Difference between revisions of "Beginners' guide"
(→Wireless: removed stuff that was already mentioned before. also, do not go into lspci/lsusb stuff as this is already explained in wireless setup, which has to be consulted anyway if no driver is loaded) |
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=== Establish an internet connection === | === Establish an internet connection === | ||
− | {{Warning|udev no longer assigns network interface names according to the wlanX and ethX naming scheme. If you | + | {{Warning|udev no longer assigns network interface names according to the wlanX and ethX naming scheme. If you are coming from a different distribution or are reinstalling Arch and not aware of the new interface naming style, please do not assume that your wireless interface is named wlan0, or that your wired interface is named eth0. You can use the command {{ic|ip addr show}} to discover the names of your interfaces.}} |
From systemd-197's release and onward, udev now assigns predictable, stable network interface names that deviate from the legacy incremental naming scheme (wlan0, wlan1, etc.). These interface names are guaranteed to be persistent across reboots, which solves the problem of the lack of predictability of network interface name assignment. For more information about why this was necessary, read http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames . | From systemd-197's release and onward, udev now assigns predictable, stable network interface names that deviate from the legacy incremental naming scheme (wlan0, wlan1, etc.). These interface names are guaranteed to be persistent across reboots, which solves the problem of the lack of predictability of network interface name assignment. For more information about why this was necessary, read http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames . | ||
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Follow this procedure if you need to set up a wired connection via a static IP address. | Follow this procedure if you need to set up a wired connection via a static IP address. | ||
− | First, | + | First, disable the dhcpcd service which was started automatically at boot: |
+ | |||
+ | # systemctl stop dhcpcd.service | ||
+ | |||
+ | Identify the name of your Ethernet interface. | ||
{{hc|# ip link| | {{hc|# ip link| | ||
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link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff}} | link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff}} | ||
− | In this example, the Ethernet interface is {{ic|enp2s0f0}}. If you | + | In this example, the Ethernet interface is {{ic|enp2s0f0}}. If you are unsure, your Ethernet interface is likely to start with the letter "e", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "w". You can also use {{ic|iwconfig}} and see which interfaces are not wireless: |
{{hc|# iwconfig|2= | {{hc|# iwconfig|2= | ||
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* Gateway's IP address. | * Gateway's IP address. | ||
* Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses. | * Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses. | ||
− | * Domain name (unless you | + | * Domain name (unless you are on a local LAN, in which case you can make it up). |
Activate the connected Ethernet interface (e.g. {{ic|enp2s0f0}}): | Activate the connected Ethernet interface (e.g. {{ic|enp2s0f0}}): | ||
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lo no wireless extensions.}} | lo no wireless extensions.}} | ||
− | In this example, {{ic|wlp3s0}} is the available wireless interface. If you | + | In this example, {{ic|wlp3s0}} is the available wireless interface. If you are unsure, your wireless interface is likely to start with the letter "w", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "e". |
{{Note|If you do not see output similar to this, then your wireless driver has not been loaded. If this is the case, you must load the driver yourself. Please see [[Wireless Setup]] for more detailed information.}} | {{Note|If you do not see output similar to this, then your wireless driver has not been loaded. If this is the case, you must load the driver yourself. Please see [[Wireless Setup]] for more detailed information.}} | ||
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{{Warning|Wireless chipset firmware packages (for cards which require them) are pre-installed under {{ic|/usr/lib/firmware}} in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) '''but must be explicitly installed to your actual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it!''' Package installation is covered later in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and firmware before rebooting! See [[Wireless Setup]] if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding firmware installation for your particular chipset.}} | {{Warning|Wireless chipset firmware packages (for cards which require them) are pre-installed under {{ic|/usr/lib/firmware}} in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) '''but must be explicitly installed to your actual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it!''' Package installation is covered later in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and firmware before rebooting! See [[Wireless Setup]] if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding firmware installation for your particular chipset.}} | ||
− | Next, use {{Pkg| | + | Next, use {{Pkg|netctl}}'s {{ic|wifi-menu}} to connect to a network: |
# wifi-menu wlp3s0 | # wifi-menu wlp3s0 | ||
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You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed [[Wireless Setup]] page. | You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed [[Wireless Setup]] page. | ||
− | ==== | + | ==== Analog modem, ISDN or PPoE DSL ==== |
− | + | For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | |
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==== Behind a proxy server ==== | ==== Behind a proxy server ==== | ||
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Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php GParted] is a good example, and is [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php provided as a "live" CD]. It is also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as [[Wikipedia:Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] and [[Wikipedia:Linux Mint|Linux Mint]]. A drive should first be [[partitioning|partitioned]] and the partitions should be formatted with a [[File Systems|file system]] before rebooting. | Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php GParted] is a good example, and is [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php provided as a "live" CD]. It is also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as [[Wikipedia:Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] and [[Wikipedia:Linux Mint|Linux Mint]]. A drive should first be [[partitioning|partitioned]] and the partitions should be formatted with a [[File Systems|file system]] before rebooting. | ||
− | See [[Swap]] for details if you wish to set up a swap partition or file | + | The recommendation for a system that will boot via UEFI rather than MBR legacy boot is to format the drive using a GPT partition table. This means that if the drive was previously already partitioned with an MBR (MSDOS) partition table it will now have a new partition table created which will destroy all other data on the drive. Once the new partition table has been created on a drive, only then can individual partitions be created with any chosen format type. When using Gparted, selecting the option to create a new partition table gives an "msdos" partition table by default. If you are intending to follow the advice to create a GPT partition table then you need to choose "Advanced" and then select "gpt" from the drop-down menu. This cannot be done if you have a pre-existing Windows installation on the drive which you wish not to destroy. It is therefore extremely important to not change the partition table to GPT if you intend on having a dual boot system. Leave the Windows install untouched and try to get the Linux install working with UEFI on a drive that contains an MBR (legacy) partition table. |
+ | |||
+ | In addition, some newer computers come pre-installed with Windows 8 which will be using Secure Boot. Arch Linux currently does not support Secure Boot, but some Windows 8 installations have been seen not to boot if Secure Boot is turned off in the BIOS. In some cases it is necessary to turn off both Secure Boot as well as Fastboot in the BIOS options in order to allow Windows 8 to boot without Secure Boot. However there are potential security risks in turning off Secure Boot for booting up Windows 8. Therefore, it may be a better option to keep the Windows 8 install intact and have an independent hard drive for the Linux install - which can then be partitioned from scratch using a GPT partition table. Once that is done, creating several ext4/FAT32/swap partitions on the second drive may be a better way forward if the computer has two drives available. This is often not easy or possible on a small laptop. Currently, Secure Boot is still not in a fully stable state for reliable operation, even for Linux distributions that support it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | See [[Swap]] for details if you wish to set up a swap partition or swap file. A swap file is easier to resize than a partition and can be created at any point after installation, but cannot be used with a Btrfs filesystem. | ||
If you have already done so, proceed to [[#Mount the partitions|Mount the partitions]]. | If you have already done so, proceed to [[#Mount the partitions|Mount the partitions]]. | ||
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The Arch Linux install media includes the following partitioning tools: {{ic|fdisk}}, {{ic|gdisk}}, {{ic|cfdisk}}, {{ic|cgdisk}}, {{ic|parted}}. | The Arch Linux install media includes the following partitioning tools: {{ic|fdisk}}, {{ic|gdisk}}, {{ic|cfdisk}}, {{ic|cgdisk}}, {{ic|parted}}. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Tip|Use the {{ic|lsblk}} command to list the hard disks attached to your system, along with the sizes of their existing partitions. This will help you to be confident you are partitioning the right disk.}} | ||
{{Box BLUE|Notes regarding [[UEFI]] boot:| | {{Box BLUE|Notes regarding [[UEFI]] boot:| | ||
− | * If you have a UEFI motherboard, you will need to create an extra [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface# | + | * If you have a UEFI motherboard, you will need to create an extra [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#EFI_System_Partition|UEFI System Partition]]. |
* It is recommended to always use GPT for UEFI boot, as some UEFI firmwares do not allow UEFI-MBR boot.}} | * It is recommended to always use GPT for UEFI boot, as some UEFI firmwares do not allow UEFI-MBR boot.}} | ||
{{Box BLUE|Notes regarding [[GPT]] partitioning:| | {{Box BLUE|Notes regarding [[GPT]] partitioning:| | ||
* If you are not dual booting with Windows, then it is advisable to use GPT instead of MBR. Read [[GPT]] for a list of advantages. | * If you are not dual booting with Windows, then it is advisable to use GPT instead of MBR. Read [[GPT]] for a list of advantages. | ||
− | * If you have a BIOS motherboard (or plan on booting in BIOS compatibility mode) and you want to setup GRUB on a GPT-partitioned drive, you will need to create an extra [[ | + | * If you have a BIOS motherboard (or plan on booting in BIOS compatibility mode) and you want to setup GRUB on a GPT-partitioned drive, you will need to create an extra [[GRUB#GUID Partition Table (GPT) specific instructions|BIOS Boot Partition]]. Syslinux does not need one. |
* Some BIOS systems may have issues with GPT. See http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html and http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html for more info and possible workarounds.}} | * Some BIOS systems may have issues with GPT. See http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html and http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html for more info and possible workarounds.}} | ||
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|} | |} | ||
− | If you chose MBR, here | + | If you chose MBR, here is what it should look like: |
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB) | Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB) | ||
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sda2 Primary Linux 133000* | sda2 Primary Linux 133000* | ||
− | If you chose GPT, here | + | If you chose GPT, here is what it should look like: |
Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name | Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name | ||
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Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a [[File Systems|filesystem]]. To format the partitions with an ext4 filesystem: | Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a [[File Systems|filesystem]]. To format the partitions with an ext4 filesystem: | ||
− | {{Warning|Double check and triple check that it | + | {{Warning|Double check and triple check that it is actually {{ic|/dev/sda1}} and {{ic|/dev/sda2}} that you want to format. You can use {{ic|lsblk}} to help with this.}} |
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 | # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 | ||
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 | # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 | ||
− | If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), | + | If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), do not forget to format and activate it with: |
# mkswap /dev/sda''X'' | # mkswap /dev/sda''X'' | ||
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=== Select a mirror === | === Select a mirror === | ||
− | Before installing, you may want to edit the {{ic|mirrorlist}} file and place your preferred mirror first. A copy of this file will be installed on your new system by {{ic|pacstrap}} as well, so it | + | Before installing, you may want to edit the {{ic|mirrorlist}} file and place your preferred mirror first. A copy of this file will be installed on your new system by {{ic|pacstrap}} as well, so it is worth getting it right. |
{{hc|# nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist| | {{hc|# nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist| | ||
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* {{Keypress|Ctrl+X}} to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press {{Keypress|Y}} and {{Keypress|Enter}} to use the same filename. | * {{Keypress|Ctrl+X}} to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press {{Keypress|Y}} and {{Keypress|Enter}} to use the same filename. | ||
− | If you want, you can make it the ''only'' mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using {{Keypress|Ctrl+K}}), but it | + | If you want, you can make it the ''only'' mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using {{Keypress|Ctrl+K}}), but it is usually a good idea to have a few more, in case the first one goes offline. |
{{Tip| | {{Tip| | ||
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{{Note| | {{Note| | ||
* Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always remember to force pacman to refresh all package lists with {{ic|pacman -Syy}}. This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possible headaches. See [[Mirrors]] for more information. | * Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always remember to force pacman to refresh all package lists with {{ic|pacman -Syy}}. This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possible headaches. See [[Mirrors]] for more information. | ||
− | * If you | + | * If you are using an older installation medium, your mirrorlist might be outdated, which might lead to problems when updating Arch Linux (see {{Bug|22510}}). Therefore it is advised to obtain the latest mirror information as described above. |
* Some issues have been reported in the [https://bbs.archlinux.org/ Arch Linux forums] regarding network problems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68944] and [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65728]). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved by replacing the default pacman file downloader with an alternative (see [[Improve Pacman Performance]] for more details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in [[VirtualBox]], this issue has also been addressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.}} | * Some issues have been reported in the [https://bbs.archlinux.org/ Arch Linux forums] regarding network problems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68944] and [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65728]). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved by replacing the default pacman file downloader with an alternative (see [[Improve Pacman Performance]] for more details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in [[VirtualBox]], this issue has also been addressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.}} | ||
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The base system is installed using the [https://github.com/falconindy/arch-install-scripts/blob/master/pacstrap.in pacstrap] script. | The base system is installed using the [https://github.com/falconindy/arch-install-scripts/blob/master/pacstrap.in pacstrap] script. | ||
− | The {{ic|-i}} switch can be omitted if you wish to install every package from the ''base'' | + | The {{ic|-i}} switch can be omitted if you wish to install every package from the ''base'' group without prompting. |
− | # pacstrap -i /mnt base | + | # pacstrap -i /mnt base |
{{Note|If pacman fails to verify your packages, check the system time with {{ic|cal}}. If the system date is invalid (e.g. it shows the year 2010), signing keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks on packages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either by doing so manually or with the {{Pkg|ntp}} client, and retry running the pacstrap command. Refer to [[Time]] page for more information on correcting system time.}} | {{Note|If pacman fails to verify your packages, check the system time with {{ic|cal}}. If the system date is invalid (e.g. it shows the year 2010), signing keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks on packages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either by doing so manually or with the {{Pkg|ntp}} client, and retry running the pacstrap command. Refer to [[Time]] page for more information on correcting system time.}} | ||
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# pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archlinux | # pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archlinux | ||
}} | }} | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using [[pacman]]. | This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using [[pacman]]. | ||
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Generate an [[fstab]] file with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages (see [[fstab#Identifying filesystems]]). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the {{ic|-U}} option with {{ic|-L}}. | Generate an [[fstab]] file with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages (see [[fstab#Identifying filesystems]]). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the {{ic|-U}} option with {{ic|-L}}. | ||
− | |||
− | |||
# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab | # genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab | ||
# nano /mnt/etc/fstab | # nano /mnt/etc/fstab | ||
− | {{Warning|The fstab file should always be checked after generating it. If you | + | {{Warning|The fstab file should always be checked after generating it. If you encounter errors running genfstab or later in the install process, do '''not''' run genfstab again; just edit the fstab file.}} |
A few considerations: | A few considerations: | ||
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This will run on every '''glibc''' upgrade, generating all the locales specified in {{ic|/etc/locale.gen}}. | This will run on every '''glibc''' upgrade, generating all the locales specified in {{ic|/etc/locale.gen}}. | ||
− | * The {{ic|locale.conf}} file | + | * The {{ic|locale.conf}} file does not exist by default. Setting only {{ic|LANG}} should be enough. It will act as the default value for all other variables. |
# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf | # echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf | ||
# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8 | # export LANG=en_US.UTF-8 | ||
− | {{Note|If you set some other language than English at the beginning of the install, the above commands would be something like: | + | {{Note|If you set some other language than English (US) at the beginning of the install, the above commands would be something like: |
# echo LANG<nowiki>=</nowiki>de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf | # echo LANG<nowiki>=</nowiki>de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf | ||
# export LANG<nowiki>=</nowiki>de_DE.UTF-8 | # export LANG<nowiki>=</nowiki>de_DE.UTF-8 | ||
}} | }} | ||
− | To use other {{ic|LC_*}} variables, | + | To use other locales for other {{ic|LC_*}} variables, run {{ic|locale}} to see the available options and add them to {{ic|locale.conf}}. It is not recommended to set the {{ic|LC_ALL}} variable. An advanced example can be found [[Locale#Setting_system-wide_locale|here]]. |
− | |||
− | |||
==== Console font and keymap ==== | ==== Console font and keymap ==== | ||
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* {{ic|KEYMAP}} – Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or Xorg. | * {{ic|KEYMAP}} – Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or Xorg. | ||
− | * {{ic|FONT}} – Available alternate console fonts reside in {{ic|/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/}}. The default (blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It | + | * {{ic|FONT}} – Available alternate console fonts reside in {{ic|/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/}}. The default (blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It is recommended that you change it to {{ic|Lat2-Terminus16}}, because according to {{ic|/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/README.Lat2-Terminus16}}, it claims to support "about 110 language sets". |
* Possible option {{ic|FONT_MAP}} – Defines the console map to load at boot. Read {{ic|man setfont}}. Removing it or leaving it blank is safe. | * Possible option {{ic|FONT_MAP}} – Defines the console map to load at boot. Read {{ic|man setfont}}. Removing it or leaving it blank is safe. | ||
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* Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick [[Time#UTC in Windows|registry fix]] is needed. Also, be sure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will default back to ''localtime''. | * Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick [[Time#UTC in Windows|registry fix]] is needed. Also, be sure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will default back to ''localtime''. | ||
− | * Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to ''localtime'' and disable any time-related services, like [[Network Time Protocol daemon|NTPd]] . This will let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to remember to boot into Windows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when [[Wikipedia:Daylight saving time|DST]] kicks in. So please | + | * Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to ''localtime'' and disable any time-related services, like [[Network Time Protocol daemon|NTPd]] . This will let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to remember to boot into Windows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when [[Wikipedia:Daylight saving time|DST]] kicks in. So please do not ask on the forums why the clock is one hour behind or ahead if you usually go for days or weeks without booting into Windows. |
==== Kernel modules ==== | ==== Kernel modules ==== | ||
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==== Wired ==== | ==== Wired ==== | ||
− | + | {{Warning|A bug has been noted in the install ISO, in which the name your interface has during installation differs from the one it will have upon reboot. See {{Bug|33923}} for more details.<br/> | |
− | {{ | + | Use the command {{ic|ip link}} (shows interface names) after rebooting into your installed system to find out if you are affected by this. If so, you will have to redo the configuration described below with the correct interface name.}} |
− | + | ===== Dynamic IP ===== | |
+ | |||
+ | ; Using dhcpcd | ||
If you only use a single fixed wired network connection, you do not need a network management service and can simply enable the {{ic|dhcpcd}} service. Here, {{ic|''interface_name''}} is your wired interface: | If you only use a single fixed wired network connection, you do not need a network management service and can simply enable the {{ic|dhcpcd}} service. Here, {{ic|''interface_name''}} is your wired interface: | ||
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# systemctl enable dhcpcd@''interface_name''.service | # systemctl enable dhcpcd@''interface_name''.service | ||
− | + | ; Using netctl | |
− | + | Copy a sample profile from {{ic|/etc/netctl/examples}} to {{ic|/etc/netctl/}}: | |
− | + | # cd /etc/netctl | |
+ | # cp examples/ethernet-dhcp . | ||
− | + | Edit the profile as needed (modify {{ic|Interface}}): | |
− | # | + | # nano ethernet-dhcp |
+ | |||
+ | Enable the {{ic|ethernet-dhcp}} profile: | ||
− | + | # netctl enable ethernet-dhcp | |
− | + | ; Using netctl-ifplugd | |
− | |||
− | + | Alternatively, you can use {{Pkg|netctl}}'s {{ic|netctl-ifplugd}}, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks: | |
− | + | Install {{Pkg|ifplugd}}, which is required for {{ic|netctl-ifplugd}}: | |
− | |||
− | + | # pacman -S ifplugd | |
− | + | Then enable for interface that you want: | |
− | + | # systemctl enable netctl-ifplugd@<interface>.service | |
− | + | ===== Static IP ===== | |
− | ; | + | ; Using netctl |
− | Copy a sample profile from {{ic|/etc/ | + | Copy a sample profile from {{ic|/etc/netctl/examples}} to {{ic|/etc/netctl/}}: |
− | # cd /etc/ | + | # cd /etc/netctl |
# cp examples/ethernet-static . | # cp examples/ethernet-static . | ||
− | Edit the profile as needed (modify {{ic| | + | Edit the profile as needed (modify {{ic|Interface}}, {{ic|Address}}, {{ic|Gateway}} and {{ic|DNS}}): |
# nano ethernet-static | # nano ethernet-static | ||
− | + | Then enable above created profile: | |
− | + | # netctl enable ethernet-static | |
− | |||
− | + | ==== Wireless ==== | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | {{Out of date|netcfg is no longer in the official repositories. The following section needs to be changed to use {{pkg|netctl}} instead.}} | |
You will need to install additional programs to be able to configure and manage wireless network profiles for [[netcfg]]. | You will need to install additional programs to be able to configure and manage wireless network profiles for [[netcfg]]. | ||
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# wifi-menu ''interface_name'' | # wifi-menu ''interface_name'' | ||
− | {{Warning|If you | + | {{Warning|If you are using {{ic|wifi-menu}}, this must be done *after* your reboot when you are no longer chrooted. The process spawned by this command will conflict with the one you have running outside of the chroot. Alternatively, you could just configure a network profile manually using the templates previously mentioned so that you do not have to worry about using {{ic|wifi-menu}} at all.}} |
* Enable the {{ic|net-auto-wireless}} service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects: | * Enable the {{ic|net-auto-wireless}} service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects: | ||
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{{Note|[[Netcfg]] also provides {{ic|net-auto-wired}}, which can be used in conjunction with {{ic|net-auto-wireless}}.}} | {{Note|[[Netcfg]] also provides {{ic|net-auto-wired}}, which can be used in conjunction with {{ic|net-auto-wireless}}.}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Note|Wpasupplicant could be fail with message "WPA Authentication/Association Failed". In that case, see this [https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=155273 link] for a solution.}} | ||
* Make sure that the correct wireless interface (e.g. {{ic|wlp3s0}}) is set in {{ic|/etc/conf.d/netcfg}}: | * Make sure that the correct wireless interface (e.g. {{ic|wlp3s0}}) is set in {{ic|/etc/conf.d/netcfg}}: | ||
Line 633: | Line 617: | ||
It is also possible to define a list of network profiles that should be automatically connected, using the {{ic|AUTO_PROFILES}} variable in {{ic|/etc/conf.d/netcfg}}. If {{ic|AUTO_PROFILES}} is not set, all known wireless networks will be tried. | It is also possible to define a list of network profiles that should be automatically connected, using the {{ic|AUTO_PROFILES}} variable in {{ic|/etc/conf.d/netcfg}}. If {{ic|AUTO_PROFILES}} is not set, all known wireless networks will be tried. | ||
− | ==== | + | ==== Analog modem, ISDN or PPoE DSL ==== |
For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | ||
Line 696: | Line 680: | ||
{{Note|Change {{ic|/dev/sda}} to reflect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do not use {{ic|sda''X''}}).}} | {{Note|Change {{ic|/dev/sda}} to reflect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do not use {{ic|sda''X''}}).}} | ||
− | {{Note|For GPT-partitioned drives on BIOS motherboards, GRUB needs a "[[ | + | {{Note|For GPT-partitioned drives on BIOS motherboards, GRUB needs a "[[GRUB#GUID Partition Table (GPT) specific instructions|BIOS Boot Partition]]".}} |
# pacman -S grub-bios | # pacman -S grub-bios | ||
Line 702: | Line 686: | ||
# cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo | # cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo | ||
− | While using a manually created {{ic|grub.cfg}} is absolutely fine, it | + | While using a manually created {{ic|grub.cfg}} is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one: |
{{Tip|To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install {{Pkg|os-prober}} ({{ic|pacman -S os-prober}}) before running the next command.}} | {{Tip|To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install {{Pkg|os-prober}} ({{ic|pacman -S os-prober}}) before running the next command.}} | ||
Line 708: | Line 692: | ||
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg | # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg | ||
− | For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see [[ | + | For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see [[GRUB]]. |
==== For UEFI motherboards ==== | ==== For UEFI motherboards ==== | ||
− | For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned, and a UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or | + | For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned, and a UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or larger, type {{ic|EF00}}, formatted with FAT32) must be present and mounted on {{ic|/boot/efi}}. If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these. |
While there are other [[UEFI Bootloaders|UEFI bootloaders]] available, using EFISTUB is recommended. Below are instructions for setting up EFISTUB and GRUB (of course you choose only one of them). | While there are other [[UEFI Bootloaders|UEFI bootloaders]] available, using EFISTUB is recommended. Below are instructions for setting up EFISTUB and GRUB (of course you choose only one of them). | ||
Line 720: | Line 704: | ||
===== EFISTUB ===== | ===== EFISTUB ===== | ||
− | The Linux kernel can act as its own bootloader using EFISTUB. This is the UEFI boot method recommended by developers and simpler compared to {{ic|grub-efi-x86_64}}. The steps below set up rEFInd | + | The Linux kernel can act as its own bootloader using EFISTUB. This is the UEFI boot method recommended by developers and simpler compared to {{ic|grub-efi-x86_64}}. The steps below set up rEFInd to provide a menu for EFISTUB kernels, as well as for booting other UEFI bootloaders. Alternative EFISTUB boot managers can be found on the page [[UEFI Bootloaders#Booting EFISTUB]]. Both rEFInd and [[gummiboot]] can detect Windows UEFI bootloaders in case of dual-boot. |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | 1. Mount the UEFI System Partition on {{ic|/mnt/boot/efi}} and chroot back into {{ic|/mnt}}. | |
− | + | 2. [[UEFI Bootloaders#Setting up EFISTUB|Copy the kernel and initramfs files]] to {{ic|/mnt/boot/efi}}: | |
− | + | # mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/arch/ | |
+ | # cp /boot/vmlinu'''z'''-linux /boot/efi/EFI/arch/vmlinuz-arch'''.efi''' | ||
+ | # cp /boot/initramfs-linux.img /boot/efi/EFI/arch/initramfs-arch.img | ||
+ | # cp /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img /boot/efi/EFI/arch/initramfs-arch-fallback.img | ||
− | + | Every time the kernel and initramfs files are updated in {{ic|/boot}}, they need to be updated in {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch}}. This can be automated [[UEFI Bootloaders#Systemd|using systemd]]. | |
− | + | 3. For the rEFInd boot manager, install {{Pkg|refind-efi}} and {{Pkg|efibootmgr}}: | |
− | |||
− | |||
# pacman -S refind-efi efibootmgr | # pacman -S refind-efi efibootmgr | ||
− | 4. Install rEFInd to the | + | 4. Install rEFInd to the UEFI System Partition (summarized from [[UEFI Bootloaders#Using rEFInd]]): |
# mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/refind | # mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/refind | ||
Line 755: | Line 734: | ||
"Boot to console" "root=/dev/sdaX ro rootfstype=ext4 systemd.unit=multi-user.target"}} | "Boot to console" "root=/dev/sdaX ro rootfstype=ext4 systemd.unit=multi-user.target"}} | ||
− | {{Note|{{ic|refind_linux.conf}} is copied in the directory {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch/}} where the initramfs and the kernel have been copied to in step 2. }} | + | {{Note|{{ic|refind_linux.conf}} is copied in the directory {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch/}} where the initramfs and the kernel have been copied to in step 2.}} |
− | {{Note|In {{ic|refind_linux.conf}}, sdaX refers to your root file system, not your boot partition, if you created them separately. }} | + | {{Note|In {{ic|refind_linux.conf}}, sdaX refers to your root file system, not your boot partition, if you created them separately.}} |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | 6. Add rEFInd to UEFI boot menu using [[UEFI#efibootmgr|efibootmgr]]. Replace X and Y with the drive and partition of the UEFI System Partition. For example, in {{ic|/dev/sdc5}}, X is "c" and Y is "5". | |
− | + | {{Warning|Using {{ic|efibootmgr}} on Apple Macs may brick the firmware and may need reflash of the motherboard ROM. For Macs, use {{AUR|mactel-boot}}, or "bless" from within OS X.}} | |
− | + | # efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdX -p Y -w -L "rEFInd" -l '\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi' | |
− | + | {{Note|On some systems, the above command will not work properly. It will execute without any visible error, but the UEFI boot menu will not have been correctly updated with a new entry. To determine whether the command executed properly, run {{ic|efibootmgr}} without any arguments and see if a new entry has appeared in the list displayed. If there is no new entry, then it will not be possible to enter rEFInd upon reboot, as the UEFI boot menu has been left unchanged. In this case, you will instead have to enter the UEFI shell and manually add an entry to the UEFI boot menu with the {{ic|bcfg}} command, as described [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#bcfg|here]].}} | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
===== GRUB ===== | ===== GRUB ===== | ||
− | {{Note|In case you have a system with 32-bit EFI, like pre-2008 Macs, install {{ic|grub-efi-i386}} instead | + | {{Note|In case you have a system with 32-bit EFI, like pre-2008 Apple Macs, install {{ic|grub-efi-i386}} instead of {{ic|grub-efi-x86_64}}.}} |
# pacman -S grub-efi-x86_64 efibootmgr | # pacman -S grub-efi-x86_64 efibootmgr | ||
− | # grub-install | + | # grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck |
# cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo | # cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo | ||
− | + | Next, while using a manually created {{ic|grub.cfg}} is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one: | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | Next, while using a manually created {{ic|grub.cfg}} is absolutely fine, it | ||
{{Tip|To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install {{Pkg|os-prober}} ({{ic|pacman -S os-prober}}) before running the next command.}} | {{Tip|To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install {{Pkg|os-prober}} ({{ic|pacman -S os-prober}}) before running the next command.}} | ||
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg | # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Note|{{ic|grub-install}} should create a new entry in the UEFI boot menu. If it does not, you will instead have to enter the UEFI shell and manually add an entry to the UEFI boot menu with the {{ic|bcfg}} command, as described [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#bcfg|here]].}} | ||
For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see [[GRUB]]. | For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see [[GRUB]]. |
Revision as of 08:15, 5 May 2013
zh-CN:Beginners' Guide/Installation zh-TW:Beginners' Guide/Installation
Contents
- 1 Installation
- 1.1 Change the language
- 1.2 Establish an internet connection
- 1.3 Prepare the storage drive
- 1.4 Mount the partitions
- 1.5 Select a mirror
- 1.6 Install the base system
- 1.7 Generate an fstab
- 1.8 Chroot and configure the base system
- 1.9 Configure the network
- 1.10 Create an initial ramdisk environment
- 1.11 Set the root password
- 1.12 Install and configure a bootloader
- 1.13 Unmount the partitions and reboot
Installation
You are now presented with a shell prompt, automatically logged in as root.
Change the language
By default, the keyboard layout is set to us
. If you have a non-US keyboard layout, run:
# loadkeys layout
...where layout can be fr
, uk
, be-latin1
, etc. See here for a comprehensive list.
The font should also be changed, because most languages use more glyphs than the 26 letter English alphabet. Otherwise some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. Note that the name is case-sensitive, so please type it exactly as you see it:
# setfont Lat2-Terminus16
By default, the language is set to English (US). If you would like to change the language for the install process (German, in this example), remove the #
in front of the locale you want from /etc/locale.gen
, along with English (US). Please choose the UTF-8
entry.
Use Template:Keypress to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press Template:Keypress and Template:Keypress to use the same filename.
# nano /etc/locale.gen
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
# locale-gen # export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
Remember, Template:Keypress activates and deactivates the keymap.
Establish an internet connection
ip addr show
to discover the names of your interfaces.From systemd-197's release and onward, udev now assigns predictable, stable network interface names that deviate from the legacy incremental naming scheme (wlan0, wlan1, etc.). These interface names are guaranteed to be persistent across reboots, which solves the problem of the lack of predictability of network interface name assignment. For more information about why this was necessary, read http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames .
The dhcpcd
network daemon is started automatically at boot and it will attempt to start a wired connection, if available. Try pinging a website to see if it was successful. And since Google is always on...
# ping -c 3 www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (74.125.132.105) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105): icmp_req=1 ttl=50 time=17.0 ms 64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105): icmp_req=2 ttl=50 time=18.2 ms 64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105): icmp_req=3 ttl=50 time=16.6 ms --- www.l.google.com ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.660/17.320/18.254/0.678 ms
If you get a ping: unknown host
error, first check if there is any problem with your cable (or if you have enough wireless signal), otherwise you will need to set up the network manually, as explained below.
Otherwise, move on to Prepare the storage drive.
Wired
Follow this procedure if you need to set up a wired connection via a static IP address.
First, disable the dhcpcd service which was started automatically at boot:
# systemctl stop dhcpcd.service
Identify the name of your Ethernet interface.
# ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp2s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 1000 link/ether 00:11:25:31:69:20 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT qlen 1000 link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
In this example, the Ethernet interface is enp2s0f0
. If you are unsure, your Ethernet interface is likely to start with the letter "e", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "w". You can also use iwconfig
and see which interfaces are not wireless:
# iwconfig
enp2s0f0 no wireless extensions. wlp3s0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"NETGEAR97" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: 2C:B0:5D:9C:72:BF Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:430 Missed beacon:0 lo no wireless extensions.
In this example, neither enp2s0f0
nor the loopback device have wireless extensions, meaning enp2s0f0
is our Ethernet interface.
You also need to know these settings:
- Static IP address.
- Subnet mask.
- Gateway's IP address.
- Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses.
- Domain name (unless you are on a local LAN, in which case you can make it up).
Activate the connected Ethernet interface (e.g. enp2s0f0
):
# ip link set enp2s0f0 up
Add the address:
# ip addr add ip_address/subnetmask dev interface_name
For example:
# ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev enp2s0f0
For more options, run man ip
.
Add your gateway like this, substituting your own gateway's IP address:
# ip route add default via ip_address
For example:
# ip route add default via 192.168.1.1
Edit resolv.conf
, substituting your name servers' IP addresses and your local domain name:
# nano /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 61.23.173.5 nameserver 61.95.849.8 search example.com
nameserver
lines.You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Network Configuration page.
Wireless
Follow this procedure if you need wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) during the installation process.
First, identify the name of your wireless interface.
# iwconfig
enp2s0f0 no wireless extensions. wlp3s0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"NETGEAR97" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: 2C:B0:5D:9C:72:BF Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:430 Missed beacon:0 lo no wireless extensions.
In this example, wlp3s0
is the available wireless interface. If you are unsure, your wireless interface is likely to start with the letter "w", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "e".
Bring the interface up with:
# ip link set wlp3s0 up
A small percentage of wireless chipsets also require firmware, in addition to a corresponding driver. If the wireless chipset requires firmware, you are likely to receive this error when bringing the interface up:
# ip link set wlp3s0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
If unsure, invoke dmesg
to query the kernel log for a firmware request from the wireless chipset.
Example output from an Intel chipset which requires and has requested firmware from the kernel at boot:
# dmesg | grep firmware
firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode
If there is no output, it may be concluded that the system's wireless chipset does not require firmware.
/usr/lib/firmware
in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) but must be explicitly installed to your actual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it! Package installation is covered later in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and firmware before rebooting! See Wireless Setup if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding firmware installation for your particular chipset.Next, use netctl's wifi-menu
to connect to a network:
# wifi-menu wlp3s0
You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Wireless Setup page.
Analog modem, ISDN or PPoE DSL
For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection.
Behind a proxy server
If you are behind a proxy server, you will need to export the http_proxy
and ftp_proxy
environment variables. See Proxy settings for more information.
Prepare the storage drive
Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. GParted is a good example, and is provided as a "live" CD. It is also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. A drive should first be partitioned and the partitions should be formatted with a file system before rebooting.
The recommendation for a system that will boot via UEFI rather than MBR legacy boot is to format the drive using a GPT partition table. This means that if the drive was previously already partitioned with an MBR (MSDOS) partition table it will now have a new partition table created which will destroy all other data on the drive. Once the new partition table has been created on a drive, only then can individual partitions be created with any chosen format type. When using Gparted, selecting the option to create a new partition table gives an "msdos" partition table by default. If you are intending to follow the advice to create a GPT partition table then you need to choose "Advanced" and then select "gpt" from the drop-down menu. This cannot be done if you have a pre-existing Windows installation on the drive which you wish not to destroy. It is therefore extremely important to not change the partition table to GPT if you intend on having a dual boot system. Leave the Windows install untouched and try to get the Linux install working with UEFI on a drive that contains an MBR (legacy) partition table.
In addition, some newer computers come pre-installed with Windows 8 which will be using Secure Boot. Arch Linux currently does not support Secure Boot, but some Windows 8 installations have been seen not to boot if Secure Boot is turned off in the BIOS. In some cases it is necessary to turn off both Secure Boot as well as Fastboot in the BIOS options in order to allow Windows 8 to boot without Secure Boot. However there are potential security risks in turning off Secure Boot for booting up Windows 8. Therefore, it may be a better option to keep the Windows 8 install intact and have an independent hard drive for the Linux install - which can then be partitioned from scratch using a GPT partition table. Once that is done, creating several ext4/FAT32/swap partitions on the second drive may be a better way forward if the computer has two drives available. This is often not easy or possible on a small laptop. Currently, Secure Boot is still not in a fully stable state for reliable operation, even for Linux distributions that support it.
See Swap for details if you wish to set up a swap partition or swap file. A swap file is easier to resize than a partition and can be created at any point after installation, but cannot be used with a Btrfs filesystem.
If you have already done so, proceed to Mount the partitions.
Otherwise, see the following example.
Example
The Arch Linux install media includes the following partitioning tools: fdisk
, gdisk
, cfdisk
, cgdisk
, parted
.
lsblk
command to list the hard disks attached to your system, along with the sizes of their existing partitions. This will help you to be confident you are partitioning the right disk.The example system will contain a 15 GB root partition, and a home partition for the remaining space. Choose either MBR or GPT. Do not choose both!
It should be emphasized that partitioning is a personal choice and that this example is only for illustrative purposes. See Partitioning.
MBR | cfdisk /dev/sda
|
Root:
|
Home:
| ||
GPT | cgdisk /dev/sda
|
Root:
|
Home:
|
If you chose MBR, here is what it should look like:
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- sda1 Boot Primary Linux 15360 sda2 Primary Linux 133000*
If you chose GPT, here is what it should look like:
Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1007.0 KiB free space 1 15.0 GiB Linux filesystem 2 123.45 GiB Linux filesystem
Double check and make sure that you are happy with the partition sizes as well as the partition table layout before continuing.
If you would like to start over, you can simply select Quit (or press Template:Keypress) to exit without saving changes and then restart cfdisk (or cgdisk).
If you are satisfied, choose Write (or press Template:Keypress) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type "yes" and choose Quit (or press Template:Keypress) to exit without making any more changes.
Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a filesystem. To format the partitions with an ext4 filesystem:
/dev/sda1
and /dev/sda2
that you want to format. You can use lsblk
to help with this.# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), do not forget to format and activate it with:
# mkswap /dev/sdaX # swapon /dev/sdaX
Mount the partitions
Each partition is identified with a number suffix. For example, sda1
specifies the first partition of the first drive, while sda
designates the entire drive.
To display the current partition layout:
# lsblk /dev/sda
First, mount the root partition on /mnt
. Following the example when using cfdisk
above (yours may be different), it would be:
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
Then mount the home partition and any other separate partition (/boot
, /var
, etc), if you have any:
# mkdir /mnt/home # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home
In case you have a UEFI motherboard, mount the UEFI partition:
# mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi # mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/boot/efi
Select a mirror
Before installing, you may want to edit the mirrorlist
file and place your preferred mirror first. A copy of this file will be installed on your new system by pacstrap
as well, so it is worth getting it right.
# nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
## ## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist ## Sorted by mirror score from mirror status page ## Generated on 2012-MM-DD ## Server = http://mirror.example.xyz/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ...
- Template:Keypress to copy a
Server
line. - Template:Keypress key to scroll up.
- Template:Keypress to paste it at the top of the list.
- Template:Keypress to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press Template:Keypress and Template:Keypress to use the same filename.
If you want, you can make it the only mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using Template:Keypress), but it is usually a good idea to have a few more, in case the first one goes offline.
- Use the Mirrorlist Generator to get an updated list for your country. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP, because of something called keepalive. With FTP, pacman has to send out a signal each time it downloads a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways to generate a mirror list, see Sorting mirrors and Reflector.
- Arch Linux MirrorStatus reports various aspects about the mirrors such as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have been synced, etc.
- Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always remember to force pacman to refresh all package lists with
pacman -Syy
. This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possible headaches. See Mirrors for more information. - If you are using an older installation medium, your mirrorlist might be outdated, which might lead to problems when updating Arch Linux (see FS#22510). Therefore it is advised to obtain the latest mirror information as described above.
- Some issues have been reported in the Arch Linux forums regarding network problems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [1] and [2]). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved by replacing the default pacman file downloader with an alternative (see Improve Pacman Performance for more details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in VirtualBox, this issue has also been addressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.
Install the base system
The base system is installed using the pacstrap script.
The -i
switch can be omitted if you wish to install every package from the base group without prompting.
# pacstrap -i /mnt base
cal
. If the system date is invalid (e.g. it shows the year 2010), signing keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks on packages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either by doing so manually or with the ntp client, and retry running the pacstrap command. Refer to Time page for more information on correcting system time.error: failed to commit transaction (invalid or corrupted package)
, run the following command:
# pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archlinux
This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using pacman.
Generate an fstab
Generate an fstab file with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages (see fstab#Identifying filesystems). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the -U
option with -L
.
# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab # nano /mnt/etc/fstab
A few considerations:
- Only the root (
/
) partition needs1
for the last field. Everything else should have either2
or0
(see fstab#Field definitions).
Chroot and configure the base system
Next, we chroot into our newly installed system:
# arch-chroot /mnt
arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
to chroot into a bash shell.At this stage of the installation, you will configure the primary configuration files of your Arch Linux base system. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults.
Closely following and understanding these steps is of key importance to ensure a properly configured system.
Locale
Locales are used by glibc and other locale-aware programs or libraries for rendering text, correctly displaying regional monetary values, time and date formats, alphabetic idiosyncrasies, and other locale-specific standards.
There are two files that need editing: locale.gen
and locale.conf
.
- The
locale.gen
file is empty by default (everything is commented out) and you need to remove the#
in front of the line(s) you want. You may uncomment more lines than just English (US), as long as you choose theirUTF-8
encoding:
# nano /etc/locale.gen
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
# locale-gen
This will run on every glibc upgrade, generating all the locales specified in /etc/locale.gen
.
- The
locale.conf
file does not exist by default. Setting onlyLANG
should be enough. It will act as the default value for all other variables.
# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
# echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
To use other locales for other LC_*
variables, run locale
to see the available options and add them to locale.conf
. It is not recommended to set the LC_ALL
variable. An advanced example can be found here.
Console font and keymap
If you set a keymap at the beginning of the install process, load it now, as well, because the environment has changed. For example:
# loadkeys de-latin1 # setfont Lat2-Terminus16
To make them available after reboot, edit vconsole.conf
:
# nano /etc/vconsole.conf
KEYMAP=de-latin1 FONT=Lat2-Terminus16
-
KEYMAP
– Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or Xorg.
-
FONT
– Available alternate console fonts reside in/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/
. The default (blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It is recommended that you change it toLat2-Terminus16
, because according to/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/README.Lat2-Terminus16
, it claims to support "about 110 language sets".
- Possible option
FONT_MAP
– Defines the console map to load at boot. Readman setfont
. Removing it or leaving it blank is safe.
See Console fonts and man vconsole.conf
for more information.
Time zone
Available time zones and subzones can be found in the /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone>
directories.
To view the available <Zone>, check the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo/
:
# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
Similarly, you can check the contents of directories belonging to a <SubZone>:
# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe
Create a symbolic link /etc/localtime
to your zone file /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone>
using this command:
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone> /etc/localtime
Example:
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Minsk /etc/localtime
Hardware clock
Set the hardware clock mode uniformly between your operating systems. Otherwise, they may overwrite the hardware clock and cause time shifts.
You can generate /etc/adjtime
automatically by using one of the following commands:
- UTC (recommended)
- Note: Using UTC for the hardware clock does not mean that software will display time in UTC.
-
# hwclock --systohc --utc
To synchronize your "UTC" time over the internet, see NTPd.
- localtime (discouraged; used by default in Windows)
- Warning: Using localtime may lead to several known and unfixable bugs. However, there are no plans to drop support for localtime.
-
# hwclock --systohc --localtime
If you have (or planning on having) a dual boot setup with Windows:
- Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick registry fix is needed. Also, be sure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will default back to localtime.
- Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to localtime and disable any time-related services, like NTPd . This will let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to remember to boot into Windows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when DST kicks in. So please do not ask on the forums why the clock is one hour behind or ahead if you usually go for days or weeks without booting into Windows.
Kernel modules
For kernel modules to load during boot, place a *.conf
file in /etc/modules-load.d/
, with a name based on the program that uses them.
# nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-net.conf
# Load 'virtio-net.ko' at boot. virtio-net
If there are more modules to load per *.conf
, the module names can be separated by newlines. A good example are the VirtualBox Guest Additions.
Empty lines and lines starting with #
or ;
are ignored.
Hostname
Set the hostname to your liking (e.g. arch):
# echo myhostname > /etc/hostname
/etc/hosts
.Configure the network
You need to configure the network again, but this time for your newly installed environment. The procedure and prerequisites are very similar to the one described above, except we are going to make it persistent and automatically run at boot.
Wired
Use the command
ip link
(shows interface names) after rebooting into your installed system to find out if you are affected by this. If so, you will have to redo the configuration described below with the correct interface name.Dynamic IP
- Using dhcpcd
If you only use a single fixed wired network connection, you do not need a network management service and can simply enable the dhcpcd
service. Here, interface_name
is your wired interface:
# systemctl enable dhcpcd@interface_name.service
- Using netctl
Copy a sample profile from /etc/netctl/examples
to /etc/netctl/
:
# cd /etc/netctl # cp examples/ethernet-dhcp .
Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface
):
# nano ethernet-dhcp
Enable the ethernet-dhcp
profile:
# netctl enable ethernet-dhcp
- Using netctl-ifplugd
Alternatively, you can use netctl's netctl-ifplugd
, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks:
Install ifplugd, which is required for netctl-ifplugd
:
# pacman -S ifplugd
Then enable for interface that you want:
# systemctl enable netctl-ifplugd@<interface>.service
Static IP
- Using netctl
Copy a sample profile from /etc/netctl/examples
to /etc/netctl/
:
# cd /etc/netctl # cp examples/ethernet-static .
Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface
, Address
, Gateway
and DNS
):
# nano ethernet-static
Then enable above created profile:
# netctl enable ethernet-static
Wireless
You will need to install additional programs to be able to configure and manage wireless network profiles for netcfg.
NetworkManager and Wicd are other popular alternatives.
- Install the required packages:
# pacman -S wireless_tools wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond dialog
If your wireless adapter requires a firmware (as described in the above Establish an internet connection section and also here), install the package containing your firmware. For example:
# pacman -S zd1211-firmware
See Wireless Setup and WPA supplicant for more info.
- After finishing the rest of this installation and rebooting, you can connect to the network with
wifi-menu interface_name
(whereinterface_name
is the interface of your wireless chipset), which will generate a profile file in/etc/network.d
named after the SSID. There are also templates available in/etc/network.d/examples/
for manual configuration.
# wifi-menu interface_name
wifi-menu
, this must be done *after* your reboot when you are no longer chrooted. The process spawned by this command will conflict with the one you have running outside of the chroot. Alternatively, you could just configure a network profile manually using the templates previously mentioned so that you do not have to worry about using wifi-menu
at all.- Enable the
net-auto-wireless
service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects:
# systemctl enable net-auto-wireless.service
wireless-wpa-config
profiles do not work with net-auto-wireless
. Convert them to wireless-wpa-configsection
or wireless-wpa
instead.- Make sure that the correct wireless interface (e.g.
wlp3s0
) is set in/etc/conf.d/netcfg
:
# nano /etc/conf.d/netcfg
WIRELESS_INTERFACE="wlp3s0"
It is also possible to define a list of network profiles that should be automatically connected, using the AUTO_PROFILES
variable in /etc/conf.d/netcfg
. If AUTO_PROFILES
is not set, all known wireless networks will be tried.
Analog modem, ISDN or PPoE DSL
For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection.
Create an initial ramdisk environment
mkinitcpio.conf
. The initramfs image (from the /boot
folder) has already been generated based on this file when the linux package (the Linux kernel) was installed earlier with pacstrap
.Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr
is on a separate partition.
Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:
# mkinitcpio -p linux
virt-manager
) may need virtio
modules in mkinitcpio.conf
to be able to boot.
# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net"
Set the root password
Set the root password with:
# passwd
Install and configure a bootloader
For BIOS motherboards
For BIOS systems, there are three bootloaders - Syslinux, GRUB, and LILO. Choose the bootloader as per your convenience. Below only Syslinux and GRUB are explained.
- Syslinux is (currently) limited to loading only files from the partition where it was installed. Its configuration file is considered to be easier to understand. An example configuration can be found here.
- GRUB is more feature-rich and supports more complex scenarios. Its configuration file(s) is more similar to a scripting language, which may be difficult for beginners to manually write. It is recommended that they automatically generate one.
Syslinux
Install the syslinux package and then use the syslinux-install_update
script to automatically install the files (-i
), mark the partition active by setting the boot flag (-a
), and install the MBR boot code (-m
):
pacman -S gptfdisk
), because it contains sgdisk
, which will be used to set the GPT-specific boot flag.# pacman -S syslinux # syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
Configure syslinux.cfg
to point to the right root partition. This step is vital. If it points to the wrong partition, Arch Linux will not boot. Change /dev/sda3
to reflect your root partition (if you partitioned your drive as in the example, your root partition is sda1). Do the same for the fallback entry.
# nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
... LABEL arch ... APPEND root=/dev/sda3 ro ...
For more information on configuring and using Syslinux, see Syslinux.
GRUB
Install the grub-bios package and then run grub-install /dev/sda
:
/dev/sda
to reflect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do not use sdaX
).# pacman -S grub-bios # grub-install --recheck /dev/sda # cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo
While using a manually created grub.cfg
is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one:
pacman -S os-prober
) before running the next command.# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see GRUB.
For UEFI motherboards
For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned, and a UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or larger, type EF00
, formatted with FAT32) must be present and mounted on /boot/efi
. If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these.
While there are other UEFI bootloaders available, using EFISTUB is recommended. Below are instructions for setting up EFISTUB and GRUB (of course you choose only one of them).
EFISTUB
The Linux kernel can act as its own bootloader using EFISTUB. This is the UEFI boot method recommended by developers and simpler compared to grub-efi-x86_64
. The steps below set up rEFInd to provide a menu for EFISTUB kernels, as well as for booting other UEFI bootloaders. Alternative EFISTUB boot managers can be found on the page UEFI Bootloaders#Booting EFISTUB. Both rEFInd and gummiboot can detect Windows UEFI bootloaders in case of dual-boot.
1. Mount the UEFI System Partition on /mnt/boot/efi
and chroot back into /mnt
.
2. Copy the kernel and initramfs files to /mnt/boot/efi
:
# mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/arch/ # cp /boot/vmlinuz-linux /boot/efi/EFI/arch/vmlinuz-arch.efi # cp /boot/initramfs-linux.img /boot/efi/EFI/arch/initramfs-arch.img # cp /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img /boot/efi/EFI/arch/initramfs-arch-fallback.img
Every time the kernel and initramfs files are updated in /boot
, they need to be updated in /boot/efi/EFI/arch
. This can be automated using systemd.
3. For the rEFInd boot manager, install refind-efi and efibootmgr:
# pacman -S refind-efi efibootmgr
4. Install rEFInd to the UEFI System Partition (summarized from UEFI Bootloaders#Using rEFInd):
# mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/refind # cp /usr/lib/refind/refind_x64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi # cp /usr/lib/refind/config/refind.conf /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf # cp -r /usr/share/refind/icons /boot/efi/EFI/refind/icons
5. Create a refind_linux.conf
file with the kernel parameters to be used by rEFInd:
# nano /boot/efi/EFI/arch/refind_linux.conf
"Boot to X" "root=/dev/sdaX ro rootfstype=ext4 systemd.unit=graphical.target" "Boot to console" "root=/dev/sdaX ro rootfstype=ext4 systemd.unit=multi-user.target"
refind_linux.conf
is copied in the directory /boot/efi/EFI/arch/
where the initramfs and the kernel have been copied to in step 2.refind_linux.conf
, sdaX refers to your root file system, not your boot partition, if you created them separately.6. Add rEFInd to UEFI boot menu using efibootmgr. Replace X and Y with the drive and partition of the UEFI System Partition. For example, in /dev/sdc5
, X is "c" and Y is "5".
efibootmgr
on Apple Macs may brick the firmware and may need reflash of the motherboard ROM. For Macs, use mactel-bootAUR, or "bless" from within OS X.# efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdX -p Y -w -L "rEFInd" -l '\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi'
efibootmgr
without any arguments and see if a new entry has appeared in the list displayed. If there is no new entry, then it will not be possible to enter rEFInd upon reboot, as the UEFI boot menu has been left unchanged. In this case, you will instead have to enter the UEFI shell and manually add an entry to the UEFI boot menu with the bcfg
command, as described here.GRUB
grub-efi-i386
instead of grub-efi-x86_64
.# pacman -S grub-efi-x86_64 efibootmgr # grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck # cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo
Next, while using a manually created grub.cfg
is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one:
pacman -S os-prober
) before running the next command.# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install
should create a new entry in the UEFI boot menu. If it does not, you will instead have to enter the UEFI shell and manually add an entry to the UEFI boot menu with the bcfg
command, as described here.For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see GRUB.
Unmount the partitions and reboot
Exit from the chroot environment:
# exit
Since the partitions are mounted under /mnt
, we use the following command to unmount them:
# umount /mnt/{boot,home,}
Reboot the computer:
# reboot