This guide will show step-by-step how to Install Arch Linux on UEFI mode.
- Bootable Flash Drive
- BIOS
- Pre installation
- Set Keyboard Layout
- Check boot mode
- Update System Clock
- Internet Connection
- DHCP
- Wi-Fi
- Wired Connection
- Partitioning
- Create Partitions
- Format Partitions
- Mount the file system
- Installation
- Select Mirror
- Install Base Packages
- Generate fstab
- Chroot
- Check pacman keys
- Configure System
- Locale and Language
- Keymap
- Timezone
- Hardware Clock
- Network
- Hostname
- Nameservers
- Firewall
- Blacklists
- No Beep
- No Watchdog
- Initramfs
- Set-up Wi-Fi
- Bootloader
- Root password
- Xorg
- Video
- Audio
- Users
- Reboot
- Locale and Language
- Post installation
- Window Manager
- Network Manager and services
- Extras
- Set-up TTF Fonts
- Bluetooth Headphone
First of all, you need the Arch Linux image, that can be downloaded from the Official Website. After that, you should create the bootable flash drive with the Arch Linux image.
If you're on a GNU/linux distribution, you can use the dd
command for it. Like:
$ dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress oflag=sync && sync
Note that you need to update the
of=/dev/sdx
with your USB device location (it can be discovered with thelsblk
command).
Otherwise, if you're on Windows, you can follow this tutorial.
We'll install Arch on UEFI mode, so you should enable the UEFI mode and disable the secure boot option on your BIOS system. (Also remember to change the boot order to boot through your USB device).
I'm presuming that you're already in the Arch Linux zsh shell prompt.
For brazilian users:
# loadkeys br-abnt2
You can see the list of available layouts by running
ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz
To check if the UEFI mode is enabled, run:
# ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
If the directory does not exists, the system may be booted in BIOS.
Ensures that the system clock is accurate.
# timedatectl set-ntp true
First, test if you alredy have internet connection, so run:
# ping -c 2 google.com
If you're not connected, follow one of these steps:
This option is automatically started. Run:
# dhcpcd
Run the following command and connect to your wi-fi network.
# wifi-menu -o
The
-o
option is to hide your password by using the "obscure" method
Warning: Make sure the DHCP is deactivated by running systemctl stop dhcpcd.service
-
Find the network interface name
# ip link
The response will be something like:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp2s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 1000 link/ether 00:11:25:31:69:20 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT qlen 1000 link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
-
Activate Network interface
Using the
enp2s0f0
for example:# ip link set enp2s0f0 up
-
Add IP addresses
The command to do that is
ip addr add [ip_address]/[mask] dev [interface]
applying to our example:# ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev enp2s0f0
-
Add the Gateway
The command is
ip route add default via [gateway]
then:# ip route add default via 192.168.1.1
-
Change DNS
Using the Google DNS, open the file
/etc/resolv.conf
(you can usenano
orvi
to do that) and write down these lines:nameserver 8.8.8.8 nameserver 8.8.4.4 search example.com
After that, test your internet connection again with the ping
command.
First, define your partitions size. There's no rules about this process.
Tip: If you use a SSD drive, leave 25% of his storage free. More info here.
My HDD has 1Tb of storage. For that example, I'll create 4 partitions, described on the following table:
(in my case, I'll install arch on /dev/sda
disk)
Name | Partition | Size | Type |
---|---|---|---|
sda1 | /boot |
512M | EFI |
sda2 | / |
64G | ext4 |
sda3 | swap |
16G | swap |
sda4 | /home |
Remaining space | ext4 |
These values are very related for my PC needs.
To create partitions, I'll use gdisk
since to work on UEFI mode we need GPT partitions.
First, list partitions (Informational only) with the following command
# gdisk -l /dev/sdx
Here's a table with some handy gdisk commands
Command | Description |
---|---|
p | Print partitions table |
d | Delete partition |
w | Write partition |
q | Quit |
? | Help |
-
Enter in the interactive menu
# gdisk /dev/sdx
-
Create boot partition
- Type
n
to create a new partition - Partition Number: default (return)
- First Sector: default
- Last Sector:
+512M
- GUID:
EF00
- Type
-
Create root partition
- Type
n
to create a new partition - Partition Number: default
- First Sector: default
- Last Sector:
+64G
- GUID: default
- Type
-
Create swap partition
- Type
n
to create a new partition - Partition Number: default
- First Sector: default
- Last Sector:
+16G
- GUID:
8200
- Type
-
Create home partition
- Type
n
to create a new partition - Partition Number: default
- First Sector: default
- Last Sector: default
- GUID: default
- Type
-
Save changes with
w
-
Quit gdisk with
q
Once the partitions have been created, each (except swap) should be formatted with an appropriated file system. So run:
# mkfs.fat -F32 -n BOOT /dev/sda1 #-- boot partition
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 #-- root partition
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4 #-- home partition
The process for swap partition is slight different:
# mkswap -L swap /dev/sda3
# swapon /dev/sda3
To check if the swap partition is working, run
swapon -s
orfree -h
.
-
Mount root partition:
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
-
Mount home partition:
# mkdir -p /mnt/home # mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home
-
Mount boot partition: (to use
grub-install
later)# mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
Now we'll install arch on disk
Before installation, is recommended to select the best mirror servers.
So open the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
(again, you can use nano
or vi
to do that) and move the best mirror to the top of the file.
Tip: That link generates a mirror list based on your location, you can use them as reference.
Now that the mirrors are already set, use pacstrap
to install the base package group:
# pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
Now you should generate the fstab with the genfstab
script:
# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Optional: you can add
noatime
to the generatedfstab
file (on root and home partitions) to increase IO performance.
Now, we'll change root into the new system
# arch-chroot /mnt
Now, if you want to install some package, do it with
pacman -S <package_name>
# pacman-key --init
# pacman-key --populate archlinux
Open the file /etc/locale.gen
and uncomment your locale settings
After that, write your locale string to file /etc/locale.conf
.
For example, if you've uncomment the line en_GK.UTF-8 UTF-8
, now you will write en_GK.UTF-8
echo en_GK.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
Then, generate locale settings by running:
# locale-gen
And export your locale string with:
# export LANG=en_GK.UTF-8 #-- as example
Create the file /etc/vconsole.conf
and write your console settings. For example:
KEYMAP=br-abnt2
FONT=lat0-16
FONT_MAP=
Create a symbolic link with your timezone (to check available timezones, see the files/folders in /usr/share/zoneinfo/
)
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo /etc/localtime
# hwclock --systohc --utc
# echo myhostname > /etc/hostname
Change
myhostname
to your hostname (Computer Name)
After that, open the file /etc/hosts
and write (remember to change the myhostname
to your own)
# IPv4 Hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost myhostname
# Machine FQDN
127.0.1.1 myhostname.localdomain myhostname
# IPv6 Hosts
::1 localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
Check the DNS again (using Google DNS). Open /etc/resolv.conf
and write:
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
search example.com
Write to file /etc/modules-load.d/firewall.conf
:
# iptables modules to run on boot
ip_tables
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns
nf_conntrack
Warning: this part is optional.
To avoid the beep on boot, Write to file /etc/modprobe.d/nobeep.conf
:
# Dont run pcpkr module on boot
blacklist pcspkr
If you don't want a watchdog service running, write to file /etc/modprobe.d/nowatchdog.conf
blacklist iTCO_wdt
# mkinitcpio -p linux
Install required packages with pacman
# pacman -S wireless_tools wpa_supplicant dialog
Now enable wireless connection automatically on system boot (it will be disabled later)
- Go to
/etc/netctl
(withcd
command) - List profiles with
netctl list
- Enable wifi-menu to automatically connect on boot:
# netctl enable wlp1s0-MyWiFi
Install Grub and efibootmgr:
# pacman -S grub efibootmgr
Run grub automatic installation on disk:
# grub-install /dev/sda
Create grub.cfg file:
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
# passwd
Install Xorg Server: (use default options)
# pacman -S xorg-server
Define your keyboard layout on /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf
file:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "keyboard default"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbLayout" "br"
Option "XkbVariant" "abnt2"
EndSection
Install your GPU driver
# pacman -S xf86-video-vesa
Install audio driver
# pacman -S alsa-utils
Configure and save:
# alsamixer
# alsactl store
Install sudo package
# pacman -S sudo
Configure sudo (uses vim
as default editor) by running visudo
and uncommenting the line:
## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
Now we're going to add a new user by running: (change myuser
to your username)
# useradd -m -g users -G wheel myuser
Change the new user passord:
# passwd myuser
Exit chroot environment by pressing Ctrl + D or typing exit
Unmount system mount points:
# umount -R /mnt
Reboot system:
# reboot
Remember to remove USB stick on reboot
Now you're on your successfull Arch Linux installation.
Login with your user and follow the next steps.
Now We're gonna install the Window Manager.
I'll show the steps to install Gnome.
First of all, run the installation command with pacman
:
$ sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extra
When the installation finishes, enable gdm
to be started with system on boot:
$ sudo systemctl enable gdm.service
Now we'll remove the previously enabled service from netctl
and the wifi-menu
settings.
First ensures that the NetworkManager package is installed:
$ sudo pacman -S networkmanager
Enable and start NetworkManager service:
$ sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
$ sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service
Go to /etc/netctl
folder and see the connection files (the ones that starts with something like wlp1s0...
)
Disable the netctl service that you've been enable previously:
$ sudo netctl diable wlp1s0-MyWiFi
Then, remove all /etc/netctl
folder and remove your connection file (the one that starts with something like wlp1s0...
)
$ sudo rm wlp1s0... #-- replace with you wifi connection file
Now you can reboot the system (by running reboot
) and everyting should be working fine.
Follow this tutorial
To connect the headphone:
- Install required packages:
$ sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-bluetooth pavucontrol bluez-utils
- Edit
/etc/pulse/system.pa
and add:load-module module-bluez5-device load-module module-bluez5-discover
- For GNOME users:
$ sudo mkdir -p ~gdm/.config/systemd/user $ ln -s /dev/null ~gdm/.config/systemd/user/pulseaudio.socket
- Connect to bluetooth device
$ bluetoothctl # power on # agent on # default-agent # scan on # pair HEADPHONE_MAC # trust HEADPHONE_MAC # connect HEADPHONE_MAC # quit
To auto switch to A2DP mode:
- Edit
/etc/pulse/default.pa
and add:.ifexists module-bluetooth-discover.so load-module module-bluetooth-discover load-module module-switch-on-connect # Add this line .endif
- Modify (or create)
/etc/bluetooth/audio.conf
to auto select AD2P profile:[General] Disable=Headset
- Reboot PC to apply changes
Explaining what tools do what would be helpful especially during the partitioning section, because (at least for me) thats where shit goes wrong.
I've gotten this to work once, but I'm having difficulties doing it again. When following your guide to a T, I always get the error "This GTP partition label contains no BIOS boot partition; Embedding won't be possible.".
If you do update this, I suggest explaining the differences between fdisk and gdisk, and which ones you need to use, like if you need to use MBR+BIOS or BIOS+GPT or UEFI+GPT.