User:Chrisl/Installing Arch Using Old Installation Media

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Note: This guide is only for installation media version 2011.08.19 and older. For more recent versions, just follow the regular Installation guide

In the past, it didn't really matter what version of the installation media was used to install Arch, as long remote repos were used, the result was an updated Arch installation.

That is still true, but several changes have occurred in Arch, including pacman4 and the systemd adoption, that may make the installation difficult using the media iso 2011.08.19 and older.

The goal of this article is to provide few additional steps to the Installation guide, in order to allow you to use an old installation media to install Arch, using the new Arch Install Scripts instead of AIF.

This is useful in situations like this:

  • Some VPS providers only provide iso files of old media versions.
  • Installation on older computers. While the 2011.08.19 i686 iso was able to boot with only 64M RAM and install Arch (activating swap), more recent versions can't.
  • Maybe an old media cd is the only media you have at hand to install Arch at any given moment.

Again, this are only additional steps. You should still follow the Installation guide.

This steps have been tested using 2010.05 and 2011.08.19 installation media CDs.

Install the Arch Install Scripts

  • Follow the guide until you get internet access.
# pacman -Sy arch-install-scripts
Note: Say no to the question about updating pacman.
  • If you are using a media older than 2011.08.19, edit both /usr/bin/pacstrap and /usr/bin/arch-chroot. Look for a line like this:
mount -t devtmpfs udev "$1/dev" -o mode=0755,nosuid &&

And change it to this: 

mount /dev "$1/dev" -o bind,mode=0755,nosuid &&

on both files.

Again, that is not necessary for 2011.08.19 media.

Install haveged

  • Continue the steps, and after you have done pacstrap /mnt base base-devel, do:
# pacstrap /mnt haveged

Edit the fstab file

  • Omit using genfstab. That script does not work on older media. You'll need to edit the /mnt/etc/fstab file by hand.

You can use the content of /etc/mtab as reference.

Fixing Pacman

Once you are inside the arch-choot /mnt:

  • If you are using an installation media older than 2011.08.19, you'll need to update pacman's database. Do it like this:
# pacman-db-upgrade

That is not necessary for 2011.08.19 media.

  • This steps will fix the Arch signatures keyring:
# /usr/sbin/haveged -w 1024 -v 1
# pacman-key --init
# pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/archlinux-keyring*
  • Do the rest of the steps normally.
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