Default console keyboard layout is US English. To list other available layouts:
ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz | less
Find the one you need and set it like this (example for German):
loadkeys de-latin1
Verify boot mode (command should return 64):
cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size
Make sure you're connected to the internet (if using WiFi - connect using iwctl first):
ip a
ping -c 1 google.com
Update system clock:
timedatectl
Find the drive you want to use (in my case it is /dev/vda):
lsblk
Partition the disk (my example layout with ESP, swap and single large partition):
gdisk /dev/vda
o y
n 1 (default) +512m ef00 # EFI system partition
n 2 (default) +16g 8200 # Linux swap (optional)
n 3 (default) (default) 8300 # Linux filesystem
w y
- If installing alongside Windows or another Linux system, do not create another ESP, reuse the existing one
- Swap is optional, should be same size as RAM (
gmeans GiB, not GB, no need to calculate blocks) - You can reuse the same swap partition between multiple Linux systems
- Watch out for partition numbers, they can differ from the given examples if you have another OS and/or do not create swap
Before formatting partitions, note which partition has which name:
lsblk
For my example, ESP is /dev/vda1, swap is /dev/vda2 and root is /dev/vda3.
If you want a simpler setup without btrfs:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda3
mount -o rw,noatime,discard /mnt
Create, then mount BTRFS subvolumes:
mkfs.btrfs /dev/vda3
mount /dev/vda3 /mnt
btrfs su cr /mnt/@
btrfs su cr /mnt/@home
btrfs su cr /mnt/@root
btrfs su cr /mnt/@srv
btrfs su cr /mnt/@cache
btrfs su cr /mnt/@tmp
btrfs su cr /mnt/@log
btrfs su cr /mnt/@snapshots
umount /mnt
mount -o rw,ssd,noatime,discard=async,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@ /dev/vda3 /mnt
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@home /dev/vda3 /mnt/home
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@root /dev/vda3 /mnt/root
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@srv /dev/vda3 /mnt/srv
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@cache /dev/vda3 /mnt/var/cache
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@tmp /dev/vda3 /mnt/var/tmp
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@log /dev/vda3 /mnt/var/log
mount --mkdir -o rw,ssd,noatime,compress-force=zstd:1,subvol=@snapshots /dev/vda3 /mnt/.snapshots
mkfs.vfat /dev/vda1
mount --mkdir -o nosuid,nodev,relatime,errors=remount-ro /dev/vda1 /mnt/boot/efi
NOTE: if installing alongside Windows, skip formatting the partition and just mount it.
mkswap /dev/vda2
swapon /dev/vda2
NOTE: if installing alongside another Linux system with existing swap partition, skip mkswap and only do swapon.
Install the Linux base, as well as other required packages:
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware vi vim
Generate fstab:
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Change root into new system:
arch-chroot /mnt
Set up time zone:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/*Region*/*City* /etc/localtime
Update the hardware clock:
hwclock --systohc
Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment required locales. I use en_IE.UTF-8 UTF-8 and en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8.
...
en_IE.UTF-8 UTF-8
...
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
...
Why do I use Irish locale instead of American English?
en_IE stands for English (Ireland), the language is exactly the same as American English, except with:- Metric system
- Euro currency
- 24-hour clock
- dd/mm/yyyy date
- Week starts on Monday
- A4 paper
If you want vanilla American English - skip uncommenting en_IE. If you want another language - uncomment that.
Generate locales:
locale-gen
Create /etc/locale.conf and set the LANG variable to your primary locale (for example, en_IE.UTF-8):
LANG=en_IE.UTF-8
If you changed the keyboard layout, make the change persistent in /etc/vconsole.conf:
KEYMAP=de-latin1
Set hostname:
echo "your_hostname" > /etc/hostname
echo "127.0.0.1 your_hostname" >> /etc/hosts
systemd-networkd and systemd-resolved are both pre-installed on every Arch instance. Enable them:
systemctl enable systemd-networkd
systemctl enable systemd-resolved
Create a configuration at /etc/systemd/network/ethernet.network (use ip a to find your network interface name):
# /etc/systemd/network/ethernet.network
[Match]
Name=enp1s0
[Network]
DHCP=yes
Wired connections should work automatically. To use WiFi, install iwd and connect to wireless networks using iwctl.
Install networkmanager:
pacman -S networkmanager
Enable the NetworkManager service:
systemctl enable NetworkManager`
Wired connections should work automatically. To use WiFi, use nmcli or nmtui to connect to a wireless network.
Set the root password:
passwd
Enable the wheel group to execute commands as root using sudo:
visudo
# Uncomment the following line (careful, you're in vi, not vim!):
# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
Set up a sudo account:
useradd -mG wheel your_username
passwd your_username
Install GRUB (bootloader-id can be whatever you want):
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
# If you used a btrfs root filesystem - also install grub-btrfs
pacman -S grub-btrfs
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=ARCH
(Optional) Enable dual-boot:
pacman -S os-prober
vim /etc/default/grub
# Uncomment the following line
# set GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
Generate GRUB config:
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
You can optionally install some software already (ex. a desktop environment):
pacman -S flatpak pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-alsa pipewire-jack \
sway swaybg foot wofi waybar xorg-xwayland xorg-xlsclients
Exit chroot, unmount partitions and reboot (remove the installer USB during reboot):
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot