We will tackle this process in 10 steps listed below.
I didn't want to repeat some sections well explained in the UEFI Process. You can refer there and follow due process.
Namely;
- Connecting to WiFi.
- Installing Base System(pacstrap).
- Setting Timezone & Language.
- Adding Super User and Configurations.
- Optimizing Mirrors.
- Installing Fonts and Various Packages.
- Enabling Vital System Services.
Many Operating Systems often try to craft a one size fits all partition layout for their file systems. This is quite wrong since they don't know about the details of your hardware and how you plan to use your computer(your needs).
But a linux distribution like Arch Linux, and to an extend ArchLabs gives you that freedom to do it yourself!.
Another thing to note is that, if your kernel and initramfs are on the root file system, you may be unable to perform the recovery in case you system crushes for one reason or another.
By having the bootloader, kernel and initramfs all on a single filesystem that is rarely accessed or updated, you can increase your chances of recovering the rest of the system.
There are many ways that you can layout your partitions, but for my use case, I will focus on:
- Type of Hardware (BIOS or UEFI)
- I have one
biosand anotheruefilaptop.
- I have one
- The Brand of the Bootloader (GRUB or Syslinux)
- I will use GRUB for UEFI laptop and Syslinux for Legacy, since I tried using GRUB with the later,I didn't make it.More of a surrendering mode.
- Actually from ArchWikis,they say syslinux works quite well with legacy and it is known that GRUB has issues of not working especially on the
grub-install /dev/sdXpart.
- I use my laptops for technical work, so the order,the type and the size of partitions matter for my use case.
- I am just a speed enthusiast, like High Performance Computing and why not try to learn by doing it!
Actually some of my MAIN reasons of installing vanilla linux(Arch Linux) are:
- No Bloatware - Imagine
4GBimage for Windows,2GB+ for Fedora or Ubuntu but Arch Linux approx.700MB. Softwares preinstalled that you will never use. - Performance & Security - You install other distros; some crapware/spyware you didn't install are working in the background slowing your machine and making you quite uncomfortable.
- Learning - you get to understand linux better, nitty gritty.
- Minimalism - We Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)
First change the boot options to follow this order, we need to clear out this one first.
Boot Mode
- Legacy (ensure this is selected)
- UEFI Hybrid (With CSM)
- UEFI Native (Without CSM)
Legacy Boot Order
- Notebook Hard Drive (ensure this appears at the top of list)
- USB Hard Drive
- USB CD-ROM
- Optical Disk Drive
- USB Floppy
- Notebook Ethernet
- SD Card
The installation is quite similar to the one for UEFI but with key differences in:
- Installing and configuring the Bootloader (Syslinux)
- Partitioning - Refer to my partitioning scheme for Legacy System
Note to Self: For most part of the installation procedure use the UEFI one but switch immediately to the above process especially on the key items listed above.
$ mkdir -p /mnt/boot
$ mkfs.ex4 /dev/sda1
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
Don't forget to verify the boot flag has been set for this partition.
Otherwise, If you forgot to do it.Run the below commands consecutively.
Note: If you forget to set the bootable flag for obvious reasons, you system won't boot. Then you will be left wondering what went wrong and you won't love the troubleshooting process.
$ parted /dev/sda
Then one inside (parted)
$ set 1 boot onAbove command simply means, in lay terms
We are using parted command on our physical hard disk /dev/sda and setting partition 1 as bootable.
Our partition 1 is /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
$ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
$ mkdir -p /mnt/home
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
$ mount /dev/sda /mnt/home
$ mkdir -p /mnt/var
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4
$ mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/var
No swap for my legacy system because you are allowed a maximum of 4 partition!
- /boot
- / -> root partition
- /home
- /var
Important to Note:
Mounting the partitions to their respective filesystems is VERY important.Because if you happen
to forget this key step, all your installation i.e # pacman -S linux linux-firmware or pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
will be futile.
But the following step will help us verify that we have mounted everything and we are good to go!
Run the following command ONCE to generate fstab file
$ genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
To verify this we can type
$cat /mnt/etc/fstab
You will probably see something similar to this file contents
# /dev/sda3
UUID=8ecbb432-2adc-4c5d-8ce7-aa46838879c2 / <omitted_details_here>
# /dev/sda1
UUID=853332ca-3428-4fb5-9b6b-626afc36e734 /boot <omitted_details_here>
# /dev/sda2
UUID=eea1eccf-f57a-420d-9a16-64c5b9cee480 /var <omitted_details_here>
# /dev/sda4
UUID=dce64fe0-4f6e-455c-b744-61852b56a711 /home <omitted_details_here>
Now edit that file to look like the one below
Run, to do the editing
# nano /mnt/etc/fstab
# dev/sda3
/dev/sda3 / <omitted_details_here>
# dev/sda1
/dev/sda1 /boot <omitted_details_here>
# /dev/sda2
/dev/sda2 /var <omitted_details_here>
# /dev/sda4
/dev/sda4 /home <omitted_details_here>
You will notice we are only replacing the UUID with the corresponding partition above. This actually improves the speed/performance of your machine when booting. Got this trick from Arch Wikis. And I saw it in works!
If in any case your fstab file is blank,no need to proceed from here.Go back and have all partitions mounted and done correctly. Otherwise if you proceed, you are definitely be beating your head against the wall.
Note: you can't edit this file unless you install nano first, maybe check the file is OK first with the UUID and revisit it immediately after nano or vim has been installed.
lts - Long Term Support
# pacman -S linux-lts linux-firmware intel-ucode linux-headers
Other important applications to install
# pacman nano dialog iw wpa_supplicant networkmanager
# pacman -S syslinux
# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
Output for the above command should be:
Syslinux BIOS install successful
Boot Flag Set - /dev/sda1
Installed MBR (/usr/lib/syslinux/bios/mbr.bin) to /dev/sda
The key thing to note in that output is where the Boot Flag has been set!
It should be /dev/sda1 which in my case is correct.
# nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
My root partition is/in /dev/sda2.
Now run the following command to ensure everything is OK.You may get 2 or few warnings ignore(do note them though). What you can't ignore are the errors.
# mkinitcpio -p linux-lts
The syslinux.cfg file is located in /boot/syslinux/, so the absolute path is/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
An example syslinux.cfg file here taken from ArchLabs installer.
UI vesamenu.c32
MENU TITLE ArchLinux Boot Menu
MENU BACKGROUND splash.png
TIMEOUT 50
DEFAULT Arch
# see: https://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Comboot/menu.c32
MENU WIDTH 78
MENU MARGIN 4
MENU ROWS 4
MENU VSHIFT 10
MENU TIMEOUTROW 13
MENU TABMSGROW 14
MENU CMDLINEROW 14
MENU HELPMSGROW 16
MENU HELPMSGENDROW 29
MENU COLOR border 30;44 #40ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR title 1;36;44 #9033ccff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #e0ffffff #20ffffff all
MENU COLOR unsel 37;44 #50ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR help 37;40 #c0ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout_msg 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout 1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR msg07 37;40 #90ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR tabmsg 31;40 #30ffffff #00000000 std
LABEL ArchLinux
MENU LABEL Arch Linux
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-lts
APPEND root=/dev/sda2 rw
INITRD ../intel-ucode.img,../initramfs-linux-lts.img
LABEL ArchLinuxfallback
MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-lts
APPEND root=/dev/sda2 rw
INITRD ../intel-ucode.img,../initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img
From the above config file, we are interested specifically in these sections.
- LINUX - verify it is the correct kernel
- APPEND - should point to your root filesystem
- INITRD - verify correct initramfs and intel-ucode images
Same process applies for the fallback
You can navigate to that directory and check it contents
$ cd /boot
$ ls
That directory should have your kernel and initramfs as well as syslinux directory.
Within the syslinux directory various *.c32 files and syslinux.cfg,file above.
LABEL ArchLinux
MENU LABEL Arch Linux
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-lts
APPEND root=/dev/sda2 rw
INITRD ../intel-ucode.img,../initramfs-linux-lts.img
LABEL ArchLinuxfallback
MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-lts
APPEND root=/dev/sda2 rw
INITRD ../intel-ucode.img,../initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img
Our display server will be xorg
# pacman -S xorg xorg-apps xorg-server xorg-drivers terminator mesa xdg-user-dirs fuse2 ntfs-3g exfat-utils pulseaudio pulseaudio-bluetooth bluez-utils pavucontrol gvfs dkms haveged git unrar unzip htop feh lsb-release firefox
The display server and its accompanying packages are
xorg xorg-apps xorg-server xorg-drivers
from the list above.
Our display manager will be lightdm
# pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter
# nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter
user-session=cinnamon-session-cinnamon
# systemctl enable lightdm
You may as well take the opportunity enable the Network Manager
# systemctl enable NetworkManager
# ls /usr/share/xsessions
cinnamon will be our desktop environment.We can later experiment with i3
# pacman -S cinnamon
After we are done with the last bit.It is time to unmount our partition and reboot our system.
First exit root
# exit
Unmount the root partition, all the other partitions unmount as well if you run the following command
$ umount -R /mnt
Reboot
$ reboot
Note:You may refer here incase you need to configure cinnamon further
systemctl disable -f gdm.service
Removed /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service
# pacman -S ncdu
# ncdu -x /
Above command check for root directory
you can rather use
# df -h -t ext4
[TIME] Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/E6B9-2FS
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for File System check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/.....
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for /boot/efi
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Local File Systems
I have seen this error get fixed by editing the fstab file.
$ iw dev or $ iwconfig
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | grep ESSID
or ip addr show
# wipefs -a /dev/sda
If that does not work
# sgdisk -Z /dev/sda
Thanks for your great efforts concerning an uncool but — nevertheless — very useful issue. Great to see
syslinuxin action.I’m a puzzled about the mount order. You mount
/mnt/bootfirst and/mntafterwards. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?