Arch Linux is a great Linux distro but it’s also known to be the most complicated to install Linux distro due to the command line based setup. Installing Arch Linux has always been a headache for Linux beginners. In this article, I will teach you how to install arch Linux – step by step.

First, you must select your installation source, in this tutorial, I use a live USB:​​​

Download the arch Linux iso from its websiteMake your USB Live bootable using the following command

sdx is your USB key. If you want to see the devices connected to your computer, you can type the following command:​

If you have another OS installed on your computer you can use the following GUI USB bootable maker:UnetbootinUniversal USB InstallerIf you have your USB key ready then you can start the installation process. ​

Start your computer2. Configure the keyboard layout:a. First, you must find your keyboard layout typing:i. ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gzb. Set your keyboard layout with the command ‘loadkeys’

      3.  Verify the boot modea. You must verify if your computer supports UEFI, you can type:i. ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivarsb. . If the directory doesn’t exist, the system is booted in BIOS.c. For UEFI support you must read the following documentation:       4. Check your internet connection typing:a. ping -c 3 www.google.comb. The output must look like this:

           c. If your wired connection fails you can stop the dhcpcd service with: ‘systemctl stop [email protected]’ and then you must see the following documentation:d. If your computer has a wifi device,  you can use netctl:a. ‘wifi-menu -o’      5. Update the system clock:i. ‘timedatectl set-ntp true’6. Partition the disks:a. First you must identify your hard drive, you can see the storage devices with the command ‘fdisk -l’. The first hard drive generally is ‘/dev/sda’.

                   b. Partition scheme

                                 i.

/boot

200M

/

15G – 20G

swap

Variable

/home

The rest of the disk

                                 ii.

RAM

Recommended swap

1G

1G

2G – 4G

Half of RAM

+4G

2G

                       c. Make the partitions with cfdisk (DOS partition tables) or cgdisk (GPT partition tables)i. If your computer has UEFI support you should use GPT, and you must create a partition with partition type EFI system (EF00). Finally, you must mount the EFI partition at ‘/boot’. You don’t need to create a boot partition anymore.

ii. If you have a BIOS-GPT system, you must create a mebibyte partition with partition type BIOS boot (ef02), then you can create the other partitions like boot, root, and home.iii. If you choose an MBR (DOS) partition table, you can create the system partitions only, like boot, root,  and home.​iv.

Partitions types

Partition type

Code

Linux Filesystem

83 (cfdisk),  8300 (cgdisk)

Linux Swap

82 (cfdisk), 8200 (cgdisk)

BIOS

ef02 (cgdisk)

UEFI

​EF00 (cgdisk)

v. MBR Examples

vi. GPT example

                d. Formatting the partitionsi. You must format the partitions before installing the system.ii. Use the command: “mkfs.filsystem_type /dev/sdax”iii. filesystem_type can be ext2, ext4, jfs, etc                                iv. sdax is the partition numberv. 

Partition

Partition Type

Command to format

/boot

Linux Filesystem

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdax

/

Linux Filesystem

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdax

swap

Linux swap

mkswap /dev/sdax

/home

Linux Filesystem

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdax

EFI

EFI

mfks.fat -F32 /dev/sdax

                        vi. If you created a BIOS partition, you don’t need format it.vii. Format the swap partition with mkswap and after you must enable the swap with the command ‘swapon /dev/sdax’

                          viii. Examples

​                 7. Mounting the partitions​                            i. Mount the root partition at /mntii. Make the boot subdirectory in /mntiii. Make the home subdirectory in /mntiv. Mount the boot partition at /mnt/boot, if you created an EFI partition you must mount it at /mnt/bootv. Mount the home partition at /mnt/homevi. Example

                     8. Install the base packagesi. ‘pacstrap /mnt base’ii. For the bootloader you must install grub: ‘pacstrap /mnt grub’iii. For network management you must install networkmanager: ‘pacstrap /mnt networkmanager’iv. Example

  1. Fstabi. ​ Generate a fstab file (use -U or -L to define by UUID or labels, respectively):

  2. Configure your new system – chroota. Change root into the new system: ‘arch-chroot /mnt/bin/bash’b. Set the timezonei. List the regions

​​                    ii. List the Cities of your region

                 c. ​​‘ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime’​​                 d. ‘hwclock –systohc’​​         iii. Uncomment your localization in ‘/etc/locale.gen’ using ‘nano’a.  ‘nano /etc/locale.gen’

               b. ​​‘locale-gen’

          iv. ​​Set the LANG variable in /etc/locale.conf​​For example: echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.confv. ​If you set the keyboard layout, make the changes persistent in ‘vconsole.conf’

          vi. ​Set the hostname

 vii. Initramfs​​Creating a new initramfs is usually not required, because mkinitcpio was run on installation of the linux package with pacstrap.

viii. ​Set the root password              Use the ‘passwd’ command

viii. Install Grub – Boot loader                i. If you have an Intel CPU, install the intel-ucode package in addition, and enable microcode updates.          ii. Run the grub installation: ‘grub-install /dev/sda’

           iii. Run the grub configuration: ‘grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg’

   ix. Exit from the chroot environment typing ‘exit’    x. Unmount the partitions‘umount /mnt/{boot,home,}’

  1. Reboot the system typing ‘reboot’ and remove the installation USB key.

  2. In the first boot you must login with the root account, then start and enable the NetworkManager service with ‘systemctl start NetworkManager.service’ and ‘systemctl enable NetworkManager’.    a. If you have a wireless connection you can use the following command:    ‘nmcli dev wifi connect “SSID” password “pass”’13. Finally, you can create a new user with the following command:‘useradd -m -g users -G audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,games,power,scanner -s /bin/bash user’

So that was it. I hope that now you know how to install Arch Linux. It was a little longer tutorial and that’s why installing Arch Linux is a little tedious job. But once you to install it, you’ will enjoy it. The benefits of using Arch Linux is that one can customize it the way he/she wants. After the install, you’ll need more help so I suggest the following documentation to enhance your knowledge about Arch Linux.Also don’t hesitate to drop a comment below this article, if you did not understand any particular part of this article.More Information at:

​Boot loaders

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Boot_loaders

Network Manager

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager

Post Installation

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General_recommendations

UnetbootinUniversal USB Installer

If you have your USB key ready then you can start the installation process. ​ i. If your computer has UEFI support you should use GPT, and you must create a partition with partition type EFI system (EF00). Finally, you must mount the EFI partition at ‘/boot’. You don’t need to create a boot partition anymore. iii. If you choose an MBR (DOS) partition table, you can create the system partitions only, like boot, root,  and home. ​iv. Also don’t hesitate to drop a comment below this article, if you did not understand any particular part of this article. More Information at: Also Read – Arch Linux Take Your Linux Knowledge To Next Level