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 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)
Set up lvm
pvcreate --dataalignment 1m /dev/<DEVICE NAME> vgcreate volgroup0 /dev/<DEVICE NAME> lvcreate -L 30GB volgroup0 -n lv_root lvcreate -l 100%FREE volgroup0 -n lv_home (or use something like "-L 250GB" if you want to make the volume size lower) 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
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 “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 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
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
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
