostname> is the hostname you chose in /etc/hostname.

11.3) Save the file and exit

12) Set the root password

12.1) passwd

13) Add a new user:

For example I chose matteo so I will replace <user> with matteo.

13.1) useradd -m <user>
13.2) Add a password to the user: passwd <user>
13.3) Add the user to necessary groups: usermod -aG wheel,audio,video,optical,storage <user>
13.4) Check user is part of the groups we added above: groups <user>
13.5) Add user to sudoers: visudo
- 13.6) Search # %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL, remove the # at the beginning

14) Install the bootloader

MBR:
- GRUB: pacman -S grub os-prober freetype2 dosfstools
  - Install GRUB to disk: grub-install /dev/sda
  - Configure GRUB: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
GPT:
- GRUB: pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober freetype2 dosfstools
  - Install GRUB to disk: grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB
  - Configure GRUB: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
- rEFInd: pacman -S refind efibootmgr os-prober freetype2 dosfstools
  - Install rEFInd to disk: refind-install
  - NOTE: I also recommend using a custom theme; I use this one: https://github.com/munlik/refind-theme-regular

For other bootloaders, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_boot_process#Boot_loader

15) Install the network tools

15.1) pacman -S dhcpcd net-tools netctl dialog wpa_supplicant networkmanager nm-connection-editor inetutils ifplugd
15.2) Exit out of chroot: exit
15.3) After the above is done, enable dhcpcd, NetworkManager and ifplugd: systemctl enable {dhcpcd,NetworkManager,ifplugd}

16) Reboot

16.1) Poweroff the machine: poweroff
16.2) Remove the Arch Live CD/DVD/US/ISO from the VM/Computer
16.3) Start the VM/Computer

17) Post-installation

17.1) To login, type the <user>'s name
17.2) Type the password you chose for <user> (it will be invisible)

If you don't want to use Arch graphically, go to section number 20 (install necessary drivers)

18) Install X.Org

18.1) Install X.Org: sudo pacman -S xorg xorg-xinit
18.2) Select all packages by pressing [ENTER]

19) Install a Desktop Environment

NOTE: Instead of using a Desktop Environment, you can directly install a Window Manager. I use i3. If you would like to use i3, follow this guide I wrote here.

Please choose one of the following Desktop Environments:

Budgie: sudo pacman -S gdm budgie-desktop
Cinnamon (please read): sudo pacman -S cinnamon lightdm
Deepin (please read): sudo pacman -S deepin deepin-extra networkmanager lightdm
GNOME: sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extra networkmanager
KDE Plasma: sudo pacman -S plasma kde-applications sddm
LXDE: sudo pacman -S lxde lxdm
LXQt: sudo pacman -S lxqt breeze-icons sddm
MATE: sudo pacman -S mate mate-extra lightdm
XFCE: sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies lightdm

After installing Xorg, a Desktop Environment and its dependencies, enable the Display Manager (DM)

NOTE: If a Display Manager does not load, please refer to this page

GDM (Budgie, GNOME): sudo systemctl enable gdm
LightDM (Cinnamon, Deepin, MATE, XFCE): sudo systemctl enable lightdm
LXDM (LXDE): sudo systemctl enable lxdm
SDDM (KDE Plasma, LXQt): sudo systemctl enable sddm

20) Install necessary drivers

AMD: sudo pacman -S mesa xf86-input-libinput xf86-video-ati xf86-video-amdgpu vulkan-radeon amd-ucode
Intel: sudo pacman -S mesa xf86-input-libinput xf86-video-intel vulkan-intel intel-ucode
NVIDIA: sudo pacman -S mesa xf86-input-libinput nvidia xf86-video-nouveau nvidia-utils

(NOTE: other video drivers can be found in the xorg-drivers group)

21) Install audio sound system

sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa alsa-utils

You might also want to install some codecs (audio, image & video):

sudo pacman -S flac faac wavpack libmad opus libvorbis openjpeg libwebp x265 libde265 x264 libmpeg2 libvpx

Additions

The sections below contain various optional additions:

Touchpad tap to click;
Pacman easter egg;
Command not found;
Automatically enter a directory (without writing cd).

22) Enable touchpad tap to click

Since we installed xf86-input-libinput in section 20, we need to tweak the configuration.

22.1) Copy the default configuration: sudo cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
22.2) Enable touchpad tap to click: sudo vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
- 22.2.1) Find Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
- 22.2.2) Under Driver "libinput" add this line: Option "Tapping" "on"
- 22.2.3) Save and quit The touchpad config should look like this:
```
 Section "InputClass"
 	Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
 	MatchIsTouchpad "on"
 	MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
 	Driver "libinput"
 	Option "Tapping" "on"
 EndSection
```

23) Pacman easter egg

23.1) Modify /etc/pacman.conf: sudo vim /etc/pacman.conf
23.2) Find the line that says # Misc options
23.3) Remove the # before Color
23.4) Below #VerbosePkgLists add this line: ILoveCandy

Each time you will install a new package you will see a little pacman in the progress bar. The relevant /etc/pacman.conf should look like this:

# Misc options
#UseSysLog
Color
#TotalDownload
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ILoveCandy

24) Command-not-found

On Ubuntu there's a package called command-not-found: its job is to tell the user the name of package to install in order to run a specific command. On Arch Linux, we can use pkgfile.

24.1) Install pkgfile: sudo pacman -S pkgfile
24.2) Update the pkgfile database (if necessary, run with sudo): pkgfile -u
24.3) If you use bash, append the line below to .bashrc: vim ~/.bashrc

source /usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.bash

24.4) Save and quit. Done!

25) Automatically enter a directory

If you enter only the name of a directory (for example, /etc), cd into it.

25.1) Append the line below to .bashrc: vim ~/.bashrc (Append the line below)

shopt -s autocd

25.2) Save and quit. Done!

How to manage packages

How to manage packages on Arch Linux:

To upgrade Arch Linux, run: sudo pacman -Syu
To install a package, run: sudo pacman -S <package>
To remove a package, run: sudo pacman -Rns <package>
To search a package in the official repositories, run: pacman -Ss package-name
To search a package you installed, run: pacman -Qs package-name
To clear the package cache, run: sudo pacman -Sc
To list installed packages that are not needed, run: pacman -Qdt
To list packages installed via the AUR/PKGBUILDS, run: pacman -Qm
To list packages installed via pacman repos, run: pacman -Qn

For other commands, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman/Rosetta

Now you installed Arch Linux, enjoy!

You can improve these instructions by creating a new pull request, or by creating a new issue.

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