These are some notes I made a long time ago when setting up my first Arch install. I don’t follow this exact process to the letter anymore, and some steps might be a bit outdated, but it should be enough to get you started:
can get wifi running using this:
wifi-menu
setup partitions using cfdisk
cfdisk
pick label type :
GPT
why gpt?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table
seems logical
/dev/sda1 - Root
/dev/sda2 - swap - 16gb (have 8gb ram, always doubled this with swap by habit)
make filesystem:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
make your swap:
mkswap /dev/sda2 && swapon /dev/sda2
add root dir to main filesystem (mount file):
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
add pacstrap (package manager for arch, also base packages and devel packages):
pacstrap -1 /mnt base base-devel
after this is installed, generate a file system table -
using -p to force avoid printing pseudofs mounts even though it’s normally default behavior:
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
change root directory to mnt:
arch-chroot /mnt
open pacman.conf in nano (text editor):
nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Uncomment 5 favorite mirrors and place them at the top of the mirrorlist file -
-repository data here:
-https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mirrors
Server = http://mirror.clarkson.edu/archlinux/core/os/x86_64/$arch
refresh servers then install basic drivers/utilities along with mate and lightdm (can use other window managers such as kde or gnome):
pacman -Syyu bootctl os-prober bash-completion pacaur dolphin xorg-server xorg xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit xf86-video-intel xf86-synaptics lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter networkmanager evince mate mate-extra
If you get an error stating that the $arch variable is used but not defined, add the following to your /etc/pacman.conf:
nano /etc/pacman.conf
Architecture = x86_64
remove junk:
pacman -R linux
add hostname:
echo >> /etc/hostname
set root pass:
passwd
add user to wheel group, give them bash access:
useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash
Editor=nano visudo
this will allow you to edit the sudoers.tmp file
uncomment and set the following:
uncomment
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
set sudo access for user
ALL=(ALL) ALL
probably not necessary but might be for some applications:
=(ALL) ALL
setup grub:
grub-install --recheck --target=i386-pc --force /dev/sda
I believe this should actually be the following for 64 bit:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory= esp --bootloader-id=GRUB
systemctl enable lightdm.service
systemctl start lightdm.service
should now be in a mate session
If anyone finds some problems with these old notes, please speak up and I’ll modify the post.