TLDR.md

Installing Arch Linux [ ANY GPU | DUALBOOT FRIENDLY | TL;DR ]

#manuall #dualboot #gnome+gdm #encrypted #lvm #nvidia-friendly

This guide will help you you manually install Arch Linux. Consider reading the Full Guide for more details.

Installing Arch Linux

I will assume that you already in the installation environment.

1. Identify the disk & partition it

lsblk

2. Create partitions

fdisk /dev/{disk_id}

Use m to get help on creating partitions.

Create at least 3 partitions:

1. Swap partition (At least half of your RAM) (optional) {swap_partition_id}
2. EFI partition (1GB) {efi_partition_id}
3. Boot partition (2GB) {boot_partition_id}
4. Root partition (rest of the disk) {main_partition_id}

Change the partition type to Linux LVM for the root partition using t command. (Type 44 for LVM).

Write the changes to the disk using w command. This will apply the changes, be careful and fourple check the changes before writing.

Enable swap partition if you created it:

mkswap -L "Linux Swap" /dev/{swap_partition_id}
swapon /dev/{swap_partition_id}

3. Format the partitions

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/{efi_partition_id}
mkfs.ext4 /dev/{boot_partition_id}

4. Encrypt the root partition & create LVM

cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/{main_partition_id}
cryptsetup open --type luks /dev/{main_partition_id} lvm

pvcreate /dev/mapper/lvm
vgcreate vg0 /dev/mapper/lvm

lvcreate -L 30G vg0 -n lv_root
lvcreate -l 100%FREE vg0 -n lv_home

List volume groups: vgdisplay List logical volumes: lvdisplay

Insert dm_mod kernel module

modprobe dm_mod

Scan for available volume groups & activate them

vgscan
vgchange -ay

5. Format Logical Volumes

mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg0/lv_root
mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg0/lv_home

6. Mount the partitions

mount /dev/vg0/lv_root /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/{boot_partition_id} /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/vg0/lv_home /mnt/home

7. Install the base system

pacstrap -i /mnt base

8. Generate fstab

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

Setting up In-progress installation

1. Chroot into the installation

arch-chroot /mnt

2. Set up users

# Set root password
passwd
# Add a user
useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash {username}
# Set user password
passwd {username}

3. Install necessary packages

pacman -S base-devel dosfstools grub efibootmgr networkmanager gnome gnome-tweaks lvm2 mtools nano openssh os-prober sudo

4. Install linux kernel

pacman -S linux linux-headers linux-firmware
# Or if you want to install LTS kernel as well (may be useful if main kernel will not boot)
pacman -S linux linux-headers linux-lts linux-lts-headers linux-firmware

5. Installing Video Drivers

NVIDIA

Click to expand

If you installed the LTS kernel, you will also need to install the nvidia-lts package.

pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-lts

Update the mkinitcpio configuration:

nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Find the MODULES line and add nvidia to it. It should look like this:

MODULES=(nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)

Update the grub configuration:

nano /etc/default/grub

Find the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line and add nvidia-drm.modeset=1 to it, before quit. It should look like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 nvidia_drm.modeset=1 quiet"

You may also need to modify /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf:

nano /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf

to include the following:

options nvidia-drm modeset=1 fbdev=1

AMD / INTEL

Click to expand

# For Intel
pacman -S mesa intel-media-driver

# For AMD
pacman -S mesa libva-mesa-driver

6. Generating Ram Disks for our Kernels

Configure mkinitcpio

nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Find the HOOKS line and add encrypt & lvm2 before filesystems. It should look like this:

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

Rebuild the initramfs image for your kernel(s):

mkinitcpio -p linux

If you're using the LTS kernel, you will need to rebuild the initramfs image for it as well:

mkinitcpio -p linux-lts

Ignore any Warnings.

7. Let's configure time zones and locales

Locale

Edit the locale file and uncomment the locales you want to use:

nano /etc/locale.gen

Generate the locales:

locale-gen

Set the locale:

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

Timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/{Region}/{City} /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

8. Set the Hostname & Hosts File

echo "{hostname}" > /etc/hostname

Edit the hosts file:

nano /etc/hosts

Add the following lines:

127.0.0.1   localhost
::1         localhost
127.0.1.1   {hostname}.localdomain {hostname}

9. Configure Grub

Edit the grub configuration file:

nano /etc/default/grub

Find the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line and add cryptdevice=/dev/{main_partition_id}:vg0 to it, before quiet. It should look like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 cryptdevice=/dev/{main_partition_id}:vg0 quiet"

Nvidia users should also add nvidia-drm.modeset=1 to the line if they haven't already.

Mount the EFI partition:

mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/{efi_partition_id} /boot/efi

Install grub:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --recheck --removable /dev/{disk_id}

Copy grub locale:

cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo

Make grub configuration:

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

11. Enable Services

systemctl enable gdm
systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl enable sshd
# Enable everything else that you need

FOR NVIDIA USERS: If you have an NVIDIA card and GDM won’t start, you must run this command:

ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/61-gdm.rules

12. Exit & Reboot

exit

umount -R /mnt
reboot

Post-Installation Steps

I will cover the post-installation steps in a separate guide.

You might want to edit the sudoers file to allow your user to use sudo without entering a password. This is optional, but it can be convenient.

nano /etc/sudoers

Just find the wheel group and uncomment that line.

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Youtube guide

If you prefer a video guide, It will be available soon.