- Promox / QEMU VM, 512MB RAM, 128GB SCSI HD, 1 core pentium
- IBM ThinkPad 600, 128MB RAM, 100GB ATA HD, 1 core pentium 2 (deschutes)
Begin by booting archlinux32-2021.07.16-i486.iso.
Partition the hard disk:
$ fdisk /dev/sda
# o to create new dos partition table
# n, default (p), default (1), default, +2G
# to create 2GB /boot partition as /dev/sda1
# n, default (p), default (2), default, +4G
# to create 4GB swap partition as /dev/sda2
# n, default (p), default (3), default, default
# to use remaining space as /dev/sda3
# t, 2, 82 to set /dev/sda2 as linux swap type
# w to write
Format and mount the disk, turn on swap, and write the fstab:
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
$ mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
$ mkdir /mnt/etc /mnt/boot /mnt/tmp
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
$ mkswap /dev/sda2
$ swapon /dev/sda2
$ genfstab -L /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
# this may not be necessary where tmpfs is large enough
$ mount --bind /mnt/tmp /tmp
$ mount --bind /mnt/tmp /var/tmp
Bring up the network:
$ ip link set ens18 up
$ dhcpcd
$ ping google.com
Set up a temporary pacman config for parallel downloads and ignoring signature verification, and use that to pacstrap the system:
$ cp /etc/pacman.conf /mnt/pacman-tmp.conf
$ nano /mnt/pacman-tmp.conf
# set ParallelDownloads = 10
# set SigLevel = Never
$ pacstrap -C /mnt/pacman-tmp.conf /mnt base archlinux-keyring archlinux32-keyring linux linux-firmware vim dhcpcd grub sudo
Enter the chroot, set locale, configure and run pacman, set the root password, and install grub:
$ arch-chroot /mnt
$ rm /pacman-tmp.conf
$ vim /etc/locale.gen
# uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
$ locale-gen
$ echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
$ vim /etc/pacman.conf
# set Architecture = i486
# otherwise it'll fetch i586, as seen in `pacman -Sy --debug`
$ passwd root
$ grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Exit the chroot, remove the installation media and reboot.
Get back online:
$ ip link set ens18 up
$ systemctl enable --now dhcpcd@ens18
Create an unprivileged user, let them sudo without password:
$ useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash username
$ EDITOR=vim visudo
# uncomment this: line
# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
Log out (Ctrl+D) and log in as your new user.
Build and run windowmaker:
$ sudo pacman -S base-devel git xorg xorg-xinit xterm
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/windowmaker.git
$ cd windowmaker
$ vim PKGBUILD
# update `arch=('i486' 'i686' 'x86_64')`
$ makepkg -si
$ echo "exec wmaker" > ~/.xinitrc
$ startx
Right click the wallpaper to open the WindowMaker menu, select Run... and type xterm.