Getting connected to internet.

iwctl

A network tool to connect to internet generally used in arch installs

root@archlive~: iwctl
iwctl: device list # list available network adapters
iwctl: station wls3p0 scan # scan with wls3p0 wireless adapter
iwctl: station wls3p0 get-networks # Lists available networks
iwctl: station wls3p0 connect "SSID Name" # Will ask for creds
iwctl: exit

root@archlive~: ip a # check if you are connected
root@archlive~: ping 8.8.8.8 # Verify access to internet

2. Set up disk partitioning(UEFI + Encryption)

cfdisk – Creating required partitions

cfdisk /dev/sda # Create your partitions as needed.
I have an EFI partiotion(/dev/sda1) from windows installation and my root has been created at sda4 to avoid confusion.

efi – 500MB = /dev/sda1 create this if you don’t have existing efi

root – 300GB = /dev/sda4

NB: If you are dual booting, don’t create a EFI partition, use existing one. In my case that is /dev/sda1

• lsblk # Verify if you can identify all required partitions
• fdisk -l # Different way.
• mks tools* – Formating and setting up LVM

3. Setup EFI Partion
Note: Skip this if you already have an existing EFI partition

Format EFI to FAT32

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 # create a FAT32 file system for EFI boot partition
Format root partion to ext4

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4 # the root partition

4. Setting up Encryption
cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda4 # Confirm with YES and enter your strong password.

cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sda4 lvm # Enter the password you just set up to unlock the partition.
Unlock root partition in order for us to work with
cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/sda3 lvm # Enter the password you just set up and map as lvm.

Create a physical volume to use with LVM
pvcreate --dataalignment 1m /dev/mapper/lvm

Create a volume group – a name space that contains logical volume.
vgcreate volgroup0 /dev/mapper/lvm

Create Logical volumes for root and perform required ops
lvcreate -L 100%FREE volgroup0 -n lv_root # Give all space to root
modprobe dm_mod # Load a required kernel module
vgscan # scan volume groups
vgchange -ay # load logical volume

Format root logical volume and mount required partitions

mkfs.ext4 /dev/volgroup0/lv_root
mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_root /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot/EFI # create a boot partion
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot # Mount it
mkdir /mnt/etc/ # Config directory
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab # Generate filesystem conf and save it
cat /etc/fstab # Verify

5. Start Arch Installation

Lets first install main packages and the kernel

pacstrap -i /mnt base
arch-chroot /mnt # Chroot to our system
pacman -S linux linux-headers # Thats the kernel and headers
pacman -S nano base-devel openssh networkmanager wpa_supplicant wireless_tools netctl dialog lvm2 #

You need this, trust me.

systemctl enable NetworkManager # Enable network service


Some required editing you need in order for our luks to work

nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf # Edit line that begins with HOOKS (… block [here] filesystems…)
For encrypted disk setup which we do, we need to add (…[encrypt lvm2]…) save and quit Should now look like this.

HOOKS (… block encrypt lvm2 filesystems…)
Regenerate the vmlinux image and look for encrypt and lvm2 in output logs

mkinitcpio -p linux
nano /etc/locale.gen # Uncomment your locale e.g. en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
locale-gen # Generate newly configured locales

6. Set up users and permissions

passwd # Create a root password (Because we are chrooted as root account)
useradd -m -g users -G wheel justkelvin # Replace justkelvin with your desired name
passwd justkelvin # Set password for user created above

Let's add the newly created user to the sudoers file

EDITOR=nano visudo # Uncomment line: Allow members of group wheel to execute any command %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
NB: This will allow the user to run sudo commands

7. Grub installation and rebooting

Install grub and os-prober in order to locate any other installed OS.

pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober
Now edit this file and append this line to enable os detection and luks support
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_efi --recheck # Install grub
nano /etc/default/grub

Uncomment this line GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y

Change this line and replace /dev/sda4 with your root device number GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”cryptdevice=/dev/sda4:volgroup0:allow-discards loglevel=3 quiet”

Add this at the end of the file – GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg # Generate grub config
Time to reboot, fingers crossed if you did everything correctly it will boot successfully.

Goodluck

exit # Exit chroot environment
reboot # Reboot the system.

8. Finalize your installation

Login in the TTY with your user account created, not root.

su # Change to root, enter your password, not the root.
cd /root/

Create a swap file.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2048 status=progress # Create a 2GB swap file. Change the count to your desired size

chmod 600 /swapfile # Set permissions

mkswap /swapfile # Make it a swapfile
Create a backup of your filesystem file (fstab)

cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

We are going to append a line that will let the system know the swapfile existence

echo "/swapfile none swap sw 0 0" | tee -a /etc/fstab # Append to fstab and echo

mount -a # Test fstab for error
swapon -a # Activate swap
free -m # Confirm swap size

9. Configure timezone and Hostname and Hosts

timedatectl list-timezones # Find yours
timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Hong_Kong # Replace it here
systemctl enable --now systemd-timesyncd # Service for our time synchronization
hostnamectl set-hostname arch # replace arch with what you like
nano /etc/hosts # as follows, replace arch with what you set above

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 arch

10. Install CPU microcode

pacman -S amd-ucode # Or intel-ucode for intel device
Install Desktop Environment… 😉

pacman -S xorg-server # Xorg
pacman -S mesa # Video driver for Intel and AMD Inc.

For Nvidia GPU

pacman -S nvidia

For VM installs guest

pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils xf86-vides-vmware
systemctl enable --now vboxservice

11. Now choose your prefered DE, WM.

Gnome Environment

pacman -S gnome gnome-tweaks
systemctl enable --now gdm.service # Enable and start Dispaly manager *GDM

KDE Plasma

pacman -S plasma-meta kde-applications
systemctl enable --now sddm.service # Enable and start SDDM

Phew, thats it guys.

pacman -S neofetch
neofetch # Show your crush now.