Arch Linux installation guide

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Install Arch on nvme drive, UEFI system

Change layout

I will set the layout in French, because I am French.

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loadkeys fr

Set password

This is the first step for me, because without password I can’t use SSH.

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passwd

Connect via SSH

I will use ssh to copy past the commands,
To get you’r IP addresse.

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ip a

look like this for me: 192.168.0.25

On your other computer open a terminal or putty of what you want to connect via SSH.

Partitions

to see your hard drive.

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fdisk -l

Delete them.

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cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1
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cfdisk /dev/sda

Create 3 partition,

1: 512Mb EFI

2: 20Gb File system (root)

2: 80Gb File system (home)

And Format them:

This one for EFI

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mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1

The two other like this:

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mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2
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mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p3

Them mount the root partition

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mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt/home

Install the system

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pacstrap -i /mnt base linux linux-firmware sudo nano

Generate fstab file

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

Chroot to the installed system

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arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Set root password

To set a root password

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passwd

Create a new user

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useradd peanutstick -m

set the password

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passwd peanutstick

Set locale

uncomment the right line, for me it’s fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8, because I am French!

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nano /etc/locale.gen

now generate it.

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locale-gen

Create a locale.conf file.

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echo "LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

Set the time zone

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ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/

Now select your time zone

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ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris /etc/localtime

Set local time

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hwclock --systohc --utc

To check it:

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date

Set hostname

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echo peanutstick > /etc/hostname

Also add the name in /etc/hosts

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nano /etc/hosts

it should look like this:

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127.0.0.1       localhost
::1             localhost
127.0.1.1       peanutstick

Enable network

Install the network manager:

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pacman -S networkmanager

Enable it:

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systemctl enable NetworkManager

If you don’t do this part, your computer will not be able to connect to the network and you will not be able to download the packet.

Install GRUB

Install Grub and efibootmgr

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pacman -S grub efibootmgr

install the bootlader:

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mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /boot/efi
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --efi-directory=/boot/efi --removable
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Reboot

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exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Change boot order

don’t pull out the USD stick, and select the last option to change the settings.

Set the right boot order, to boot on your hdd or ssd.

Disable speaker

My computer do a big BIP when I press tab or do something wrong:

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rmmod pcspkr

To make it persistent:

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nano /etc/modprobe.d/nobeep.conf

And write:

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blacklist pcspkr

Permanent KEYMAP

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nano /etc/vconsole.conf

I will write:

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KEYMAP=fr

Add User to Sudoers

As root:

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nano /etc/sudoers

add this to the end:

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peanutstick ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

Be careful, the user can be root by just typing sudo su, sudo /bin/bash and more

Install sshd

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pacman -S openssh

Swap File

You probably have noticed that I have not created a Swap partition.

It’s because this guy in this tutorial recommend to use swap file: https://averagelinuxuser.com/linux-swap/

Create a Swap file of 3G or whatever your RAM size is:

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fallocate -l 3G /swapfile

Change its access rules, format and enable it:

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chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile

Also, add this Swap file to the /etc/fstab:

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echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

And check if the Swap file is working:

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free -m

Install X window system and audio

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pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa xorg xorg-xinit xorg-server

Enter to select all.

Install desktop environment

Install xorg:

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sudo pacman -S xorg xorg-server

This is for mate.

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sudo pacman -S mate mate-extra lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter

But I preffer Xfce:

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sudo pacman -S --needed xfce4 mousepad parole ristretto thunar-archive-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin xfce4-battery-plugin xfce4-datetime-plugin xfce4-mount-plugin xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-notifyd xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin xfce4-screensaver xfce4-taskmanager xfce4-wavelan-plugin xfce4-weather-plugin xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin file-roller network-manager-applet leafpad epdfview galculator lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings capitaine-cursors arc-gtk-theme xdg-user-dirs-gtk

Enable the lightDM service to start on boot.

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sudo systemctl enable lightdm

Finally, reboot your ArchLinux system.

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sudo reboot