From ArchWiki

[edit] Preface

[edit] Everything you ever wanted to know about installing Arch, but were afraid to ask

Welcome. This document will guide you through the process of installing and configuring Arch Linux; a simple, agile and lightweight GNU/Linux distribution, UNIX-like operating system. It is more than an installation guide; Arch Linux requires a certain level of intimate knowledge of its configuration and of UNIX-like system methodology and for this reason, extra explanatory information is included along the way. It is aimed at new Arch users, but strives to serve as a strong reference and informative base for all. While this guide intends to show how to gain a fully configured Arch Linux system (a graphical desktop environment, the ability to view DVDs, browse the internet, work with emails, and listen to music), it is impossible to show (or even anticipate) all possibilities and options. By design, this guide must focus on some critically useful steps; you may want to dig deeper using the Arch Linux Wiki or the Arch Linux Forums. You are also encouraged to read The Arch Way, which outlines the underlying principles of the Arch Linux distribution.

Since Arch Linux and all UNIX-like operating systems are fundamentally 'modular' by design, the article is logically broken up into 3 main parts:

Part I: Installing the Base system

Part II: Installing X and configuring ALSA

Part III: Installing a Desktop Environment

[edit] DON'T PANIC!

Please realize that the Arch Linux installation method and procedure may be very different from other GNU/Linux distributions you have tried, especially if you are a beginner. Typically, GNU/Linux distributions bundle together large quantities of software onto a CD, or set of CD's, (or even DVD's) including a default desktop environment, default programs and settings, hardware autoconfiguration and a graphical installer, all of which are chosen for you. In contrast, the Arch Linux system is built up by the user, from an ncurses installer and base system with nothing more than a bash shell and basic command line tools. This is The Arch Way. Unlike the more rigid structures of most other distributions, there are no default environments nor configurations chosen for the user. To put it simply; Arch waits for your input. From the command line, you will add packages from the Arch repositories using the pacman tool via your internet connection and manually configure your installation until your system is customized to your requirements. This method allows for maximum flexibility, choice, and system resource control from the base up. Because you assemble and configure it, you will invariably know the nuts and bolts of your system, and become familiar with what is under the hood.

The Arch Linux system is configured by editing text files. It offers no GUI tools and will not hold your hand during setup and customization, but nor will it get in your way by design. Remember also, that Arch Linux is aimed at competent GNU/Linux users who desire minimal 'code separation' from their machine and software, as well as users who are willing to invest the time to learn about the underlying mechanics of the system.

Arch is a tool to be molded by the user.

[edit] The Arch Way

The design principles behind Arch are aimed at keeping it simple.

Note that 'simple' does not mean 'easy' nor 'user-friendly' in this context, but rather; 'without unnecessary additions, modifications, or complications'. In short; an elegant, minimalist approach.

"Simple' is defined from a technical standpoint, not a usability standpoint. It is better to be technically elegant with a higher learning curve, than to be easy to use, and technically crap." -Aaron Griffin

"The extraordinary part of [my method] lies in its simplicity..I have always believed that the simple way is the right way." - Bruce Lee

Occam's razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem or "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." The term razor refers to the act of shaving away unnecessary assumptions and complications to get to the simplest explanation, method or theory.

• You may wish to print out this guide as a 58 page book which will serve as a useful Arch Linux user reference.
• If you would like to add to this wiki, please include the "Why" as well as the "How", where appropriate. The best documentation teaches us how, as well as why!
• The Arch wiki is an excellent resource and should be consulted for issues first; IRC and the forums are also available if the answer cannot be found.

Welcome to Arch! Now, let's get started.

[edit] Part I: Install the Base System

[edit] Obtain the latest Installation ISO

You can obtain Arch's latest installation ISO from here.

• Both the Core-iso and the FTP-downloads provide only the necessary packages to create an Arch Linux base system. Note that the Base System does not include a GUI. It is mainly comprised of the GNU toolchain, (compiler, assembler, linker, libraries, and a few useful utilities) the Linux kernel, and a few extra libraries and modules. The rest of the Arch Linux system, including a Graphical User Interface, is assembled from the command line, by the user, using the pacman package manager to grab i686/x86-64 binary packages. The process is covered in detail below.

Burn the ISO to CD.

[edit] Boot Arch Linux CD

As you follow these directions, you may find the Official Arch Linux Install Guide helpful as well. Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive and boot from it. You may have to change the boot order in your computer BIOS or press a key (usually DEL, F1, F2, F11 or F12) during the BIOS phase.

Useful booting options:

• ide-legacy if you have trouble with IDE drives
• noapic acpi=off pci=routeirq nosmp if your system hangs during the boot process
• acpi=nommconf if you experience a freeze after pci:mmconfig is loaded
• memtest86+ if you want to check your memory for errors
• lowmem is useful for older machines with limited RAM.

Memory requirements:

• CORE ISO: lowmem boot image 64 MB RAM x86_64/i686 (all packages selected, with swap partition)
• CORE ISO: arch boot image 160 MB RAM x86_64/i686 (all packages selected, with swap partition)
• FTP ISO : 160 MB RAM x86_64/i686 (all packages selected, with swap partition)

Choose "Arch Linux Installation / Rescue System". If you need to change the boot options press e for editing the boot lines. The system will now boot and present a welcome text with some explanations when ready.

[edit] Login and Changing the keymap

Login as 'root'. If you have a non-US keyboard layout do:

loadkeys <your keyboard>

at the prompt.

[edit] Start the Installation

Enter

/arch/setup 

to start the installation.

[edit] Select an installation source

After a welcome screen, you will be prompted for an installation source. Choose CD if you are using a core ISO, or choose FTP if you are using the FTP ISO.

• If you chose the CORE-ISO, continue below with Prepare Hard Drive.
• FTP Only: If using FTP, you will be prompted to load ethernet drivers manually, if desired. Udev is quite effective at loading the required modules, so you may assume it has already done so. You may verify this by invoking ifconfig -a from vc2. (Select OK to continue.)

[edit] FTP: Configure Network

Available Interfaces will be presented. If an interface and HWaddr is listed, then your module has already been loaded. If your interface is not listed, you may probe it from the installer, or manually do so from another virtual console.

The following screen will prompt you to Select the interface, Probe, or Cancel. Choose the appropriate interface and continue.

The installer will then ask if you wish to use DHCP. Choosing Yes will run dhcpcd to discover an available gateway and request an IP address; Choosing No will prompt you for your static IP, netmask, broadcast, gateway DNS IP, HTTP proxy, and FTP proxy. Lastly, you will be presented with an overview to ensure your entries are correct.

Continue with Prepare Hard Drive

[edit] Prepare Hard Drive

Select the first menu entry "Prepare Hard Drive".

• Option 1: Auto Prepare

Auto-Prepare divides your disk into the following configuration:

• ext2 /boot partition, default size 32MB. You will be prompted to modify the size to you requirement.
• swap partition, default size 256MB. You will be prompted to modify the size to you requirement.
• A Separate / and /home partition, (sizes can also be specified). You may choose from ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs and jfs, but both / and /home must share the same fs type.

Be warned that Auto-prepare will completely erase the chosen hard drive. Read the warning presented by the installer very carefully, and make sure the correct device is about to be partitioned.

Of course, if you have but one hard drive in your system and have decided to dedicate it to Arch, you have nothing to worry about.

• Option 2: (Recommended) Partition Hard Drives (with cfdisk)

Select the hard drive you wish to install to (/dev/sdx).

At this point, more advanced GNU/Linux users who are familiar and comfortable with manually partitioning may wish to skip down to Select Packages below.

[edit] Partition Info

Partitioning a hard disk drive defines specific areas (the partitions) within the disk, that will each appear and behave as a separate disk and upon which a filesystem may be created (formatted). Partitions are broken up into "Primary", "Extended", and "Logical".

Primary partitions can be bootable, and are limited to 4. Beyond 4 partitions, we are forced to use an extended partition which will contain logical partitions.

Extended partitions are not usable by themselves; they are merely a "container" for logical partitions. A hard disk may contain only one extended partition; which can then be sub-divided into logical partitions.

When partitioning a disk, one can see this numbering scheme by creating primary partitions sda1-3 followed by creating an extended partition, sda4, and subsequently creating logical partition(s) within the extended partition; sda5, sda6, and so on.

[edit] Swap Partition

A swap partition is a place on your hard drive where "virtual ram" resides, allowing the kernel to easily use disk storage for data that does not fit into physical RAM.

Historically, the general rule for swap partition size was 2x the amount of physical RAM. Over time, as computers have gained ever larger memory capacities, this rule has become increasingly deprecated. Generally, on machines with up to 512MB RAM, the 2x rule is usually sufficient. On machines with 1GB RAM, generally a 1x rule is adequate. If you have gratuitous amounts of RAM (more than 1024 MB) it may be possible to completely forgo a swap partition altogether, though this is not recommended. We will create a 1 GB swap partition in this example.

[edit] Partition Scheme

A disk partitioning scheme is a very personalized preference. Each user's choices will be unique to their own computing habits and requirements. What you need at the least is one primary partition which contains the root Filesystem ( / ) and one for swap. Other candidates for separate partitions include /boot (which mainly contains the kernel) /var, and /home (which contains the user data). It is generally considered good practice and more versatile to have / and /home on separate partitions. In this example, we shall use one partition for /, one partition for /home, and a swap partition.

[edit] cfdisk

Let's start by creating the primary partition that will contain the root, (/) filesystem.

Choose New -> Primary and enter the size you want (something between 4 and 12 GB is a good choice for a full-featured Linux system). Put the partition at the beginning of the disk. Select the newly created partition and choose Bootable to make this partition bootable.

Also choose the Type by designating it as '83 Linux'. The created / partition should appear as sda1.

Next, create a partition for swap. Select a size between 512 MB and 1 GB and change the Type to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris). The created swap partition should appear as sda2.

Lastly, another partition for your /home directory. Choose another primary partition and set the size to a value you like. The size really depends on what your users store in their home directories, so I cannot make any suggestions. The size may vary between a few hundred megabytes for some office documents up to hundreds of gigabytes for videos and MP3s. If you want to use the entire remaining space on your hard disc, remember to reserve a quantity for the swap partition. (1 GB, or 1024MB, in our example)

Likewise, select the Type as 83 Linux. The created /home partition should appear as sda3.

This is what your Layout should look like (size may vary depending on your decisions):

Name    Flags  Part Type   FS Type         [Label]         Size (MB)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1    Boot    Primary     Linux                         (4096 - 8192)
sda2               Primary     Linux swap / Solaris   (512 - 1024)
sda3               Primary     Linux                         (> 100 or remaining space)

Choose Write and type 'yes'. Beware that this operation may destroy data on your disk if you deleted partitions. Choose Quit to leave the partitioner. Choose Done to leave this menu and continue with "Set Filesystem Mountpoints".

[edit] I have IDE devices, why do they look like SCSI devices?

Since the latest developments of the Linux kernel which include the libata and PATA modules, all IDE, SATA and SCSI drives have adopted the sdx naming scheme. This is perfectly normal and should not be a concern.

[edit] Set File system Mountpoints

First you will be asked for your swap partition. Choose the appropriate partition (sda3 in this example). You will be asked if you want to create a swap filesystem; select yes. Next, choose where to mount the / (root) directory (sda1 in the example). You will be asked what kind of filesystem you want.

[edit] Filesystem Types

Again, a filesystem type is a very subjective matter which comes down to personal preference. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages, and differences in performance are often more likely to be attributable to placebo than to human-perceivable measurements. Here is a very brief overview of supported filesystems:

1. ext2 - Old, reliable GNU/Linux filesystem. Very stable, but without journaling support. May be inconvenient for root (/) and /home, due to very long fsck's. An ext2 filesystem can easily be converted to ext3.

2. ext3 - Essentially the ext2 system, but with journaling support. ext3 is completely compatible with ext2. Generally perceived and benchmarked as slightly slower than other filesystems, but extremely stable and by far the most widely used, supported and developed GNU/Linux FS.

3. ReiserFS - Hans Reiser's high-performance journaling FS uses a very interesting method of data throughput. ReiserFS is touted as very fast, especially when dealing with many small files. ReiserFS is comparatively slow at mounting. Quite well established and stable. ReiserFS isn't actively developed at this time (Reiser4 is the new Reiser filesystem).

4. JFS - IBM's Journaled FileSystem. JFS uses the least CPU resources of any filesystem. Very fast at mounting and fsck's, and very good all-around performance, especially in conjunction with the deadline scheduler. (See JFS.) Not as widely supported as ext or ReiserFS.

5. XFS - Journaling filesystem which is best suited for large files. Very fast at mounting. May be slower than ReiserFS for many small files. The only available GNU/Linux FS with online defragmentation ability.

A major difference is journaling (something similar to transaction logs in database environments). All filesystems except ext2 use journaling. Note that not all journaling techniques are alike; specifically, only ext3 journals BOTH data AND meta-data (directory information). The others only journal meta-data. While all will return your filesystem to a valid state after recovering from a crash, only ext3 guarantees that you won't be left with some "stale data".

Choose and create the filesystem (format the partition) for / by selecting yes. You will now be prompted to add any additional partitions. In our example, only sda2 is remaining. Choose a filesystem type and mount it as /home. Again, create the filesystem and choose Done. Return to main menu.

[edit] Select Packages

Now we shall select packages to install in our system.

• Core ISO: Choose CD as source and select the appropriate CD drive if you have more than one.
• FTP ISO: Select an FTP/HTTP mirror. Note that archlinux.org is throttled to 50KB/s.

Package selection is split into two stages. First, you will select package categories, then you will be presented will the full lists of packages in the selected categories, allowing you to fine-tune your selections. The space bar selects and unselects the categories.

• BASE: Contains the minimal package set; just enough for a barebones system.
• SUPPORT: Additional packages for networking and filesystems, etc, such as gpm, fuse, dnsutils, wireless drivers, ndiswrapper, ntfs-3g, and so forth.
• DEVEL: Software compiling tools such as GCC, autoconf, automake and make.
• LIB: Various libraries such as gmp, lebelf, libevent, etc.

Choose OK to continue and then choose 'yes' for 'Select all packages by default', for now.

The next screen will present you with the selected packages within your selected categories. Leaving all selected is a safe choice for beginners, while more experienced users will wish to trim a few unnecessary packages. (For instance, an unneeded filesystem type utility, unneeded drivers, etc.)

[edit] Install Packages

Next, choose 'Install Packages'. You will be asked if you wish to keep the packages in the pacman cache. If you choose 'yes', you will have the flexibility to downgrade to previous package versions in the future, so this is recommended (you can always clear the cache in the future). The installer script will now install the selected packages, as well as the default Arch 2.6 kernel, to your system.

• FTP ISO: The Pacman package manager will now download and install your selected packages. (See VC5 for output, VC1 to return to the installer)
• CORE ISO: The packages will be installed from the CD.

Note: For Arch 2007.08 FTP installation: after 'Install Packages' you have to upgrade pacman (ALT+F2, pacman -Sy pacman) and again 'Install Packages'.

[edit] Configure The System

Closely following and understanding these steps is of key importance to ensure a properly configured system.

The installer will ask if you want to choose hwdetect to gather information for your configuration. Beginners should choose 'yes'.

Advanced users who are thoroughly familiar with their hardware, required modules, and who are able to manually configure /etc/rc.conf, /etc/mkinitcpio and /etc/fstab, etc. from scratch may wish to choose 'no'. (Needless to say, this option is very involved, beyond the scope of this guide, and therefore is not covered.)

Next, you will be asked if you need support for booting from USB devices, FireWire devices, PCMCIA devices, NFS shares, software RAID arrays, LVM2 volumes, encrypted volumes, and DSDT support. Choose yes if you need it; in our example nothing is needed.

Now you will be asked which text editor you want to use; choose nano or vi/vim (recommended). You will be presented with a menu including the most important configuration files for your system. If you want to look up the available options as stated in /etc/rc.conf just press Alt+F2 to get a shell, look it up, and switch back to the installer with Alt+F1.

[edit] Why doesn't the installer handle this more automatically?

Hiding the process of system configuration is in direct opposition to The Arch Way. While it is true that recent versions of the kernel and hardware probing tools offer excellent hardware support and autoconfiguration, Arch presents the user all pertinent configuration files during installation for the purpose of transparency. By the time you have finished modifying these files to your specifications, you will have learned the simple method of manual Arch Linux system configuration and become more familiar with the base structure, leaving you better prepared to use your new installation productively.

[edit] /etc/rc.conf

Arch Linux follows in the *BSD tradition of utilizing /etc/rc.conf as the principal location for system configuration. This one file contains a wide range of configuration information, principally used at system startup. As its name directly implies, it also contains settings for and invokes the /etc/rc* files, and is, of course, sourced by these files. /etc/rc.conf offers a simple, elegant method of streamlining system resource configuration by encompassing a wide range of control, readily accessible for the Arch user.

• LOCALIZATION section
  • LOCALE=: This sets your system locale, which will be used by all i18n-aware applications and utilities. You can get a list of the available locales by running 'locale -a' from the command line. This setting's default is fine for US English users.
  • HARDWARECLOCK=: Specifies whether the hardware clock, which is synchronized on bootup and on shutdown, stores UTC time, or the localtime. UTC makes sense because it greatly simplifies changing timezones and daylight savings time. localtime is necessary if you dual boot with an operating system such as Windows, that only stores localtime to the hardware clock.
  • TIMEZONE=: Specify your TIMEZONE. (All available zones are under /usr/share/zoneinfo/).
  • KEYMAP=: The available keymaps are in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps. Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or X!
  • CONSOLEFONT=: Available console fonts reside under /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ if you must change. The default (blank) is safe.
  • CONSOLEMAP=: Defines the console map to load with the setfont program on bootup. Possible maps are found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans, if needed. The default (blank) is safe.
  • USECOLOR=: Select "yes" if you have a color monitor and wish to have colors in your consoles.

LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="US/Eastern"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

• HARDWARE section
  • MOD_AUTOLOAD=: Setting this to "yes" will utilize udev to automatically probe hardware and load the appropriate modules during boot-up, (convenient with the default modular kernel). Setting this to "no" will rely on the user's ability to specify this information manually.
  • MOD_BLACKLIST=: Specify any blacklisted modules. Udev will be forced NOT to load blacklisted modules. In the following example, the IPv6 module as well as the annoying pcspeaker are blacklisted.
  • MODULES=:Specify additional MODULES if you know that an important module is missing, (hwdetect should have filled in the most important modules):

# Scan hardware and load required modules at bootup
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
# Module Blacklist - modules in this list will never be loaded by udev
MOD_BLACKLIST=(net-pf-10 pcspkr)
#
MODULES=(e100 eepro100 mii slhc snd-ac97-codec snd-intel8x0 soundcore)

• NETWORKING section
  • HOSTNAME=:Set your HOSTNAME to your liking.
  • eth0=: 'Ethernet, card 0'. Adjust the interface IP address, netmask and broadcast address if you are using static IP. Set eth0="dhcp" if you want to use DHCP
  • INTERFACES=: Specify any/all interfaces here. If you do not use DHCP to configure a device, just keep in mind that the value of the variable (whose name must be equal to the name of the device which is supposed to be configured) equals the line which would be appended to the ifconfig command if you were to configure the device manually in the shell.
  • gateway=: If you are using static IP, set the gateway address. Ignore this entry if using DHCP
  • ROUTES=: If you are using static IP, remove the ! in front of 'gateway'. Leave the ! if using DHCP

Example, using DHCP:

HOSTNAME="arch"
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255" 
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)

• DAEMONS section

This array simply lists the names of those scripts contained in /etc/rc.d/ which are to be started during the boot process, and the order in which they start.

DAEMONS=(@network syslog-ng netfs crond)

• If a script name is prefixed with a bang (!), it is not executed.
• If a script is prefixed with an "at" symbol (@), then it will be executed in the background; the startup sequence will not wait for successful completion of each daemon before continuing to the next. (Useful for speeding up system boot).
• Edit this array whenever new system services are installed, if starting them automatically during bootup is desired.

This 'BSD-style' init, is the Arch way of handling what others handle with various symlinks to an /etc/init.d directory.

[edit] About DAEMONS

You don't have to change the daemons line at this time, but it is useful to explain what daemons are, because we need them later in this guide.

Analogous to a Windows service, a daemon is a program that runs in the background, waiting for events to occur and offering services. A good example is a webserver that waits for a request to deliver a page or an SSH server waiting for someone trying to log in. While these are full-featured applications, there are daemons whose work is not that visible. Examples are a daemon which writes messages into a log file (e.g. syslog, metalog), a daemon which lowers your CPU's frequency if your system has nothing to do (e.g.:cpufreq), and a daemon which offers you a graphical login (e.g.: gdm, kdm). All these programs can be added to the daemons line and will be started when the system boots. Useful daemons will be presented during this guide.

Historically, the term daemon was coined by the programmers of MIT's Project MAC. They took the name from Maxwell's demon, an imaginary being from a famous thought experiment that constantly works in the background, sorting molecules. UNIX systems inherited this terminology and created the backronym disk and execution monitor.

• Tip: All Arch daemons reside under /etc/rc.d/

[edit] /etc/fstab

The fstab (for file systems table) is part of the system configuration listing all available disks and disk partitions, and indicating how they are to be initialized or otherwise integrated into the overall system's file system. The /etc/fstab file is most commonly used by the mount command, which reads /etc/fstab to determine which options should be used when mounting the specified device.

An example /etc/fstab:

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>        <type>        <options>                 <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts     devpts               defaults                0         0
none                   /dev/shm     tmpfs                defaults                0         0
#/dev/cdrom            /mnt/cdrom   iso9660          ro,user,noauto,unhide       0         0
#/dev/dvd              /mnt/dvd     udf                 ro,user,noauto,unhide    0         0
#/dev/fd0              /mnt/fd0     vfat                user,noauto              0         0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/0ec-9339  /            jfs       defaults,noatime,nodiratime   0         1
/dev/disk/by-uuid/7ef-223-0 /home        jfs       defaults,noatime,nodiratime   0         2
/dev/disk/by-uuid/530-1e-2c2 swap        swap         defaults                   0         0

Modify your fstab to your requirements.

ls -lF /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Will list all partitions by uuid.

• If you plan on using hal to automount media such as DVDs, you may wish to comment out the cdrom and dvd entries in preparation for hal, which will be installed later in this guide.

Expanded information available in the Fstab wiki entry.

[edit] /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and /etc/modprobe.conf

We shouldn't need to edit these configurations at this point.

• mkinitcpio.conf This file allows you to fine-tune the initial ram filesystem (also commonly referred to as the initial ramdisk or "initrd") for your system. The initrd is a gzipped image that is read by the kernel during bootup. The purpose of the initrd is to bootstrap the system to the point where it can access the root filesystem. This means it has to load any modules that are required for devices like IDE, SCSI, or SATA drives (or USB/FW, if you are booting off a USB/FW drive). Once the initrd loads the proper modules, either manually or through udev, it passes control to the Arch system and your bootup continues. For this reason, the initrd only needs to contain the modules necessary to access the root filesystem. It does not need to contain every module you would ever want to use. The majority of your everyday modules will be loaded later on by udev, during the init process.

• modprobe.conf can be used to set special configuration options for the kernel modules

[edit] /etc/resolv.conf (for Static IP)

The resolver is a set of routines in the C library that provide access to the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). One of the main functions of DNS is to translate domain names into IP addresses, to make the Web a friendlier place. The resolver configuration file, or /etc/resolv.conf, contains information that is read by the resolver routines the first time they are invoked by a process.

• If you are using DHCP, you may safely ignore this file, as by default, it will be dynamically created and destroyed by the dhcpcd daemon. You may change this default behavior if you wish. (See Network).

If you use a static IP, set your DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf (nameserver <ip-address>). You may have as many as you wish, e.g.:

nameserver 4.2.2.1
nameserver 4.2.2.2

If you are using a router, you will probably want to specify your DNS servers in the router itself, and merely point to it from your /etc/resolv.conf, using your router's IP (which is also your gateway from /etc/rc.conf), e.g.:

nameserver 192.168.1.1

If using DHCP, you may also specify your DNS servers in the router, or allow automatic assignment from your ISP, if your ISP is so equipped.

[edit] /etc/hosts

This file associates IP addresses with hostnames and aliases, one line per IP address. For each host a single line should be present with the following information:

<IP-address> <hostname> [aliases...]

Add your hostname, coinciding with the one specified in /etc/rc.conf, as an alias, so that it looks like this:

127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost yourhostname

If you use a static IP, add another line using the syntax: <static-IP> <hostname.domainname.org> <hostname> e.g.:

192.168.1.100 yourhostname.domain.org  yourhostname

• TIP: For convenience, you may also use /etc/hosts aliases for hosts on your network, and/or on the Web, e.g.:

64.233.169.103   www.google.com   g
192.168.1.90   media
192.168.1.88   data

The above example would allow you to access google simply by typing 'g' into your browser, and access to a media and data server on your network by name and without the need for typing out their respective IP addresses.

[edit] /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow

Modify these configurations according to your needs if you plan on using the ssh daemon. The default configuration will reject all incoming connections, not only ssh connections. Edit your /etc/hosts.allow file and add:

sshd:all 

This will allow all incoming ssh connections.

If you do not plan on using the ssh daemon, leave this file at the default, (empty), for added security.

[edit] /etc/locale.gen

The locale-gen command reads from /etc/locale.gen to generate specific locales. They can then be used by glibc and any other locale-aware program or library for rendering "peculiar" text, correctly displaying regional monetary values, time and date formats, alphabetic idiosyncrasies, and other locale-specific standards. The ability to setup a default locale is a great built-in privilege of using a UNIX-like operating system.

By default /etc/locale.gen is an empty file with commented documentation. Once edited, the file won't get touched again. locale-gen runs on every glibc upgrade, generating all the locales specified in /etc/locale.gen.

Choose the locale(s) you need (remove the # in front of the lines you want), e.g.:

en_US ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8	

The installer will now run the locale-gen script, which will generate the locales you specified. You may change your locale in the future by editing /etc/locale.gen and subsequently running 'locale-gen' as root.

[edit] Root password

Finally, set a root password and make sure that you remember it later. Return to the main menu and continue with installing bootloader.

[edit] Pacman-Mirror

Choose a mirror repository for pacman.

• archlinux.org is throttled, limiting downloads to 50KB/s

Return to the main menu.

[edit] Install Bootloader

Because we have no secondary operating system in our example, we will need a bootloader. GNU GRUB is the recommended bootloader. Alternatively, you may choose LILO.

[edit] GRUB

The provided GRUB configuration (/boot/grub/menu.lst) should be sufficient. The only thing you may want to alter is the resolution of the console. Add a vga=<number> to the first kernel line. (A table of resolutions and the corresponding numbers is printed in the menu.lst.)

Example:

title  Arch Linux (Main)
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/0ec1-9339.. ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

Explanation:

Line 1: title: A printed menu selection. "Arch Linux (Main)" will be printed on the screen as a menu selection.

Line 2: root: GRUB's root; the drive and partition where the kernel (/boot) resides. NOT necesarily the root (/) file system, as they can reside on separate partitions. GRUB's numbering scheme starts at 0, and uses an hdx,x format regardless of IDE or SATA, enclosed within parentheses.

The example indicates that /boot is on the first partition of the first drive, or, (hd0,0).

Line 3: kernel: This line specifies:

• The path and filename of the kernel relative to GRUB's root (within the partition containing the kernel).

In the example, /boot is merely a directory residing on the same partition as / and vmlinuz26 is the kernel filename; /boot/vmlinuz26. If /boot were on a separate partition, the path and filename would be simply /vmlinuz26, being relative to GRUB's root.

• The root= argument to the kernel statement specifies the partition containing the root (/) directory in the booted system, (more accurately, the partition containing /sbin/init), according to the UUID numbering scheme as of 2008-04rc, which uses the /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxx-xxxx-xxxx format.

• Kernel options.

In our example, ro mounts the filesystem as read only during startup, and the "vga=773" argument will give a 1024x768 framebuffer with 256 color depth.

Line 4: initrd: (For Initial RAM disk) The path and filename of the initial RAM filesystem relative to GRUB's root (within the partition containing the kernel). Again, in the example, /boot is merely a directory residing on the same partition as / and kernel26.img is the initrd filename; /boot/kernel26.img. If /boot were on a separate partition, the path and filename would be simply /kernel26.img, being relative to GRUB's root.

Install the GRUB bootloader to the master boot record, (sda in our example).

That's it; You have configured and installed your Arch Linux base system. Exit the install, eject the installer CD, and type the magic word:

reboot

Your new Arch Linux system will boot up and finish with a login prompt (you may want to change the boot order in your BIOS back to booting from hard disk).

Congratulations, and welcome to your shiny, new Arch Linux base system!

[edit] The Base System

Your new Arch Linux base system is now a functional GNU/Linux environment ready for customization. From here, you may build this elegant set of tools into whatever you wish or require for your purposes.

Let's begin.

Login with your root account. We will configure pacman and update the system as root, then add a normal user.

[edit] Configuring the network (if necessary)

• This section will assist you in configuring most types of networks, if your network configuration is not working for you.

If you properly configured your system, you should have a working network. Try to ping www.google.com to verify this.

ping -c 3 www.google.com

If you have successfully established a network connection, continue with Update, Sync and Upgrade the system with pacman.

If, after trying to ping www.google.com, you get an "unknown host" error, you may conclude that your network is not properly configured. You may choose to double-check the following files for integrity and proper settings:

/etc/rc.conf # Specifically, check your HOSTNAME= and NETWORKING section for typos and errors.

/etc/hosts # Double-check your format. (See above.)

/etc/resolv.conf # If you are using a static IP. If you are using DHCP, this file will be dynamically created and destroyed by default, but can be changed to your preference. (See Network.)

Advanced instructions for configuring the network can be found in the Network article.

[edit] Wired LAN

Check your Ethernet with

ifconfig -a

All interfaces will be listed. You should see an entry for eth0, or perhaps eth1. If required, you can set a new static IP with

ifconfig eth0 <ip address> netmask <netmask> up 

and the default gateway with

route add default gw <ip address of the gateway>

Check to see if /etc/resolv.conf contains your DNS server and add it if it is missing. Check your network again with ping www.google.de. If everything is working now, adjust /etc/rc.conf as described above for static IP. If you have a DHCP server/router in your network try

dhcpcd eth0

If this is working, adjust /etc/rc.conf as described above, for dynamic IP.

[edit] Wireless LAN

Detailed setup guide: Wireless Setup

[edit] Analog Modem

To be able to use a Hayes-compatible, external, analog modem, you need to at least have the ppp package installed. Modify the file /etc/ppp/options to suit your needs and according to man pppd. You will need to define a chat script to supply your username and password to the ISP after the initial connection has been established. The manpages for pppd and chat have examples in them that should suffice to get a connection up and running if you're either experienced or stubborn enough. With udev, your serial ports usually are /dev/tts/0 and /dev/tts/1. Tip: Read Dialup without a dialer HOWTO.

Instead of fighting a glorious battle with the plain pppd, you may opt to install wvdial or a similar tool to ease the setup process considerably. In case you're using a so-called WinModem, which is basically a PCI plugin card working as an internal analog modem, you should indulge in the vast information found on the LinModem homepage.

[edit] ISDN

Setting up ISDN is done in three steps:

1. Install and configure hardware
2. Install and configure the ISDN utilities
3. Add settings for your ISP

The current Arch stock kernels include the necessary ISDN modules, meaning that you won't need to recompile your kernel unless you're about to use rather odd ISDN hardware. After physically installing your ISDN card in your machine or plugging in your USB ISDN-Box, you can try loading the modules with modprobe. Nearly all passive ISDN PCI cards are handled by the hisax module, which needs two parameters: type and protocol. You must set protocol to '1' if your country uses the 1TR6 standard, '2' if it uses EuroISDN (EDSS1), '3' if you're hooked to a so-called leased-line without D-channel, and '4' for US NI1.

Details on all those settings and how to set them is included in the kernel documentation, more specifically in the isdn subdirectory, and available online. The type parameter depends on your card; a list of all possible types can be found in the README.HiSax kernel documentation. Choose your card and load the module with the appropriate options like this:

modprobe hisax type=18 protocol=2

This will load the hisax module for my ELSA Quickstep 1000PCI, being used in Germany with the EDSS1 protocol. You should find helpful debugging output in your /var/log/everything.log file, in which you should see your card being prepared for action. Please note that you will probably need to load some USB modules before you can work with an external USB ISDN Adapter.

Once you have confirmed that your card works with certain settings, you can add the module options to your /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias ippp0 hisax
options hisax type=18 protocol=2

Alternatively, you can add only the options line here, and add hisax to your MODULES array in the rc.conf. It's your choice, really, but this example has the advantage that the module will not be loaded until it's really needed.

That being done, you should have working, supported hardware. Now you need the basic utilities to actually use it!

Install the isdn4k-utils package, and read the manpage to isdnctrl; it'll get you started. Further down in the manpage you will find explanations on how to create a configuration file that can be parsed by isdnctrl, as well as some helpful setup examples. Please note that you have to add your SPID to your MSN setting separated by a colon if you use US NI1.

After you have configured your ISDN card with the isdnctrl utility, you should be able to dial into the machine you specified with the PHONE_OUT parameter, but fail the username and password authentication. To make this work add your username and password to /etc/ppp/pap-secrets or /etc/ppp/chap-secrets as if you were configuring a normal analogous PPP link, depending on which protocol your ISP uses for authentication. If in doubt, put your data into both files.

If you set up everything correctly, you should now be able to establish a dial-up connection with

isdnctrl dial ippp0

as root. If you have any problems, remember to check the logfiles!

[edit] DSL (PPPoE)

These instructions are relevant to you only if your PC itself is supposed to manage the connection to your ISP. You do not need to do anything but define a correct default gateway if you are using a separate router of some sort to do the grunt work.

Before you can use your DSL online connection, you will have to physically install the network card that is supposed to be connected to the DSL-Modem into your computer. After adding your newly installed network card to the modules.conf/modprobe.conf or the MODULES array, you should install the rp-pppoe package and run the pppoe-setup script to configure your connection. After you have entered all the data, you can connect and disconnect your line with

/etc/rc.d/adsl start

and

/etc/rc.d/adsl stop

respectively. The setup usually is rather easy and straightforward, but feel free to read the manpages for hints. If you want to automatically dial in on boot-up, add adsl to your DAEMONS array.

[edit] Update, Sync and Upgrade the system with pacman

Now we will update the system using pacman.

[edit] What is pacman ?

Pacman is the package manager of Arch Linux. Pacman is written in C and is fast, simple, and extremely powerful. It manages your entire package system and handles installation, removal, package downgrade (through cache), custom compiled package handling, automatic dependency resolution, remote and local searches and much more. Arch uses the .tar.gz package format, which further enhances pacman's speed; Gzipped tarballs, though slightly larger, are decompressed much faster than their Bzipped counterparts, and are therefore generally installed more expediently.

We will use pacman to download software packages from remote repositories and install them onto your system.

Pacman is the most important tool in your Arch Linux toolbox for building the base system into whatsoever you please.

[edit] Configuring pacman

[edit] Package Repositories and /etc/pacman.conf

Arch currently offers the following repositories readily accessible through pacman:

[core]

The simple principle behind [core] is to provide only one of each necessary tool for a base Arch Linux system; The GNU toolchain, the Linux kernel, one editor, one command line browser, etc. (There are a few exceptions to this. For instance, both vi and nano are provided, allowing the user to choose one or both.) Developer maintained.

• The Core installation cd simply contains an installer script, and a snapshot of the core repository.

[extra]

The [extra] repository contains all Arch packages that are not themselves necessary for a base Arch system, but contribute to a more full-featured environment. X, KDE and GNOME, for instance, can be found here. Developer maintained.

[unstable]

The [unstable] repository contains experimental and unstable software, especially if the development version of a package has become popular for some reason. For example, perhaps the upstream stable version is hopelessly out of date, or the unstable version has some groundbreaking changes that a lot of users seem interested in, like experimental kernel drivers or -svn package versions. Developer maintained.

The [unstable] repository is currently not maintained for x86_64.

[testing]

The [testing] repository contains packages that are candidates for the [core], [extra] or [unstable] repositories. New packages go into [testing] if:

• they are expected to break something on update and need to be tested first
• they require other packages to be rebuilt. In this case, all packages that need to be rebuilt are put into [testing] first and when all rebuilds are done, they are moved back to the other repositories. Developer maintained.

[testing] is the only repository that can have name collisions with any of the other official repositories. If enabled, it has to be the first repo listed in your pacman.conf file.

[community]

The [community] repository is maintained by the Trusted Users (TUs) and is part of the Arch User Repository (AUR). It contains binary packages from the AUR that have enough votes and were adopted by a TU. Like all repos listed above, [community] may be readily accessed by pacman.

The AUR also contains the unsupported branch, which cannot be accessed directly by pacman*. [unsupported] contains more than 8 thousand PKGBUILD scripts for building packages from source, that may be unavailable through the other repos.

*The yaourt tool, an extremely popular, community contributed wrapper for pacman, can seamlessly access the AUR.

/etc/pacman.conf

pacman will attempt to read /etc/pacman.conf each time it is invoked. This configuration file is divided into sections, or repositories. Each section defines a package repository that pacman can use when searching for packages. The exception to this is the options section, which defines global options.

nano /etc/pacman.conf

Example:

[core]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
 Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[extra]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
 Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
#[unstable]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
 Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
[community]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
 Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Enable all desired repositories (remove the # in front of the 'Include =' and '[repository]' lines).

• When choosing repos, be sure to uncomment both the repository header lines in [brackets] as well as the 'Include =' lines. Failure to do so will result in the selected repository being omitted! This is a very common error.

[edit] /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Faster mirrors will dramatically improve pacman performance, and your overall Arch Linux experience.

Edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist:

nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Remove all mirrors which are not on your continent, or are extremely distant. (Using nano, you may use CTRL-K to cut each unneeded line.)

Edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist by placing the best mirror at the top of the list. (Recall that archlinux.org is throttled to 50KB/s). If using nano, you can cut a line with CTRL-K and paste with CTRL-U.

After changing mirrors, issue the following command:

pacman -Syy

This will force pacman to resynchronize with the new repo. Issuing pacman -Syy whenever a mirror is changed, is good practice and will avoid possible headaches.

[edit] Ignoring packages

When you execute the command "pacman -Syu", your entire system will be updated. It is possible that you want to prevent a package from being upgraded. An example could be the kernel (kernel26) or a package for which an upgrade may prove problematic for your system. In this case, you have two options; indicate the packages you want to skip in the pacman command line using the --ignore switch (do pacman -S --help for details) or permanently indicate the packages you want to skip in your /etc.pacman.conf file:

IgnorePkg = kernel26

The typical way to use Arch is to use pacman to install all packages unless there is no package available, in which case you can build your own package using ABS. Many user-contributed packages are available in the Arch User Repository. You are expected to keep your system up to date with pacman -Syu, rather than selectively upgrading packages. Use of IgnorePkg in /etc/pacman.conf is therefore discouraged, and should be used sparingly, if you know what you are doing.

You may diverge from this typical usage as you wish; just be warned that there is a greater chance that things will not work as intended and that it could break your system. The majority of complaints happen when selective upgrading or unusual compilation is performed.

[edit] Ignoring Configuration Files

In the same vein, you can also "protect" your configuration/system files from being overwritten during "pacman -Su" using the following option in your /etc/pacman.conf

NoUpgrade   = etc/lilo.conf boot/grub/menu.lst

[edit] Update System

Update, sync, and upgrade your entire new system with:

pacman -Syu

pacman will now fetch the latest information about available packages and perform all available upgrades. (You may be prompted to upgrade pacman itself at this point. If so, say yes, and then reissue the pacman -Syu command when finished.) Reboot if a kernel upgrade has occurred.

[edit] The beauty of the Arch rolling release model

Keep in mind that Arch is a rolling release distribution. This means there is never a reason to reinstall or perform elaborate system rebuilds to upgrade to the newest version. Simply issuing pacman -Syu periodically keeps your entire system up-to-date and on the bleeding edge. At the end of this upgrade, your system is completely current. Reboot if a kernel upgrade has occurred.

[edit] Get familiar with pacman

Pacman is the Arch user's best friend. It is highly recommended to study and learn how to use the pacman tool. Try:

man pacman

Check out the bottom of this article, and look up the pacman wiki entries at your leisure.

[edit] Add a user and setup groups

You should not do your everyday work using the root account. It is more than poor practice; it is dangerous. Root is for administrative tasks. Instead, add a normal user account using:

adduser

While most default options are safe to use, you may want to add storage, audio, video, optical, and wheel to your additional groups- especially if you are planning on having a full-featured desktop environment.

Groups and users thereof are defined in /etc/group.

They include:

• audio - for tasks involving sound card and related software

• wheel - for using sudo

• storage - for managing storage devices

• video - for video tasks and 3d acceleration

• optical - for managing tasks pertaining to the optical drive(s)

• floppy - for access to a floppy if applicable

• lp - for managing printing tasks

See the Groups article to understand what groups you need to be a member of.

Check the man pages for usermod and gpasswd for more information.

[edit] Install and setup Sudo

See Sudo

[edit] Part II: Install X and configure ALSA

[edit] Configure the audio card with alsamixer

The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (known by the acronym ALSA) is a Linux kernel component intended to replace the original Open Sound System (OSS) for providing device drivers for sound cards. Besides the sound device drivers, ALSA also bundles a user space library for application developers who want to use driver features with a higher level API than direct interaction with the kernel drivers.

The alsa-utils package contains alsamixer, which will allow us to configure the sound device from the console. (You may also run alsamixer from an X environment later.)

Install the alsa-utils package:

 pacman -S alsa-utils

Did you add your normal user to the audio group? If not, now would be a good time. As root do:

gpasswd -a yourusername audio

Log your normal user out and back in to ensure the audio group is loaded.

As normal, non-root user, do:

$ alsamixer

Unmute the Master and PCM channels by scrolling to them with cursor left/right and pressing M. Increase the volume levels with the cursor-up key. (70-90 Should be a safe range.) Leave alsamixer by pressing ESC.

[edit] Sound Test

Test your sound configuration as normal user using aplay:

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

You should hear a very eloquent woman say, "Front, center."

Then run alsactl as root:

alsactl store

This will create '/etc/asound.state', saving the alsamixer settings.

Also, add the alsa daemon to your DAEMONS section in /etc/rc.conf to automatically restore the mixer settings on boot-up.

nano /etc/rc.conf
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network crond alsa)

Note that the alsa daemon merely restores your volume mixer levels on boot up by reading /etc/asound.state. It is separate from the alsa audio library (and kernel level API).

Expanded information available in the ALSA wiki entry.

[edit] Installing and configuring X

The X Window System (commonly X11, or just simply X) is a networking and display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays. It provides the standard toolkit and protocol to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on UNIX-like operating systems.

X provides the basic framework, or primitives, for building GUI environments: drawing and moving windows on the screen and interacting with a mouse and/or keyboard. X does not mandate the user interface — individual client programs handle this.

X is so named because it was preceded by the W Window System, originally developed at Stanford University.

pacman -S libgl

(Proprietary video drivers provide their own gl library implementations.)

Now we will install the base Xorg packages using pacman. This is the first step in building a GUI.

pacman -S xorg

3d utilities such as glxgears are included in the mesa package:

pacman -S mesa

Now we have the base packages we need for running the X Server. You should add the driver for your graphics card now (e.g. xf86-video-<name>). The easiest way to configure X.org is by installing the correct driver packages first, and then generating /etc/X11/xorg.conf using an autoconfiguration script, like Xorg -configure.

If you need a list of all open-source video drivers, do:

pacman -Ss xf86-video | less

You will need knowledge of which video chipset your machine has. If you don't know, do:

lspci | grep VGA

Here is a list of open source drivers, and corresponding video chipsets.

• xf86-video-apm Alliance ProMotion video driver
• xf86-video-ark ark video driver
• xf86-video-ati ati video driver
• xf86-video-chips Chips and Technologies video driver
• xf86-video-cirrus Cirrus Logic video driver
• xf86-video-dummy dummy video driver
• xf86-video-fbdev framebuffer video driver
• xf86-video-glint GLINT/Permedia video driver
• xf86-video-i128 Number 0 i128 video driver
• xf86-video-i740 Intel i740 video driver
• xf86-video-i810 Intel i810/i830/i9xx video drivers (deprecated - use -intel)
• xf86-video-intel Newer Version of Intel i810/i830/i9xx video drivers
• xf86-video-imstt Integrated Micro Solutions Twin Turbo vidoe driver
• xf86-video-mga mga video driver (Matrox Graphics Adapter)
• xf86-video-neomagic neomagic video driver
• xf86-video-nv nvidia nv video driver
• xf86-video-rendition Rendition video driver
• xf86-video-s3 S3 video driver
• xf86-video-s3virge S3 Virge video driver
• xf86-video-savage savage video driver
• xf86-video-siliconmotion siliconmotion video driver
• xf86-video-sis SiS video driver
• xf86-video-sisusb SiS USB video driver
• xf86-video-tdfx tdfx video driver
• xf86-video-trident Trident video driver
• xf86-video-tseng tseng video driver
• xf86-video-unichrome Unichrome video drivers
• xf86-video-v4l v4l video driver
• xf86-video-vesa vesa video driver
• xf86-video-vga VGA 16 color video driver
• xf86-video-via via video driver
• xf86-video-vmware vmware video driver
• xf86-video-voodoo voodoo video driver

• Note that the vesa driver is the most generic, and should work with almost any modern video chipset. If you cannot find a suitable driver for your video chipset, vesa should work.

• If you have an NVIDIA or ATI video adapter, you may wish to install the proprietary NVIDIA or ATI drivers. Installing proprietary video drivers is covered below.

Use pacman to install the appropriate video driver for your video card/onboard video. e.g.:

pacman -S xf86-video-savage

(for the Savage driver.)

[edit] Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[edit] What is /etc/X11/xorg.conf?

/etc/X11/xorg.conf is the main configuration file for your X Window System, the foundation of your Graphical User Interface. It is a plain text file ordered into sections and subsections. Important sections are Files, InputDevice, Module, Monitor, Modes, Screen, Device, and ServerLayout. Sections can appear in any order and there may be more than one section of each kind, for example, if you have more than one monitor, or if your laptop has a trackpoint as well as a mouse.

By default, you will not have an Xorg config file, and with the newest versions of Xorg, you don't need one if the autodetection works satisfactorily and you don't need to turn on features such as aiglx and so on.

Most people will still find that they need to generate a config file, however.

Advanced users may wish to manually create their own xorg.conf file. You may also use the Xorg -configure script to make a basic config file. As root, do:

Xorg -configure

This will create a config file at /root/xorg.conf.new

To test the server, run:

X -config /root/xorg.conf.new

X should start with the white hollow vector X in the center of the screen, which should respond to mouse, trackpoint or touchpad movement. Use CTRL-Alt-Backspace to exit X.

Inspect your config file in case of errors:

nano /root/xorg.conf.new

Ensure the Xorg -configure script has correctly specified your video driver. e.g.:

Section "Device"

       ...

       Driver  "savage"

       ...

EndSection

Ensure there are horizontal sync and vertical refresh specs under section "Monitor". If not, add them:

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier   "Monitor0"
       VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
       ModelName    "Monitor Model"
       HorizSync     30.0 - 130.0 # Safe for LCD's
       VertRefresh   50.0 - 100.0 # Safe for LCD's and most CRT's.
EndSection

(If you do not know these specs, consult your monitor's documentation.)

Specify your default color depth under section "Screen":

Section "Screen"
       Identifier "Screen0"
       Device     "Card0"
       Monitor    "Monitor0"
       DefaultDepth 24

(Typically, this will be set to 24 for true color.)

Also add your desired Modes to your "Display" subsection, at least under the Depth 24 header, e.g.:

 SubSection "Display"
               Viewport   0 0
               Depth     24
               Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

Add the following section, if you wish to enable eye candy which requires the composite extension:

Section "Extensions"
 	Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Try your config again, after modifying:

X -config /root/xorg.conf.new

Ensure an X session opens, without errors, and move the generated config file to /etc/X11/:

mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Detailed instructions in the Xorg article.

[edit] Alternative xorg.conf generation

If Xorg -configure is not generating a usable xorg.conf, you may alternatively use the hwd tool. Install with:

pacman -S hwd

And run with

hwd -xa 

Lastly, you may choose xorgconfig, which will prompt you for hardware information to make an xorg.conf:

xorgconfig

Continue with Simple baseline X test

[edit] Using proprietary Graphics Driver (NVIDIA, ATI)

You may choose to use the proprietary video drivers from NVIDIA or ATI.

[edit] NVIDIA Graphic Cards

The NVIDIA proprietary drivers are generally considered to be of good quality, and offer 3D performance, whereas the open source nv driver offers only 2d support at this time.

Before you configure your Graphics Card you will need to know which driver fits. Arch currently has 3 different driver packages that each match a certain subset of Cards:

1. nvidia-71xx for very old Cards like TNT and TNT2

2. nvidia-96xx slightly newer cards up to the GF 4

3. nvidia newest GPUs after the GF 4

Consult the NVIDIA-Homepage to see which one is for you. The difference is only for the installation; Configuration works the same with every driver.

Select and install the appropriate NVIDIA driver for your card, e.g.:

pacman -S nvidia-96xx

The NVIDIA package has a utility for updating your existing /etc/X11/xorg.conf for use with the NVIDIA driver:

nvidia-xconfig

It also has several options which will further specify the contents and options of the xorg.conf file. For example,

nvidia-xconfig --composite --add-argb-glx-visuals

For more detailed information, see nvidia-xconfig(1).

Some useful tweaking options in the device section are (beware that these may not work on your system):

       Option          "RenderAccel" "true"
       Option          "NoLogo" "true"
       Option          "AGPFastWrite" "true"
       Option          "EnablePageFlip" "true"

Make sure all instances of DRI are commented out:

#    Load        "dri"

Double check your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to make sure your default depth, horizontal sync, vertical refresh, and resolutions are acceptable.

Update kernel module dependencies:

depmod -a

Advanced instructions for nvidia configuration can be found in the NVIDIA article.

Continue with Simple baseline X test

[edit] ATI Graphic Cards

ATI owners have two options for drivers. If you are unsure which driver to use, please try the open-source one first. The open-source driver will suit most needs along with being generally less problematic.

Install the proprietary ATI Driver with

pacman -S catalyst

Use the aticonfig tool to modify the xorg.conf.

Install the open-source ATI Driver with

pacman -S xf86-video-ati

Currently, the performance of the open-source driver is not on par with that of the proprietary one. It also lacks TV-out, dual-link DVI support, and possibly other features. On the other hand, it supports Aiglx and has better dual-head support.

Advanced instructions for ATI configuration can be found in the ATI wiki.

[edit] Simple baseline X test

At this point, you should have xorg installed, with a suitable video driver and an /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file. If you want to test your configuration quickly, to ensure your ability to start X from the command line before installing a complete desktop environment, you can do so by invoking xterm. Xterm is a very simple terminal emulator which runs in the X Server environment; it is installed as part of the base xorg packages.

And this is how you perform the test:

[edit] ~/.xinitrc

This file dictates what X Window client is invoked with the startx and/or xinit command on a per-user basis. (The startx script is merely a front end to the more versatile xinit command.)

To determine the client to run, startx/xinit will first look for a .xinitrc file in the user's home directory. In the absence of file ~/.xinitrc, it defaults to the global xinitrc in the xinit library directory; /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, which defaults to using the TWM window manager. (Hence, if you invoke startx without a ~/.xinitrc file, a TWM session will start.)

Switch to your normal, non-root user:

su yourusername

• /etc/skel/ contains files and directories to provide sane defaults for newly created user accounts. The name skel is derived from the word skeleton, because the files it contains form the basic structure for users' home directories.

Copy the sample xinitrc file from /etc/skel/ to your home directory:

cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~/

Edit the file:

nano ~/.xinitrc

and add:

exec xterm

So that it looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
#
exec xterm
# exec wmaker
# exec startkde
# exec icewm
# exec blackbox
# exec fluxbox

Be sure to have only one uncommented exec line in your ~/.xinitrc at this time. Below, we shall edit this file again to specify the appropriate desktop environment/window manager of your choice.

Start X Server as normal, non-root user, with:

startx

or

xinit

You should have an xterm session open up. You can exit the X Server with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, or by typing "exit". If you have problems starting X, you can look for errors in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and on the console output of the console you started X from.

Advanced instructions for Xorg configuration can be found in the Xorg article.

[edit] Part III: Installing and configuring a Desktop Environment

While The X Window System provides the basic framework for building a graphical user interface (GUI), a Desktop Environment (DE), works atop and in conjunction with X, to provide a completely functional and dynamic GUI. A DE typically provides icons, applets, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, applications and abilities like drag and drop. The particular functionalities and designs of each DE will uniquely affect your overall environment and experience. Therefore, choosing a DE is a very subjective and personal decision. Choose the best environment for your needs.

• If you want something full-featured and similar to Windows and Mac OSX, KDE is a good choice
• If you want something slightly more minimalist, which follows the K.I.S.S. principle more closely, GNOME is a good choice
• Xfce is generally perceived as similar to GNOME, but lighter and less demanding on system resources, yet still visually pleasing and providing a very complete environment.

If you have an older machine, or desire a lighter, less demanding GUI, you may choose to simply install a Window Manager, or WM. A WM controls the placement and appearance of application windows in conjunction with the X Window System but does NOT provide such additions as panels, applets, icons, etc.

• Lightweight WM's include: openbox, fluxbox, fvwm2, windowmaker and twm.
• If you need something completely different, try ion, wmii, dwm, or xmonad.

[edit] Install Fonts

At this point, you may want to install some good-looking fonts, before installing a desktop environment/window manager, (so you don't have to stare at ugly bitmap fonts in X). Dejavu and bitstream-vera are nice font sets. For websites, you may want to have the Microsoft fonts too. Install with:

pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera

[edit] ~/.xinitrc (again)

As non-root user, edit your /home/username/.xinitrc to utilize the DE you wish to use. This will allow you to use startx/xinit from the shell to open your DE/WM of choice:

nano ~/.xinitrc

Uncomment or add the 'exec ..' line of the appropriate desktop environment/window manager. Some examples are below.

For the Xfce4 desktop environment:

 exec startxfce4 

For the KDE desktop environment:

 exec startkde

A startkde or startxfce4 command starts the KDE or Xfce4 desktop environment. This command does not finish until you logout of the DE. Normally the shell would wait for KDE to finish, then run the next command. The "exec" prefix to this command tells the shell that this is the last command, so the shell does not need to wait to run a subsequent command.

Remember to have only one uncommented exec line in your ~/.xinitrc for now.

Continue below, installing the DE/WM of your choice.

[edit] GNOME

[edit] About GNOME

The GNU Network Object Model Environment. The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive desktop for end-users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop.

[edit] Installation

Install the GNOME environment with:

pacman -S gnome

You can also optionally install gnome-extra with:

pacman