Install Arch Linux

Install Arch Linux is thing I always want to do for my laptop/PC since I had my laptop in ninth grade.

This is not a guide for everyone, this is just save for myself in a future and for anyone who want to walk in my shoes.

Installation guide

Pre-installation

Check disks carefully:

lsblk

USB flash installation medium

Verify the boot mode

Check UEFI mode:

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Connect to the internet

For wifi, use iwd.

Partition the disks

GPT fdisk:

cgdisk /dev/sdx

Partition scheme

UEFI/GPT layout:

Mount point	Partition	Partition type	Suggested size
`/mnt/efi`	`/dev/efi_system_partition`	EFI System Partition	512 MiB
`/mnt/boot`	`/dev/extended_boot_loader_partition`	Extended Boot Loader Partition	1 GiB
`/mnt`	`/dev/root_partition`	Root Partition

Why not /boot/efi? See Lennart Poettering comment.

BIOS/GPT layout:

Mount point	Partition	Partition type	Suggested size
		BIOS boot partition	1 MiB
`/mnt`	`/dev/root_partition`	Root Partition

LVM:

# Create physical volumes
pvcreate /dev/sdaX

# Create volume groups
vgcreate RootGroup /dev/sdaX /dev/sdaY

# Create logical volumes
lvcreate -l +100%FREE RootGroup -n rootvol

Format:

# efi
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/efi_system_partition

# boot
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/extended_boot_loader_partition

# root
mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/root_partition

# root with btrfs
mkfs.btrfs -L ROOT /dev/root_partition

# root on lvm
mkfs.ext4 /dev/RootGroup/rootvol

Mount:

# root
mount /dev/root_partition /mnt

# root with btrfs
mount -o compress=zstd /dev/root_partition /mnt

# root on lvm
mount /dev/RootGroup/rootvol /mnt

# efi
mount --mkdir /dev/efi_system_partition /mnt/efi

# boot
mount --mkdir /dev/extended_boot_loader_partition /mnt/boot

Installation

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware

# AMD
pacstrap -K /mnt amd-ucode

# Intel
pacstrap -K /mnt intel-ucode

# Btrfs
pacstrap -K /mnt btrfs-progs

# LVM
pacstrap -K /mnt lvm2

# Text editor
pacstrap -K /mnt neovim

Configure

fstab

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

Chroot

arch-chroot /mnt

Time zone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

hwclock --systohc

Localization:

Edit /etc/locale.gen:

# Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Generate locales:

locale-gen

Edit /etc/locale.conf:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Network configuration

Edit /etc/hostname:

myhostname

Initramfs

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:

# LVM
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Install_Arch_Linux_on_LVM#Adding_mkinitcpio_hooks
HOOKS=(base udev ... block lvm2 filesystems)

# https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/mkinitcpio#Common_hooks
# Replace udev with systemd

mkinitcpio -P

Root password

passwd

Addition

NetworkManager (WIP)

pacman -Syu networkmanager dhcpcd iwd
systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
systemctl enable systemd-resolved.service

Edit /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/dns.conf:

[main]
dns=systemd-resolved

Edit /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/dhcp-client.conf:

[main]
dhcp=dhcpcd

Edit /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi_backend.conf:

[device]
wifi.backend=iwd

See dhcpcd

Append /etc/dhcpcd.conf

noarp
nohook resolv.conf

Bluetooth

pacman -Syu bluez
systemctl enable bluetooth.service

Clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

Boot loader

systemd-boot

Install using XBOOTLDR:

bootctl --esp-path=/efi --boot-path=/boot install

systemctl enable systemd-boot-update.service

Label partition

Edit /efi/loader/loader.conf:

default	archlinux.conf
timeout 4
editor no
console-mode max

Edit /boot/loader/entries/archlinux.conf:

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux

# Intel
initrd /intel-ucode.img

# AMD
initrd /amd-ucode.img

initrd /initramfs-linux.img

# Kernel parameters
#
# Acer Nitro AN515-45
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/backlight#Kernel_command-line_options
# acpi_backlight=vendor
#
# NVIDIA
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA#DRM_kernel_mode_setting
# nvidia-drm.modeset=1
options root="LABEL=ROOT" rw

General recommendations

Always remember to check dependencies when install packages.

System administration

Sudo:

pacman -Syu sudo

EDITOR=nvim visudo
# Uncomment group wheel

# Add user if don't want to use systemd-homed
useradd -m -G wheel -c "The Joker" joker

# Or using zsh
useradd -m -G wheel -s /usr/bin/zsh -c "The Joker" joker

# Set password
passwd joker

systemd-homed (WIP):

systemctl enable systemd-homed.service

homectl create joker --real-name="The Joker" --member-of=wheel

# Using zsh
homectl update joker --shell=/usr/bin/zsh

Note: Can not run homectl when install Arch Linux. Should run on the first boot.

Desktop Environment

Install Xorg:

pacman -Syu xorg-server

GNOME

pacman -Syu gnome-shell \
	gnome-control-center gnome-system-monitor power-profiles-daemon \
	gnome-tweaks gnome-backgrounds gnome-firmware \
	gnome-console gnome-text-editor \
	nautilus xdg-user-dirs-gtk xdg-desktop-portal evince eog

# Login manager
pacman -Syu gdm
systemctl enable gdm.service

List of applications

pacman

Uncomment in /etc/pacman.conf:

# Misc options
Color
ParallelDownloads

Pipewire (WIP)

pacman -Syu pipewire wireplumber \
	pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse \
	gst-plugin-pipewire pipewire-v4l2

See Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

pacman -Syu sof-firmware

Flatpak (WIP)

pacman -Syu flatpak

Improving performance

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/swap#Swap_file

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/swap#Swappiness

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Journal#Journal_size_limit

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Core_dump#Disabling_automatic_core_dumps

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_state_drive#Periodic_TRIM

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Silent_boot

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Improving_performance#Watchdogs

In the end

This guide is updated regularly I promise.

Feel free to ask me via email or Mastodon. Source code is available on GitHub