Formula for Arch/Xcfe4 install in Virtualbox

gistfile1.txt

# See Medium Article to go along with this gist at: https://gerry-jenkins.medium.com/installing-archlinux-in-virtualbox-beats-dual-boot-for-work-eb4c5cf2fed7 or at my site: http://gjenkinsedu.com/post/2021-01-13_installing-linux-in-virtualbox-best-dual-boot-for-real-work/

# ArchForVBFormula,  

## VirtualBox Setup
   - Arch Linux 64 bit
   - Memory: 2G to recommended half of total
   - Drive: VDI dynamic at least 30G for working system
   - Processor cores: recommend half of total
   - Display: max out the amount of display memory
   - Network: Bridged Adapter for SSH into
   - Arch iso for CD/DVD Drive

## Setup script, comments indicate some options

# Startup ISO image:

# if your keyboard is not US
localectl list-keymaps | grep -i de  # grep a language code df fr 
loadkeys fr-latin1  # replace fr-latin1 with your keyboard code found in previous command

# Optional:  if you want to complete process with SSH
passwd # to set password to use with ssh root@ip-address

# do a "ip a" command to find out ip address -- see video
# you can now ssh to root@youripaddr to enter all the command of install.
# for example  ssh root@192.168.254.92 -- use your ip address from ip a command

## partition, build, and add fstab
fdisk /dev/sda  # do the following commands to set up 1 big partitican with no boot or swap.
n               # hit enter for each step to create 1 partician for whole drive
w               # write out new partician

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1    # format for linux ext4 type system
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt   # mount for access
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-headers  # build system, takes a while
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab  # save fstab to automount main partician

arch-chroot /mnt # switch to running as if on new guest, prompt will change to [root@archiso /] adding [ /]
# at this point you are running as if you were root on the new disk

pacman -Syy vim nano  # install one or two terminal editors to use, and update repositories
timedatectl list-timezones | grep Los  # find out your timezone, here I search for Los Angeles
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Americ>/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime  # substitute your country and city
hwclock --systohc  #  use hardware clock provided by vbox

nano /etc/locale.gen  # edit locale gen file
    # uncomment YOUR locale  (en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8  and en_US ISO-8859-1) for english_US users
locale-gen  # generates new locale for system
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf  # USE your local in place of en_US.UTF-8
echo KEYMAP=us >> /etc/vconsole.conf

nano /etc/hostname  # add the following to file, you can make up your own name
  archvbox

nano /etc/hosts # add the following to file, note your host name from above is used on last line
  127.0.0.1	localhost
  ::1		localhost
  127.0.1.1	archvbox.localdomain  archvbox

pacman sudo reflector openssh syslinux virtualbox-guest-utils  # install some needed system stuff

syslinux-install_update -iam # install the boot loader (it installs within the root system)
# note, since we have a simple virutal disk, we can use a simpler alternative to grub/efi boot loaders
# called the syslinux boot loader, it is actually inststalled in the main partition

nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg  # change all sda3 to sda1 (two places) and save

# create user, replace gjenkins with your choice of username on next three steps
useradd -mG wheel gjenkins  # give them right to sudo
passwd gjenkins # setup up passwrod, it will prompt you twice


EDITOR=nano visudo  # complete setup of sudo to allow you to sudo when you login
# find comment ## uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
# uncomment next line to start the the % so it looks like
  %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

# enable netorking is simpler on vbox
pacman -S dhcpcd
systemctl enable dhcpcd

exit  # leave archroot and go back to live CD prompt
umount -a # unmount all
shutdown now # shutdown guest and you will go back to VirtualBox settings

# in VBox settings > storage  remove disk from CD
# restart image

systemctl start dhcpcd

sudo pacman -S xorg xorg-xinit 
sudo pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter 
sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies  # this line you can substitute other desktop envoronments

systemctl enable lightdm.service

reboot now

# Login with lightdm

# ref https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xfce for more information on using xcfe4 in arch linux

# Setup VirtualBox Guest Editions for sharing files, clipboard, and better screen handling
sudo pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils

# Setup swap file Optional: (from: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/swap#Manually)

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2048 status=progress  # 2G swap
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

# sudo edit /etc/fstab
add line:
/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0