Arch Manual Installation

See my alternative scripted installation here.

This is a minimal Arch installation for my own setup. I wrote this to keep track of the steps I have taken and it is definitely not a replacement for the far more detailed and comprehensive guide on the ArchWiki (which can be found here).

Table of Contents

• Get the ISO
• Install Arch
  • Configure keyboard layout
  • Connect to the internet (Wi-Fi)
  • Update system clock
  • Create partitions
  • Format partitions
  • Mount partitions
  • Update mirrors and package lists
  • Install base packages
  • Generate fstab file
  • Change root into new system
• Finish Setting Up
  • Update user account settings
  • Adjust clock, locale, language, keyboard layout
  • Set the hostname
  • Install bootloader (grub)
  • Exit chroot and reboot
  • Connect to internet on new system
• Install AUR helper (yay)
• Install Display manager
• Install Fonts
• Install Sound (pipewire)
• Install Graphics drivers (nvidia)
• Install WM
  • awesome
  • bspwm
• Install Themes
• Install More Useful Stuff
• Clone Dotfiles

Get the ISO

1. Download latest official Arch ISO.
2. Use Ventoy.
3. Boot with your Ventoy USB device.

Install Arch

Configure keyboard layout

loadkeys uk

Connect to the internet (Wi-Fi)

iwctl

Then in the iwctl prompt:

station wlan0 scan
station wlan0 get-networks
station wlan0 connect ...YOUR_SSID...

Update system clock

timedatectl set-timezone "Europe/London"
timedatectl set-ntp true

Create partitions

First, you can view current system partitions using:

lsblk
# OR
fdisk -l

Use the fdisk utility to create any required partition (here assuming you are using the disk nvme1n1):

fdisk /dev/nvme1n1
# Then follow instructions, do not write out using "w" until you are absolutely sure.

NB:

• EFI partition size recommended between 512MB to 1GB.
  • If installing alongside another OS (e.g. Windows), you can just use the existing EFI partition.
• Swap partition is optional, size recommended between $\sqrt{\text{RAM Size}}$ to $2 \times \text{RAM Size}$.
• Root partition should take up rest of the disk (however much free space you want or have left).

Format partitions

# Assuming you made a new partition nvme1n1p1 for EFI boot, format it.
# Otherwise, skip this step if using an existing EFI partition (e.g nvme0n1p1).
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme1n1p1

# Assuming you made a new partition nvme1n1p2 for swap, format it.
# Otherwise, skip this step if not using a swap (or have an existing swap partition).
mkswap /dev/nvme1n1p2

# Assuming your root partition is nvme1n1p3, format it.
# Commonly used filesystem is Ext4:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme1n1p3
# Or you can use BTRFS:
mkfs.btrfs /dev/nvme1n1p3

Mount partitions

# Mount the swap
swapon /dev/nvme1n1p2

# Mount the root partition to /mnt
mount /dev/nvme1n1p3 /mnt

# Mount the boot partition to /mnt/boot/efi
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi

Update mirrors and package lists

Use reflector to update the fastest mirrors for pacman.

reflector --country GB --protocol https --latest 10 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Make sure package lists are up to date.

pacman -Sy

Install base packages

Install some essential packages using pacstrap:

• Base and base development packages
• Linux kernel and header files
• Linux firmware
• Intel microcode (for Intel CPU)
• Basic text editors (vi and nano)
• Networking (using NetworkManager)
• Git

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-headers linux-firmware intel-ucode vi nano networkmanager git

Generate fstab file

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

# Have a look and check for errors.
nano /mnt/etc/fstab

If you want to mount some windows disks on startup:

# Find the UUID of the partitions you need to mount
blkid | grep ' UUID='

# Make some mount directories
mkdir -p /mnt/windows/c
mkdir -p /mnt/windows/d
# etc...

# Edit fstab
nano /etc/fstab
# Add new lines e.g.
#
# UUID=OUR_C_DRIVE_UUID /mnt/windows/c ntfs-3g defaults,nls=utf8,umask=000,dmask=027,fmask=137,uid=1000,gid=1000,windows_names 0 0
#
# and etc for the other drives.

Change root into new system

arch-chroot /mnt

You should now be root user in the new system.

Finish Setting Up

Update user account settings

Update the password for root user.

passwd

Create a new user account and then add them to sudoers.

useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash derry
passwd derry
sed -i 's/# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL/%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL/' /etc/sudoers

(Optional) Edit /etc/sudoers to allow non-sudo use of shutdown, reboot, mount, umount.

sed -i 's+# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL+%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/shutdown,/usr/bin/reboot,/sbin/mount,/sbin/umount+' /etc/sudoers

Adjust clock, locale, language, keyboard layout

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

Uncomment the correct line in /etc/locale.gen and generate the locales.

sed -i 's/#en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8/' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen

Set language and keyboard mapping.

echo "LANG=en_GB.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
echo "KEYMAP=uk" > /etc/vconsole.conf

Install and enable ntp.

pacman -S ntp
systemctl enable ntpd.service

Set the hostname

echo "myhostname" > /etc/hostname

Install bootloader (grub)

Install the bootloader, here we use Grub for EFI boot.

You can also use os-prober to detect other bootloaders - skip the last two steps if you don't need this.

pacman -S --needed grub os-prober efibootmgr
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=archlinux
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

# Uncomment os-prober in grub configs
sed -i 's/#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false/GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false/' /etc/default/grub

# Create the update-grub command
touch /usr/sbin/update-grub
echo '#!/bin/sh
set -e
exec grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg "$@"' > /usr/sbin/update-grub

# Then set file ownership to make it useable:
chown root:root /usr/sbin/update-grub
chmod 755 /usr/sbin/update-grub

# Update grub configs
update-grub

Exit chroot and reboot

Now you should have a minimal working system, exit out of the system, unmount the partitions and then reboot.

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Connect to internet on new system

Assuming you have successfully booted into new system, start up NetworkManager and connect to the internet.

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service

# Now configure the networking
nmtui

Install AUR helper (yay)

mkdir repos
cd repos
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si
yay -Y --gendb
yay -Syu --devel
yay -Y --devel --save

See more details here: https://github.com/Jguer/yay

Install Display manager

yay -S sddm qt5-quickcontrols2
sudo systemctl enable sddm.service

Apply a nice theme

# Clone and build theme
git clone https://github.com/GistOfSpirit/TerminalStyleLogin
bash TerminalStyleLogin/scripts/build.sh

# Make some edits
sed -i 's/fontSize=[0-9]\+/fontSize=18/' TerminalStyleLogin/theme.conf
sed -i 's/^\(.*{proxy.hostName}.*\)/\/\* \1 \*\//' TerminalStyleLogin/Main.qml

# Copy contents of build folder to /usr/share/sddm/themes/TerminalStyleLogin
mkdir -p /usr/share/sddm/themes/TerminalStyleLogin
cp -r TerminalStyleLogin/build/* /usr/share/sddm/themes/TerminalStyleLogin

# Set sddm theme
touch /etc/sddm.conf
echo "[Theme]
Current=TerminalStyleLogin" > /etc/sddm.conf

Install Fonts

yay -S adobe-source-code-pro-fonts adobe-source-han-sans-cn-fonts \
adobe-source-han-sans-jp-fonts adobe-source-han-sans-kr-fonts \
ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji ttf-font-awesome \
ttf-opensans ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation cantarell-fonts

Install Sound (pipewire)

yay -S pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-jack pipewire-pulse \
gst-plugin-firmware libpulse wireplumber pavucontrol

Install Graphics drivers (nvidia)

yay -S --needed nvidia nvidia-settings

Install WM

yay -S --needed xorg-server xbindkeys xclip xdo xorg-xbacklight xorg-xdpyinfo  \
xorg-xinit xorg-xinput xorg-xkill xorg-xrandr xorg-xsetroot archlinux-xdg-menu \
gvfs blueman volumeicon network-manager-applet ibus-pinyin \
picom thunar alacritty rofi dunst

awesome

yay -S --needed awesome-git

bspwm

yay -S --needed bspwm sxhkd polybar

Install Themes

yay -S bibata-cursor-theme-bin arc-gtk-theme-git \
papirus-icon-theme-git python-qdarkstyle qt5ct lxappearance

Install More Useful Stuff

yay -S --needed man-db tldr baobab bash-completion discord firewalld firefox \
fish fzf gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-keyring htop neovim \
polkit reflector tlp vlc xdg-user-dirs visual-studio-code-bin octopi spotify

sudo systemctl enable tlp
sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service
sudo systemctl enable firewalld

Clone Dotfiles

git clone --bare https://github.com/derryleng/dotfiles.git /home/derry/.dotfiles

# Set dotfiles alias if not done already
# alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
dotfiles checkout