Arch Linux setup process

Mostly following Arch installation guide.

Pre-installation

Connect to the Internet

• Run iwctl (iNet wireless daemon interactive prompt)

• From interactive prompt:

  • device list
  • station device scan
  • station device get-networks
  • station device connect network

Update the system clock

• Use timedatectl to ensure the system clock is accurate

timedatectl set-ntp true

• Verify service status

timedatectl status

Partition the disks

• List available devices

fdisk -l

• Start fdisk interactive prompt

fdisk <disk-name>

• From interactive prompt:

  • g - create a new empty GPT partition table
  • n - add a new partition
  • t - change partition type
  • w - write table to disk and exit

• Partition table:

  1. EFI partition (Size: +1G; Type: EFI System)
  2. Swap partition (Size: +2G; Type: Linux swap)
  3. Root partition (Size: remainder; Type: Linux filesystem)

Format the partitions

1. EFI

   mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/<efi-partition-name>

2. Swap

   mkswap /dev/<swap-partition-name>

3. Root

   mkfs.ext4 /dev/<root-partition-name>

Mount the file systems

1. Root

   mount /dev/<root-partition-name> /mnt

2. Swap

   swapon /dev/<swap-partition-name>

Installation

Install essential packages

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware linux-headers git neovim

Configure the system

Generate file system table

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

Chroot

arch-chroot /mnt

Time zone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Kiev /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Localization

• Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales:

  • pl_PL.UTF-8 UTF-8
  • ru_RU.UTF-8 UTF-8
  • uk_UA.UTF-8 UTF-8

• Generate the locales by running locale-gen

Network configuration

• Create the hostname file

nvim /etc/hostname

Type the hostname (for ex. Lenovo-ThinkPad)

• Create hosts file

nvim /etc/hosts

Add the following content:

127.0.0.1     localhost
::1           localhost
127.0.1.1     Lenovo-ThinkPad.localdomain Lenovo-ThinkPad

Users and passwords

• Set the root password

passwd

• Add non-root user

useradd -m <user-name>

• Set password for non-root user

passwd <user-name>

• Add non-root user to groups

usermod -aG wheel,audio,video,optical,storage <user-name>

• Edit sudoers file

EDITOR=nvim visudo

Uncomment the following line: %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Boot loader

• Install grub and other helper packages

pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools os-prober mtools

• Create EFI directory

mkdir /boot/EFI

• Mount EFI partition

mount /dev/<efi-partition-name> /boot/EFI

• Install grub on EFI partition

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck

• Generate grub configuration file

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

Before reboot

• Install network tools

pacman -S dhcpcd dialog netctl wpa_supplicant

Reboot

• Exit chroot environment

exit

• Unmount root partition

umount -R /mnt

• Reboot and remove installation media

Post-installation

Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/kolyamba2105/arch-configs.git configs

cd ~/configs

git submodule init
git submodule update

Install yay

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si
cd
rm -rf yay

Clone my-wallpapers repo

mkdir ~/Pictures
cd ~/Pictures
mkdir Screenshots
git clone https://github.com/kolyamba2105/my-wallpapers.git

Install packages

• Install official packages

cd ~/configs/pacman
pacman -S --needed - < pkgs.txt

• Install packages from AUR

cd ~/configs/pacman
yay -S --needed - < foreign-pkgs.txt

Setup config files

cd ~/configs
sh setup.sh

Setup ZSH

Install ohmyzsh

Setup XMonad

Setup guide

Log into graphical environment

Just reboot and follow the final steps...

Setup Neovim

Setup guide

Setup SSH

• Generate ssh key

ssh-keygen

• Add content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to Github

Update GRUB config

• Add/modify the following lines to /etc/default/grub

# Save last used kernel
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved

# Show all available kernels
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y

# Use last selected kernel
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

# This will make GRUB menu disappear immediately
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

# This will decrease the amount of logs during start-up
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet loglevel=3 vga=current"

# This will fix a problem with laptop brightness (on Lenovo ThinkPad E580)
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="intel_backlight.enable_dpcd_backlight=0"

• Update grub (generate grub config file again)

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

• Reboot

Touchpad setup

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-synaptics-overrides.conf file and add the following content:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad overrides"
        Driver "libinput"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        Option "Tapping" "on"
EndSection

Power management settings

• Edit /etc/systemd/logind.conf file, here is a default configuration
• Apply changes with systemctl kill -s HUP systemd-logind or just reboot

Screen lock setup

• Create /etc/systemd/system/slock@.service file and add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Lock X session using slock for user %i
Before=sleep.target

[Service]
User=%i
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/xset dpms force suspend
ExecStart=/usr/bin/slock

[Install]
WantedBy=sleep.target

• Enable service

systemctl enable slock@<user-name>.service

Pacman settings

Update mirrors

• Update mirror list with reflector:

reflector @/etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf

Setup list-pkgs hook

• Make list-pkgs.sh executable:

chmod u+x ~/configs/pacman/list-pkgs.sh

• Create a symlink:

sudo ln ~/configs/pacman/list-pkgs.sh /usr/local/bin/list-pkgs

• Copy list-pkgs.hook into Pacman hooks directory:

sudo cp ~/configs/pacman/list-pkgs.hook /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/

• Repeat similar procedure for list-foreign-pkgs hook

Setup scripts

• Make each script in scripts directory executable
• Link each script to /usr/local/bin/<script-name>

Connect HDD

• Use fdisk to partition the disk

# Create the only partion of type "Linux FileSystem"
fdisk /dev/sda

• Format partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

• Add an entry in /etc/fstab file

# Retrieve disk UUID
lsa /dev/disk/by-uuid

• Create mount point

mkdir /hdd

• Re-mount

mount -a

• Change permissions

chgrp storage /hdd
chmod 775 /hdd

# This may be optional if user was already added to storage group
gpasswd -a <user-name> storage

Useful Wiki pages

• Bluetooth
• Default applications
• Network configuration
• Pacman - Tips & Tricks
• Power management
• Silent boot
• Xorg and video drivers