The purpose of this gist is to install vanilla Arch Linux to an USB storage device for XPS 13 (9350). This also act as a "note-to-self" in case I accidentally nuke my system and need a reinstallation. Most of the configuration here can actually be used in any UEFI-enabled pc, but I have added some detail points to optimize settings for my lovely XPS 13. I wrote this from my memory so there might be something that I missed. I will update this gist once I remember it.
- Dell XPS 13 (9350) ...well obviouly
- An USB stick/HDD/SSD
- A bootable drive containing a live arch linux image, which can be downloaded here
- Internet connection
Let's begin our installation after you prepared all the stuff.
The computer should have "Secure Boot" enabled by deafult. Restart the computer and press F12 during boot and disable Secure Boot. Then boot with the bootable drive you have prepared.
If successfully booted, you will be greeted with a console interface. We need to set up an Internet connection first.
If you have wired connection, ping archlinux.org to check for internet connection.
For wireless connection, type in wifi-menu and follow the on-screen intructions.
Update system clock
timedatectl set-ntp true
timedatectl status #check service statusYou will need at least 2 partition for Arch Linux to work with: an EFI System Partition(ESP) partition and a root partition. If you have an older machine with not much RAM, you can also add a swap partition for better performance. To boot UEFI on XPS 13, you need a GPT partition scheme on you USB key.
To list out device letter (usually in form of /dev/sdX) of the USB key, lsblk or fdisk -l.
After you acquired the device letter, wipe the drive with zero.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1k count=2048Create partition for EPS (Remember to replace sdX with your device letter)
parted /dev/sdX
(parted) mklabel gpt #create a gpt partition table
(parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 201MiB #200MB should be enough for ESP
(parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 201MiB 50GiB #Root partition. Change whatever the size you want.
(parted) quitlsblk again to check if the partitions has been created.
Now format the partitions we just created
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdX1
mkfs.ext4 -O "^has_journal" /dev/sdX2The ^has_journal option reduce disk reads/writes by disabling journal writing to the disk, thus reducing wear on the storage device, especially useful on USB stick/SSD. See also here.
First mount the root partition to /mnt
mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt...then the ESP to /boot
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/bootWe are ready to download the base system to the USB key. But before that, you may want to select a mirror closest to you first.
vi /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlistCut and paste your preferred mirror address to the top of the list. dd to cut the whole line, p to paste.
pacstrap /mnt base wpa_supplicant dialogGenerate an fstab file (use -U to define by UUID)
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstabCheck the resulting file in /mnt/etc/fstab afterwards, and edit it in case of errors.
Now chroot into the system
arch-chroot /mntvi /etc/mkinitcpio.confPress i to enter INSERT mode. Navigate to the line HOOKS=... , then move block hook to the hooks array right after udev. Press Esc to exit INSERT mode and enter :wq to "write file and quit".
Then
mkinitcpio -p linuxSet your time zone, for example:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Hong_Kong /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc #Set UTC timevi /etc/locale.genUncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed localizations. Generate with
locale-genecho lcwarch > /etc/hostname #use any name you want
passwd #set password for root userIf anything goes well, you can then install booloader of your choice. Here we use systemd-boot for its ease of installation. If you use a bootloader other than systemd-boot, please make sure the bootloader support UEFI boot. For the list of supported bootloader, visit https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Boot_loaders.
To install the bootloader (systemd-boot)
bootctl --path=/boot install
vi /boot/loader/loader.confConfigure the bootloader like this
default arch
timeout 2
editor 0
Find the root partition UUID with
blkid -s PARTUUID -o value /dev/sdX2Then append these lines to /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=THE_PARTUUID_YOU_RETRIEVED_ABOVE rw
Update the bootloader
bootctl update
Unmount all partitions
exit
umount -R /mnt
Now that we have set up bootloader and base system. You should be able to boot the system without the live OS. Try reboot with the bootable drive unplugged. If all goes well, proceed to the next step.
pacman -S sudo
visudo
groupadd sudo
useradd -G sudo -m lcw #change lcw to your preferred username
passwd lcw
Pick a desktop environment and install with pacman. I recommend GNOME as it has great support for high DPI screen, which XPS 13 has. If you want a lightweight DE, I recommend LXDE.
Here we install gnome, drivers, network, vim, fonts, browser and touchpad support.
pacman -S gnome vim iw wpa_supplicant dialog network-manager-applet networkmanager xf86-input-libinput xorg-xinit chromium zip unzip ttf-dejavu mesa-libgl
To start GNOME and network service after reboot
systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
systemctl enable gdm.service
reboot
Voilà! You now have Arch Linux installed on your USB key! Have fun tweaking your system!
- Add XPS 13 specific settings
This installation guide is largely based on