All Glory To The Linux Master Race: An In-Depth Rundown & Tutorial On Arch Linux

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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If you are here, then

Welcome !

You are interested in experiencing the world of Arch Linux in all its glory. Arch Linux is a Rolling Release distribution with a rich learning experience that follows a simple the K.I.S.S. philosophy. K.I.S.S being an anagram for "Keep it Simple, Stupid". I'm here to go in depth with the basic tools you need to install Arch Linux on your laptop or your PC.

However, playing with Linux there is always some hurdles so before you do decide to install it, For my fellow laptop users.. if you have a Laptop with replaceable hardware. I recommend you invest onto these things. they will make the installation of Arch Linux less painful, and for Future distributions you decide to run with in the Future.

Also It's worth noting that you should look into the Wi-Fi card on your system and just make sure it works out the box with the Linux Kernel. if not invest onto a Intel Wi-Fi card for your laptop. these Wi-Fi cards have drivers built into the kernel and will work on all future distros.

Let's Begin.

First Download the iso from the website and if you are on Windows download this free utility callled Rufus to install the ISO on your Flashdrive. you will need at least an 8GiG Flash Drive. though 16GiBs

Arch ISO: https://www.archlinux.org/download/

Rufus: https://rufus.akeo.ie/downloads/rufus-2.10p.exe

if you wish to install it via UEFI then continue on, I will separate the part of the installation for UEFI and Legacy Users. to load up the ISO you MUST have SECURE BOOT turned off. and you must have your BiOS set to UEFI or Legacy Mode depending on how you wish to install this. however in all honesty Legacy is the easiest to install. I'm going to go somewhat indepth so you'll see what I mean.

Now Let's REALLY begin.

Load up the UEFI or Legacy mode whatever you wish to install.

Now if you don't know if you are in UEFI mode or not type in

ls being the command for "List" in BASH. if this directory is populated, you are in UEFI mode. if not, you are in Legacy mode.

once you get into the command line, before we even do anything we must make sure we have connection to the internet.

so type in

if it works you can select your access point and connect to it.

to test your internet and see if it works we must first ping google.

type in

if you get 3 packets back Congratulations! you have internet. this will make the installation much more simpler.

Now the default keyboard layout is US. but if you wish to load up something else, type in

now whatever you wish to use then type in

X being whatever layout you want.

Now update the system clock type in

Now this section is somewhat controversial. the Block Device (Hard drive) Partition Section of the install. the reason I say it's controversial is because to make my life simpler, for Legacy Installs I personally make 2 partitions a Swap Partition and a ROOT partition in my legacy installs.. (A Swap Partition is only beneficial for laptops if you are just installing this on a desktop don't make a swap partition) if you are installing this on a UEFI mode, you must have two partitions, your ROOT partition and your EFI System Partition. (Now if you are installing Arch on a laptop in UEFI mode then you must have 3 partitions, your SWAP, ROOT, and EFI partition)

I use cfdisk for my partitioning. now before you do anything I must advise you RIGHT NOW. if you are doing this on a second hard drive and you already have a Windows installed on another disc, unplug your windows HDD / SDD from your motherboard.. it will save you the headache of accidentally deleting your Windows install and blaming me. I take no responsibility if you delete your Windows install by accident.

now let's begin. to check which hard drive are plugged in type in,

this command will list the block devices (Hard drives) detected by Linux. to know which is which in all honesty the Linux Flash drive that is running Arch will already be mounted. to know which hard drive is which you will know by the storage size.

now for the partitioning. if you are using UEFI mode you must have 3 partitions (3 if you are using a laptop, 2 if you are using a desktop) so type in

X being the letter of the hard drive you wish to partition.
now a GUI will pop up in the command line. now use the arrow keys to navigate through this GUI.

click on NEW. for your partition size, for a UEFI install you must have an EFI System Parition, and the minimum you can parition for it is 512 Mega-Bytes. so type in

now click on TYPE, and select 'EFI System' then click on WRITE then type in 'yes'. your EFI System Partition has been made. if you are in Legacy mode (AN EFI SYSTEM PARTITION ISN'T REQUIRED you will just have to make an ROOT PARTITION AND A SWAP [IF YOU ARE USING A LAPTOP] )

Now we must repeat this process and make a ROOT partition.

NEW >> You can partition it however you want in size if you just want to use up the rest of your hard drive space just press Enter >> by default it's going to make it a Linux Filesystem parition (Which is what you want) then >> WRITE and type in 'Yes' your Root Parition has been made.

OPTIONAL FOR LAPTOP USERS

SWAP PARTITION

repeat the process. if you are using your laptop to install Arch before you even make your ROOT partition make the swap partition. NEW >> the Size of your Swap should be double the amount of RAM you have) >> Click TYPE then >> Linux Swap >> Write >> type in 'yes' then click quit. now let me reiterate,

if you are installing Arch via UEFI on your laptop you should have a total of 3 partitions, 2 if you are on a desktop, your EFI Parition and your ROOT.

  • EFI System Partition - 512 MIBs
  • (Optional for Laptop users) Swap Parition - should be the size of twice your RAM. if you have 4GiBs of RAM your Swap should be 8GiBs)
  • ROOT parition (the left over space you have on your drive)

If you are installing Arch via Legacy you should have one partition, TWO if you are on a laptop

  • (OPTIONAL FOR LAPTOP USERS) SWAP Parition (once again Double your RAM)
  • ROOT Parition (Left over space)

Now we must format the reformat the partitions and make the file systems for each drive.

for EFI System Paritions they must use the FAT-32 File System.

to do this we must type in

x being the hard drive letter you are doing this on, y being the partition, once again to know which partition is which, type in lsblk you will know which is which by the storage sizes.

now for the ROOT partition we wish to use the EXT4 file system.


once again x being the hard drive letter you got from the lsblk command, y being the partition number.

OPTIONAL (LAPTOP USERS)

we must make our swap partition filesystem.


(x being your hard drive y being your swap partition)

WE'RE ALMOST GONE GUISE!

for UEFI Users your EFI parition MUST have a /boot directory to do this, type in

then we must mount the EFI system partition by typing in

(last time x being your hard drive y being your the parition of your EFI system partition)

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OPTIONAL FOR LAPTOP USERS

we must make sure we turn on our swap partition.

Now for your root we must mount this partition as well.

Now mount your root partition

Now type in lsblk you should see where it says mountpoint where each partition is mounted. swap partitions will just display [SWAP] in bold letters.

Time to install our base packages for Arch Linux (this will contain the Arch Kernel for your hard drive pacman, and all the goodies. this may take a while depending on how fast your internet is.

We must generate our fstab (Fstab is just a configuration file that tells linux about your hard drive and its partitions. to do this type in exactly how it's written here,

your FSTAB should be generated.

We are almost done. if you made it this far, you are one step closer to being the neckbeard you've always wanted to be.

we must change root or chroot into your new system. type in

GOOD NEWS you are in your new Arch Linux system! however we are not done yet.. we must set a few things..

to set the time zone type in

This will set the timezone to where ever you are.

Time to generate the time for the hardware so you know what time it is.

Locales.. oh locales..

we must generate our localizations.. to do this type in

this will generate a config file to edit it type in

Nano is a primitive text editor for the command line. you can use this to edit files EVEN without a GUI installed. as you become acquainted with Linux nano will be your new best friend.

now within this file we must scroll down and uncomment the "Hashtag" where it says en_US.UTF-8 now. after we do what. we must save it. to do so hold ctrl then type press 'O' then press yes, the file has been written to, now we must make the conf file. within this same file we must go back to where we uncommented the en_US.UTF-8 (btw you navigate through this using the arrow keys on your keyboard.) add LANG= to the beginning of the uncommented variable. so it should look like so

after doing this hold CTRL then type press 'O' now we must save it as a conf file. so instead of it ending in a .gen change it to .conf so it should look like so

after doing so press enter. now to exit out of nano hold CTRL then press 'X' now retype in

your locals should be properly generated.

for my laptop brethren, there is a few important things you want to install

iw, wpa_supplicant and dialog to do this type in EXACTLY how it's written here.

this will install all necessary things to read your access point.

now we must also install the network manager so when you get into the desktop environment you can connect to the internet with no headaches.. install these two packages.

once installed we must activate it, to do this and i will will briefly go over some systemd commands for this section.

type in

this will enable the network manager within your Arch Linux system.

now we must add YOU the user to the system so you can log in and be glorious.. we must add a user.

x being whatever you wish to name yourself in my case let's say I'm making an account with the name Kat. where x is, it will say kat.

now to set then passwd for the user kat, we would write

(or in your case whatever you named yourself)

now we MUST set a passwd for ROOT. to do so type in

just give it a password, re-enter and it and now root has a passwd.

type in a password. and now you're good to go.. now to make yourself an admin cause you're the captain now. we must make sure you are a sudoer. to do this we must install the sudo package from pacman.

once installed we must edit this file and add you the admin to this so you have all the power.

to do this we type in,

you should see a a bunch of text and it says sudoers file at the very top. now scroll ALL the way down to where it says

User privilege specification

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

just add the account you made. in my case for example

now hold CTRL then press 'O' then press Enter. you are now the captain now. now that all is peachy, exit out of there by holding CTRL and then pressing 'X'.

TIEM to install GRUB2 cause you need a bootloader..

for my Legacy users this is going to be the easiest section for you..

first install grub like so,

good news you installed grub.. but now you must install it properly.

type in

x being your the letter of your Arch Linux hard drive install

grub should install with no errors. now we must generate the grub config file.. to do so type in,

GOOD NEWS. you're basically done. Scroll all the way down to install your preferred desktop environment. which I will go in depth with.

My UEFI brethren you have to deal with the headache I'm sorry. the reason why this is a pain in the ass is because grub is dumb and you must direct it to where your /boot directory is.

you must install grub and efibootmgr packages.. to do so type in

after this, type in

Grub should install with no errors. if it returns an error. you may have partitioned your hard drive wrong. and you will have to punch a hole in the wall and restart over with the entire install.. :frowning:

now to make the config file.

this will generate a grub configuration file within your EFI system partition.

__

CONGRATULATIONS YOU INSTALLED ARCH LINUX AND ARE NOW A TRUE SLAV!

just kidding, we are basically done for the most part. we just need to install a desktop environment and a display manager..

for GNOME:

after that enable the GNOME Display Manager like so,

For Budgie-Desktop

Budgie borrows a lot of features from GNOME so you MUST install some gnome packages.. to get the functionality within Budgie-Desktop.

For Cinnamon

LightDM is a lightweight display manager for lightweight desktops.

now that you are done. hold CTRL then press 'C' three times. to get out of everything, unmount all your partitions like so,

x being your hard drive, y being your swap partition

type in

NOW IT"S OFFICIAL YOU ARE NOW A GLORIOUS ARCH USER.. welcome to the world of Linux and the world of Arch Linux. have fun.

Also want to thank OG's @presserscrew for helping me get into the world of Linux in the very beginning and OG @Phantom for educating us on the world of Arch Linux 3 years ago.

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Shameless self bump for the greater good.

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Or you could be a lazy sob like me and install manjaro

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Still tempted to hate myself and try to install it on my ASUS T300 Chi.

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It's worth doing at least once.

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I am an arch virgin. Indulge me in your install

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I fought my way through two Arch installs on this laptop before just using Antergos. I'm actually on OpenSuse Tumbleweed at the moment.

FWIW - I used the Arch Beginner's Guide supplemented with Swapnil's install guide. I did not have @Kat's guide when I ran Arch last year.

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I totally agree. In fact I actually stay away from manjaro, antergos, and netrunner rolling and just always install it manually. I tell people its because it gives me more control over the installation process but its really because it adds 5cm to my neckbeard

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Nice walk through. I've installed Arch on my laptop (may have taken 3 attemps lol) before and your guide keeps it concise and to the point. Getting it on my desktop in the next few days.

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Wish I had this good of I guide when I started

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@Kat What? No KDE? Blasphemy!

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One thing to remember, it is not unlike ubuntu / Mint / Manjaro just because it's a manual installer There is still some setting up to do once your at a GUI. I kind of like the 2.5 - 3week window Manjaro has to test stuff. It is still rolling release but the chances of a system update breaking the actual system update are slimmer. It is still arch based, has the AUR and is months ahead of Debian/ubuntu software updates.

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I have a nearly complete, yet not fully ready arch install sitting on a laptop of mine. I just need to install a WM and DE. You're post has inspired me to complete that as a Sunday night challenge.

@meggerman - Here's the original "I'm installing Arch - Saturday Night Challenge" I posted: https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/installing-arch-tonight/99381/1

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I like the fact you have a Sunday night challenge

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This is cool, i tried out the Architect installer,
but i wasnt very succesfull with that.

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Isnt that the one that got temporarily abandoned because the dev was getting shit or am I wrong here?

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it still works for now.

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@HimTortons @MisteryAngel
according to https://sourceforge.net/projects/architect-linux/
it's been abandoned for the foreseeable future.

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