This guide is the only guide you'll ever need (lol) to set up your Archlinux system from ground up. Follow this only when you have gained familiarity to the Linux ecosystem using Ubuntu or any other OS. Preferable don't skip directly from Windows to Arch. You might wanna give Manjaro a try if you're coming from Windows, and are really keen on doing things the Arch way, since it's based on Arch, however has a GUI to help you out with most of the stuff. Well if you have time to kill and the internet at your disposal then you may begin your journey into the wonderful and awesome world of Arch Linux!
Make sure you have at least a few hours of spare time.
On a Linux machine, connect the USB, and figure out the name of your USB using
lsblk
Run the following command, replacing {x} with your drive, e.g. /dev/sdb, if {x} = b. (Do not append a partition number, so do not use something like /dev/sdb1)
dd bs=4M if={path_to_archlinux.iso} of=/dev/sd{x} status=progress oflag=sync
Boot into BIOS and disable Secure Boot. UEFI is ON but Secure Boot is disabled. If you're not able to access the Secure Boot settings, set a Supervisor Password in BIOS and then try again.
If you have a wired internet connection, plug-in the ethernet cable before booting the PC.
Verify the Boot mode and ensure its UEFI. Do this by executing the command below and verifying the directory exists
ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
Check the internet connection. Remember internet connection is mandatory.
ping -c3 google.com
If connected, skip to the next step. Check the output of ip link
command. It should show a list of network interfaces to connect to.
The interfaces starting with 'w' are usually the ones dealing with
WiFi, and those starting with 'e' deal with the ethernet
connection.
ip link
If you have a wired ethernet cable, follow these steps, else, skip to the WiFi section. Connect your LAN cable and execute this
systemctl start dhcpcd@{ethernet_interface_name}.service
Try pinging again. You should be connected to the internet now.
Find/Confirm your WiFi interface
iw dev
Activate it using the {wifi~interfacename~}
ip link set {wifi_interface_name} up
Check if there's 'UP' in between '\<' and '>'. {wifi~interfacename~} will be referred to as {interface} henceforth
ip link
Scan for WiFi
iw dev {interface} scan | less
If you're using it in adhoc mode (a mode in which there is no central controller), you'll have to mention it, using this command. If you're trying to connect to a WiFi router, it's NOT adhoc mode, and you DON'T need to execute this command, since the WiFi router acts as a central controller.
ip link set {interface} down
iw dev {interface} set type ibss
ip link set {interface} up
Make a note of your
Encryption
If there is no encryption on your WiFi, use
iw dev {interface} connect "{your_ESSID}"
If there is encryption of type WEP
using a hexadecimal or ASCII key (the format is distinguished automatically, because a WEP key has a fixed length):
iw dev {interface} connect "{your_ESSID}" key 0:{your_key}
using a hexadecimal or ASCII key, specifying the third set up key as default (keys are counted from zero, four are possible):
iw dev interface connect "{your_ESSID}" key d:2:{your_key}
If it's WPA or WPA2
A passphrase is generated using
wpa_passphrase {your_SSID} {passphrase}
Connect to the network using
wpa_supplicant -B -i {interface} -c <(wpa_passphrase {MYSSID} {passphrase})
Get an IP address allocated to your PC using dhcp
dhcpcd {interface}
Check if the interface is connected to the WiFi using
iw dev {interface} link
Check the amount of bytes transmitted and received using
iw dev {interface} station dump
For more details visit this page
You can also SSH into this system if you want to execute commands remotely for ease of use:
systemctl start sshd
Now find the IP of this system using
ip addr
And to connect to this system remotely, execute this on the PC you want to connect to it form
ssh {ip_addredd} -l root
Set date
timedatectl set-ntp true
Partitioning the disk
Check the contents of the disk
lsblk
Make sure none of the partitions you want to make are mounted by checking the MOUNTPOINT using
lsblk -f
In case they are mounted, use
umount /dev/sd{device_letter}{partition_number}
Do this for all the mounted partitions
Making partitions
gdisk /dev/sd{device_letter}
Delete everything and create a new partition table
o
Create a new EFI partition
n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):
# press RETURN for default
First Sector (34-976773134, default=2048) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
# press RETURN for default
Last Sector (2048-976773134, default=976773134) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
+512M
Current type is 'Linux filesystem' HEX code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
EF00
This makes it an EFI partition
Create a new SWAP partition
n
Partition number (2-128, default 2):
# press RETURN for default
First Sector (34-976773134, default=1050624) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
# press RETURN for default
Last Sector (1050624-976773134, default=976773134) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
+20G
Current type is 'Linux filesystem' HEX code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
8200
This makes it a SWAP partition
Create a new root partition
n
Partition number (3-128, default 3):
# press RETURN for default
First Sector (34-976773134, default=42993664) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
# press RETURN for default
Last Sector (42993664-976773134, default=976773134) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
+80G
Current type is 'Linux filesystem' HEX code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
8304
This makes it a root partition
Create a new home partition
n
Partition number (3-128, default 3):
# press RETURN for default
First Sector (34-976773134, default=210765824) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
# press RETURN for default
Last Sector (210765824-976773134, default=976773134) or {+-}size{KMGPT}:
# press RETURN for default, to select the remainder of the disk
Current type is 'Linux filesystem' HEX code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
8300
This makes it a home partition
Now write these changes to the disk
w
And proceed with a yes (Y) Now check if the partitions were
made according to your liking
lsblk
Formatting partitions
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 # format EFI partition as FAT32
mkswap /dev/sda2 # format SWAP partition as SWAP
swapon /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 # format root partition as EXT4
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4 # format home partition as EXT4
Mounting the file system. Same procedure to be followed for debugging Archlinux
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt # mount root
mkdir -p /mnt/boot # create boot directory in mount
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot # mount boot directory
mkdir -p /mnt/home # create boot directory in mount
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home # mount boot directory
Install Archlinux
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
Generate an fstab file. The fstab file can be used to define how disk partitions, various other block devices, or remote filesystems should be mounted into the filesystem.
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Check the resulting file in /mnt/etc/fstab afterwards, and edit it in case of errors.
Change root into the new system. Chroot is an operation that changes the apparent root directory for the current running process and their children. Changing root is commonly done for performing system maintenance on systems where booting and/or logging in is no longer possible.
arch-chroot /mnt
Set the timezone
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/{Region}/{City} /etc/localtime # Asia/Kolkata
Run hwclock to generate /etc/adjtime:
hwclock --systohc
Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed localizations in
/etc/locale.gen, and generate them with
locale-gen
Set the LANG variable in /etc/locale.conf accordingly, for example:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE="en_US.UTF-8"
Change the keyboard layout, by the /etc/vconsole.conf file. It is US English by default
KEYMAP=us
Create hostname by editing /etc/hostname
{my_host_name}
Add this to /etc/hosts, if it doesn't exist
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.1.1 {my_host_name}.localdomain {my_host_name}
Creating a new initramfs is usually not required, because mkinitcpio was run on installation of the linux package with pacstrap. But run it anyways
mkinitcpio -p linux
Set the root password using
passwd
Install intel-ucode. It provides microcode updates for Intel CPUs
pacman -S intel-ucode
To use SystemD as the bootloader follow these steps. Alternatively you may use GRUB, skip this section to use GRUB
Installing the bootloader systemd-boot
bootctl install
bootctl update
Edit the /boot/loader/loader.conf file and remove the long text and replace it with
default arch
Adding boot entries. Create a file
/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sd{device_letter}{root_partition_number} > /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
The UUID of the root partition will be extracted and added to the arch.conf file.
Now edit the arch.conf file and add the following.
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux # it is vmlinuz not vmlinux
initrd /intel-ucode.img # intel ucode thing provided you have installed it already
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=UUID={UUID_of_root_partition} rw # rw at the end is important
For hibernation, increase the size of sys/power/image~size~, if you have a large SWAP partition, and decrease if you have a small one. By default it is 2/5 th the RAM size. Then make an entry in arch.conf
blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sd{device_letter}{swap_partition_number} >> /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
This'll put the UUID of the SWAP partition at the end of the arch.conf file. Now modify the last line of the conf file
options root=UUID={UUID_of_root_partition} resume=UUID={UUID_of_swap_partition} rw
Install packages to ease installation after boot List of packages needed
ip to manage networkingpacman -S iproute2 acpi iw wpa_supplicant dialog vim zsh git curl wget aria2 stow networkmanager xdg-user-dirs
Reboot PC after unmounting the mounted partition
exit
umount -R /mnt
poweroff
Remove the installation media and start PC, and connect to internet
Optionally add your keys and turn on SSH for remote access
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
curl -L https://github.com/{username}.keys >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
systemctl restart sshd
You may SSH into the system now
Check battery
acpi -b
Activating zsh and using antigen
chsh -s $(which zsh)
curl -L git.io/antigen > $HOME/antigen.zsh
curl -L 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/codingCoffee/effective-enigma/master/.zshrc' > $HOME/.zshrc
exec zsh
Editing the /etc/pacman.conf for the better.
Uncomment and/or add this.
#UseSyslog
#UseDelta #just mentioning, not fully supported in arch
Color
TotalDownload
CheckSpace
VerbosePkgLists
ILoveCandy
Skipping this step won't cause any harm Use aria2c as the
download manager instead of wget. Add the following new entry
just below the \"#XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl -C - -f %u >
%o\" line. The 2 caveats are you won't be able to see the
overall download size, but downloads will be faster, and
everytime you do pacman -Syu the database files will be
downloaded again.
XferCommand = /usr/bin/aria2c --allow-overwrite=true --continue=true --file-allocation=none --log-level=error --max-tries=2 --max-connection-per-server=5 --max-file-not-found=1 --min-split-size=1M --no-conf --remote-time=true --summary-interval=0 --timeout=3 --dir=/ --out %o %u
Create a user
useradd -m -G wheel {your_username}
Assign password to user
passwd {your_username}
Give the user sudo access by un-commenting %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
visudo
su into your user
su - {your_username}
Create the default folders using the xdg-user-dirs-update service
xdg-user-dirs-update
Now installing the main stuff
pacman -S plasma docker firefox aria2c libreoffice-fresh dolphin dolphin-plugins zip unzip unrar vlc p7zip rsync syncthing konsole openssh xdg-user-dirs git blender krita gimp inkscape scribus kwallet kwalletmanager networkmanager gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-plugins-good digikam spectacle kio kio-extras ntfs-3g fcron cups packagekit-qt5 print-manager gtk3 imagemagick graphicsmagick mesa clementine okular latte-dock gparted screenfetch bluez bluez-utils pulseaudio-bluetooth thefuck linux-headers whois gtkglext
Switch back to root using
exit
Final Steps to power up the System in GUI mode
systemctl enable NetworkManager # for Network discovery
systemctl enable org.cups.cupsd # for printing services
systemctl enable sddm # for GUI
systemctl enable bluetooth # for bluetooth
systemctl enable sshd # for ssh server
Now create the sddm config
sddm --example-config > /etc/sddm.conf
Now edit the /etc/sddm.conf file to modify the two variables (Current, and CursorTheme) as shown
[Theme]
Current=breeze
CursorTheme=breeze_cursors
Optionally comment the root entry from /etc/fstab if you're using systemd-boot as the boot manager instead of grub. (It'll make the bootup a little faster :P)
Reboot your system
reboot
Install Sublime Text from its official repo Install the GPG key:
curl -O https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg && sudo pacman-key --add sublimehq-pub.gpg && sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 8A8F901A && rm sublimehq-pub.gpg
Select the channel to use:
echo -e "\n[sublime-text]\nServer = https://download.sublimetext.com/arch/stable/x86_64" | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf
Update pacman and install Sublime Text
sudo pacman -Syu sublime-text
Building packages from AUR post booting into GUI mode
git clone {git_rpeo_url}
makepkg -sci
-s: sync dependencies and install them if any -i: install the package after building it
Packages to install from AUR
Change terminal profile
To just update the database
pacman -Syy
To update everything
pacman -Syu
To install a package
pacman -S {package_name}
To delete a package
pacman -Rs {package_name}
To just search the database for a package
pacman -Ss {package_name}
DANGER!!!
Mere mortals, this is where you stop
DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. IT CAN MESS UP YOUR SYSTEM REAL BAD
Learn a little about the system and then maybe come back here after a year to lean more.
YOU HAVE AN AMAZING SYSTEM UP AND RUNNING !!!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
NVIDIA Drivers for GTX 1060
Installing nvidia optimus so that both GPUs can be used. Intel GPU is used for normal display, and Nvidia GPU can be used at will for machine learning and other stuff
pacman -S bumblebee mesa nvidia xf86-video-intel
Add your user to the bumblebee group
gpasswd -a {your_user_name} bumblebee
Enable bumblebee
systemctl enable bumblebeed
Reboot
reboot
Install other necessary stuff
pacman -S mesa-demos nvidia-settings
If your other GPU is intel you can use intel_gpu_top to check
it's performance
pacman -S intel_gpu_tools
To check the usage of your GPU
nvidia-smi
In order to run anything on your GPU
optirun -b none {application_name} -c :8
To install cuda and cudnn for machine learning
pacman -S cuda cudnn
To ensure power saving by turning off the nvidia card when it is not in use
pacman -S bbswitch
Reboot
reboot
Install VirtualBox
pacman -S virtualbox
Use virtualbox-host-modules-arch over virtualbox-host-dkms To use virtualbox:
modprobe vboxdrv
In order to reduce the shutdown time. Create a folder for your conf file
mkdir /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/
Create a file named timeout.conf in the system.conf.d folder and
add the following to it
[Manager]
DefaultTimeoutStartSec=15s
DefaultTimeoutStopSec=5s
To get amazing customizable touchpad gestures
Become a member of the input group
gpasswd -a $USER input
You'll have to logout and login for the gestures to workspace
Download and install from the AUR repo
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/libinput-gestures.git
cd libinput-gestures
makepkg -sci
To activate gestures at boot
libinput-gestures-setup autostart
Customize gestures The guide, and the main gestures are present
at /etc/libinput-gestures.conf. You can override these by
adding a file on $HOME/.config/libinput-gestures.conf
# KDE: Present Windows (Current Desktop)
gesture swipe down 3 xdotool key ctrl+F9
# KDE: Present Windows (All Desktops)
gesture swipe down 4 xdotool key ctrl+F10
# KDE: Present Windows (All Desktops)
gesture swipe up xdotool key ctrl+F7
# KDE: Show desktop
gesture pinch out xdotool key ctrl+F12
# KDE: Switch one desktop to the left
gesture swipe right xdotool key Super+Left
# KDE: Switch one desktop to the right
gesture swipe left xdotool key Super+Right
You'll have to logout and login for changes to take effect
To install Redshift
pacman -S python-gobject python-xdg librsvg redshift
Create a redshift config file in ~/.config/redshift.conf
TODO
[Don't use, causes bluetooth problems] To install power management
pacman -S tlp
TO activate it run these commands
systemctl enable tlp.service
systemctl enable tlp-sleep.service
systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service
systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket
Add the following to your ~/.profile file, where \"01:00.0\" is the address of your GPU. You can get this using lspci
export RUNTIME_PM_BLACKLIST="01:00.0"
Set all fonts to noto Goto Settings -> Fonts -> Except for \"Fixed Width\" which should be \"Noto Mono\", everything else should be \"Noto Sana UI\" Also in Chrome do the same settings