User:Svito/attic/Installation guide: Difference between revisions

From ArchWiki
(→‎Pre-installation: rm merged link)
Line 59: Line 59:
== Pre-installation ==
== Pre-installation ==


Download and boot the installation medium as explained in [[Getting and installing Arch]]. You will be logged in on the first [[Wikipedia:Virtual console|virtual console]] as the root user, and presented with a [[Zsh]] shell prompt.
After booting into the live environment you will be logged in on the first [[Wikipedia:Virtual console|virtual console]] as the root user, and presented with a [[Zsh]] shell prompt.


To switch to a different console—for example, to view this guide with [[ELinks]] alongside the installation—use the {{ic|Alt+''arrow''}} [[Keyboard_shortcuts|shortcut]]. To [[textedit|edit]] configuration files, [[nano#Usage|nano]], [[Wikipedia:vi|vi]] and [[vim#Usage|vim]] are available.
To switch to a different console—for example, to view this guide with [[ELinks]] alongside the installation—use the {{ic|Alt+''arrow''}} [[Keyboard_shortcuts|shortcut]]. To [[textedit|edit]] configuration files, [[nano#Usage|nano]], [[Wikipedia:vi|vi]] and [[vim#Usage|vim]] are available.

Revision as of 16:58, 16 November 2018

This document is a guide for installing Arch Linux from the live system booted with the official installation image. Before installing, it would be advised to view the FAQ. For conventions used in this document, see Help:Reading. In particular, code examples may contain placeholders (formatted in italics) that must be replaced manually.

For more detailed instructions, see the respective ArchWiki articles or the various programs' man pages, both linked from this guide. For interactive help, the IRC channel and the forums are also available.

Arch Linux should run on any x86_64-compatible machine with a minimum of 512 MB RAM. A basic installation with all packages from the base group should take less than 800 MB of disk space. As the installation process needs to retrieve packages from a remote repository, this guide assumes a working internet connection is available.

Download the installation medium

The installation medium and its GnuPG signature can be acquired through the links on the Download page.

Depending on the desired installation environment download either the ISO image for the live environment or the bootstrap image for installing from an existing Linux system.

Verify signature

It is recommended to verify the image signature before use, especially when downloading from an HTTP mirror, because mirrors could be malicious and HTTP is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks (unless you use HTTPS).

On a system with GnuPG installed, do this by downloading the PGP signature directly from the Download page (under Checksums) to the ISO directory, and verifying it with:

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve --verify archlinux-<version>-x86_64.iso.sig

Alternatively, run pacman-key -v archlinux-<version>-x86_64.iso.sig from an existing Arch Linux installation as root.

Keep in mind:

  • The signature itself could be manipulated if it is downloaded from a mirror site, instead of from archlinux.org as above. In this case, ensure that the public key, which is used to decode the signature, is signed by another, trustworthy key. The gpg command will output the fingerprint of the public key.
  • Another method to verify the authenticity of the signature is to ensure that the public key's fingerprint is identical to the key fingerprint of the Arch Linux developer who signed the ISO-file. See Wikipedia:Public-key cryptography for more information on the public-key process to authenticate keys.

Installation environments

Arch Linux can be installed from two environments:

Live environment
The live environment can be booted from a USB flash drive, an optical disc or a network with PXE.
  • Pointing the current boot device to a drive containing the Arch installation media is typically achieved by pressing a key during the POST phase, as indicated on the splash screen. Refer to your motherboard's manual for details.
  • When the Arch menu appears, select Boot Arch Linux and press Enter to enter the installation environment.
  • See README.bootparams for a list of boot parameters, and packages.x86_64 for a list of included packages.
Existing Linux system
Instead of using the live environment, Arch Linux can also be installed from an existing Linux system.

Special installation methods

If you intend to install Arch Linux as the sole operating system on the computer, on bare-metal, with physical access and an internet connection, you can skip this section.

Multi-booting
Arch Linux can be installed alongside other operating systems like Windows or OS X.
Virtual machine
Arch Linux can be installed in a virtual machine, ideal for learning and testing. See also Moving an existing install into (or out of) a virtual machine and Arch Linux VPS.
Via SSH
Once the live environment is booted and SSH is started and enabled for root, the installation can be completed via SSH.
Offline
The pacstrap script used in Installation guide#Install the base packages requires an internet connection. When none is available, see Offline installation.

Pre-installation

After booting into the live environment you will be logged in on the first virtual console as the root user, and presented with a Zsh shell prompt.

To switch to a different console—for example, to view this guide with ELinks alongside the installation—use the Alt+arrow shortcut. To edit configuration files, nano, vi and vim are available.

Set the keyboard layout

The default console keymap is US. Available layouts can be listed with:

# ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz

To modify the layout, append a corresponding file name to loadkeys(1), omitting path and file extension. For example, to set a German keyboard layout:

# loadkeys de-latin1

Console fonts are located in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ and can likewise be set with setfont(8).

Verify the boot mode

If UEFI mode is enabled on an UEFI motherboard, Archiso will boot Arch Linux accordingly via systemd-boot. To verify this, list the efivars directory:

# ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

If the directory does not exist, the system may be booted in BIOS or CSM mode. Refer to your motherboard's manual for details.

Connect to the Internet

The installation image enables the dhcpcd daemon for wired network devices on boot. The connection may be verified with ping:

# ping archlinux.org

If no connection is available, stop the dhcpcd service with systemctl stop dhcpcd@interface where the interface name can be tab-completed. Proceed to configure the network as described in Network configuration.

Update the system clock

Use timedatectl(1) to ensure the system clock is accurate:

# timedatectl set-ntp true

To check the service status, use timedatectl status.

Partition the disks

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

# fdisk -l

Results ending in rom, loop or airoot may be ignored.

The following partitions are required for a chosen device:

Note: Swap space can be set on a separate partition or a swap file.

To modify partition tables, use fdisk or parted.

# fdisk /dev/sda

See Partitioning for more information.

Note: If you want to create any stacked block devices for LVM, disk encryption or RAID, do it now.

Format the partitions

Once the partitions have been created, each must be formatted with an appropriate file system. For example, to format the root partition on /dev/sda1 with ext4, run:

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

If you created a partition for swap (for example /dev/sda3), initialize it with mkswap:

# mkswap /dev/sda3
# swapon /dev/sda3

See File systems#Create a file system for details.

Mount the file systems

Mount the file system on the root partition to /mnt, for example:

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Create mount points for any remaining partitions and mount them accordingly:

# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot

genfstab will later detect mounted file systems and swap space.

Installation

Select the mirrors

Packages to be installed must be downloaded from mirror servers, which are defined in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. On the live system, all mirrors are enabled, and sorted by their synchronization status and speed at the time the installation image was created.

The higher a mirror is placed in the list, the more priority it is given when downloading a package. You may want to edit the file accordingly, and move the geographically closest mirrors to the top of the list, although other criteria should be taken into account.

This file will later be copied to the new system by pacstrap, so it is worth getting right.

Install the base packages

Use the pacstrap script to install the base package group:

# pacstrap /mnt base

This group does not include all tools from the live installation, such as btrfs-progs or specific wireless firmware; see packages.x86_64 for comparison.

To install packages and other groups such as base-devel, append the names to pacstrap (space separated) or to individual pacman commands after the #Chroot step.

Configure the system

Fstab

Generate an fstab file (use -U or -L to define by UUID or labels, respectively):

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

Check the resulting file in /mnt/etc/fstab afterwards, and edit it in case of errors.

Chroot

Change root into the new system:

# arch-chroot /mnt

Time zone

Set the time zone:

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Run hwclock(8) to generate /etc/adjtime:

# hwclock --systohc

This command assumes the hardware clock is set to UTC. See System time#Time standard for details.

Localization

Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed locales in /etc/locale.gen, and generate them with:

# locale-gen

Set the LANG variable in locale.conf(5) accordingly, for example:

/etc/locale.conf
LANG=en_US.UTF-8

If you set the keyboard layout, make the changes persistent in vconsole.conf(5):

/etc/vconsole.conf
KEYMAP=de-latin1

Network configuration

Create the hostname file:

/etc/hostname
myhostname

Add matching entries to hosts(5):

/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname

If the system has a permanent IP address, it should be used instead of 127.0.1.1.

Complete the network configuration for the newly installed environment.

Initramfs

Creating a new initramfs is usually not required, because mkinitcpio was run on installation of the linux package with pacstrap.

For special configurations, modify the mkinitcpio.conf(5) file and recreate the initramfs image:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

Root password

Set the root password:

# passwd

Boot loader

A Linux-capable boot loader must be installed in order to boot Arch Linux. See Category:Boot loaders for available choices.

If you have an Intel or AMD CPU, enable microcode updates.

Reboot

Exit the chroot environment by typing exit or pressing Ctrl+D.

Optionally manually unmount all the partitions with umount -R /mnt: this allows noticing any "busy" partitions, and finding the cause with fuser(1).

Finally, restart the machine by typing reboot: any partitions still mounted will be automatically unmounted by systemd. Remember to remove the installation media and then login into the new system with the root account.

Post-installation

See General recommendations for system management directions and post-installation tutorials (like setting up a graphical user interface, sound or a touchpad).

For a list of applications that may be of interest, see List of applications.