Arch Linux

Arch Linux is a Linux-based operating system.

Contents

Installation

But roughly...

Download an ISO and flash to a USB
- try: dd bs=4M if=path/to/archlinux-version-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdXN conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress
Boot into the live USB
Partition and format the installation drive with
- an EFI System Partition (ESP) with ~512K formatted as FAT32
  - sometimes this partition type is labeled EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
- a swap partition
- a root partition formatted as ext4
  - leave as the default (Linux) partition type
mount(8) the root partition to /mnt, and then the ESP to /mnt/boot
swapon(8) the swap partition
install the kernel
- try: pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware
generate the fstab(5) file
- try: genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
chroot(1) into the new installation
- try: arch-chroot /mnt
install grub and any microcode that may be needed
setup the boot loader
- try: grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/mnt/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB then grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg`
if needed, install and setup networking (because the live USB includes some daemons and utilities that aren't installed and enabled by default)
poweroff(8), remove the live USB, and try booting directly into the new installation

Arch Linux is a rolling release. There are no versioned releases, just the current state.

Keep an installation of Arch Linux up-to-date by frequently running:

sudo pacman -Syyu