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Arch linux installation

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • Laptop specific
  • Workstation overview
• Conventions
• Table of content

This document contains my detailed install procedure for Arch Linux, covering my 2 use cases :

• Dual boot EFI Arch Linux / Windows 10 on the same SSD on my laptop, with systemd-bootctl as the OS switcher

• Dual install EFI Arch Linux / Windows 10 on 2 different SSD on my workstation, with the motherboard EFI bios as the OS swticher (no dual boot)

As 90% of the steps are the same, assume a step is common to both types of install unless flagged otherwise using or .

Important

Windows is assumed to have been installed first (Windows installer can do messy things if it detects a Linux boot partition). This procedure will cover how to configure Windows to ensure peaceful cohabitation with Arch linux.

Overview

• Base install of Arch Linux

  • disk partitionning

  • Bootloader : systemd-bootctl

  • Network config through NetworkManager, using Intel ethernet cards + Google DNS

• Desktop environment :

  • Xorg

  • GNOME

• Advanced console environment :

  • Terminal emulator : Kitty

  • Shell : Zsh + customisations (Powerlevel10K, completions, syntax highlighting, fzf, etc…​) + Nerd fonts with ligatures

• Dev environment

  • Java, Python (vanilla + Anaconda)

  • VS code as the default code editor

  • Git + SSH + GnuPG, with gpg-agent acting as the ssh-agent, enabling signed commit for Github / Gitlab

Laptop specific

• Intel CPU configuration

• usage of Intel wifi card with NetworkManager

Workstation overview

• AMD CPU configuration

• GPU : nvidia card using nvidia-dkms drivers, using legacy XOrg mode (not Wayland), assuming 1 GPU and a dual screen setup

• CUDA

Conventions

denotes instructions valid only for the laptop (Lenovo T480s) installation

denotes instructions valid only for the workstation

Table of content

The sections follow the Arch wiki installation guide organization.

1. Preparation : EFI bios & windows 10 configuration before setting up Arch

2. Pre-installation : configuration of the Arch setup environment and disk partitioning

3. Installation : base install + base configuration

4. Post-installation: TODO

5. Desktop environment: GNOME config + graphical apps

6. Dev environment: Common frameworks (Java, Python, CUDA), SSH/GnuPG