Arch Linux: Updated Basic Installation Guide.

First of all, this is an up-to-date guide to the installation process of the base system of Arch based on the guidelines of GESPADAS and Arch Linux unofficial guide.

There is nothing new to tell since both are excellent but for those who decide to install and test it, this guide aims to be useful and is updated to the latest ISO released from the distribution that includes SYSTEMD by default.

Although I already have some experience with the distribution, I have noticed that there are some details in the process and therefore I will make some corrections to it.

INSTALLATION MEDIA:

Once the image is downloaded there are 2 possible options:

• Burn the image to a CD / DVD with the corresponding program (K3B, Brasero, XFBurn, etc).
• Use a USB stick or PENDRIVE (use dd command).

BOOTING AND INITIAL PREPARATIONS

Depending on the type of Processor we have (32 or 64 Bits) we choose the one that corresponds:

Once the process is finished, the prompt will be shown already logged in as ROOT.

KEYBOARD AND ALPHABET

First of all, you have to set the keyboard configuration, for this you have to write the following:

# loadkeys distribucion teclado

For example, if you want to use keyboards in Latin American Spanish, use la-latin1 or if it is Spanish Spain or traditional, just es. For further reference consult here.

The type of characters must be changed, because most languages ​​use more signs than the 26 letters of the English alphabet. Otherwise, some strange characters may appear as white squares or other symbols. To avoid the above, you must specify:

#setfont Lat2-Terminus16

LANGUAGE IN INSTALLATION

By default, the language is set to US English. To change the language for the installation process (Spanish, for example), remove the sign # in front of local you want located in the file /etc/locale.gen, along with English (USA).

# nano /etc/locale.gen
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_ES.UTF-8 UTF-8

Press Ctrl X to exit, and when it asks you to save the changes, press Y and then Intro to use the same file name.

Outlining the above, please execute the following:

# locale-gen 
# export LANG = es_ES.UTF-8

CONNECTION TO THE NETWORK

To avoid complications at the time of installation, it is recommended to do it over the wired network since the various drivers and firmware may present problems. The wireless card configuration can be done after the base system installation process is complete.

Generally the wired network has the designation eth0 (the last character is ZERO)  so you have to write the following:

ip link set eth0 up
dhclient eth0

PREPARE OR PARTITION THE HARD DRIVE

NOTICE: For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that Arch will be installed as the only system on the PC, for mixed environments, please check the corresponding documentation.

For partitioning the disk the utility will be used cfdisk. For this we write in the terminal:

#cfdisk 

It will present something like this:

Disk partitioning is generally very much to the user's taste, so the process shown here is just a suggestion.

4 partitions will be made to the disk which will be: BOOT, ROOT, HOME y SWAP.

BOOT: This is where essential files will be stored for boot ArchLinux (such as the kernel, images ramdisk, bootloader, etc). A size of 100 MiB is recommended (no need to give it more space).

/ (ROOT): The operating system and applications will be installed here. Its size depends on the use you want to give to ArchLinux. About 10 GiB should be more than enough for a traditional system; If you think that you will install many applications (games, among them), it is better to think about 20 or 30 GiB.

HOME: Where our personal settings, the application settings (and your profiles in them), and traditionally our data (documents, photos, videos, etc.) will be stored, so it is recommended to allocate considerable hard disk space.

SWAP: Lastly, the place where RAM information is temporarily stored (when it is full) on the hard disk. The size of this varies depending on the physical RAM installed in the PC. If you have less than 1GB it is advisable to assign it twice the size of the physical RAM. If you have a moderate amount of memory, such as 1GB for example, it is recommended to assign the same size to the SWAP. If you have more memory, then the above does not apply and with 1 or 2GB allocated is more than enough.

One detail to consider is the case of laptops when the system is hibernated or suspended. Therefore, if you are going to install Arch on a laptop, it is advisable to assign the SWAP the same size as RAM installed physics.

Using cfdisk We must create the chosen partitioning scheme, creating one partition at a time, with the sequence of commands: New »Primary | Logical »Size (in MB)» Beginning.

Two details to take into account:

• In the case of the partition chosen as swap, go to the option "Type”And select 82 (linux-swap) of the list.
• In the case of the partition chosen as / Boot, select the option "Bootable"

In the end, you should have something as seen in the following image:

Once safe, we must choose the option "Write", And confirm by typing"Yes", Writing the new partition table. This procedure removes all previous content from the hard drive!

To get out of cfdisk, to choose "Quit".

NOTE: It is very important to remember the "name" of each partition, as we will use them in the next step. Example: sda1 =boot, sda2 =/, sda3 = home and sda4 =swap.

FORMAT TO PARTITIONS

For boot ext2 will be used since journaling is not necessary here:

# mkfs -t ext2 / dev / sda1

For /, use ext4:

# mkfx -t ext4 / dev / sda2

For home, also use ext4:

# mkfs -t ext4 / dev / sda3

For swap:

# mkswap / dev / sda4

We activate the partition with:

swapon / dev / sda4

MOUNT PARTITIONS

Each partition is identified with a numeric suffix. For example, sda1 specifies the first partition of the first disk, while sda indicates the entire disk.

Mount the partition / en /mnt:

mount / dev / sda2 / mnt

Create the directories of the other partitions within /mnt:

mkdir / mnt / boot
mkdir / mnt / home

Mount the respective partitions:

mount / dev / sda1 / mnt / boot
mount / dev / sda3 / mnt / home

Arch's guide recommends selecting a mirror, but this is not really necessary and so I will skip it.

INSTALL BASE SYSTEM

We will use the installation script called pacstrap to install the system base. Also, the package group base-devel should be installed if you later plan to compile software from AUR. To do this we doing the next:

pacstrap / mnt base base-devel

Once the process is complete, it is recommended to install (only install) the bootloader. I personally use SYSLINUX but i will use GRUB for this guide.

To install the bootloader we write the following:

pacstrap / mnt grub-bios

This is the GRUB designed to BIOS. If you are interested in the controversial UEFI, I recommend you read the official documentation. If you are not a fan of GRUByou can install syslinux. although at the moment it does not have support for UEFI.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

First we are going to generate the file fstab. To do this you have to do the following:

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

If you encounter malfunctions in the installation process after running genfstab, do not run it again as it will not, it is easier to edit the file fstab.

In fact there is a little problem here, since the partition address swap it is ignored so it is advisable to edit the file. To do this you have to do the following:

# nano / mnt / etc / fstab

There are some things to do here. First in partition root the last field must be 1, for the others it can be 2 or 0 (zero). As well, data=ordered It should be removed as this option is used automatically whether specified or not. In the end it will be necessary to add /dev/sda4 (is the last line) so that the partition swap be activated from start-up. To save the changes press the key combination Control x, then write y followed by INTRO. For more clarity, here is a screenshot:

For the rest of the configuration actions, we will do a chroot on our newly installed system. To do this, write the following:

arch-chroot / mnt

In this phase, the main configuration files of the database system must be configured. Arch Linux. These can be created if they do not exist, or, if they exist, edited if you want to change the default values. Closely following and understanding these steps is vital to ensuring a well configured system.

LOCALE: Not to be confused with what has been done previously, this step is to configure the final language to install. There are two files that need to be edited: locale.gen y locale.conf.

locale.gen is empty by default (that is, all commented entries and therefore inactive) and the sign needs to be removed # in front of the line (s) you want to activate. You can uncomment more than one line, other than English (US), as long as the selected lines contain the encoding UTF-8:

# nano /etc/locale.gen en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 en_ES.UTF-8 UTF-8

Once the file is saved, execute:

# locale-gen

This process will be executed in each update (where no user intervention is required) from glibc, regenerating all the premises included in /etc/locale.gen.

locale.conf It does not exist by default. so from the terminal we execute the following:

# echo LANG = es_ES.UTF-8> /etc/locale.conf # export LANG = es_ES.UTF-8

vconsole.conf Here we specify the keyboard layout and font (typeface) of the console. To do this, do the following:

# nano /etc/vconsole.conf

You will be shown a blank file and type the following:

KEYMAP = "la-latin1" FONT = "Lat2-Terminus16" FONT_MAP =

timezone A symbolic link of /etc/localtime to your zone file /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/Local using the following:

# ln -s / usr / share / zoneinfo / America / Hermosillo / etc / localtime

hardware clock Sets the hardware clock mode uniformly across your operating systems. Otherwise, the hardware clock can be overwritten and cause jet lags.

It can generate /etc/adjtime automatically using one of the following commands:

# hwclock --systohc --utc

and for localtime:

# hwclock --systohc --localtime

The latter is not recommended.

KERNEL MODULES

To load the kernel modules during boot, put the file with the extension *.conf in the folder /etc/modules-load.d/, with a file name that refers to the program being used.

All necessary modules are automatically loaded by udev, so you rarely need to add anything here. You just have to add the modules that are known to be absent.

# nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-net.conf virtio-net

HOSTNAME

Add your hostname in the File /etc/hostname. It is worth mentioning that the hostname It is the name that will be assigned to the equipment and by means of which it can be recognized in a network. To do this and from the console write the following:

# threw out myhostname > / etc / hostname

Edit the file hosts to register the myhostname used. To do this, do the following:

# nano / etc / hosts 127.0.0.1 localhost myhostname :: 1 localhost myhostname

Save the file and exit.

Given that we are using a wired network for the installation, for the moment and to start with network service, write the following in the terminal:

# systemctl enable dhcpcd @ .service

Make sure that the network interface is correct (normally eth0) we will verify in /etc/conf.d/netcfg. To do this, uncomment or remove the # from WIRED_INTERFACE = »eth0 ″. Further down in the file is also the specification for the wireless network. For the moment comment it or put the symbol #. Save the file and exit.

It is also recommended to edit the file pacman.conf. To do this in the terminal or console do the following:

# nano /etc/pacman.conf

Here you can add or modify repositories. It is recommended to leave it as is and only add or activate those necessary.
If you have installed ArchLinux x86_64, it is recommended that you enable by removing # from the repository [multilib].

If you want to use AUR, do the following: At the end of the file write:

[archlinuxfr] SigLevel = PackageOptional Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

Save it and exit.

CREATE RAMDISK STARTUP ENVIRONMENT

Here I personally recommend adding the KEYMAP so that it is loaded and used from the beginning. For this you need to edit the file mkinitcpio.conf. In the terminal or console we write:

# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

It must be added in the last line of HOOKS the word KEYMAP. It does not matter if it is at the end, in the middle or at the beginning. For example:

Save the change and exit the file. Done the above, then we proceed to generate the ramdisk writing the following instruction:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

START-UP MANAGER

We had already installed the bootloader grub and here we will proceed to configure it. The reason for doing it up to this point is that whenever I do it as noted in the GESPADAS guide I have error messages and they usually lead me to have to reconfigure the entire system.

Learning from practice I realized that it is better to generate it once we have everything configured and the boot image created.

Carry out the following steps:

# grub-install / dev / sda # cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo

or it is also (used by GESPADAS)

# cp /boot/grub/locale/en@quot.mo /boot/grub/locale/en_US.mo

This last step is for the correction of a bug having GRUB and not Arch. Then execute the following:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

This last process will automatically generate the configuration file of GRUB.

Once the above is finished, we will proceed to put contraseña al usuario ROOT. To do this in the terminal we write:

# passwd

You will be asked to enter the password and confirm it.

With this, the configuration has been completed, now you have to exit the environment chroot. To do this you just have to write exit.

You have to unmount the partitions, to do this write the following in the terminal:

# umount / mnt / {boot, home,}

Now yes, we restart our system with:

# reboot

Do not forget to remove the installation CD / DVD or USB, as well as if it is necessary to re-arrange the boot order of the units (this is done in the bios of the PC).

The following will appear on the screen:

Now we write root in the pointer and the password that we specify and voila, we are in our Arch system, fully functional and ready to be customized. Stop before that I personally recommend doing the following:

First you have to install the sudo utilities; to do this, execute the following:

#pacman -S sudo

Then in the terminal we write:

EDITOR = nano visudo

Uncomment the line where the group comes from %wheel. You will notice that there are 2, I personally recommend uncommenting the one that asks for the password. This will allow us to execute instructions from root with our user.

Now we install the application YAOURT, which allows us to run the installation of applications from the repos of AUR. To do this in the terminal put the following:

# pacman -S yaourt

Create our user with:

#useradd

Enter in login name the username you will use, in additional groups scribe:

audio, lp, optical, storage, video, wheel, games, power, scanner

In the rest just press the key INTRO. Pay attention because you will be asked some questions and one of them is your name. Whether you want to put it or not is a personal matter, but do not leave it blank.

Reboot the system again, but use systemctl reboot and log in with the user you just created.

From here you can make the changes and configurations that are necessary to leave your equipment completely to your liking and personalize it as best as possible.

I hope this is helpful for, as I have already mentioned, installing this distribution that is not really complicated at all, only if it asks for attention and work.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this guide is based on the work of GESPADAS and the unofficial guide of Arch Linux.

Here are some screens of 2 of the installations that I have made:

My Netbook computer with GNOME SHELL 3.4:

My desktop with XFCE 4.10: