Arch Linux ARM on ESXi Fling (on Raspberry Pi 4)

archlinux_arm_on_esxi_fling.md

arch linux arm on esxi fling (on raspberry pi 4)

• create / Register VM -> Linux / Other 4.x or Later (64bit) -> ...

  • CD/DVD Drive: use a Linux ISO that can boot into a recue shell e.g 'debian-10.9.0-arm64-netinst.iso'; make sure "Connect at power on" is selected
  • VM Options / Boot options: Firmware "EFI" (should be the default anyways)

• power On VM -> should see GNU GRUB welcome screen (from debian ISO/cdrom) -> Advanced Options -> Rescue mode

  • go through menu selections (language, keyborad, etc) until you have a shell ('Execute a shell in the intaller environment')

• partition the disk; see also ArchLinux Wiki Partition the disk

  One partition for the root directory /. For booting in UEFI mode: an EFI system partition.

  • fdisk -l should list your hd; usually /dev/sda

  • using fdisk create boot/EFI parition and root partition e.g.

    fdisk /dev/sda
    g
    p
    n # +300M
    t # 1 'EFI System'
    n # will per default be 'Linux fileystem'
    w # write new GTP partition table to disk

• format the partitions and mount the file systems

  • format:

  mkfs.fat /dev/sda1
  mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

  • mount the file systems
    • mkdir /mnt/root; mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/root
    • mkdir /mnt/boot; mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

• still in rescue shell, download generic ArchLinux ARM package; see link

  • cd /tmp; wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz

• Unpack into /mnt/root

  • tar -xzf /tmp/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt/root
  • cd /mnt/root/boot; cp -a * /mnt/boot

• Reboot system, in GRUB screen, select 'c' (grub command line), and boot ArchLinux:

  grub> ls
  grub> ls (hd0,gpt2)/
  grub> linux (hd0,gpt2/boot/Image.gz root=/dev/sda2
  grub> initrd (hd0,gpt2/boot/initramfs-linux.img
  grub> boot

• login with root / root

• If root "/" is mounted as read-only, re-mount re-write

  • mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda2 /

• Setup pacman (database synche etc)

  pacman-key --init
  pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
  pacman -Syy`

• install install helper scripts pacman -S arch-install-script (contains e.g. genfstab)

• generate fstab, see also ArchLinux Wiki on fstab

   # ensure boot is mounted too, if not
   mv /boot /boot.bak
   mkdir /boot
   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
  
   genfstab -U / >> /etc/fstab

• install and setup GRUB (boot manager)

  • update kernel etc with pacman -S linux linux-headers (select "1) linux-aarch64-headers")
  • install grub etc pacman -S grub efibootmgr

• install GRUB with

  • grub-install --target=arm64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB --boot-directory=/boot

• configure grub, see also ArchLinux Wiki on Grub link

  • NOTE: generally grub-install look for the kernel image name '/boot/vmlinuz-*...', however, the arm kernel image in '/boot' is called 'Image.gz' (compressed) resp. 'Image' (uncompressed). Quick fix / dirty workaround for grub to find the kernel and generate respective grub.cfg is not copy/rename current kernel image to 'vmlinuz-linux' before calling grub-mkconfig

    cd /boot
    cp Image vmlinuz-linux
    grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

• reboot ! 🤞

• for remaining steps (e.g. setting hostname etc) see Installion guide and General Recommendations (post install) on ArchLinux Wiki

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