Arch Linux installation guide Link to heading
Introduction Link to heading
My Notes on Installing Arch Linux
Download the ISO Link to heading
First, download the ISO here https://www.archlinux.org/download/ and burn to a drive.
Inital setup Link to heading
Check if the system is under UEFI:
ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
Ensure the system clock is accurate
timedatectl set-ntp true
Disk management Link to heading
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_system_partition
Assuming that your drive is /dev/sda. Use lsblk to find your drive
fdisk /dev/sda
UEFI/GPT:
| Partition | Space | Type |
|---|---|---|
| /dev/sda1 | xG | Linux Filesystem |
| /dev/sda2 | xG | Home Partition |
| /dev/sda3 | xG | Linux swap |
| /dev/sda4 | 512M | EFI System |
BIOS/MBR:
| Partition | Space | Type |
|---|---|---|
| /dev/sda1 | xG | Linux Filesystem |
| /dev/sda2 | xG | Home Partition |
| /dev/sda3 | xG | Linux swap |
File systems Link to heading
/ partition:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
/home partition:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home
swap partition:
mkswap /dev/sda3
swapon /dev/sda3
/boot partition: (UEFI/GPT)
Warning: Only format the EFI system partition if you created it during the partitioning step. If there already was an EFI system partition on disk beforehand, reformatting it can destroy the boot loaders of other installed operating systems.
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda4
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/EFI
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/boot/EFI
Install system Link to heading
Install the base packages:
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware zsh neovim
System setup Link to heading
Generate fstab:
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Enter the chroot:
arch-chroot /mnt
Set timezone:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
Set locale :
sed -i 's/#en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen
Generate locales:
locale-gen
Set default locale:
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
Set hostname:
Replace $HOSTNAME with a name you prefer
echo "$HOSTNAME" > /etc/hostname
/etc/hosts file:
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.1.1 $HOSTNAME.localdomain $HOSTNAME
Set root password:
passwd
Microcode Link to heading
Intel Link to heading
pacman -S intel-ucode
AMD Link to heading
pacman -S amd-ucode
Bootloader: GRUB Link to heading
UEFI/GPT Link to heading
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
BIOS/MBR Link to heading
pacman -S grub dosfstools
grub-install /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Networking: NetworkManager Link to heading
pacman -S networkmanager
systemctl enable NetworkManager
Reboot! (Optional) Link to heading
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot
User accounts Link to heading
Add user:
useradd -m -g wheel,video -c 'Full name' -s /usr/bin/zsh username
passwd username
Admin Privileges Link to heading
Sudo Link to heading
sudo already comes with the base-devel package
Uncomment the line %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL :
sed -i 's/#%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL/%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL/g' /etc/sudoers
OpenDoas Link to heading
pacman -S opendoas
Add this to /etc/doas.conf :
permit :wheel
permit persist :wheel
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd pacman args -Syu
The owner and group for /etc/doas.conf should both be 0 ,file permissions should be set to 0400:
chown -c root:root /etc/doas.conf
chmod -c 0400 /etc/doas.conf
Desktop Environment: Plasma KDE Link to heading
pacman -S plasma
Display Manager: SDDM Link to heading
pacman -S sddm
systemctl enable --now sddm
AUR Helper: paru Link to heading
I prefer paru
Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.
Note : Running makepkg as root is not allowed
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
$ cd paru
$ makepkg -sirc
Installing Thermald Link to heading
“thermald is a Linux daemon used to prevent the overheating of Intel CPUs. This daemon monitors temperature and applies compensation using available cooling methods.”
doas pacman -S thermald
doas systemctl enable --now thermald.service
Enabling Hardware Acceleration Link to heading
Enabling hardware acceleration is important, it’ll use your laptops GPU for video decoding or encoding instead of your CPU, it will make your laptop run cooler and faster while saving power this can resolve issues like videos stuttering and your laptop being hot while watching videos, I recommend looking into the Arch Wiki guide hardware acceleration for applications below after you’ve set this up.
run lspci | grep VGA to see your GPU
For Intel GPU’s 2014 and newer I recommend you install doas pacman -S intel-media-driver - From Arch Wiki. > “HD Graphics series starting from Broadwell (2014) and newer are supported by intel-media-driver.”
For Intel GPU’s 2013 and older I recommend you install doas pacman -S libva-intel-driver - From Arch Wiki > “GMA 4500 (2008) and newer GPUs, including HD Graphics up to Coffee Lake (2017) are supported by libva-intel-driver.”
You’ll also want to sudo pacman -S libvdpau-va-gl libva-utils vdpauinfo
run export LIBVA\_DRIVER\_NAME=iHD - (If you installed intel-media-driver)
run export LIBVA\_DRIVER\_NAME=i965 - (If you install libva-intel-driver)
run export VDPAU\_DRIVER=va\_gl
run vainfo to confirm everything is working.
run vdpauinfo to confirm everything is working.
If everything is working run doas nano /etc/environment and add LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD or LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965 (Depending on which driver you installed.) Then add VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl save and exit.
Here is the Arch Wiki guide to hardware acceleration for NVIDIA and AMD users.
I recommend looking at this to enable hardware acceleration in applications.
On the hardware acceleration Arch Wiki page check if your GPU and hardware acceleration driver can decode VP9 if it can’t install the h264ify browser extension otherwise you wont be able to watch stuff like YouTube videos with hardware video decoding keep in mind h264ify will disable resolutions above 1080p.