Arch Linux Installation Guide.

Overview

This guide will walk you through the steps needed to install a fully functional Arch Linux Desktop. The focus is KDE, but steps for XFCE will also be shown. I use an install script to help me remember and automate most of the steps. There are also some config and skel files included. I also recommend using the official Arch Linux install guide for support. I often find answers to my problems hidden there.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide

Download and create USB

Download ISO image

The official Arch Linux download page. https://archlinux.org/download/

A direct link to a mirror with the latest image. https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/archlinux/iso/latest/

Create a bootable USB

WARNING! All data on the USB device will be permanently lost. WARNING! Be sure to check device size and mount points to make sure it is your USB. To find the name of your USB device. Use the command lsblk.

# lsblk

Be sure to know the name of your USB. /dev/sdX where X is the letter of your USB. Be careful it is not your hard drive or ssd. The partition part / is the device with your system partition.

We will use the cat command to write the image to the USB. Change directory to where ever you downloaded the file.

# cd ~/Downloads
# cat archlinux-*-x86_64.iso > /dev/sdX

Installation

You will need to boot your system from the USB drive. It may simply need to reboot with the USB left in. You most likely need to know how to tell your bios to boot from USB devices. It may be something like pressing escape, F5, F8, F10 or F11 during boot up. Search your device and boot from USB.

Setup keyboard

If you are using a US keyboard you can skip this step.

List available keyboard keymaps

If you would like to see a list keyboard use this command.

# ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz

Set keyboard keymap

Here is an example of setting the keyboard to the UK keymap.

# loadkeys uk

Setup Internet Connection

List Wifi adapter

If you need to setup wireless internet first find the name of your wife ADAPTER.

# iwctl device list | grep station | cut -f 3 -d " "

This will be your ADAPTER name. The name of your network is your SSID.

Connect Wifi to internet

Replace ADAPTER and SSID below with their names. You will be prompted for a password to your SSID.

# iwctl station ADAPTER connect SSID

Check Wifi or Wired connection

Lets check if you're online.

# ping archlinux.org

Update the system clock

# timedatectl set-ntp true

Create Partitions

You will need to create some partitions to install Arch Ainux on. This will permanently destroy any data on the device. You have been warned. I will assume you have a device that you can create partitions on. Again any existing partitions will be destroyed along with all data held in them. Get a list of partitions.

# fdisk -l

Edit the device with fdisk. Replace X with the device letter you are willing to loose all data on.

# fdisk /dev/sdX

Format partitions

Format EFI/boot partitoin

Replace /dev/sdX1 with your EFI partition.

# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdX1

If using swap partition

Replace /dev/sdx2 with your swap partition.

# mkswap /dev/sdX2

Format your system partition

Replace /dev/sdX3 with your system partition.

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX3

Mount partitions

# mount /dev/sdX3 /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
# mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/boot/efi

Update repository & install packages

Run Reflector

Reflector prioritizes closer or faster servers for use with pacman.

# reflector

Sync pacman repository

# pacman -Syy

Install Arch Linux with KDE Plasma

Use pacstrap to install a full KDE Plasma system all at once.

# pacstrap /mnt base linux-firmware linux grub efibootmgr iwd sudo nano vim \
pacman-contrib htop base-devel xorg-server mesa-demos plasma plasma-wayland-session \
kde-applications autopep8 chromium ctags firefox flake8 git hunspell-en_gb \
pulseaudio-bluetooth python-jedi python-language-server python-mccabe python-numpy \
python-pip python-pycodestyle python-pydocstyle python-pyflakes python-pygame \
python-pylint python-rope python-wheel yapf

Install Arch Linux with XFCE

Use pacstrap to install a full XFCE system all at once.

# pacstrap /mnt base linux-firmware linux grub efibootmgr iwd sudo nano vim \
pacman-contrib htop base-devel xorg-server mesa-demos xfce xfce-goodies lightdm \
lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings file-roller gvfs network-manager-applet \
bluez bluez-utils blueman atril galculator drawing geany geany-plugins xdg-user-dirs-gtk \
pulseaudio pavucontrol adobe-source-sans-pro-fonts adobe-source-code-pro-fonts \
gnu-free-fonts ttf-hack noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji noto-fonts-cjk ttf-roboto autopep8 \
chromium ctags firefox flake8 git hunspell-en_gb python-jedi python-language-server \
python-mccabe python-numpy python-pip python-pycodestyle python-pydocstyle \
python-pyflakes python-pygame python-pylint python-rope python-wheel yapf

Generate fstab

Generate for your new system.

# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Configure system in chroot environment

Chroot

Use arch-chroot to change roots into new system.

# arch-chroot /mnt

Select your Locale

Uncomment your locale by removing the # infront of your locale. English UK is "en_GB.UTF-8".

# nano /etc/locale.gen

Generate locale

# locale-gen

Enable sudo for wheel

We will allow users who are part of the wheel group sudo privilage.

# sed -i 's/# %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD/%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD/' /etc/sudoers

Set keymap

We will set the keymap for the new systme. Replace "uk" with your keymap.

# echo "KEYMAP=uk" > /etc/vconsole.conf

Install grub

Install grub into the EFI partion with the command below.

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=archlinux --efi-directory=/boot/efi

Configure grub

Grub will automatically create the Arch Linux boot options.

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Create hostname

You will need to choose a name that this machine will be called on the network. An example would me "Chromebook". Replace MYHOST with your chosen hostname.

# echo MYHOST > /etc/hostname

Create hosts

We also need to create a hosts file. All 3 lines below create the hosts file.

# echo "127.0.0.1       localhost" > /etc/hosts

# echo "::1             localhost" >> /etc/hosts

Replace (both) MYHOST with your chosen hostname in the command below.

# echo "127.0.0.1       MYHOST.localdomain MYHOST" >> /etc/hosts

Create a user

We need to create a new user with sudo privialges. Replace MYUSER below with your desired new user name.

# useradd -m MYUSER -G wheel

Give your new user a password.

# passwd MYUSER

Create a root password

Give the root user password too.

# passwd

Fix KDE fallback cursor

KDE will sometimes fallback to the Adwaita cursor. Change the default to breeze.

# sed -i 's/Adwaita/breeze_cursors/' /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme

Boot into new Arch Linux

We need to exit the chroot environment.

# exit

Now we need to reboot into the new Arch Linux system. Be sure to remove the USB at shutdown and let it boot into the new system.

# reboot

Finale configuration

Select a Time Zone

The command piped into more displays only a single page. Pressing enter will let you scroll though the list.

# timedatectl list-timezones | more

Set Time Zone

Set your timezone. Replace Europe/London below with yours. # timedatectl set-timezone Europe/London

Update system clock

# timedatectl set-ntp true

Set Locale

We will make sure your locale is set. Replace en_GB.UTF-8 with your locale.

# localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

Set keyboard keymap

Double check your console keyboard is set. Replace uk with your keymap from before. The keymap is us by default.

# localectl set-keymap uk

See list of xll-keymap layouts

We will set the X11 keyboad keymap. This is different from the keymap above. The x11-keymap is us by default.

# localectl list-x11-keymap-layouts

Set x11-keymap

Replace gb with your x11-keymap. The x11-keymap is us by default.

# localectl set-x11-keymap gb

Set x11-keymap for SDDM

The KDE login manager SDDM will need it's own x11-keymap setting. Use the same x11-keymap, replacing gb below. The x11-keymap is us by default.

# echo "setxkbmap gb" > /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

Enable required services

Enabling system services will start them during the next boot. We need to enable Network Manager to user the internet.

# systemctl enable NetworkManager

Enable bluetooth servie.

# systemctl enable bluetooth

Enabling SDDM will make the system boot to the graphical login manager for KDE.

# systemctl enable sddm

Reboot

Now it is time to reboot into your new Arch Linux system.

# reboot

Other settings and fixes

Pygame & Pygame Zero

Install Pygame with pacman

If you haven't already installed pygame use the official Arch Linux packages. Numpy is also required and we will use pip too.

# sudo pacman -S --needed python-pygame python-numpy python-pip python-wheel

Install Pygame Zero

The official release is currently broken and not compatable with the latest python. It also attempts to install a non working version of pygame. We will use the pip command to pull and install the development version without letting it install the pygame package that is not compatable. Please remember that this development version seems to require the def update() with pass or any other code in it to update the screen. Without this projects from the books will not display if you have not added the update call.

# sudo pip install git+https://github.com/lordmauve/pgzero.git --no-deps --upgrade
# sudo pip install pyfxr