In this video, the viewer is shown how to create a custom installation of Arch Linux with EFI, LVM, and Encryption.
Installation Steps
Download latest Arch linux ISO
https://www.archlinux.org/download/
Check if there is an Internet connection (if on wired)
ip addr show
For WiFi, you can use wifi-menu
wifi-menu
If you do have a network connection but no IP address use:
dhcpcd
Edit the mirrorlist (optional)
nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Update repository index
pacman -Syyy
See partitions/drives on the system (find the name of your hard drive)
fdisk -l
Start the partitioner (fdisk)
fdisk /dev/<DEVICE> (substitute <DEVICE> for your device name, example: /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1)
Show current partitions
p
Create EFI partition
g (to create an empty GPT partition table) n enter enter +500M t 1 (For EFI)
Create boot partition
n enter enter +500M
Create LVM partition
n enter enter enter t enter 30
Show current partitions again
p
Finalize partition changes
w
Format the EFI partition
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 1> (for example: /dev/sda1)
Format the boot partition
mkfs.ext4 /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 2> (for example: /dev/sda2)
Set up encryption
cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 3> cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 3> lvm
Set up lvm
pvcreate --dataalignment 1m /dev/mapper/lvm vgcreate volgroup0 /dev/mapper/lvm lvcreate -L 30GB volgroup0 -n lv_root lvcreate -L 250GB volgroup0 -n lv_home (or instead of "-L 250GB", use "-l 100%FREE" to use all the remaining space). modprobe dm_mod vgscan vgchange -ay
Format the root partition
mkfs.ext4 /dev/volgroup0/lv_root
Mount the root partition
mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_root /mnt
Create the boot partition mount directory
mkdir /mnt/boot
Mount the boot partition
mount /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 2> /mnt/boot
Format the home partition
mkfs.ext4 /dev/volgroup0/lv_home
Create the home partition mount point
mkdir /mnt/home
Mount the home volume
mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_home /mnt/home
Create the /etc dirctory
mkdir /mnt/etc
Create the /etc/fstab file
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Check the /etc/fstab file
cat /mnt/etc/fstab
Install Arch Linux base packages
pacstrap -i /mnt base
Access the in-progress Arch installation
arch-chroot /mnt
Install a kernel and headers
pacman -S linux linux-headers
For LTS:
pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers
Or both:
pacman -S linux linux-lts linux-headers linux-lts-headers
Install a text editor
pacman -S nano
Install optional packages
pacman -S base-devel openssh
Enable OpenSSH if you’ve installed it
systemctl enable sshd
Install packages for networking
pacman -S networkmanager wpa_supplicant wireless_tools netctl
Install dialog (required for wifi-menu)
pacman -S dialog
Enable networkmanager
systemctl enable NetworkManager
Install LVM support
pacman -S lvm2
Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
On the “HOOKS” line (line #52 or thereabouts), add “encrypt lvm2” in between “block” and “filesystems”
It should look similar to the following (don’t copy this line in case they change it, but just add the two new items):
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems keyboard fsck)
Create the initial ramdisk for the main kernel
mkinitcpio -p linux
Create the initial ramdisk for the LTS kernel (if you installed it)
mkinitcpio -p linux-lts
Uncomment the line from the /etc/locale.gen file that corresponds to your locale
nano /etc/locale.gen (uncomment en_US.UTF-8)
Generate the locale
locale-gen
Set the root password
passwd
Create a user for yourself
useradd -m -g users -G wheel <username>
Set your password
passwd <username>
Install sudo (may already be installed)
pacman -S sudo
Allow users in the ‘wheel’ group to use sudo
EDITOR=nano visudo
Uncomment:
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
Install packages for GRUB
pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools os-prober mtools
Edit /etc/default/grub
nano /etc/default/grub
Uncomment:
GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y
Add cryptdevice=<PARTUUID>:volgroup0 to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line If using standard device naming, the option will look like this:
cryptdevice=/dev/sda3:volgroup0:allow-discards quiet
Create the directory for EFI boot
mkdir /boot/EFI
Mount the EFI partition
mount /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 1> /boot/EFI
Install GRUB
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck
Create the locale directory for GRUB
mkdir /boot/grub/locale
Copy the locale file to locale directory
cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo
Generate GRUB’s config file
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Create swap file
fallocate -l 2G /swapfile chmod 600 /swapfile mkswap /swapfile
Back up the /etc/fstab file
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
Add the swap file to the /etc/fstab file
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | tee -a /etc/fstab
Check the /etc/fstab file to make sure it includes all the right partitions
cat /etc/fstab
You should have a mountpoint for the root filesystem, boot partition, home partition, and swap file
Wrapping Up, Optional Considerations
Install CPU Microde files (AMD CPU)
pacman -S amd-ucode
Install CPU Microde files (Intel CPU)
pacman -S intel-ucode
Install Xorg if you plan on having a GUI
pacman -S xorg-server
Install 3D support for Intel or AMD graphics
If you have an Intel or AMD GPU, install the mesa package:
pacman -S mesa
Install Nvidia Driver packages if you have an Nvidia GPU
pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils
Note: Install nvidia-lts if you’ve installed the LTS kernel:
pacman -S nvidia-lts
Optional: Install Virtualbox guest packages
If you’re installing Arch inside a Virtualbox virtual machine, install these packages:
pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils xf86-video-vmware
Moment of truth: Reboot your machine
Exit the chroot environment
exit
Unmount everything (some errors are okay here)
umount -a
Reboot the machine
reboot
