Arch Linux Installation Guide

Install MINIMAL Arch Linux from the very beginning…

Installation Medium

1. Download the latest iso file: Arch Linux Downloads

2. Download Rufus.

3. Prepare an USB memory stick (> 8GB) and flash the iso file into it.

Boot the Live Env

Enter BIOS and change the startup device to the USB you just made. Then reboot the computer.

Internet and Timezone

Unblock all software and hardware locks.

rfkill unblock all

Use iwctl to connect to the internet.

iwctl
[iwd] station wlan0 scan  # Scan
[iwd] station wlan0 get-networks  # List all available networks
[iwd] station wlan0 connect SSID  # Connect to the WIFI
[iwd] exit

Set timezone

timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Shanghai

Partition the Disk

Check current disk partition.

lsblk

Find the main disk of the computer. Normally the name is nvme0n1. Then partition this disk.

cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1

My partition layout:

Format the partitions.

mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p2
mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/nvme0n1p3

Mount partitions.

mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p2

Installation

Get mirrorlist. For me, it’s chinese.

curl -L 'https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=CN&protocol=https' -o /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Then uncomment one line in /et/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install basic packages. Mine is amd cpu, so I install the amd-ucode. If yours is intel cpu, you should install intel-ucode.

pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware amd-ucode vi neovim fish grub efibootmgr networkmanager sddm cliphist brightnessctl pipewire pipewire-audio pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack pipewire-alsa bluez bluez-utils blueman pavucontrol

Configure System

Generate fatab file.

genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
cat /mnt/etc/fstab  # Check

Enter the new system.

arch-chroot /mnt

Set timezone and localization.

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

Edit /etc/locale.gen, uncomment the line of en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8.

loclae-gen

Create /etc/locale.conf file and add the following.

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Add the hostname to /etc/hostname.

GRUB Configuration

We already installed grub and efibootmgr packages before. So now we need to install grub and genarate the configuration file.

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

Set password for root.

passwd

Exit and reboot system. Login as root.

Edit /etc/pacman.conf and uncomment the [multilib] part. At the bottom of the file, add the following text.

[archlinuxcn]
Server = https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/archlinuxcn/$arch

Then

pacman -S archlinuxcn-keyring
pacman -S yay

Start services.

systemctl enable --now NetworkManager
systemctl enable --now sddm.service
systemctl enable --now bluetooth.service

Install the graphic driver. For me, it’s amd gpu.

pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa xf86-video-amdgpu vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon

Add a normal user.

useradd -G wheel -m shane
passwd shane
visudo  # uncomment #%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
su - shane  # switch to the normal user

Next Step

So far you have installed the basic Arch Linux system. For next, you can choose your prefered window manager or the desktop environment.