This repo is made to have a custom installation process and configuration for ArchLinux.
Inspired from this guide
- SSD 256 GigaBytes
- 8 GigaBytes of RAM
- Swiss French keyboard
- UEFI boot mode
- LVM partitionning
- Home directory in separated partition
- Systemd bootloader
The best way I found to make a UEFI usb stick is to use Rufus. Unfortunately it's only available on Windows. Dowload the latest arch iso on the official website. And burn it to a usb stick using Rufus. Make sure it's in UEFI - GPT mode.
Boot pressing F9 and select the usb stick. Normally the Arch loader should appear, select first entry.
Default keyboard layout is US. You can change to swiss keyboard with $ loadkeys fr_CH-latin1 command. Revert with $ loadkeys us.
If you have no ethernet plug in your laptop don't worry ! You can either plug a usb adapter or use your phone USB connexion sharing. Make a $ ip a to see if you have an IP. If you don't make sure your interface is up. $ ip link set interface up to enable it. Replace interface by your interface's name, you see it with $ ip a. Then run $ dhcpcd to find a available IP address and automatically assign it to your interface.
I suggest to use fdisk to partition the disk. $ gdisk /dev/sda to go in interractive partitioning. Press o to create a new GPT partition table.
Press n to create a new partition. Accept the defaults for the partition number and first sector. For the last sector enter +512M. When it asks to choose a partition type, enter EF00 that means: EFI System Partition.
Press n again to create a new partition. Accept all defaults but the partition type. At this moment enter 8e00 that means: Linux LVM.
Press w to write changes.
As we have created an EFI System Partition on /dev/sda1, we'll create our physical on /dev/sda2. We just have to enter the command $ pvcreate /dev/sda2. $ pvdisplay to see the freshly created PV.
The volume group will be the container inside the PV. A VG can be on multiple PV but in our case we have only one PV. So let's say that it's basically the same thing. Anyway we have to make one: $ vgcreate ARCH /dev/sda2. You'll be later able to access it with /dev/ARCH/your-logical-volume from the live session. It will be /dev/mappers/ARCH-your-logical-volume from your final arch install.
We'll need at least two logical volumes. But we'll make three to have the home directory in a sepparated LV.
- Swap 8G (
/dev/ARCH/swapand/dev/mappers/ARCH-swap). - Root 50G (
/dev/ARCH-LVM/rootand/dev/mappers/ARCH-root). - Home will take the remaining space (
/dev/ARCH-LVM/homeand/dev/mappers/arch-home). The command to create a logical volume is:$ lvcreate -L <size> <volume_group> -n <logical_volume>.
For exemple: $ lvcreate -L 8G ARCH -n swap.
For the home directory it's a bit different because we want to take all the remaining space. It will be: lvcreate -l 100%FREE ARCH -n home. Look at the lowercase -l option ;).
To create the file system, we'll use a tool called mkfs. We'll have different types of file systems.
| Partitions's name | File system | Command |
|---|---|---|
| sda1 | fat32 | $ mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1 |
| ARCH-swap | swap | $ mkswap /dev/ARCH/swap |
| ARCH-root | ext4 | $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/ARCH/root |
| ARCH-home | ext4 | $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/ARCH/home |
First we'll mount the root partition in /mnt using mount tool. Enter $ mount /dev/ARCH/root /mnt. Then we'll have to make two directories: one for the home partition and one for the ESP. So run $ mkdir /mnt/home and $ mkdir /mnt/boot. Then mount home and ESP in those directories. $ mount /dev/ARCH/home /mnt/home and $ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot.
For the swap it's a bit different, we don't mount that partition. We swapon that partition: $ swapon /dev/ARCH/swap.
You can manage the mirrors in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist if you want. The upper they are in the file, the more they'll be chosen. You can also comment some of them if you don't want them at all. Personnally, I don't care, it's only the mirrors for the live iso session, not the final system.
To install just run $ pacstrap /mnt. Then just wait a few moment.
The fstab is used to tell your system which partition to mount at startup. First let's generate it and see what appens: $ genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab. Our partitions will be identified by their UUID, it's less convenient to use but it avoids system's change issues. If you have mounted your partitions and the swap correctly, it should have generate a correct fstab.
Now make $ cat /mnt/etc/fstab. You sould see four partitions: root, home, swap and ESP. If it's not the case, open this file with vim, add a line and run :r !lsblk -f(append command output). It will append the output of this command in the file. Then you'll be able to copy/paste the UUID of the missing partition (select copy and paste).
Now we want to move from the iso live session to our system. We'll use $ arch-chroot /mnt.
$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich /etc/localtime then $ hwclock --systohc. Now you should have the correct time when you run $ date.
First uncomment the desired locales in /etc/locale.gen. Then run $ locale-gen. Choose the one you want as primary language by setting the LANG parameter in /etc/locale.conf. For exemple: LANG=en_US.UTF-8.
You can also set the keymap in /etc/vconsole.conf like this: KEYMAP=fr_CH-latin1.
Simply write the hostname in /etc/hostname and consider adding a matching entry in /etc/hosts.
We want to boot with systemd and LVM, which is not the case by default. We'll need to edit the file /etc/mkinitcpio.conf under HOOKS=.... We'll replace udev by systemd and add sd-lvm2 between block and filesystems. Then run $ mkinitcpio -p linux.
Simply run passwd.
Official documentation
Download the package intel-ucode: $ pacman -S intel-ucode. Run the command $ bootctl install. You'd got an error, don't worry we'll create this file mannually. Run $ vim /boot/loader/loader.conf and write:
default arch-lvm
timeout 4
editor 1
Then run $ vim /boot/loader/entries/arch-lvm.conf and write:
title Arch Linux (LVM)
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=UUID=<your-root-partition-UUID>
May the force be with you