Minimal instructions for installing arch linux on an UEFI system with full system encryption using dm-crypt and luks

Encrypted Arch Base Install

wifi-menu

cgdisk /dev/nvme0n1
1 - 100MB EFI partition # Hex code ef00
2 - 250MB Boot partition # Hex code 8300
3 - 100% size partiton # (to be encrypted) Hex code 8300

mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/nvme0n1p2

cryptsetup -c aes-xts-plain64 -y --use-random luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p3
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p3 luks

pvcreate /dev/mapper/luks
vgcreate vg /dev/mapper/luks
lvcreate --size 8G vg --name swap
lvcreate -l +100%FREE vg --name root

mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
mkswap /dev/mapper/vg-swap

mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt 
swapon /dev/mapper/vg-swap 
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel grub-efi-x86_64 git efibootmgr dialog wpa_supplicant dhcpcd 
               mkinitcpio lvm2 linux-hardened linux-firmware neovim 

genfstab -pU /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# /mnt/etc/fstab
tmpfs	/tmp	tmpfs	defaults,noatime,mode=1777	0	0

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utc

echo sdc-xxx-01 > /etc/hostname

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

passwd

# useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/zsh MYUSERNAME
# passwd MYUSERNAME


vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
# Add 'ext4' to MODULES
# Add 'encrypt' and 'lvm2' to HOOKS before filesystems

mkinitcpio -p linux-hardened

grub-install
# /etc/default/grub edit GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=/dev/nvme0n1p3:luks:allow-discards"
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

exit

umount -R /mnt
swapoff -a

reboot


# I3 w/ Gaps Tile Manager
sudo pacman -S i3-gaps xorg-server xorg-xinit
nvim /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc 
Remove the final chunk of code containing twm and apps.
Replace with: exec i3
startx