How to Install Arch Linux

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

Create EFI partition

 g (to create an empty GPT partition table)
 n
 enter
 enter
 +500M
 t
 1 (For EFI)

Create rootfs partition

 n
 enter
 enter
 +30G

Create home partition

 n
 enter
 enter
 enter

Show current partitions again

Finalize partition changes

Format the EFI partition

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/<DEVICE PARTITION 1> (for example: /dev/sda1)

Format the rootfs partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/<PARTITION 2> (for example: /dev/sda2)

Format the home partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/<PARTITION 3> (for example: /dev/sda3)

Mount the root partition

mount /dev/<PARTITION 2> /mnt

Create the home partition mount point

mkdir /mnt/home

Mount the home volume

mount /dev/<PARTITION 3> /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

Create the initial ramdisk for the main kernel

mkinitcpio -p linux

Create the initial ramdisk for the LTS kernel (if you’ve 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

Create the directory for EFI boot

mkdir -p /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

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