djallits/arch-linux-from-scratch.md

## arch-linux-from-scratch.md

      
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              arch-linux-from-scratch.md
            
          
    Arch Linux from Scratch

This guide was written for my everyday driver (described below):

Dell XPS 15 9500

10th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-10885H (16MB Cache, up to 5.3 GHz, 16 cores)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6
64GB DDR4-2933MHz, 2x32G
2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
15.6" UHD+ (3840 x 2400) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 500-Nit Display
Killer Wi-fi 6 AX500-DBS (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.1


This guide was built to do the following:

 1GB FAT32 formatted UEFI boot partition
 1.9TB LUKS2 encrypted ARCH system partition
 62.5GB swap LVM2 volume on the ARCH system partition
 BTRFS formatted arch LVM2 volume on the ARCH system partition
 Uses Plymouth for a graphical boot interface
 Uses systemd-boot as a boot manager
 Unified Kernel Images
 Uses sbctl for Secure Boot with Trusted Platform Module v2
 GDM display manager with the GNOME desktop environment

Known Issues


The Qualcomm 6390 (Killer Wi-fi 6 AX500-DBS) can be troublesome to get both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth working in parallel.

Pre-Installation

Complete steps 1.1 trough 1.4 of the Arch Linux Installation Guide. This takes you through the process of acquiring an installation image, verifying its signature, placing the image on an installation medium, and booting into the live environment.
$ nvme format /dev/nvme0n1 --force --ses 1
$ cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1 --type plain --key-file /dev/urandom  to-be-wiped
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/to-be-wiped  bs=1M status=progress
$ cryptsetup close to-be-wiped
$ sgdisk --zap-all /dev/nvme0n1
$ sgdisk --clear
$ sgdisk --new=1:0:+1GB --typecode=1:ef00 --change-name=1:UEFI /dev/nvme0n1
$ sgdisk --new=2:0:0 --typecode=2:e800 --change-name=2:ARCH /dev/nvme0n1
$ cryptsetup luksFormat --type luks2 --hash sha512 --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 /dev/disk/by-partlabel/ARCH
$ cryptsetup open /dev/disk/by-partlabel/ARCH arch
$ pvcreate /dev/mapper/arch
$ vgcreate volgrp00 /dev/mapper/arch
$ lvcreate --size 65590108K volgrp00 --name swap
$ lvcreate --extents 100%FREE volgrp00 --name arch
$ mkswap --label SWAP /dev/volgrp00/swap
$ swapon /dev/volgrp00/swap
$ mkfs.fat -F32 -n UEFI /dev/disk/by-partlabel/UEFI
$ mkfs.btrfs --label ARCH /dev/volgrp00/arch
$ mount /dev/volgrp00/arch /mnt
$ mkdir /mnt/boot
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/.snapshots
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/opt
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/root
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/srv
$ mkdir /mnt/@/usr/
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/usr/local
$ mkdir -p /mnt/@/var/cache/pacman
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/var/cache/pacman/pkg
$ mkdir -p /mnt/@/var/lib/libvirt
$ btrfs subvolume create/mnt/@/var/lib/containers
$ btrfs subvolume create/mnt/@/var/lib/libvirt/images
$ btrfs subvolume create/mnt/@/var/lib/machines
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/var/log
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/var/spool
$ btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@/var/tmp
Disable Copy on Write for the following subvolumes.
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/cache/pacman/pkg
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/lib/containers
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/lib/libvirt/images
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/lib/machines
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/log
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/spool
$ chattr +C /mnt/@/var/tmp
$ umount /mnt
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@ \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt

$ mount -t vfat /dev/nvme0n1p1  /mnt/boot

$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/.snapshots \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/.snapshots
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/home/djallits \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/home/djallits
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/opt \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/opt
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/root \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/root
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/srv \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/srv

$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/usr/local \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/usr/local
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/cache/cache/pacman/pkg \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/lib/containers \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/lib/containers
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/lib/libvirt/images \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/lib/libvirt/images
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/lib/machines \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/lib/machines
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/log \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/log
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/spool \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/spool
$ mount -o defaults,noatime,commit=120,discard=async,nodatacow,space_cache=v2,ssd,subvol=@/var/tmp \
          /dev/volgrp00/arch \
          /mnt/var/tmp
Connect to the Internet...

If you do not have a wired connection, you will need to establish a wireless connection.
$ iwctl station wlan0 connect {{ WIFI_SSID }}
Validate a successful Internet Connection...
$ ping archlinux.org
Linux System Installation

Install the essential packages...
$ pacstrap /mnt base base-devel btrfs-progs dkms fwupd git gnome gnome-tweaks intel-ucode linux linux-firmware \
                linux-firmware-bnx2x linux-firmware-liquidio linux-firmware-mellanox linux-firmware-nfp \
                linux-firmware-qlogic linux-lts lvm2 man-db man-pages neofetch networkmanager pacman-contrib \
                pipewire plymouth reflector sbctl snapper snap-pac texinfo tree vim wireplumber wget zsh
Generate /mnt/etc/fstab...
$ genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Linux System Configuration

chroot into...
$ arch-chroot /mnt
Configure time...
$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
$ hwclock --systohc --utc
Edit /etc/locale.gen...
$ vim /etc/locale.gen

#en_SG ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
#en_US ISO-8859-1
Generate locales...
$ locale-gen
Edit /etc/locale.conf...
$ vim /etc/locale.conf

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS="C.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES=
LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="C.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="C.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="C.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="C.UTF-8"

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/be9d985339d2350fe9b01a253aae123b81c481aa/locale.conf >> /etc/locale.conf


Edit /etc/hostname...
$ vim /etc/hostname

{{ HOST_NAME }}

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/be9d985339d2350fe9b01a253aae123b81c481aa/hostname >> /etc/hostname


Edit /etc/hosts...
$ vim /etc/hosts

# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1 djallits-xps-15-9500.localdomain djallits-xps-15-9500
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

::1       localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0   ip6-localnet
ff00::0   ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1   ip6-allnodes
ff02::2   ip6-allrouters
ff02::3   ip6-allhosts

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/be9d985339d2350fe9b01a253aae123b81c481aa/hosts >> /etc/hosts


Edit /etc/vconsole.conf...
$ vim /etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=us

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/be9d985339d2350fe9b01a253aae123b81c481aa/vconsole.conf >> /etc/vconsole.conf


Create your everyday user account...
$ useradd --btrfs-subvolume-home --create-home --gid users --groups docker wheel --shell /usr/bin/zsh {{ USER_NAME }}
$ passwd {{ USER_NAME }}
Optionally enable sudo access to the wheel group...
$ EDITOR=vim visudo

...
## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
...
Or better yet...
$ vim /etc/sudoers.d/{{ USER_NAME }}

{{ USER_NAME }} ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/be9d985339d2350fe9b01a253aae123b81c481aa/djallits >> /etc/sudoers.d/djallits


Configure Reflector to overwrite the local mirrorlist with the five most recently synchronized mirrors in the United States sorted by download speed over HTTPS.
$ vim /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf

--country United States
--latest 5
--protocol https
--sort rate
--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/be9d985339d2350fe9b01a253aae123b81c481aa/reflector.conf >> /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf


Set Spinner as the Default Plymouth theme
$ plymouth-set-default-theme -R spinner
Configure Linux kernel options...
$ vim /etc/kernel/cmdline

loglevel=3 nowatchdog quiet rd.luks.name=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX=ARCH resume=/dev/volgrp00/swap root=/dev/volgrp00/arch rootflags=subvol=@ rw splash

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/bd9a8cb503974c6b3733fe8e50bb4b69ebaf57b3/cmdline >> /etc/kernel/cmdline

Where XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX is the UUID of /dev/nvme0n1p2. Use the following in VIM to get the UUID.
:read ! blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/nvme0n1p2


Configure NTP
$ vim /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf

...
[Time]
NTP=time.google.com
FallbackNTP=0.us.pool.ntp.org 1.us.pool.ntp.org 2.us.pool.ntp.org 3.us.pool.ntp.org
...

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/bd9a8cb503974c6b3733fe8e50bb4b69ebaf57b3/timesyncd.conf >> /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf


Install and Configure Boot Manager...

$ bootctl --path=/boot install
Configure initramfs...
$ vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

...
HOOKS=(systemd plymouth autodetect modconf kms block keyboard sd-vconsole sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
...
COMPRESSION="lz4"
...

Note
To do this faster...
$ curl -K https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djallits/4e54ed961efb1838b991fab11b6050e9/raw/bd9a8cb503974c6b3733fe8e50bb4b69ebaf57b3/mkinitcpio.conf >> /etc/mkinitcpio.conf


Now we generate our initial ramdisk for both the linux and linux-lts kernels.
$ mkinitcpio -P

Enable systemd services...
$ systemctl enable gdm.service
$ systemctl enable NetworkManager
$ systemctl enable reflector.service
$ systemctl enable reflector.timer
$ systemctl enable systemd-resolved.service
$ systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

$ systemctl mask systemd-networkd.service
Exit from chroot...
$ exit
Recursively unmount from /mnt...
$ umount -R /mnt
Moment of truth, reboot...
$ systemctl reboot --firmware-setup
First Steps

Let's install yay, which is a Pacman wrapper and AUR helper written in Go.
$ cd ~/Downloads
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
$ cd yay
$ makepkg -si
$ cd .. && rm -rf ~/Downloads/*
Now let's install all the fun stuff!
$ yay -S aic94xx-firmware albert ast-firmware aur-auto-vote-git btrfs-assistant git-extras google-chrome \
         mkinitcpio-firmware nerd-fonts-git oh-my-zsh-git paccache-hook spaceship-prompt spotify teams \
         upd72020x-fw visual-studio-code-bin wd719x-firmware yay zoom 
Customize Gnome

After installing the gnome-browser-connector with yay, head on over to https://extensions.gnome.org and customize your Gnome Desktop.

Arch Linux Update Indicator
Blur my Shell
Caffeine
Coverflow Alt-Tab
ddterm
GSConnect
Night Theme Switcher(1)

(1) Make sure to enable Night Light and use the Sunset to Sunrise schedule in Settings -> Displays.

  
## cmdline
loglevel=3 nowatchdog quiet rd.luks.name=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX=ARCH resume=/dev/volgrp00/swap root=/dev/volgrp00/arch rw splash

## djallits
djallits ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

## hostname
djallits-xps-15-9500

## hosts
# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1 djallits-xps-15-9500.localdomain djallits-xps-15-9500
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

::1       localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0   ip6-localnet
ff00::0   ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1   ip6-allnodes
ff02::2   ip6-allrouters
ff02::3   ip6-allhosts

## locale.conf
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS="C.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES=
LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="C.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="C.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="C.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="C.UTF-8"

## mkinitcpio.conf
MODULES=()
BINARIES=()
FILES=()
HOOKS=(systemd plymouth autodetect modconf kms block keyboard sd-vconsole sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
COMPRESSION="lz4"
COMPRESSION_OPTIONS=()

## reflector.conf
--country United States
--latest 5
--protocol https
--sort rate
--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

## timesyncd.conf
[Time]
NTP=time.google.com
FallbackNTP=0.us.pool.ntp.org 1.us.pool.ntp.org 2.us.pool.ntp.org 3.us.pool.ntp.org

## vconsole.conf
KEYMAP=us
	# Static table lookup for hostnames.
	# See hosts(5) for details.

	127.0.0.1 djallits-xps-15-9500.localdomain djallits-xps-15-9500
	127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

	::1 localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
	fe00::0 ip6-localnet
	ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
	ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
	ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
	ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
	LANG=en_US.UTF-8
	LC_ADDRESS="C.UTF-8"
	LC_ALL=
	LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"
	LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8"
	LC_IDENTIFICATION="C.UTF-8"
	LC_MEASUREMENT="C.UTF-8"
	LC_MESSAGES=
	LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8"
	LC_NAME="C.UTF-8"
	LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8"
	LC_PAPER="C.UTF-8"
	LC_TELEPHONE="C.UTF-8"
	LC_TIME="C.UTF-8"
	MODULES=()
	BINARIES=()
	FILES=()
	HOOKS=(systemd plymouth autodetect modconf kms block keyboard sd-vconsole sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)
	COMPRESSION="lz4"
	COMPRESSION_OPTIONS=()
	--country United States
	--latest 5
	--protocol https
	--sort rate
	--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
	[Time]
	NTP=time.google.com
	FallbackNTP=0.us.pool.ntp.org 1.us.pool.ntp.org 2.us.pool.ntp.org 3.us.pool.ntp.org