I have to admit that installation of Arch Linux can be difficult for many people, but that's why it's a fun!A few days ago I've tried first time to install the Arch Linux. I've started on virtual machine, to know better the whole process and later I've tried to install it on my laptop - and you know, from 15 minutes of first impressions about the Arch I didn't find anything that I could not like.Yes, I agree that there are many decisions you have to decide during the installation of Arch. For example, manual setting up of partitions, current date, downloading all related packages, then finally install the whole system. For many it's just the beginning because after the installation you've only a bare system - console and that is it. You have to install and configure GUI and other important stuff on your own, but actually this is a fun, isn't it?The longest part for me was the downloading and installation packages from the Net. This took me around 45 minutes to download the system and GUI interface (Gnome).Beside the installation process, I love the whole idea of having one release in contrast to Ubuntu. You have only one major version and you stick to it - until that community decides to change it.Below I would like to share my whole process and preferences during the setting up the Arch.
Partitioning hard drives
Display all drives on PC. I have only one drive called /dev/sda.
sh
fdisk -lcfdisk /dev/sda
I've got 500GB drive (with real space of 465GB), but the drive has one hidden partition for WinRecovery with size around 18GB (I'm not using it right now).
So, now I split a bit rest of my drive space for 2 additional partitions.
18GB hidden WinRecovery partition (not used)
16GB for /swap with type linux swap (82)
~431GB for / with bootable flag and type linux (83)
In this part we will format our partitions and enable Linux SWAP:
sh
mksf.ext4 /dev/sda2mount /dev/sda2 /mntmkswap /dev/sda1swapon /dev/sda1pacstrap /mnt base base-devel # most basic packages
If you don't want to install anything more, for now, you can omit packages, but I recommend to install them also just for more efficient usage before setting up the network-manager.
sh
pacstrap /mnt dialog wpa_supplicant network-manager-applet ldns # for connecting via wifi-menu after installpacstrap /mnt sudo zsh wget curl # additional packages
Configuring the installation
sh
arch-chroot /mntpasswd rootvi /etc/locale.gen # uncoment all for you lang: en_USlocale-genln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtimetimedatectl set-ntp truehwclock --systohcecho vbox > /etc/hostname# installing grubpacman -S grub-biosgrub-install /dev/sda# generate system info filemkinitcpio -p linuxgrub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgexit # from /mnt root# generate partition infogenfstab /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstabumount -R /mnt
Connect to internet
sh
ip linksystemctl enable dhcpcd.servicesystemctl start dhcpcd.serviceping google.com
For supporting different drives I install exfat-utils dosfstools jfsutils ntfs-3g mtools and for partitioning, I like gparted and gpart for fixing drives.
For graphics gimp inkscape and imagemagick for console operations.
For FTP filezilla.
For SSH openssh is the obvious choice!
For LaTeX I usually install all packages texlive-most texlive-lang and texstudio
Install display manager
I choose Gnome3 for my graphical environment because now many problems have been fixed by maintainers and it looks quite nice.
Reboot system with sudo reboot and we're done with installation of GUI.
Install the Nvidia drivers
First, we check which graphic card we have:
sh
lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
In my laptop I've got GeForce GT 425m, so according to Arch Linux wiki about nvidia. I have to install nvidia nvidia-libgl and enable service.
Info
You might want to uninstall mesa-libgl package. This package have some problems with handling animations for some graphics cards, so agree for that by pressing (Y).
Then we have to reboot the system and check lsmod | grep nvidia.
The end
Now you should have full operational Arch Linux system - and yes, you should be proud of yourself!
Thanks for staying with me to the end. I hope that little tutorial of mine, help you a bit during your journey of setting up you private Arch instance ;)
Many IT guys will be whimper a bit of having only one general partition for /, but I found it more useful for me in daily work.Note: If you have disk bigger then 2TB use GPT instead of DOS, if using of MBR is not obligatory.
I have tried installation on my virtual box then again on my laptop. The problem that I face, was internet connection through WiFi. There are several ways of doing this. You can use wifi-menu to set up temporary connection for downloading packages and after installation setup network-manager.
This password is the most important of all. Write it down somewhere to not forget, we will need it later.
If above not work try manual install upon result from ip link, in my case the Ethernet device name is called enp0s3
sh
ip linkdhcpcd enp0s3
Why? Because when you use root you can do everything (it is good when you know what you're doing), but it's not about what you can or can't do, it's about you. You're more secure from yourself actions for example just using sudo program.It's a good approach - but hey, you already know this, right? ;)