archinstall

archinstall is a helper library which automates the installation of Arch Linux. It is packaged with different pre-configured installers, such as a "guided" installer.

This document does not discuss use of archinstall as a Python library; see the official documentation for that.

Warning:

• archinstall stores all user and (secondary) disk encryption passwords in plain text. [1]
• archinstall offers different defaults than the regular installation process. When using a system installed with archinstall, please mention so in support requests and provide /var/log/archinstall/install.log.
• When opting for a separate /home partition, archinstall creates a root partition that is smaller than the recommended 23–32 GiB.

Running the installer

First, acquire and boot the live medium as described in Installation guide#Pre-installation. The archinstall package is part of the live medium and can be run directly:

# archinstall

The guided installer will perform or ask user input for multiple steps, described in the official documentation.

Warning: Leaving the root password blank disables the root account, using sudo for privilege elevation. As this may cause you to lock yourself out of your system, this is generally not advised. See Sudo#Disable root login.

Note: The installer can configure wired interfaces on the installed system using Systemd-networkd or it can copy the configuration used on the ISO. That means, if you configure a wireless interface using Iwd#iwctl, its configuration, including the network's password, will be copied to the installed system. It also copies the configuration for wired interfaces that's present on the ISO.

Additional packages can be installed by specifying them after the Write additional packages to install prompt.

Once the installation is complete, green text should appear saying that it is safe to reboot, which is also the command you use to reboot.

Profiles

archinstall includes profiles, or sets of packages and pre-configured options which can be installed next to the base system.

Warning: Shipped profiles are specific to archinstall and not supported by package maintainers. Users are advised to check the details of each profile before using it.

See also

• python-archinstall: guided