Arch Linux is a system that I love for its flexibility and usability. Its installation is considered one of the more difficult ones because it places the burden of deciding on many details on us, which we don’t worry about during our daily work with the computer.

For example, let’s consider the choice of a DHCP client, which allows us to obtain an IP address, subnet mask, default gateway address, and DNS server addresses. There are two available programs for handling the DHCP protocol. It’s up to you which one you choose to install:

Network configuration (English) - ArchWiki

We make more of these kinds of decisions during the installation of Arch Linux, so the best source of knowledge will always be ArchWiki. This article aims to show my installation, which you can replicate in full or select valuable elements from it and incorporate them into your own fitting installation.

The installation will be shown on both UEFI and BIOS computers.

Next, we will discuss:

1. Connecting to a Wi-Fi network
2. Installing the system
3. Installing the window manager i3-gaps
4. Configuring i3 and basic programs

The core of the installation is depicted in the graphic below, but some commands may differ for us.

Preparing a Bootable USB Drive

We can download the Arch ISO image from torrents:

Arch Linux - Downloads

However, since CDs are no longer used, the default action is to write it to USB. To do this, we insert the USB drive into the computer and check what name it received using one of the commands dmesg | grep Attached, df -h, or lsblk.

In our case, it is sde. We unmount the USB stick with the command:

sudo umount /dev/sde1

After that, we upload the iso image from the directory to the pendrive.

sudo dd bs=8M if=arch.iso of=/dev/sde status=progress

After inserting the pendrive into the target machine and starting it, you usually need to use F12 during startup, but it depends on the computer model and BIOS settings.

If successful, we should see:

After confirming with ENTER, we will be taken to the installer console

Connecting to wifi using iwctl

Establishing an internet connection is our first task.

We will start with a list of available devices, type iwctl, and then device list.

The list of networks is available by entering station wlan0 get-networks

We connect to the selected network using the command station wlan0 connect TP-Link_CEC8 and enter the password.

In the case of a very old Acer Aspire One laptop - I had a wifi driver error and had to connect via ethernet.

Arch Linux (dual boot with Win 10). Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt. Caps Lock indicator blinking until reboot

To exit iwctl, we type quit.

To check if we have established a connection correctly, we can use

ping -c 3 google.com

Arch Installation

We install reflector

pacman -Sy reflector

Updating the repository list

reflector -c "Poland" --latest 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

If your internet is slow, add the flag --download-timeout, e.g.:

reflector -c "Poland" --latest 5 --sort rate --download-timeout 60 --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Using fdisk -l or lsblk to display available disks

If we see an error

GPT PMBR size mismatch will be corrected by w(rite)

we fix it by entering

parted -l

and then fix.

Partitions can be set up with the command

cfdisk /dev/sda

Of course, the disk address may be different for you than /dev/sda. We choose the type linux (x86).

Now we need to determine whether we are installing a bootable system from BIOS or through UEFI. If we’re unsure, let’s check if our motherboard supports UEFI, and if so, it’s better to choose UEFI. If you have a new computer, you can skip the “BIOS” section and go to “UEFI”.

BIOS

On older computers, we will use BIOS. With the program cfdisk or fdisk, we can set:

• bootable partition sda1 with type 83 Linux
• non-bootable partition sda2 with type 82 Linux Swap

We format the created partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

We mount the ready partition to /mnt

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

We can now skip the “UEFI” section and move on to “Pacstrap”

UEFI

In the case of UEFI, we need to prepare a GPT table. You can use the more user-friendly program cfdisk, or the more advanced fdisk. Below I show this in fdisk.

fdisk /dev/sda

selecting option g

Creating uefi partition by choosing n (new), ENTER (do not change the first sector), +200M (setting the last sector to + 200 MB).

Setting the type to EFI System by using t (as type), 1 (type number EFI System).

Creating the second partition n (new), ENTER (default number 2), ENTER (default starting block), ENTER (default ending block).

Saving changes by selecting w.

Formatting the UEFI partition to fat 32

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

Formatting the file system of the second partition to ext4:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

We mount the partition to the system in the directory /mnt.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

And the UEFI partition to /mnt/boot, we first need to create this directory.

mkdir /mnt/boot

and now install

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Thanks to the slblk command, we can check if the mounting is correct.

Pacstrap

And we install the system using the pacstrap command.

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware nano

Generating the fstab file.

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

Entering the installed system

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Swapfile

Preparing swap:

fallocate -l 2GB /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile

We add to /etc/fstab

/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0

Time Zone

We set the time zone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Warsaw /etc/localtime

Generating adjtime to synchronize the system clock with the hardware clock

hwclock --systohc

Language

We will set the locale by commenting out one of the lines in the locale.gen file.

nano /etc/locale.gen

We generate language support

locale-gen

In the file /etc/locale.conf we enter LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8

echo LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

And in /etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=pl
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16
FONT_MAP=8859-2

Network

In /etc/hostname we set the hostname. This is the name of our computer - useful if we have multiple devices on the local network.

In /etc/hosts we add lines

127.0.0.1    localhost localhost.localdomain    preciselab

the third column contains the hostname previously selected.

We install networkmanager.

pacman -S networkmanager kea

We enable the NetworkManager service

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Useful Packages

It is an individual decision what other packages the system should include. I will list and describe several that I recommend.

• network-manager-applet - frontend for managing network connections
• wireless_tools - open project sponsored by HP - contains tools such as iwconfig iwlist iwspy wipriv and ifrename for handling wifi networks
• wpa_supplicant - support for encrypted wifi WEP, WPA, WPA2 and WPA3 - essential today
• dialog - package for displaying dialog windows from bash scripts, required for using wifi-menu
• netctl - console tool for managing networks (includes wifi-menu)
• os-prober - tool for detecting other operating systems and devices, useful if grub does not see them
• base-devel - set of packages for compilation, text processing and compression
• linux-headers - scripts for building kernel modules
• reflector - script for automating the selection of mirror servers
• git - version control system used for programming and installing packages
• cups - printer management system developed by Apple
• xdg-utils - utility tools for XDG MIME applications
• xdg-user-dirs - tool for integrating the user directory with other programs, particularly useful for file managers
• openssh - software for connecting via ssh
• iwd - tool for connecting to the network e.g. via iwctl

We can install them with the command:

pacman -S network-manager-applet wireless_tools wpa_supplicant dialog netctl os-prober base-devel linux-headers reflector git cups xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs openssh iwd

If you want to use Bluetooth, you will also need bluez bluez-utils.

Now we will install the bootloader so that the system can start correctly. Depending on whether you chose the BIOS or UEFI option, proceed to the appropriate section.

Boot loader in BIOS

Installing the bootloader

pacman -S grub

we use the command grub-install

grub-install /dev/sda

and we create the grub configuration file

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

Boot loader in UEFI

Installing the bootloader

pacman -S grub efibootmgr

we use the command grub-install

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-direcotry=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

in case of error

this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition

we fix it with the command

parted /dev/sda
set 1 boot off
set 1 bios_grub on
q

grub2-install: “this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition”

In case of the error

“EFI variables are not supported on this system”

we exit chroot by exit and type

modprobe efivars

“EFI variables are not supported on this system”

If we see the error

Module efivars not found in directory /lib/modules/5.10.3-arch1-1

we need to restart the computer in efi mode. This is because some machines can choose to boot in bios or efi mode.

The documentation says that we can check if it works by typing:

efivar-tester

but I do not recommend this method, it loops infinitely for me and can only be turned off by powering off the computer.

We create a configuration file for grub

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

Users

To be able to use the system on a daily basis without root permissions while quickly acquiring them, we will install sudo.

pacman -S sudo

Setting a password for root

passwd root

Adding a user for daily use

useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash daniel

We give it a password

passwd daniel

We allow the wheel group to use sudo.

EDITOR=nano visudo

we remove the comment before the line

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

We exit the installer

exit

Unmounting the partition

umount /mnt

Turning off the computer

shutdown -P now

Network Issues

If after entering

ip addr

interfaces are disabled, they can be enabled by

ip link set dev <interface> up

To check which interfaces are worth enabling, nmcli may be useful.

If you can’t enable the interface but know the name and password of the network, you can try a direct connection by following the recommendations from the link:

how do I attach devices to connections using nmcli?

I have no idea why this works.

If domain name resolution to IP addresses is not working correctly, we need to choose the default DNS. We set this in

/etc/resolv.conf

typing

nameserver 8.8.8.8

We will check the status of the service responsible for assigning IP addresses to domains with the command.

systemctl status systemd-resolved.service

Key Errors

If we have errors such as

Signature is unknown trust

We can check the given key

pacman-key -l Thorsten

and if it has expired, refresh the key list

pacman-key --refresh-keys

[Podpis jest nieznanym zaufaniem [ROZWIĄZANE] / Problemy z Pacmanem i aktualizacją pakietów / Fora Arch Linux]

](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=207957)

Installation of yay

Yay is an auxiliary program for managing dependencies. If you have installed base-devel, you can download yay using git.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git

and install with commands

cd yay && makepkg -si

I3 Installation

The window manager itself is installed with the command

yay -S i3

You need to add a font and a bar to it.

yay -S ttf-dejavu i3status

We install xorg.

yay -S xorg xorg-xinit rxvt-unicode

And drivers for your card. You can check the card type with the command lspci | grep VGA.

For the AMD/ATI RV370 [Radeon X300] card, it is

yay -S xf86-video-ati

For nvidia, these will be:

yay -S nvidia nvidia-utils

For Atom Processor Integrated Graphics Controller it is

yay -S xf86-video-intel

If you don’t know which package to install for your card, I recommend looking for it on the page:

Xorg - ArchWiki

To support sound, we also add alsa-utils, pulseaudio, and pavucontrol

yay -S alsa-utils pulseaudio pavucontrol
speaker-test -c2
alsamixer

Editing the file

nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

commenting lines

#twm &
#exec xterm ....

and adding at the end

exec i3

now we can enable graphic mode by typing

startx

We confirm the generation of the configuration by pressing ENTER and confirm the win key as the main key.

I3 and rxvt-unicode Configuration

A valuable introduction to i3 was recorded by Distroverse:

I based my configuration on it. You can find it in the repository

my-arch-i3-config/config at main · gustawdaniel/my-arch-i3-config

but I recommend you to look through several different configurations and read the i3 documentation, which is one of the better window manager documentation.

Meanwhile, we will take care of the terminal urxvt-unicode. I recommend this video

We move to the home directory

cd ~

Creating Configuration

touch .Xresources

we can paste one of the ready configurations into this file

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gustawdaniel/my-arch-i3-config/main/.Xresources > .Xresources

but I recommend reading several different comparisons or watching videos that explain the possible options in detail and selecting the ones that are best for us.

The command for reloading the configuration is

xrdb ~/.Xresources

Browser

We install the browser, the choice of which is once again yours. In the case of a fantastic browser: Zen. It is:

yay -S zen-browser-bin

The first add-on is Ublock Origin.

Polish keyboard layout in X11

To use Polish characters, in the graphical environment set the keyboard layout by inserting the configuration into the file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-keyboard.conf

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "system-keyboard"
    MatchIsKeyboard "on"
    Option "XkbLayout" "pl"
EndSection

Launcher

The simplest launcher is dmenu. We install it with the command

yay -S dmenu

and we use it by the key combination super+d

Screenshots

In my opinion, the best is flameshot. We install it with the command

yay -S flameshot

In the i3 configuration, we can link it to the print screen button.

bindsym Print exec flameshot gui

Controlling Other Computers

If we are using multiple computers and want to control them using one mouse and keyboard on all computers, we can install barrier.

yay -S barrier

On the client device, we set the server ID:

And on the server:

We indicate where the client will be positioned relative to our computer.

In case of connection setup issues, turning both computers off and on always helped.

Oh my zsh

Zsh is an alternative shell to bash with greater customization and extension options. We install it with the command:

yay -S zsh

Next, we install oh my zsh.

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Wallpaper

We will start by checking the resolution of the monitors with the command

 xrandr --listmonitors

We download the wallpaper in the appropriate size and save it to a file

.config/i3/.bg.jpeg

We install feh with the command

yay -S feh

We write a script to set the wallpaper in the .fehbg file.

#!/bin/sh
feh --no-fehbg --bg-scale '/home/daniel/.config/i3/.bg.jpeg'

We give it rights to run

sudo chmod +x ~/.fehbg

in .config/i3/config we enable it with the command

exec --no-startup-id sh ~/.fehbg

Neovim

A slightly more comfortable version of vim.

yay -S neovim

Synchronization of the System Clock

If there is a discrepancy in the date or time, it is worth enabling synchronization with servers that indicate the correct time.

sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

Resource Monitoring

For checking CPU usage and temperature, used RAM, network transfer - that is, overall monitoring, I recommend bashtop.

yay -S bashtop

Display Manager

The program in which I select the session type and enter my login and password is ly.

yay -S ly
sudo systemctl enable ly.service

Tmux and Tmuxinator

To manage sessions, windows, and window splitting in the terminal, I use tmux.

yay -S tmux ruby
gem install tmuxinator

His configuration:

Bitwarden

I used keeweb for password management. I am currently using bitwarden:

yay -S bitwardern

the following configuration in the file ~/.config/i3/config is responsible for managing its visibility:

exec --no-startup-id bitwarden
bindsym $Mod+k [instance="bitwarden"] scratchpad show; [instance="bitwarden"] move position center
for_window [instance="bitwarden"] move scratchpad
for_window [instance="bitwarden"] border pixel 3
for_window [instance="bitwarden"] resize set 800 600

Our Arch Linux with i3 is ready

We might still lack an IDE for effective work if we are programmers or obs if we are recording videos or graphic editing programs. However, we can consider the system and basic programs as ready.

If you think some programs are missing from the list, or you see places where something could be simplified, let us know in the comments.