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https://github.com/alekamerlin/arch-installation-guide

A quick installation guide with automation scripts for Arch Linux.
https://github.com/alekamerlin/arch-installation-guide

arch-linux archlinux guide installation-guides linux

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A quick installation guide with automation scripts for Arch Linux.

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# arch-installation-guide



A quick installation guide with automation scripts for Arch Linux.



> Attention, this guide describes the Arch Linux installation on PC/laptop with Intel CPU and iGPU. Therefore, the guide doesn't cover all cases. Also, settings in the gsettings script based on my preferences.



### Prepare an installation disk



Download the ISO image and its signature and checksum (archlinux-x86\_64.iso, archlinux-x86\_64.iso.sig, b2sums.txt) from the Download page: https://archlinux.org/download/.



> Use the commands below in the directory where you downloaded the files.



Verify the checksum of the downloaded ISO image:

```

$ b2sum -c b2sums.txt

```



Verify the signature of the downloaded ISO image:

```

$ gpg --keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve --verify archlinux-x86_64.iso.sig

```



Create an installation USB drive:

```

# dd bs=4M if=archlinux-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

```

Where `/dev/sdb` is your USB drive you want to use as the installation drive.



To boot an installation image from a USB drive, you should disable Secure Boot on the computer you will boot the image from, because the installation image doesn't support Secure Boot.



Check the boot mode after booting the installation image:

```

# ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

```

The command will print directory items if you booted in UEFI mode. This guide is only for UEFI mode, so you should check the current mode.



### Prepare a system disk



Create a partition table:

```

# parted /dev/sda mklabel gpt

```

Where `/dev/sda` is the SDD/HDD drive you want to install Arch.



Create parts:

```

# parted /dev/sda mkpart EFI fat32 1M 525M



# parted /dev/sda mkpart root ext4 525M 105GB



# parted /dev/sda mkpart swap linux-swap 105GB 160GB



# parted /dev/sda mkpart home ext4 160GB 260GB



# parted /dev/sda mkpart media ext4 260GB 512GB

```



> For SSD the order of the parts doesn't matter, but for HDD it does.



> I usually create the media part because I use few accounts on the same computer, so the media is a place for common files like music and photos.



Format partitions:

```

# mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1



# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2



# mkswap /dev/sda3



# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4



# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5

```



### Prepare to installation



Connect to the internet (the easiest way is DHCP) and test the connection:

```

# ping duckduckgo.com

```



Mount the system disk:

```

# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt



# mount --mkdir /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot



# mount --mkdir /dev/sda4 /mnt/home

```



Enable swap:

```

# swapon /dev/sda3

```



Update the system clock:

```

# timedatectl

```



### Installation



Install main packages:

```

# pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware grub-install dhcpcd vim

```



### Configure the system



Generate an `fstab` file:

```

# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

```



Enter to the new system as root:

```

# arch-chroot /mnt

```



Create a password to the system root:

```

# passwd

```



Install `grub`:

```

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

```



Set the time zone:

```

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam /etc/localtime

```

Where `Europe/Amsterdam` is your region and city.



Set up the hardware clock:

```

# hwclock --systohc

```



Create the hostname file:

```

# echo machinename > /etc/hostname

```

Where `machinename` is your hostname (the name of your PC).



Uncomment `en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8` and other required locales in `/etc/locale.gen`:

```

# vim /etc/locale.gen

```



Save the file and generate locales:

```

# locale-gen

```



Set up the system locale:

```

# localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

```



Reboot the PC:

```

# reboot

```



Boot the new installed system and enable the `dhcpcd` service:

```

# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

```



Connect to the internet via DHCP and test the connection:

```

# ping duckduckgo.com

```



### Video



Install packages to support 3D acceleration and VA-API for Intel graphics:

```

# pacman -S mesa vulkan-intel intel-media-driver xf86-video-intel

```



> `xf86-video-intel` not recommended.



### Audio



Install packages to support audio on the system:

```

# pacman -S sof-firmware pipewire pipewire-audio pipewire-jack pipewire-pulse wireplumber

```



> Use `alsa-firmware` instead of `sof-firmware` for older sound systems.



### Bluetooth



Install the necessary packages:

```

# pacman -S bluez bluez-utils

```



Check whether the bluetooth module is loaded:

```

$ modinfo btusb

```



If so, enable and then start the bluetooth service:

```

# systemctl enable bluetooth.service



# systemctl start bluetooth.service

```



### Webcam



Your webcam probably works out of the box, if not, check the manual: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Webcam_setup



Install `v4l-utils` for webcam configuration (brightness, effects etc):

```

# pacman -S v4l-utils

```



Or `cameractrls`:

```

# pacman -S cameractrls

```



### Multimedia



Install the multimedia framework and its plugins:

```

# pacman -S gstreamer gstreamer-vaapi gst-libav gst-plugin-pipewire gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-ugly

```



### Users



Create a user:

```

# useradd -m user_name

```



Set a password for the new user:

```

# passwd user_name

```



Install `xdg-user-dirs` to manage user directories:

```

# pacman -S xdg-user-dirs

```



Create user directories:

```

# su user_name



$ xdg-user-dirs-update



$ exit

```

Repeat this for each created user.



### Gnome DE



Install gnome packages:

```

# pacman -S gdm gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions gnome-desktop gnome-backgrounds gnome-bluetooth-3.0 gnome-calculator gnome-characters gnome-control-center gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-sound-recorder gnome-system-monitor gnome-user-docs gnome-console gnome-text-editor dconf-editor file-roller nautilus tracker3-miners gucharmap epiphany evince totem loupe

```



> You can install `gnome-terminal`, `gedit` and `eog` instead of `gnome-console`, `gnome-text-editor` and `loupe`, if their functionality doesn't cover your needs:

```

# pacman -S gnome-terminal gedit gedit-plugins libgit2-glib eog

```



Also you may like these additional apps:

```

# pacman -S gnome-boxes gnome-calendar gnome-clocks gnome-connections gnome-contacts gnome-logs gnome-maps gnome-notes gnome-photos gnome-recipes gnome-tweaks gnome-weather alacarte baobab endeavour geary ghex gitg polari seahorse simple-scan snapshot sysprof

```



> You can install `evolution` and `cheese` instead of `geary` and `snapshot`, if their functionality doesn't cover your needs:

```

# pacman -S evolution cheese

```



Of course, here are some basic games:

```

# pacman -S gnome-2048 gnome-chess gnome-games gnome-klotski gnome-mahjongg gnome-mines gnome-nibbles gnome-robots gnome-sudoku gnome-taquin gnome-tetravex aisleriot hitori iagno lightsoff quadrapassel swell-foop tali

```



Enable `gdm.service`:

```

# systemctl enable gdm.service

```



Reboot the system and launch the gsettings script for each your user:

```

$ sh scripts/gsettings.sh

```



### Portals



Install packages to support Wayland portals for screen sharing as an example:

```

# pacman -S xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xdg-desktop-portal-gnome

```



### Thumbnails



Install packages to provide thumbnail preview:

```

# pacman -S tumbler webp-pixbuf-loader ffmpegthumbnailer libgsf gnome-epub-thumbnailer freetype2

```



### Media devices & online storages



For support MTP (Android phones, tablets and music players) install `gvfs-mtp`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-mtp

```



For support PTP (digital cameras and smartphone photos) install `gvfs-gphoto2`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-gphoto2

```



For support iOS (iPhone and iPad) install `gvfs-afc`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-afc ifuse

```



For support NFS (Network File System) install `gvfs-nfs`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-nfs

```



For support SMB/CIFS (Server Message Block/Common Internet File System) install `gvfs-smb`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-smb

```



For support virtual filesystems (e.g. OwnCloud) install `gvfs-goa`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-goa

```



For support Google Drive install `gvfs-google`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-google

```



For support Microsoft OneDrive install `gvfs-onedrive`:

```

# pacman -S gvfs-onedrive

```



### Office



For basic use, install a word processor and spreadsheet editor:

```

# pacman -S abiword gnumeric

```



Or LibreOffice for more complex work:

```

# pacman -S libreoffice-fresh

```



As well as needed language packs:

```

# pacman -S libreoffice-fresh-*

```

Where \* is the language code. For example, the package will be `libreoffice-fresh-en-gb` for `en-gb`. You can find available packages [here](https://archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q=libreoffice-fresh&maintainer=&flagged=).



### Firefox



Install Firefox:

```

# pacman -S firefox

```



Launch it, close it and run a script from the **scripts** directory:

```

$ sh scripts/firefox.sh

```



Do it for each your user and then reboot the system.



### Chromium



> Sources:

> - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chromium#Hardware_video_acceleration

> - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository



Build and install the Wayland version of Chromium with VA-API support from the AUR:

```

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/chromium-wayland-vaapi.git



$ ch chromium-wayland-vaapi



$ makepkg



# pacman -U chromium-wayland-vaapi-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

```



This might be enough, but if hardware decoding doesn't work, try to enbaling `VaapiVideoDecoder`:

```

echo "--enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder" >> ~/.config/chromium-flags.conf

```



### VSCodium



> Sources:

> - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Visual_Studio_Code

> - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wayland#Electron

> - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository



Install the necessary packages:

```

# pacman -S jq git-lfs gulp yarn

```



Build and install the nvm package:

```

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/nvm.git



$ cd nvm



$ makepkg



# pacman -U nvm-*-any.pkg.tar.zst

```



Build and install the VSCodium package:

```

$ cd ../



$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/vscodium.git



$ cd vscodium



$ makepkg



# pacman -U vscodium-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

```