Two years ago (TWO YEARS!! auch) I wrote this tutorial of Archlinux installation (in Spanish). At that time, I kept using MBR instead of GPT (recommended).
Some weeks ago, Kaleidos renewed our computers, so I had to install ArchLinux again. It happened I tried several times before finding the “key” (dammed key!). So here is a new brand tutorial to install Archlinux with GPT to save some of your precious time.
Disclaimer: this tutorial covers the manual installation of ArchLinux. If you want to make it easier, I recommend you to try Manjaro Linux, which is an Arch with an assistant for the installation.
Disclaimer: some of the readers may have their own locale configuration; this tutorial is set in spanish, and it's your responsability to choose your own language settings.
- Get the source
You can download the iso from the official page. Then you need to copy to a pendrive:
dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux-dual.iso of=/dev/sdc && sync
Achtung!!: I wrote /dev/sdc but it's your responsability to find the device (maybe it's in /dev/sdb). Also, you don't copy into a specific partition inside the drive but in the whole drive; and all the information in the drive will be deleted with this command.
-
Load this OS from USB
-
Set the keyboard display
$ loadkeys es
-
Let's make the partition table
$ gdisk /dev/sda # usually is /dev/sda but make sure!
and in the interactive console
? # for help n # for new partition particion number # enter for recommended starting sector (xxx) # enter for recommended sector ending sector # +1MB type # ef02 (bios boot)
In my case, I created these partitions:
- /dev/sda1 - 1Mb - EF02 (bios boot). this is a mandatory partition for GPT
- /dev/sda2 - 2Gb - 8200 (swap)
- /dev/sda3 - 50Gb - 8300 (linux system). This is the / (root) particion
- /dev/sda4 - 250Gb - 8302 (home). This is the /home partition
After creating the partitions, enter w to save changes.
-
Format the partition table and enable swap Given the former partition table, you will need to formart partitions 3 and 4:
$ mkfs.xfs /dev/sda3 $ mkfs.xfs /dev/sda4
Also, you need to enable the swap partition:
$ mkswap /dev/sda2 # set the swap area
$ swapon /dev/sda2 # Enable swap.
# This last step is optional because systemd
# will enable automatically the swap after reboot.
-
Mount the partitions
$ mount /dev/sda3 /mnt $ mkdir /mnt/home $ mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home
-
Let's install! For this step you need internet. If you use ethernet connection, the computer is connected automatically; if you use WiFi, you can use wifi-menu to connect to a network. And then:
$ pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
(you may wait a little… be patient)
-
Done! Now we are going to create a fstab file
$ genfstab -Up /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
-
We leave the ISO environment and enter the fresh installation
$ arch-chroot /mnt
Congratulations!! You have just installed ArchLinux. Now it's time to grab a coffee and walk the dog. Next steps are mostly about configuration and details.
-
Set the hostname of the machine
$ vi /etc/hostname
add the name for your machine. I chose “aran”
-
Set the timezone (Spain for my case)
$ ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Madrid /etc/localtime
-
Configure locales
vi /etc/locale.conf
and write the following
LANG="en_US.UTF-8” LC_TIME="es_ES.UTF-8” LC_COLLATE="C”
vi /etc/vconsole.conf
and add the following
KEYMAP=es
vi /etc/locale.gen
In this file, it's necessary to uncomment
the locales we want to be available;
at least, we need to uncomment the
locales used in the
locale.conf
file.
After this editions:
$ locale-gen
-
We need to create a boot image
$ vi /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
we add necessary MODULES. At least,
we have to add all filesystems we are using
MODULES="libata ext3 ext4 xfs”
After this edition:
$ mkinitcpio -p linux
-
Now, it's grub time
$ pacman -S grub $ grub-install –target=i386-pc –recheck /dev/sda
After installing, we create the configuration:
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
-
Set root password
$ passwd
and enter a new and secure password, for instance dragon,
mom, password or the very very secure p4ssw0rd
(well, it's a joke, those are not definitely secure passwords)
-
And…
$ exit $ umount /dev/sda4 $ umount /dev/sda3 $ shutdown -r now # reboot!!
As you can see, there are some steps, but all of them are small, so be patient and read carefully. Would you like to continue? :)
-
Create new user and give it some privileges group related
$ useradd -m -g wheel -s /bin/bash yami $ usermod -aG network yami $ usermod -aG video yami $ usermod -aG audio yami $ usermod -aG optical yami $ usermod -aG storage yami $ usermod -aG power yami $ usermod -aG dbus yami
-
Enable multilib repository for pacman
$ vi /etc/pacman.conf
and uncomment next lines
#[multilib] #SigLevel = PackageRequired #Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
And update the system:
$ pacman -Syu
And that's all! From this point, you may want to install a desktop environment like Gnome or a window manager like DWM, and your themes and favourite applications.