Arch Linux, UEFI, Existing LUKS, NVMe install guide

arch-linux-install.md

Installing Arch over Ubuntu

Or, How I switched an existing ubuntu install to arch linux without losing data, or rejoining my domain.

The official installation guide (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide) contains a more verbose description.

This guide has been forked from https://gist.github.com/binaerbaum/535884a7f5b8a8697557

I switched an existing ubuntu install to arch linux without data loss.

Boot Arch Install

Download the archiso image from https://www.archlinux.org/. Copy to a usb-drive

dd if=archlinux.img of=/dev/sdX bs=16M && sync # on linux

Boot from the usb. If the usb fails to boot, make sure that secure boot is disabled in the BIOS configuration.

Get some internets

wifi-menu

Mount existing partitions

My ubuntu install had /boot and /boot/efi as separate partitions. Systemd-boot doesnt like multiple partitions, so I just mount the efi partion at /boot. The leaves the /boot partition unused. One could reallocate that a later time.

cryptsetup open --type=luks /dev/nvme0n1p3 crypted
mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /mnt
mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap1

Move things around so we can get them later

cd /mnt
mkdir ubuntu
setopt extended_glob
test mv -- {^,}ubuntu

Install the system

This includes stuff needed for starting wifi when first booting into the newly installed system

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel zsh vim git sudo efibootmgr dialog wpa_supplicant
genfstab -pU /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
tmpfs	/tmp	tmpfs	defaults,noatime,mode=1777	0	0

Change relatime on all non-boot partitions to noatime (reduces wear if using an SSD)

Enter the new system

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Setup system clock

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utc

Set the hostname

echo MYHOSTNAME > /etc/hostname

Generate locale

Uncomment wanted locales in /etc/locale.gen

vim /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

To avoid problems with gnome-terminal set locale system wide Do NOT set LC_ALL=C. It overrides all the locale vars and messes up special characters Pay attention to the UTF-8. Capital letters !

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 >> /etc/locale.conf
echo LC_ALL= >> /etc/locale.conf

Set password for root

passwd

Add real user remove -s flag if you don't whish to use zsh

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/zsh MYUSERNAME
passwd MYUSERNAME

Configure mkinitcpio with modules needed for the initrd image

vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

• Add 'ext4' to MODULES
• Add 'encrypt' and 'lvm2' to HOOKS before filesystems
• Add 'resume' after 'lvm2' (also has to be after 'udev')

Regenerate initrd image

mkinitcpio -p linux

Setup systembootd (grub will not work on nvme at this moment)

bootctl --path=/boot install

Create loader.conf

echo 'default arch' >> /boot/loader/loader.conf echo 'timeout 5' >> /boot/loader/loader.conf

Create arch.conf (or XYZ.conf for default XYZ in loader.conf)

vim /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add the following content to arch.conf

is the the one of the raw encrypted device (/dev/nvme0n1p2). It can be found with the 'blkid' command

title Arch Linux linux /vmlinuz-linux initrd /initramfs-linux.img options cryptdevice=UUID=:vg0 root=/dev/mapper/vg0-root resume=/dev/mapper/vg0-swap rw intel_pstate=no_hwp

Exit new system and go into the cd shell

exit

Unmount all partitions

umount -R /mnt swapoff -a

Reboot into the new system, don't forget to remove the cd/usb

reboot