Difference between revisions of "Beginners' guide"
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{{Warning|As of v197, 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 link}} to discover the names of your interfaces.}} | {{Warning|As of v197, 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 link}} to discover the names of your interfaces.}} | ||
− | The {{ic|dhcpcd}} network daemon starts automatically during boot and it will attempt to start a wired connection. Try to ping a server to see if a connection was established. For example, Google's | + | The {{ic|dhcpcd}} network daemon starts automatically during boot and it will attempt to start a wired connection. Try to ping a server to see if a connection was established. For example, Google's webservers: |
{{hc|# ping -c 3 www.google.com|2= | {{hc|# ping -c 3 www.google.com|2= | ||
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# dhcpcd wlp3s0 | # dhcpcd wlp3s0 | ||
− | ==== Analog modem, ISDN or | + | If that does not work, issue the following commands: |
+ | |||
+ | # echo 'ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant' > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf | ||
+ | # wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf | ||
+ | # ip link set <interface> up # May not be needed as dhcpcd should bring it up but may be needed for wpa_supplicant. | ||
+ | # wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -c /foobar.conf -i <interface name> | ||
+ | # dhcpcd -A <interface name> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL ==== | ||
For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | ||
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{{Warning|Partitioning can destroy data. You are '''strongly''' cautioned and advised to backup any critical data before proceeding.}} | {{Warning|Partitioning can destroy data. You are '''strongly''' cautioned and advised to backup any critical data before proceeding.}} | ||
− | ==== Choose partition table type ==== | + | ==== Choose a partition table type ==== |
− | You have to | + | You have to choose between [[GUID Partition Table]] (GPT) and [[Master Boot Record]] (MBR). GPT is more modern and recommended for new installations. |
− | If you want to setup a system which dual boots with windows, then you have to pay special attention to this choice. See [[Partitioning#Choosing_between_GPT_and_MBR]] for the gory details. | + | * If you want to setup a system which dual boots with windows, then you have to pay special attention to this choice. See [[Partitioning#Choosing_between_GPT_and_MBR]] for the gory details. |
+ | * It is recommended to always use GPT for UEFI boot, as some UEFI firmwares do not allow UEFI-MBR boot. | ||
+ | * 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. | ||
− | + | {{Note|If you are installing to a USB flash key, see [[Installing Arch Linux on a USB key]].}} | |
− | + | ==== Partitioning tool ==== | |
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. | ||
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{{Tip|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.}} | {{Tip|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.}} | ||
− | While gparted may be easier to use, if you just want to create a few partitions on a new disk you can get the job done quickly by just using one of the [[Partitioning#Partitioning_tools|fdisk variants]] which are included on the install medium. There are short usage instructions for both [[Partitioning#Gdisk_usage_summary|gdisk]] and [[Partitioning#Fdisk_usage_summary]]. | + | While gparted may be easier to use, if you just want to create a few partitions on a new disk you can get the job done quickly by just using one of the [[Partitioning#Partitioning_tools|fdisk variants]] which are included on the install medium. There are short usage instructions for both [[Partitioning#Gdisk_usage_summary|gdisk]] and [[Partitioning#Fdisk_usage_summary|fdisk]]. |
+ | |||
+ | ==== Partition scheme ==== | ||
− | + | You can decide into how many partitions the disk should be split, and for which directory each partition should be used in the system. The mapping from partitions to directories (frequently called 'mount points') is the [[Partitioning#Partition_scheme|Partition scheme]]. The simplest, and not a bad choice, is to make just one huge {{ic|/}} partition. Another popular choice is to have a {{ic|/}} and a {{ic|/home}} partition. | |
+ | |||
+ | {{Box BLUE|Additional required partitions:| | ||
+ | * If you have a [[UEFI]] motherboard, you will need to create an extra [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#EFI System Partition|UEFI System Partition]]. It will need to be at least 512 MiB. | ||
+ | * 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]] of size 1007 KiB and {{ic|EF02}} type code. Syslinux does not need one. | ||
+ | }} | ||
− | + | 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. | |
==== Considerations for dualbooting with windows ==== | ==== Considerations for dualbooting with windows ==== | ||
− | If you have an existing OS installation, please keep in mind that if you | + | If you have an existing OS installation, please keep in mind that if you were to just write a completely new partition table to disk then all the data which was previously on disk would be lost. |
− | The recommended way to setup a linux/windows dual booting system is to first install windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the windows setup, boot into the linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for linux while | + | The recommended way to setup a linux/windows dual booting system is to first install windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the windows setup, boot into the linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for linux while leaving the existing windows partitions untouched. |
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. | 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. | ||
− | + | If you have already created your partitions, proceed to [[#Create_filesystems|Create filesystems]]. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | If you have already | ||
Otherwise, see the following example. | Otherwise, see the following example. | ||
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{{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.}} | {{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.}} | ||
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The example system will contain a 15 GB root partition, and a [[Partitioning#/home|home]] partition for the remaining space. Choose either [[MBR]] or [[GPT]]. Do not choose both! | The example system will contain a 15 GB root partition, and a [[Partitioning#/home|home]] partition for the remaining space. Choose either [[MBR]] or [[GPT]]. Do not choose both! | ||
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It should be emphasized that partitioning is a personal choice and that this example is only for illustrative purposes. See [[Partitioning]]. | It should be emphasized that partitioning is a personal choice and that this example is only for illustrative purposes. See [[Partitioning]]. | ||
− | + | ===== Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions ===== | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
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− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | # cgdisk /dev/sda | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | * Choose New (or press {{ic|N}}) – {{ic|Enter}} for the first sector (2048) – type in | + | ;Root: |
− | + | * Choose ''New'' (or press {{ic|N}}) – {{ic|Enter}} for the first sector (2048) – type in {{ic|15G}} – {{ic|Enter}} for the default hex code (8300) – {{ic|Enter}} for a blank partition name. | |
− | |||
+ | ;Home: | ||
* Press the down arrow a couple of times to move to the larger free space area. | * Press the down arrow a couple of times to move to the larger free space area. | ||
− | * Choose New (or press {{ic|N}}) – {{ic|Enter}} for the first sector – {{ic|Enter}} to use the rest of the drive (or you could type in the desired size; for example | + | * Choose ''New'' (or press {{ic|N}}) – {{ic|Enter}} for the first sector – {{ic|Enter}} to use the rest of the drive (or you could type in the desired size; for example {{ic|30G}}) – {{ic|Enter}} for the default hex code (8300) – {{ic|Enter}} for a blank partition name. |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Here is what it should look like: | |
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− | |||
Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name | Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name | ||
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Double check and make sure that you are happy with the partition sizes as well as the partition table layout before continuing. | 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 {{ic|Q}}) to exit without saving changes and then restart | + | If you would like to start over, you can simply select ''Quit'' (or press {{ic|Q}}) to exit without saving changes and then restart ''cgdisk''. |
− | If you are satisfied, choose Write (or press {{ic|Shift+W}}) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type | + | If you are satisfied, choose ''Write'' (or press {{ic|Shift+W}}) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type {{ic|yes}} and choose ''Quit'' (or press {{ic|Q}}) to exit without making any more changes. |
+ | |||
+ | ===== Using fdisk to create MBR partitions ===== | ||
+ | {{Note|There is also ''cfdisk'', which is similar in UI to ''cgdisk'', but it currently does not automatically align the first partition properly. That is why the classic ''fdisk'' tool is used here.}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Launch ''fdisk'' with: | ||
+ | |||
+ | # fdisk /dev/sda | ||
+ | |||
+ | Create the first partition: | ||
+ | |||
+ | # {{ic|Command (m for help):}} type {{ic|n}} and press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # Partition type: {{ic|Select (default p):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # {{ic|Partition number (1-4, default 1):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # {{ic|First sector (2048-209715199, default 2048):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # {{ic|Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-209715199....., default 209715199):}} type {{ic|+15G}} and press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Then create a second partition: | ||
+ | |||
+ | # {{ic|Command (m for help):}} type {{ic|n}} and press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # Partition type: {{ic|Select (default p):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # {{ic|Partition number (1-4, default 2):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # {{ic|First sector (31459328-209715199, default 31459328):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | # {{ic|Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (31459328-209715199....., default 209715199):}} press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now preview the new partition table: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{ic|Command (m for help):}} type {{ic|p}} and press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{bc| | ||
+ | Disk /dev/sda: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes, 209715200 sectors | ||
+ | Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes | ||
+ | Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes | ||
+ | I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes | ||
+ | Disk identifier: 0x5698d902 | ||
+ | |||
+ | Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System | ||
+ | /dev/sda1 2048 31459327 15728640 83 Linux | ||
+ | /dev/sda2 31459328 209715199 89127936 83 Linux | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Then write the changes to disk: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{ic|Command (m for help):}} type {{ic|w}} and press {{ic|Enter}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | If everything went well fdisk will now quit with the following message: | ||
+ | {{bc| | ||
+ | The partition table has been altered! | ||
+ | |||
+ | Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. | ||
+ | Syncing disks. | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | In case this doesn't work because ''fdisk'' encountered an error, you can use the {{ic|q}} command to exit. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Create filesystems ==== | ||
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: | ||
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A few considerations: | A few considerations: | ||
− | * The last field determines the order | + | * The last field determines the order in which partitions are checked at start up: use {{ic|1}} for the (non-{{ic|btrfs}}) root partition, which should be checked first; {{ic|2}} for all other partitions you want checked at start up; and {{ic|0}} means 'do not check' (see [[fstab#Field definitions]]). |
− | * | + | * All [[btrfs]] partitions should have {{ic|0}} for this field. Normally, you will also want your ''swap'' partition to have {{ic|0}}. |
− | |||
=== Chroot and configure the base system === | === Chroot and configure the base system === | ||
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# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service | # systemctl enable dhcpcd.service | ||
− | + | {{Note|If it doesn't work, use: {{ic|# systemctl enable dhcpcd@''interface_name''.service}} }} | |
; Using netctl | ; Using netctl | ||
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; Using netctl-ifplugd | ; Using netctl-ifplugd | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Warning|You cannot use this method in conjunction with explicitly enabling profiles, such as {{ic|netctl enable <profile>}}.}} | ||
Alternatively, you can use {{ic|netctl-ifplugd}}, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks: | Alternatively, you can use {{ic|netctl-ifplugd}}, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks: | ||
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==== Wireless ==== | ==== Wireless ==== | ||
− | {{Note|If your wireless adapter requires a firmware (as described in the above [[#Wireless|Establish an internet connection]] section and also [[Wireless Setup# | + | {{Note|If your wireless adapter requires a firmware (as described in the above [[#Wireless|Establish an internet connection]] section and also [[Wireless Setup#Device driver|here]]), install the package containing your firmware. Most of the time, the {{Pkg|linux-firmware}} package will contain the needed firmware. Though for some devices, the required firmware might be in its own package. For example: |
{{bc|# pacman -S zd1211-firmware}} | {{bc|# pacman -S zd1211-firmware}} | ||
− | See [[Wireless Setup]] for more info.}} | + | See [[Wireless Setup#Installing driver/firmware]] for more info.}} |
− | Install {{Pkg|iw}} | + | Install {{Pkg|iw}} and {{Pkg|wpa_supplicant}} which you will need to connect to a network: |
− | # pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant | + | # pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant |
===== Adding wireless networks ===== | ===== Adding wireless networks ===== | ||
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# nano my-network | # nano my-network | ||
+ | |||
+ | Enable above created profile to start it at every boot: | ||
+ | |||
+ | # netctl enable my-network | ||
===== Connect automatically to known networks ===== | ===== Connect automatically to known networks ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Warning|You cannot use this method in conjunction with explicitly enabling profiles, such as {{ic|netctl enable <profile>}}.}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Install {{Pkg|wpa_actiond}}, which is required for {{ic|netctl-auto}}: | ||
+ | |||
+ | # pacman -S wpa_actiond | ||
Enable the {{ic|netctl-auto}} service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects: | Enable the {{ic|netctl-auto}} service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects: | ||
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{{Tip|[[Netctl]] also provides {{ic|netctl-ifplugd}}, which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction with {{ic|netctl-auto}}.}} | {{Tip|[[Netctl]] also provides {{ic|netctl-ifplugd}}, which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction with {{ic|netctl-auto}}.}} | ||
− | ==== Analog modem, ISDN or | + | ==== Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL ==== |
For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see [[Direct Modem Connection]]. | ||
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* 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. | * 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 ===== | ===== Syslinux ===== | ||
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LABEL arch | LABEL arch | ||
... | ... | ||
− | APPEND root=/dev/sda3 | + | APPEND root=/dev/sda3 rw |
...}} | ...}} | ||
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* Boot the Linux kernel directly using [[UEFI Bootloaders#Linux Kernel EFISTUB|EFISTUB]]. | * Boot the Linux kernel directly using [[UEFI Bootloaders#Linux Kernel EFISTUB|EFISTUB]]. | ||
* [[gummiboot]] is a simple boot manager, useful if you are dual booting. [[UEFI Bootloaders#Using rEFInd|rEFInd]] is another alternative. | * [[gummiboot]] is a simple boot manager, useful if you are dual booting. [[UEFI Bootloaders#Using rEFInd|rEFInd]] is another alternative. | ||
− | * GRUB is a more complete bootloader, | + | * GRUB is a more complete bootloader, useful if you run into problems with the other two options. |
{{Note|For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned and an [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#EFI System Partition|UEFI System Partition]] (512 MiB or larger, type {{ic|EF00}}, formatted with FAT32) must be present. For the following examples, this partition must be mounted on {{ic|/boot}}. If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these.}} | {{Note|For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned and an [[Unified Extensible Firmware Interface#EFI System Partition|UEFI System Partition]] (512 MiB or larger, type {{ic|EF00}}, formatted with FAT32) must be present. For the following examples, this partition must be mounted on {{ic|/boot}}. If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these.}} | ||
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# pacman -S efibootmgr | # pacman -S efibootmgr | ||
− | # efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux -u "root='''/dev/sdaX''' | + | # efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux -u "root='''/dev/sdaX''' rw initrd=/initramfs-linux.img" |
===== Gummiboot ===== | ===== Gummiboot ===== | ||
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linux /vmlinuz-linux | linux /vmlinuz-linux | ||
initrd /initramfs-linux.img | initrd /initramfs-linux.img | ||
− | options root='''/dev/sdaX''' | + | options root='''/dev/sdaX''' rw |
}} | }} | ||
Revision as of 09:51, 6 August 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
, dvorak
, 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 Ctrl+X
to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press Y
and Enter
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, LAlt+LShift
activates and deactivates the keymap.
Establish an internet connection
ip link
to discover the names of your interfaces.The dhcpcd
network daemon starts automatically during boot and it will attempt to start a wired connection. Try to ping a server to see if a connection was established. For example, Google's webservers:
# 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 an issue with your cable or wireless signal strength. If not, you will need to set up the network manually, as explained below. Once a connection is established 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. In order to overcome this limitation, you can use a locally caching nameserver like Dnsmasq. 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.
# iw dev
phy#0 Interface wlp3s0 ifindex 3 wdev 0x1 addr 00:21:6a:5e:52:bc type managed
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 you get output like SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
, this means you will need to manually load the firmware. If unsure, invoke dmesg
to query the kernel log for a firmware request from the wireless chipset. For example, if you have 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.
Alternatively, use iw dev wlp3s0 scan | grep SSID
to scan for available networks, then connect to a network with:
# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase "ssid" "psk")
You need to replace ssid with the name of your network (e.g. "Linksys etc...") and psk with your wireless password, leaving the quotes around the network name and password.
Finally, you have to give your interface an IP address. This can be set manually or using the dhcp:
# dhcpcd wlp3s0
If that does not work, issue the following commands:
# echo 'ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant' > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf # wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf # ip link set <interface> up # May not be needed as dhcpcd should bring it up but may be needed for wpa_supplicant. # wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -c /foobar.conf -i <interface name> # dhcpcd -A <interface name>
Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE 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
Choose a partition table type
You have to choose between GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR). GPT is more modern and recommended for new installations.
- If you want to setup a system which dual boots with windows, then you have to pay special attention to this choice. See Partitioning#Choosing_between_GPT_and_MBR for the gory details.
- It is recommended to always use GPT for UEFI boot, as some UEFI firmwares do not allow UEFI-MBR boot.
- 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.
Partitioning tool
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.
While gparted may be easier to use, if you just want to create a few partitions on a new disk you can get the job done quickly by just using one of the fdisk variants which are included on the install medium. There are short usage instructions for both gdisk and fdisk.
Partition scheme
You can decide into how many partitions the disk should be split, and for which directory each partition should be used in the system. The mapping from partitions to directories (frequently called 'mount points') is the Partition scheme. The simplest, and not a bad choice, is to make just one huge /
partition. Another popular choice is to have a /
and a /home
partition.
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.
Considerations for dualbooting with windows
If you have an existing OS installation, please keep in mind that if you were to just write a completely new partition table to disk then all the data which was previously on disk would be lost.
The recommended way to setup a linux/windows dual booting system is to first install windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the windows setup, boot into the linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for linux while leaving the existing windows partitions untouched.
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.
If you have already created your partitions, proceed to Create filesystems.
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.
Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions
# cgdisk /dev/sda
- Root
- Choose New (or press
N
) –Enter
for the first sector (2048) – type in15G
–Enter
for the default hex code (8300) –Enter
for a blank partition name.
- Home
- Press the down arrow a couple of times to move to the larger free space area.
- Choose New (or press
N
) –Enter
for the first sector –Enter
to use the rest of the drive (or you could type in the desired size; for example30G
) –Enter
for the default hex code (8300) –Enter
for a blank partition name.
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 Q
) to exit without saving changes and then restart cgdisk.
If you are satisfied, choose Write (or press Shift+W
) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type yes
and choose Quit (or press Q
) to exit without making any more changes.
Using fdisk to create MBR partitions
Launch fdisk with:
# fdisk /dev/sda
Create the first partition:
-
Command (m for help):
typen
and pressEnter
- Partition type:
Select (default p):
pressEnter
-
Partition number (1-4, default 1):
pressEnter
-
First sector (2048-209715199, default 2048):
pressEnter
-
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-209715199....., default 209715199):
type+15G
and pressEnter
Then create a second partition:
-
Command (m for help):
typen
and pressEnter
- Partition type:
Select (default p):
pressEnter
-
Partition number (1-4, default 2):
pressEnter
-
First sector (31459328-209715199, default 31459328):
pressEnter
-
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (31459328-209715199....., default 209715199):
pressEnter
Now preview the new partition table:
-
Command (m for help):
typep
and pressEnter
Disk /dev/sda: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes, 209715200 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x5698d902 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 31459327 15728640 83 Linux /dev/sda2 31459328 209715199 89127936 83 Linux
Then write the changes to disk:
-
Command (m for help):
typew
and pressEnter
If everything went well fdisk will now quit with the following message:
The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Syncing disks.
In case this doesn't work because fdisk encountered an error, you can use the q
command to exit.
Create filesystems
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
For UEFI, you should format the ESP partition (usually sda1) with:
# mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
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 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 # mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/boot
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 ...
-
Alt+6
to copy aServer
line. -
PageUp
key to scroll up. -
Ctrl+U
to paste it at the top of the list. -
Ctrl+X
to exit, and when prompted to save changes, pressY
andEnter
to use the same filename.
If you want, you can make it the only mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using Ctrl+K
), 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
- If pacman fails to verify your packages, check the system time with
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. - If pacman complains that
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:
- The last field determines the order in which partitions are checked at start up: use
1
for the (non-btrfs
) root partition, which should be checked first;2
for all other partitions you want checked at start up; and0
means 'do not check' (see fstab#Field definitions). - All btrfs partitions should have
0
for this field. Normally, you will also want your swap partition to have0
.
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.
- For more in-depth information on network configration, visit Network Configuration and Wireless Setup.
- If you would like to use the old interface naming scheme (ie. eth* and wlan*) you can accomplish this by creating an empty file at
/etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot.rules
which will mask the file of the same name located under/usr/lib/udev/rules.d
(alternatively, instead of an empty file, using a symlink to/dev/null
is also an acceptable masking method).
Wired
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:
# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service
# 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 my-network
Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface
):
# nano my-network
Enable the my-network
profile:
# netctl enable my-network
- Using netctl-ifplugd
netctl enable <profile>
.Alternatively, you can use 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
netctl-auto
, which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction with netctl-ifplugd
.Static IP
- Using netctl
Copy a sample profile from /etc/netctl/examples
to /etc/netctl
:
# cd /etc/netctl # cp examples/ethernet-static my-network
Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface
, Address
, Gateway
and DNS
):
# nano my-network
- Notice the
/24
inAddress
which is the CIDR notation of a255.255.255.0
netmask
Enable above created profile to start it at every boot:
# netctl enable my-network
Wireless
# pacman -S zd1211-firmwareSee Wireless Setup#Installing driver/firmware for more info.
Install iw and wpa_supplicant which you will need to connect to a network:
# pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant
Adding wireless networks
- Using wifi-menu
Install dialog, which is required for wifi-menu
:
# pacman -S dialog
After finishing the rest of this installation and rebooting, you can connect to the network with wifi-menu interface_name
(where interface_name
is the interface of your wireless chipset).
# wifi-menu interface_name
wifi-menu
at all.- Using manual netctl profiles
Copy a network profile from /etc/netctl/examples
to /etc/netctl
:
# cd /etc/netctl # cp examples/wireless-wpa my-network
Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface
, ESSID
and Key
):
# nano my-network
Enable above created profile to start it at every boot:
# netctl enable my-network
Connect automatically to known networks
netctl enable <profile>
.Install wpa_actiond, which is required for netctl-auto
:
# pacman -S wpa_actiond
Enable the netctl-auto
service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects:
# systemctl enable netctl-auto@interface_name.service
netctl-ifplugd
, which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction with netctl-auto
.Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE 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, two bootloaders are available: Syslinux and GRUB. Choose the bootloader as per your convenience.
- 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 bootloader (-i
), mark the partition active by setting the boot flag (-a
), and install the MBR boot code (-m
):
# 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 rw ...
For more information on configuring and using Syslinux, see Syslinux.
GRUB
Install the grub package and then run grub-install
to install the bootloader:
- Change
/dev/sda
to reflect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do not usesdaX
). - For GPT-partitioned drives on BIOS motherboards, you also need a "BIOS Boot Partition". See GPT-specific instructions and Install to GPT BIOS boot partition in the GRUB page.
# pacman -S grub # grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
parted -s /dev/sda set 1 bios_grub on
and then retrying grub-install should solve the problem.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 systems, several options are available. A complete list of options is available at UEFI Bootloaders. You may find that some options work while others do not. Otherwise, choose one as per your convenience. Here, we give two of the possibilities as examples:
- Boot the Linux kernel directly using EFISTUB.
- gummiboot is a simple boot manager, useful if you are dual booting. rEFInd is another alternative.
- GRUB is a more complete bootloader, useful if you run into problems with the other two options.
EF00
, formatted with FAT32) must be present. For the following examples, this partition must be mounted on /boot
. If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these.bcfg
command, as described here.
- On some ASUS motherboards, there is an EFI bug that always reports
MaxVariableSize=0
. Combined with a recent kernel that enforces checks on this value, this preventsefibootmgr
from setting new EFI variables. These motherboards do not support the UEFI Shell v2, so you cannot use thebcfg
method either. To work around this, addefi_no_storage_paranoia
to the kernel command line. You can do this by pressing "e" at the bootloader menu. - On some UEFI motherboards like the Intel Z77 boards, adding entries with efibootmgr or bcfg from efi shell will not work because they don't show up on the boot menu list after being added to NVRAM.
- To solve this you have to trick the UEFI firmware that Windows boot manager is present on the ESP partition.
- Copy the bootx64.efi file from USB drive as bootmgfw.efi efi file to your ESP partition by booting into EFI shell and typing:
FS1: cd EFI mkdir Microsoft cd Microsoft mkdir Boot cp FS0:\EFI\BOOT\bootx64.efi FS1:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
- After reboot, any entries added to NVRAM should show up in the boot menu.
EFISTUB
Install the efibootmgr package and then add an Arch Linux boot entry, replacing /dev/sdaX
with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2
:
# pacman -S efibootmgr # efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux -u "root=/dev/sdaX rw initrd=/initramfs-linux.img"
Gummiboot
Install the gummiboot package and then run gummiboot install
to install the boot manager:
# pacman -S gummiboot # gummiboot install
# efibootmgr -c -L "Gummiboot" -l /EFI/gummiboot/gummibootx64.efi
You will need to manually create a configuration file to add an entry for Arch Linux to the gummiboot manager. Create /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
and add the following contents, replacing /dev/sdaX
with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2
:
# nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch Linux linux /vmlinuz-linux initrd /initramfs-linux.img options root=/dev/sdaX rw
For more information on configuring and using gummiboot, see gummiboot.
GRUB
Install the grub and efibootmgr packages and then run grub-install
to install the bootloader:
# pacman -S grub efibootmgr # grub-install --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck
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
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