Talk:Installation guide

Make explicit systemd tools will not work in the chroot

A lot of the installation guide before and after chrooting is composed of "Follow this link and follow instructions on the linked page", e.g. preparing the installation medium, network configuration, initramfs, etc.

Things have settled on not getting the systemd tools in a usable state and instead relying on the manual process (see the note at the top of this page).

However, the fact systemd tools are never expected to work in the chroot is not explicitly communicated on this page. This is apparently confusing to some* users when they encounter the sections on Time and Localization, that link to pages that open with instructions like "To check the current zone defined for the system: $ timedatectl status". This of course fails (because they're in the chroot), but unless they read the "Usage" section of the chroot page they do not know this is expected to fail. This is probably obvious to any experienced user, but the installation guide is targeting new users as well.

* n=1 on IRC, and I understand their thought process.

I would suggest simply replicating a version of the note about *ctl tools not working in the chroot on the main Installation guide page, in the chroot section where it becomes relevant. E.g.

Change root into the new system:

# arch-chroot /mnt

Note Some systemd tools such as hostnamectl, localectl and timedatectl, referenced in linked wiki pages below, cannot be used inside the chroot.

MacGyver (talk) 19:17, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

A link to a guide to do what timedatectl does manually would be great

Managor (talk) 13:47, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

It seems timedatectl set-ntp true enables systemd-timesyncd service if available. If not, it allows ntpd or chronyd to handle the synchronization. This info was hard to come by. Managor (talk) 23:12, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

While I get your notion, the topic is discussed in detail #Reference troubleshooting_page, changing the order of some steps. To sum it, your suggestion fails short of elaborating that an enable does work, while a start does not. Doing so complicates it.

I think what might be useful instead is add a similar note to the end of the crosslinked Help:Reading#Control of systemd units. This way we keep this guide to its structure, but help new readers/users. How about that? --Indigo (talk) 12:40, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Change photo link

Can someone please change the link to a photo on Wikipedia to Wikimedia commons. Since it is actually on commons and not Wikipedia. Just Wikipedia has a viewer for some reason.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Germany.svg would become https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Germany.svg Anthony2106 (talk) 05:40, 1 November 2025 (UTC)

What is the problem with the current link? — Lahwaacz (talk) 16:53, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Well I would like to direct people to Wikimedia Commons for a photo on commons, not the Wikipedia viewer for photos on Commons. I would just do this myself but I'm new here. I don't even know why Wikipedia even has a viewer for Commons, its so pointless and could be confusing because the non-free photo really are stored on Wikipedia and not Commons. Anthony2106 (talk) 01:27, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes, Wikipedia and Commons can share the same data 🤷. But since it is exactly the same image I don't see any problem here. — Lahwaacz (talk) 17:48, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

Update arch-chroot step

The last release of arch-install-scripts has introduced a cleaner way to handle mounts in the arch-chroot step. Since the installation medium provides the right version of systemd, I think there's no downsides to switch to using the -S flag in the guide?

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 11:51, 1 November 2025 (UTC)

👍 -- nl6720 (talk) 05:47, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

I'll wait until the next release to be extra cautious, there's an edge case that we should not hit as the guide does not show it being used with relative paths, but I'd rather be safe. Erus Iluvatar (talk) 18:12, 15 November 2025 (UTC)