Installing Arch Linux

Setting up USB Boot Media

Windows Installation

When dual-booting both Windows and Arch Linux, install Windows first using a smaller partition and install any software required.

Installation

First, boot the Arch Linux USB stick onto the computer of choice. After finished loading, you should see a command terminal.

To increase font size during install, use:

setfont /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/latarcyrheb-sun32.psfu.gz

Connect To Internet

Wired, use ping to confirm access.

Wireless

Run the following commands:

iwctl
device list
station wlan0 get-networks
station wlan0 connect SSID
exit

Verify access with ping google.com

Synchronize Clock

To set the clock, run:

timedatectl set-ntp true
timedatectl status

Set up Partitions

If needed, set up partitions for the overall system. First, use parted -l to determine both:

If needed, convert to GPT using fdisk disk.

Use cfdisk to create the following partitions (remember when sizing, you can use +512M for ease):

Format & Mount Partitions

Now format the partitions (using parted -l to list disks):

mkfs.ext4 PRIMARY_DISK
mkswap SWAP_DISK
swapon SWAP_DISK

Mount the newly formatted partitions:

mount PRIMARY_DISK /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount EFI_DISK /mnt/boot

Perform Arch Installation

Install base Arch Linux:

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware nano grub efibootmgr networkmanager git firefox sudo

Generate an fstab file:

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

Change root into the new system to set time zone and localization:

arch-chroot /mnt

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Detroit /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Change the default console font size at /etc/vconsole.conf:

FONT=latarcyrheb-sun32

Generate locales and set locale:

# comment out needed locales
nano /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen

nano /etc/locale.conf
# set content to LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Set up network configuration (computer name):

# set computer name
nano /etc/hostname

# configure hosts file, add contents below
nano /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	YOUR_HOSTNAME.localdomain	YOUR_HOSTNAME

Create a root password with passwd.

Configure GRUB boot loader:

grub-install /dev/sda --efi-directory=/boot

Add the Windows partition to boot menu options in the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom:

menuentry "Windows 10" {
    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root UUID_OF_EFI_PARTITION
    chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

(Optional) Create Non-Root User

You’ll want to perform your daily activities without using the root user.

useradd -m dfar
passwd dfar
usermod -aG wheel,audio,video,optical,storage dfar

Edit the /etc/sudoers file and allow users of wheel group to execute any command.

Conclusion

Finally, reboot the system:

exit
shutdown now

To verify, remove the USB stick used for installation, and turn on the computer.

You should be able to log in as either the root user or the newly created user specified earlier. If you end up at the terminal, you’ve successfully installed Arch Linux!

Next step involves configuring the base system.