Arch Linux Installation /w UEFI

Please read the requirements before starting the Arch Linux Install stage.

Requirements #

Outline/highlights the Arch Linux installation process:

1. Have internet access and live ISO Arch on bootable USB

2. Provide bootable USB, device and LAN cable

3. Make the device boot via bootable USB to go to live session

4. Connecting the live session to the internet using LAN cable

5. Preparing the partition in the live session

6. Crucial process to fill the partition with Arch Linux system root

7. Post-installation, preparing the user configuration and additional software

Device specification, the device specification used by the author when installing Arch Linux:

• Dell Latitude E7270 with UEFI motherboard firmware.
• Connected to the internet via LAN Cable.
• USB Bootable Arch ISO.

Partition specifications, disk size and partitions to be created during the installation process:

• / Root of 20GB
• /boot EFI Boot of 512MB
• swap Swap of 2GB
• /home Home for the remaining
• This partitioning assumes you are installing on an empty drive

Arch Linux Pre-Install #

Entering Arch Linux Live Session #

1. Plug the LAN cable and USB into the Device (off state), make sure this USB is bootable

2. Press the key combination to enter the BIOS menu of device, usually F1, F2, F8, F12 or Esc.

3. In the BIOS menu, change the first priority of booting to the Bootable USB

4. If the above steps are correct, then you will enter the Arch Linux live session.

Arch Linux Install #

Connect to The Internet #

Since you’re using a LAN cable, it’s automatically connected to the network. If you are using wi-fi, see this article.

Test respond with ping 8.8.8.8

Preaparing Partition #

Locate the disk you want to install arch with fdisk -l or lsblk. Disks usually have names like /dev/sda, /dev/vda, or /dev/nvme0n1. Commonly, if you have a SSD or HDD it is sda, sdb, sdc, ..., vda, vdb, ... for virtual disks, and nvme0n1, nvme0n2,... for NVMe.

Run commands below:

### substitute "/dev/sda" with yourself, e.g: /dev/vda ###
> cfdisk /dev/sda

A GUI will appear, create partitions following the order and recommendations of the table below:

If you are confused about how to provide the partition size, see the message below when you are told to input the number of partitions, 512M for 512MB, 2G for 2GB, and so on.

If so, it’s time to format the partition, follow these commands in order:

> mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1
> mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
> mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4

/dev/sda2 is the swap partition, enable swap by:

> mkswap /dev/sda2
> swapon /dev/sda2

It’s time to mount the root partition to /mnt so you can install Arch later:

> mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

Create /mnt/boot and /mnt/home to prepare mounting boot and home partitions:

> mkdir -p /mnt/boot
> mkdir -p /mnt/home

Mount the partitions:

> mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
> mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home

Check with lsblk or fdisk -l and make sure everything is correct. According to the table, the right partition will look like this:

Installing Base/Root System #

Install Arch base and required packages with:

# pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware vim nano networkmanager wpa_supplicant grub man-db man-pages xdg-user-dirs efibootmgr

Wait, till it finishes.

Before entering your new arch system, generate fstab with the command:

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

Post-Install Arch Linux #

Essential Configs #

Chroot into your new arch system:

> arch-chroot /mnt

Timezone Config:

> ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jakarta /etc/localtime
> hwclock --systohc

Edit /etc/locale.gen with:

> nano /etc/locale.gen

And remove # on en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 line.

1. ctrl + O to save
2. ctrl + X to exit

Generate locale with:

> locale-gen

Create locale.conf with:

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

Sets hostname with:

> echo "your_hostname" > /etc/hostname

To resolve your hostname, add this to /etc/hosts (edit file):

127.0.0.1        localhost
::1              localhost
127.0.1.1        your_hostname

Add a password for your root with the passwd command.

Additionally, it’s a best practices to create a non-root user with:

> useradd -mG wheel user_name
> passwd user_name

Give sudo access for wheel group with:

> EDITOR=nano visudo

Search for Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command, and ramove leading # before %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL, save and exit.

Enable NetworkManager service with:

> systemctl enable NetworkManager

Don’t forget to generate GRUB, if you doesn’t, it can’t get inside the system.

> grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
> grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Reboot #

Exit chroot with exit if you think all set up.

Before reboot, unmount the partitions first:

> umount -R /mnt

Reboot with reboot.

Login #

Login to your just created user, then fetch for the latest repo update with:

> sudo pacman -Syu

Install gnome desktop:

> pacman -S gnome gnome-tweaks gnome-extensions xorg-server gnome-terminal
> sudo systemctl enable gdm

Then reboot again for the results.