Re:0 Install Archlinux From Scratch

前几天手贱把自己原来的Manjaro系统搞炸了，于是趁这个机会重装了自己一直心心念念的Arch，也算是从零开始的Arch生活了吧。因为这篇博客是在装系统的过程中写的，当时还没有配置中文的输入法，所以用了英文来写。英文水平有限肯定会出一些错误，还请海涵。~~自己再装的时候能看懂就行~~

Prepare an installation medium

I used rufus on Windows 10 to make my U-disk an installation medium. I chose dd mode of rufus. Make sure there is an empty partition on your disk.

I will go straight to the next step because this is easy.

Pre-Installation

Boot the live environment

Disable secure boot. Then restart your PC and boot from your USB device. Choose Boot Arch Linux (x86_64) , now you can see Archlinux is ready to load contents. Finally you will logged in on the first virtual console as the root user, and presented with a zsh shell prompt. You can autocomplete your commands using tab , OHHHHHH!

Verify the boot mode

To verify the boot mode, list the efivars directory:

1	ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

If the command shows the directory without error, then the system is booted in UEFI mode. If the directory does not exist, the system may be booted in BIOS (or CSM) mode. If the system did not boot in the mode you desired, refer to your motherboard's manual.

Or, a more secure way is fdisk -l ,if your SSD (or HDD) shows its Disklabel type is gpt and there is a small partition whose type is EFI System , Then your boot mode can be verified to be EFI.

Connect to the Internet

Arch needs network connection to complete its installation.

Ensure your network interface is listed and enabled:

ip link

For wired connection:

dhcpcd

For wireless connection:

iwctl
device list
station wlan0 scan
station wlan0 get-networks
station wlan0 connect `xxxxx`

Check if you are connected to the internet:

1	ping baidu.com

If everything is OK, quit iwd:

quit

Update the system clock

1	timedatectl set-ntp true

To check the service status, use timedatectl status.

Partition the disks

Device Type	File Name
SATA/SAS/USB	/dev/sda,/dev/sdb,……
IDE	/dev/hd0,/dev/hd1,……
VIRTIO-BLOCK	/dev/vda,/dev/vdb,……
M2(SSD)	/dev/nvme0,/dev/nvme1
SD/MMC/EMMC(Card)	/dev/mmcblk0,/dev/mmcblk1
CD drive	/dev/cdrom,/dev/sr0,/dev/sr1

When recognized by the live system, disks are assigned to a block device such as /dev/sda, /dev/nvme0n1 or /dev/mmcblk0. To identify these devices, use lsblk or fdisk.

I boot my Arch in UEFI mode, so first I must create a boot partition (EFI system partition).

Create a boot partition

1	fdisk /dev/{YOUR DISK} # Example: fdisk /dev/sdx or fdisk /dev/nvmex

See usages of commands by typing m and enter.

Enter n to create a new partition. You are asked to select the starting sector, generally we type enter (select by default). Then enter end sector or partition size. I used +512M .

Enter p to check if it works. Enter t to change the type of your new partition. Enter l to see all types supported. Change it to EFI.

Enter w to save. You can check whether there is something wrong before that by p.

Format it:

1	mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/{YOUR BOOT PARTITION}

Root partition

1	fdisk /dev/{YOUR DISK}

Create a new partition table if there is not one exist. I already have one on my disk so I go on directly.

Enter n to create a new partition. I want my new partition fill up the free space completely, so I use enter to choose the default.

Enter p then w just like creating your boot partition.

Format it:

1	mkfs.ext4 /dev/P{YOUR ROOT PARTITION}

Mount the file systems

1
2
3

mount /dev/{YOUR ROOT PARTITION} /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/{YOUR BOOT PARTITION} /mnt/boot

Installation

Use Pacman Mirror

1	vim /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Copy the mirrors you wants to use and paste them to the beginning of this file. One of the commonly used mirrors is https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn.

I chose https://linux.xidian.edu.cn/mirrors/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch (Only available under the campus network environment).

Install essential packages

1	pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware dhcpcd

Configure the system

Fstab

1	genfstab -L /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

We need a check to make sure it is right since it is an important step. Check the resulting /mnt/etc/fstab file, and edit it in case of errors:

1	cat /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot

chroot means 'change root'. Change root into the new system:

1	arch-chroot /mnt

We can also use this command to fix our system if there is some problem with it.

Time zone

1 2	ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime hwclock --systohc

Install necessary packages

1	pacman -S vim dialog wpa_supplicant ntfs-3g networkmanager netctl

Localization

1	vim /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment zh_CN.UTF-8 UTF-8 zh_HK.UTF-8 UTF-8 zh_TW.UTF-8 UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 .

Then :wq save and quit.

Generate the locales by running:

1	locale-gen

Config locale file:

1	vim /etc/locale.conf

Add the following line to the first line of this file:

1	LANG=en_US.UTF-8

:wq . Fine.

Network configuration

Create the hostname file:

1	vim /etc/hostname

Config your hosts:

1	vim /etc/hosts

Add the following contents to the end of this file:

1
2
3

127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname

Set root password

passwd

Install Intel-ucode (if you have a Intel CPU)

1	pacman -S intel-ucode

Install BootLoader

Caution! This blog is only for EFI/GPT boot mode! If you are in BIOS/MBR mode, please see Reference 2 at the end.

pacman -S os-prober ntfs-3g
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

If there is multi systems on your device, it is recommended to check whether each system's entry is well generated.

1	vim /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Check if it is all right.

Reboot and enjoy archlinux

exit
umount /mnt/boot
umount /mnt
reboot

Pull out your U-disk. Login as root, enter your password.

If you can see the command line, congratulations, you have installed Archlinux successfully! OHHHHHHH!

There is still many things to do after that, I will put some guide for them on my next blog.

References

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide
https://www.viseator.com/2017/05/17/arch_install/