mypleasure370/archlinuxinstall

Arch Linux Install

Getting Started

Creating the Arch VM

• Download the Arch ISO file: https://archlinux.org/download/
• In VMWare Workstation Pro, create a new virtual machine
• Go through the prompted steps and reference the ISO image
• Use "other Linux 5.x or later - x64" as OS selection
• Continue through the prompted steps and create the VM
• The finished VM should have about 20 GB of space and at least 2GB of RAM
• In the VMs files, open the .VMX file and add firmware="efi" (see https://forums.ivanti.com/s/article/How-to-enable-UEFI-in-VMWare-Workstation?language=en_US)
• Start the VM

First steps in the Arch Environment

First commands

• Check bootmode:

    ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
  

  Notes about bootmode:

  • If it returns with no errors, then you are in UEFI Mode (which is correct)
  • If it says the directory doesn't exist, then you booted in BIOS (which means your .VMX file change wasnt done correctly)

• Check Internet Connection:

     ping archlinux.org
  

  • If the ping works, you are connected
  • If not, verify wireless connection in iwctl (use "help" command for iwctl commands)

• Check time and date:

  • Set:

    timedatectl set-ntp true
    

  • Check:

     timedatectl status
    

Partitioning

• list disks (for our purposes, ignore disks ending in rom, loop, or airloop)

     fdisk -l
  

• enter disk partitioning tool:

     fdisk /dev/sda
  

  • Note: During my install, the disk was called /dev/sda. It is likely to be the same.

  • To create /dev/sda1 partition:

    • type the letter 'n' to create new partiiton
    • select primary partition type and partition number 1
    • start of partition: 2048
    • end of partition: +512M
    • type t to change partition type
    • change partition type to "EFI FAT-12/16/32" ("ef" is the key)

  • To create /dev/sda2 partition:

    • Select primary partition type and partition number 2
    • Use rest of the disk (so default start and end)
    • This for the Arch OS itself

  • type w to write the changes

File System selection

• There are multiple types of file systems, but I went with FAT32 for sda1 and ext4 for sda2 (which to my understanding is pretty generic
• Assign a file system for each partition using:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

• check partitions using:

lsblk -f

Mounting

• You have to mount the primary system to the disk (currently it is on the ISO)
• In this case we will mount the /dev/sda2 to /mnt using:

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

System Installation

Install Linux Kernel and Firmware

(this also installs nano and vim)

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware nano vim

Generate fstab file

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

• Use the following command to check it for errors:

nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Change root of the system

arch-chroot /mnt

Verify Time Zone

• Check system date and time

timedatectl

• To change it to central time:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Central /etc/localtime

• Generate /etc/adjtime (assumes hardware clock is set to UTC)

hwclock --systohc 

Localization

• edit /etc/locale.gen file and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

nano /etc/locale.gen

• generate locales

locale-gen

• create /etc/locale.conf file and add LANG=en_US.UTF-8

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Network Configuration

• create /etc/hostname and add a hostname

nano /etc/hostname

• edit /etc/hosts

nano /etc/hosts

add

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.1.1 yourhostname

• install net tools

pacman -S net-tools

Random steps and bootloader install

• change root password

passwd

• Download a bootloader (I used grub)

pacman -S grub efibootmgr

• make directory where EFI partition will be mounted

mkdir /boot/efi

• mount sda1 to the boot directory

mount/dev/sda1 /boot/efi

• install grub

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

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Install Desktop Environment

• install the display server

pacman -S xorg

• install the GNOME environment

pacman -S gnome

• install network manager

pacman -S wpa_supplicant wireless_tools networkmanager

• Run the next few commands to enable/disable/start services

systemctl start gdm.service
systemctl enable gdm.service
systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
systemctl disable dhcpcd.service
systemctl enable wpa_supplicant.service
systemctl start NetworkManager.service

• Exit chroot

exit

• Shutdown the system and remove the iso. It should boot into GNOME.

My customizations

• Installed important things like sudo, openssh, zsh * sudo: pacman -S sudo * openssh: pacman -Sy openssh * zsh: sudo pacman -S zsh
• Created users using "useradd" and set passwords
• To force users to change password on the next login, I used:

passwd --expire "name"

• The aliases I created were:

alias c=clear
alias meminfo='free -m -l -t'
alias ports='netstat -tulanp'

Problems I encountered

• Over the course of this install, I had MANY issues. Between trying to decipher the installation guide and my own inexperience with Linux, I struggled in some areas.

Disk Partitions and File System Types

• I got to the point of installing the bootloader when I found out I did not partition my file system correctly.
• After some research, I found out it was because my EFI partition was set to the wrong type
• I had set it as the alias "efi" but I did not actually select the "EFI" type that I needed for the bootloader installation
• After figuring that out, I also found that I needed to format the /dev/sda1 as a FAT-32 file system instead of EXT4
• I found that this was the root issue to all of my problems regarding the bootloaderand almost anything else regarding this install

Installing packages

• MY GOODNESS THIS PART WAS INFURIATING
• I found two packages I wanted to install: google-chrome and minecraft
• As I was trying to run "makepkg -si" I kept getting errors whether I sudoed the command or not
• I found out that the problems were caused by the fact that I sudoed the git clone of the packages
• I also found out I made my user without a home directory
• I had to revert to a snapshot and recreate the user with a home directory and sudo privileges to then install git, run the git clone WITHOUT SUDO and install the package

Sources

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide
• https://itsfoss.com/install-arch-linux/
• https://linuxhint.com/arch_linux_network_manager/