Arch Linux Installation

This is a step by step installation of my own Arch Linux configuration.

Overview

The current installation is using the following options:

Boot & Firmware: UEFI
Bootloader: systemd-boot
Encryption: LUKS
Filesystem: Btrfs
Kernels: linux and linux-lts
Shell: Fish
Terminal Emulator: Kitty
Desktop Environment: KDE Choose one of the two
Window Manager: Hyprland Choose one of the two
Display Manager: sddm
File Manager: lf (TUI) + Dolphin (GUI)
AUR Helper: Yay
Network Manager: NetworkManager
Audio System: Pipewire
Desktop Notifications: Mako Hyprland
Status Bar: Waybar Hyprland
Application Launcher: Vicinae
Text Editor: NeoVim (TUI) + VSCode (GUI)
Browser: Firefox

Setup SSH optional

To make the whole installation easier you can remotely connect (via SSH) to the system after setting up network (Ethernet or Wi-fi). Only need to enable the sshd service and setup a password.

systemctl start sshd
passwd

Set keyboard layout optional

# List all available keymaps
localectl list-keymaps
# Replace with your desired keyboard layout
loadkeys pt-latin1

Wi-fi setup

iwctl
# Generally named wlan0 use "device list" to list all options
[iwd]# station NAME scan
[iwd]# station NAME get-networks
# Replace with your network name
[iwd]# station NAME connect SSID
[iwd]# exit
ping ping.archlinux.org
# Verify system clock is synchronised once internet connection is established
timedatectl

Setting up your partitions

Before setting up any encryption or partitions, I like to wipe everything and fill it with random bytes (this will take a while depending on your drive size).

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/DEVICE_NAME bs=1M status=progress

Now to set up the partitions. For now, I’m just using two partitions:

Boot partition: 1GB size (EFI System)
Root partition: Remaining space (Linux File System)

I do not have any swap partition for now as my current drive is small, so I rather trade performance for more space (I’ll use zram instead).

Mount Point	Partition	Partition Type	Suggested size
/boot	`/dev/efi_partition`	EFI System	At least 1GiB
/	`/dev/root_partition`	Linux File System	Remaining space

fdisk /dev/DEVICE_NAME
# Create GPT partition table
g
# Boot partition
n
<use default>
<use default>
+1G
t
# `uefi` or generally `1` for EFI System, but double check the list of types
1
# Root partition
n
<use default>
<use default>
<use default>
# Save partition table
w

The partitions in lsblk should look something like:

NAME                TYPE      MOUNTPOINT   SIZE
DEVICE_NAME         disk                    ...
├─DEVICE_NAME1      part                    1G
└─DEVICE_NAME2      part                    ...

LUKS Setup

This section covers encrypting the root partition with LUKS encryption.

modprobe dm-crypt
modprobe dm-mod
cryptsetup -v luksFormat -s 512 -h sha512 /dev/root_partition
# Enter passphrase and do not forget it, or your data will be inaccessible

File System Setup

We’ll setup a Btrfs system with the following subvolumes:

Subvolume	Mountpoint
@	/
@home	/home
@var_log	/var/log
@pkg	/var/cache/pacman/pkg
@snapshots	/.snapshots

# Skip this command if you're not using encryption
# Replace /dev/mapper/root by /dev/root_partition
cryptsetup open /dev/root_partition root
# Create Btrfs subvolumes
mkfs.btrfs -L root /dev/mapper/root
mkdir -p /mnt/arch_btrfs
mount -o compress=zstd /dev/mapper/root /mnt/arch_btrfs
btrfs subvolume create -p /mnt/arch_btrfs/@
btrfs subvolume create -p /mnt/arch_btrfs/@home
btrfs subvolume create -p /mnt/arch_btrfs/@var_log
btrfs subvolume create -p /mnt/arch_btrfs/@pkg
btrfs subvolume create -p /mnt/arch_btrfs/@snapshots
umount /mnt/arch_btrfs

# Mount the subvolumes
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=@ /dev/mapper/root /mnt
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=@home --mkdir /dev/mapper/root /mnt/home
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=@var_log --mkdir /dev/mapper/root /mnt/var/log
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=@pkg --mkdir /dev/mapper/root /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg

# Format boot partition and mount
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/efi_partition"
mount -o fmask=0077,dmask=0077 --mkdir /dev/efi_partition /mnt/boot

The partitions in lsblk should look something like:

NAME                TYPE    MOUNTPOINTS
DEVICE_NAME         disk
├─efi_partition     part    /mnt/boot
└─root_partition    part
  └─root            crypt   /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg
                            /mnt/var/log
                            /mnt/home
                            /mnt

If not using LUKS encryption, the root_partition will map directly to the subvolumes without the intermediary root.

Setup Mirrors

reflector --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist --latest 5 --protocol https --country Portugal,Netherlands,Germany --sort rate

Install essential packages

Before using pacstrap verify what microcode you’ll need for your CPU.

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "vendor_id"

Depending on your CPU vendor include the following package:

GenuineIntel: intel-ucode
AuthenticAMD: amd-ucode

pacman -Sy
# Remove zram-generator if using swap partition
pacstrap -K /mnt --needed base base-devel linux linux-headers linux-lts linux-lts-headers linux-firmware btrfs-progs snapper networkmanager efibootmgr neovim zram-generator

Configure `snapper`

arch-chroot -S /mnt snapper --no-dbus -c root create-config /
arch-chroot -S /mnt snapper --no-dbus -c home create-config /home
# Delete automatically created subvolumes by snapper
btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/home/.snapshots
btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/.snapshots
# Replace /dev/mapper/root by your /dev/root_partition if not using encryption
mount -o compress=zstd,subvol=@snapshots --mkdir /dev/mapper/root /mnt/.snapshots
chmod 750 /mnt/.snapshots

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

Configuring the System

Change root to the new system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Enabling `snapper` services

systemctl enable snapper-timeline.service
systemctl enable snapper-cleanup.service

Enable decryption on boot

Add sd-encrypt to HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf.

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap sd-vconsole block sd-encrypt filesystems fsck)

Timezone

You can search the available timezones by using ls /usr/share/zoneinfo and then ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region when you choose your region.

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Add the NTP pools to your etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf:

 #NTP=
 #FallbackNTP=0.arch.pool.ntp.org 1.arch.pool.ntp.org 2.arch.pool.ntp.org 3.arch.pool.ntp.org
 NTP=0.arch.pool.ntp.org 1.arch.pool.ntp.org 2.arch.pool.ntp.org 3.arch.pool.ntp.org
 FallbackNTP=0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org

systemctl enable systemd-timesyncd.service

Localisation

Uncomment wanted locales in /etc/locale.gen.

 #en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8
 #ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8
 #pt_PT.UTF-8 UTF-8
 en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8
 ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8
 pt_PT.UTF-8 UTF-8

locale-gen

Create /etc/locale.conf and set your language preferences.

LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_GB
LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME=pt_PT.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=pt_PT.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=pt_PT.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=pt_PT.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=pt_PT.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_GB.UTF-8

Create /etc/vconsole.conf and set your console keyboard layout.

KEYMAP=pt-latin1

Networking

Set your hostname in /etc/hostname.

myhostname

systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

Regenerate `initramfs`

mkinitcpio -P

Set root password

passwd

Bootloader Setup

This is the setup for systemd-boot bootloader, if you want to use other bootloader like GRUB, read the appropriate wiki page.

bootctl install
# Get UUID of `root_partition" and put it on our future entry
blkid /dev/root_partition >> /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
# Duplicate entry for LTS kernel (can do it later after configuring normal kernel)
cp /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf /boot/loader/entries/arch-lts.conf

Edit the bootloader configuration in /boot/loader/loader.conf.

default @saved
timeout 5
console-mode max

Create entries for each kernel in /boot/loader/entries/.

title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  initramfs-linux.img
options rd.luks.name=DEVICE-UUID=root root=/dev/mapper/root rootflags=subvol=@

title   Arch Linux (LTS)
linux   /vmlinuz-linux-lts
initrd  initramfs-linux-lts.img
options rd.luks.name=DEVICE-UUID=root root=/dev/mapper/root rootflags=subvol=@

Shell

pacman -S --needed fish

User Configuration

useradd -m -G wheel -s /usr/bin/fish USERNAME
passwd USERNAME
export EDITOR=nvim
visudo

The last command is used to configure our sudo users. Uncomment one of the lines whether you want sudo to be used with or without password.

 #%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
 %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
# or
 #%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
 %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Pkgstats

Once installed (it is enabled on install), this will send your installed packages, the architecture and the mirror you’re using to Arch Linux developers. This information is anonymous and can’t be used to identify the user, and is only used to help the developers prioritise their efforts.

pacman -S --needed pkgstats

GPU Setup optional

This setup depends on your card. Always better to check the Arch Wiki for this, especially with NVIDIA cards.

NVIDIA

This is always changing with NVIDIA drivers, so check compatibility in the wiki.

pacman -S --needed nvidia-open-dkms nvidia-utils

AMD

I haven’t used an AMD GPU yet, as my desktop with one is still running Windows. Check the wiki for how to install AMD drivers.

Terminal

pacman -S --needed kitty

KDE DE

If qt6-multimedia-ffmpeg pipewire-jack noto-fonts aren’t specified, the installation will ask you to choose between these and other options.

pacman -S --needed plasma-meta ark plasma-workspace qt6-multimedia-ffmpeg pipewire-jack noto-fonts

Hyprland WM

pacman -S --needed hyprland

Setup Early KMS to allow NVIDIA modules to load earlier in the boot sequence. Add the modules to etc/mkinitcpio.conf and regenerate your initramfs afterwards. For more information check official Hyprland wiki.

MODULES=(... i915 nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm ...)

mkinitcpio -P

Rebooting to our system

exit
sync
umount -R /mnt
reboot now

Post-install Configuration

Enable `zram`

Add the zram configuration to /etc/systemd/zram-generator.conf.

[zram0]

systemctl start /dev/zram0

Wi-Fi Configuration

nmcli device wifi list
nmcli device wifi connect SSID_OR_BSSID password PASSWORD
nmcli connection show
ping ping.archlinux.org

AUR Helper

mkdir tools # optional
sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
cd tools
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay && makepkg -si

Reflector

Periodically update mirrorlist with reflector.

yay -S --needed reflector

Configure the settings in /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf.

--save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

--protocol https

 # --country France,Germany
 --country Portugal,Netherlands,Germany

--latest 5

 --sort age
 --sort rate

sudo systemctl enable reflector.timer

SSH

yay -S --needed openssh

Display Manager

yay -S --needed sddm
sudo systemctl enable sddm.service

Pipewire

yay -S --needed pipewire wireplumber

File Manager

yay -S --needed lf dolphin

Browser

yay -S --needed firefox

Fonts

yay -S --needed noto-fonts noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-emoji ttf-noto-nerd

Bluetooth

yay -S --needed bluez bluez-utils
sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service
# Start now
sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

VSCode

yay -S --needed visual-studio-code-bin

Fastfetch

yay -S --needed fastfetch

Mise

yay -S --needed mise

Pipx

yay -S --needed python-pipx

Hyprland Configuration

XDG Desktop Portal

yay -S --needed xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland

Auth Agent

yay -S --needed hyprpolkitagent

Desktop Notifications

yay -S --needed libnotify mako

Status Bar

yay -S --needed pipewire-jack waybar