Beginners Guide To Arch Linux 191q54

mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp2s0f0: mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 1000 link/ether 00:11:25:31:69:20 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp3s0: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT qlen 1000 link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

In this example, the Ethernet interface is enp2s0f0 . If you are unsure, your Ethernet interface is likely to start with the letter "e", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "w". You can also use iwconfig and see which interfaces are not wireless: # iwconfig enp2s0f0 wlp3s0

lo

no wireless extensions. IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"NETGEAR97" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: 2C:B0:5D:9C:72:BF Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:430 Missed beacon:0 no wireless extensions.

In this example, neither enp2s0f0 nor the loopback device have wireless extensions, meaning enp2s0f0 is our Ethernet interface.

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Beginners' Guide - ArchWiki

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https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide

You also need to know these settings: Static IP address. Subnet mask. Gateway's IP address. Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses. Domain name (unless you are on a local LAN, in which case you can make it up). Activate the connected Ethernet interface (e.g.

enp2s0f0

):

# ip link set enp2s0f0 up

Add the address: # ip addr add ip_address/subnetmask dev interface_name

For example: # ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev enp2s0f0

For more options, run

man ip .

Add your gateway like this, substituting your own gateway's IP address: # ip route add default via ip_address

For example: # ip route add default via 192.168.1.1

Edit

resolv.conf

, substituting your name servers' IP addresses and your local domain name:

# nano /etc/resolv.conf nameserver 61.23.173.5 nameserver 61.95.849.8 search example.com

Note: Currently, you may include a maximum of three nameserver lines. In order to overcome this limitation, you can use a locally caching nameserver like Dnsmasq. You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Network Configuration page. Wireless Follow this procedure if you need wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) during the installation process.

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First, identify the name of your wireless interface. # iw dev phy#0 Interface wlp3s0 ifindex 3 wdev 0x1 addr 00:21:6a:5e:52:bc type managed

In this example, wlp3s0 is the available wireless interface. If you are unsure, your wireless interface is likely to start with the letter "w", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "e". Note: If you do not see output similar to this, then your wireless driver has not been loaded. If this is the case, you must load the driver yourself. Please see Wireless Setup for more detailed information. Bring the interface up with: # ip link set wlp3s0 up

A small percentage of wireless chipsets also require firmware, in addition to a corresponding driver. If you get output like SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory , this means you will need to manually load the firmware. If unsure, invoke dmesg to query the kernel log for a firmware request from the wireless chipset. For example, if you have an Intel chipset which requires and has requested firmware from the kernel at boot: # dmesg | grep firmware firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode

If there is no output, it may be concluded that the system's wireless chipset does not require firmware. Warning: Wireless chipset firmware packages (for cards which require them) are pre-installed under /usr/lib/firmware in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) but must be explicitly installed to your actual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it! Package installation is covered later in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and firmware before rebooting! See Wireless Setup if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding firmware installation for your particular chipset. Next, use network:

netctl (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=netctl)

's

wifi-menu

to connect to a

# wifi-menu wlp3s0

You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed 07/31/2013 04:28 AM


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Wireless Setup page. Alternatively, use iw to a network with:

dev wlp3s0 scan | grep SSID

to scan for available networks, then connect

# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_phrase "ssid" "psk")

You need to replace ssid with the name of your network (e.g. "Linksys etc...") and psk with your wireless , leaving the quotes around the network name and . Finally, you have to give your interface an IP address. This can be set manually or using the dh: # dhcd wlp3s0

If that does not work, issue the following commands: # # # # #

echo 'ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant' > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf wpa_phrase <ssid> <phrase> >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf ip link set up # May not be needed as dhcd should bring it up but may be needed for wpa_supplicant. wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -c /foobar.conf -i dhcd -A

Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection. Behind a proxy server If you are behind a proxy server, you will need to export the http_proxy and environment variables. See Proxy settings for more information.

ftp_proxy

Prepare the storage drive Warning: Partitioning can destroy data. You are strongly cautioned and advised to backup any critical data before proceeding. Choose a partition table type You have to choose between GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR). GPT is more modern and recommended for new installations. If you want to setup a system which dual boots with windows, then you have to pay special attention to this choice. See Partitioning#Choosing_between_GPT_and_MBR for the gory details. It is recommended to always use GPT for UEFI boot, as some UEFI firmwares do not allow UEFI-MBR boot. Some BIOS systems may have issues with GPT. See http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org /8035.html and http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html for more info and possible

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workarounds. Note: If you are installing to a USB flash key, see Installing Arch Linux on a USB key. Partitioning tool Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/.php) is a good example, and is provided as a "live" CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php) . It is also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. A drive should first be partitioned and the partitions should be formatted with a file system before rebooting. Tip: When using Gparted, selecting the option to create a new partition table gives an "msdos" partition table by default. If you are intending to follow the advice to create a GPT partition table then you need to choose "Advanced" and then select "gpt" from the drop-down menu. While gparted may be easier to use, if you just want to create a few partitions on a new disk you can get the job done quickly by just using one of the fdisk variants which are included on the install medium. There are short usage instructions for both gdisk and fdisk. Partition scheme You can decide into how many partitions the disk should be split, and for which directory each partition should be used in the system. The mapping from partitions to directories (frequently called 'mount points') is the Partition scheme. The simplest, and not a bad choice, is to make just one huge / partition. Another popular choice is to have a / and a /home partition. Additional required partitions: If you have a UEFI motherboard, you will need to create an extra UEFI System Partition. If you have a BIOS motherboard (or plan on booting in BIOS compatibility mode) and you want to setup GRUB on a GPT-partitioned drive, you will need to create an extra BIOS Boot Partition of size 1007 KiB and EF02 type code. Syslinux does not need one.

See Swap for details if you wish to set up a swap partition or swap file. A swap file is easier to resize than a partition and can be created at any point after installation, but cannot be used with a Btrfs filesystem. Considerations for dualbooting with windows If you have an existing OS installation, please keep in mind that if you where to just write a completely new partition table to disk then all the data which was previously on disk would be lost. The recommended way to setup a linux/windows dual booting system is to first install

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windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the windows setup, boot into the linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for linux while leaving the existing windows partitions untouched. Some newer computers come pre-installed with Windows 8 which will be using Secure Boot. Arch Linux currently does not Secure Boot, but some Windows 8 installations have been seen not to boot if Secure Boot is turned off in the BIOS. In some cases it is necessary to turn off both Secure Boot as well as Fastboot in the BIOS options in order to allow Windows 8 to boot without Secure Boot. However there are potential security risks in turning off Secure Boot for booting up Windows 8. Therefore, it may be a better option to keep the Windows 8 install intact and have an independent hard drive for the Linux install which can then be partitioned from scratch using a GPT partition table. Once that is done, creating several ext4/FAT32/swap partitions on the second drive may be a better way forward if the computer has two drives available. This is often not easy or possible on a small laptop. Currently, Secure Boot is still not in a fully stable state for reliable operation, even for Linux distributions that it. If you have already created your partitions, proceed to Create filesystems. Otherwise, see the following example. Example The Arch Linux install media includes the following partitioning tools: cgdisk , parted .

fdisk , gdisk , cfdisk ,

Tip: Use the lsblk command to list the hard disks attached to your system, along with the sizes of their existing partitions. This will help you to be confident you are partitioning the right disk.

The example system will contain a 15 GB root partition, and a home partition for the remaining space. Choose either MBR or GPT. Do not choose both! It should be emphasized that partitioning is a personal choice and that this example is only for illustrative purposes. See Partitioning. Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions

# cgdisk /dev/sda

Root Choose New (or press N ) – Enter for the first sector (2048) – type in default hex code (8300) – Enter for a blank partition name.

15G

–

Enter

for the

Home

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Press the down arrow a couple of times to move to the larger free space area. Choose New (or press N ) – Enter for the first sector – Enter to use the rest of the drive

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(or you could type in the desired size; for example (8300) – Enter for a blank partition name.

30G )

–

Enter

for the default hex code

Here is what it should look like: Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name ---------------------------------------------------------------1007.0 KiB free space 1 15.0 GiB Linux filesystem 2 123.45 GiB Linux filesystem

Double check and make sure that you are happy with the partition sizes as well as the partition table layout before continuing. If you would like to start over, you can simply select Quit (or press changes and then restart cgdisk.

Q)

to exit without saving

If you are satisfied, choose Write (or press Shift+W ) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type yes and choose Quit (or press Q ) to exit without making any more changes. Using fdisk to create MBR partitions

Note: There is also cfdisk, which is similar in UI to cgdisk, but it currently does not automatically align the first partition properly. That is why the classic fdisk tool is used here. Launch fdisk with: # fdisk /dev/sda

Create the first partition: 1. Command (m for help): type n and press Enter 2. Partition type: Select (default p): press Enter 3. Partition number (1-4, default 1): press Enter 4. First sector (2048-209715199, default 2048): press Enter 5. Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-209715199....., press Enter

default 209715199):

type

+15G

and

Then create a second partition: 1. Command (m for help): type n and press Enter 2. Partition type: Select (default p): press Enter 3. Partition number (1-4, default 2): press Enter 4. First sector (31459328-209715199, default 31459328): press Enter 5. Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (31459328-209715199....., default

209715199):

press

Enter

Now preview the new partition table:

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Command (m for help):

type

p

and press

Enter

Disk /dev/sda: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes, 209715200 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x5698d902 Device Boot /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2

Start 2048 31459328

End 31459327 209715199

Blocks 15728640 89127936

Id 83 83

System Linux Linux

Then write the changes to disk: Command (m for help):

type

w

and press

Enter

If everything went well fdisk will now quit with the following message: The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Syncing disks.

In case this doesn't work because fdisk encountered an error, you can use the to exit.

q

command

Create filesystems Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a filesystem. To format the partitions with an ext4 filesystem: Warning: Double check and triple check that it is actually want to format. You can use lsblk to help with this.

/dev/sda1

and

/dev/sda2

that you

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), do not forget to format and activate it with: # mkswap /dev/sdaX # swapon /dev/sdaX

For UEFI, you should format the ESP partition (usually sda1) with: # mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1

Mount the partitions Each partition is identified with a number suffix. For example, sda1 specifies the first partition of the first drive, while sda designates the entire drive.

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To display the current partition layout: # lsblk /dev/sda

Note: Do not mount more than one partition to the same directory. And pay attention, because the mounting order is important. First, mount the root partition on different), it would be:

/mnt .

Following the example above (yours may be

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Then mount the home partition and any other separate partition ( /boot , have any:

/var ,

etc), if you

# mkdir /mnt/home # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

In case you have a UEFI motherboard, mount the UEFI partition: # mkdir -p /mnt/boot # mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/boot

Select a mirror Before installing, you may want to edit the mirrorlist file and place your preferred mirror first. A copy of this file will be installed on your new system by pacstrap as well, so it is worth getting it right. # nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist ## ## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist ## Sorted by mirror score from mirror status page ## Generated on 2012-MM-DD ## Server = http://mirror.example.xyz/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ...

to copy a Server line. PageUp key to scroll up. Ctrl+U to paste it at the top of the list. Ctrl+X to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press filename. Alt+6

Y

and

Enter

to use the same

If you want, you can make it the only mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using Ctrl+K ), but it is usually a good idea to have a few more, in case the first one goes offline.

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Tip: Use the Mirrorlist Generator (https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/) to get an updated list for your country. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP, because of something called keepalive. With FTP, pacman has to send out a signal each time it s a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways to generate a mirror list, see Sorting mirrors and Reflector. Arch Linux MirrorStatus (https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/) reports various aspects about the mirrors such as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have been synced, etc. Note: Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always to force pacman to refresh all package lists with pacman -Syy . This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possible headaches. See Mirrors for more information. If you are using an older installation medium, your mirrorlist might be outdated, which might lead to problems when updating Arch Linux (see FS#22510 (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/22510) ). Therefore it is advised to obtain the latest mirror information as described above. Some issues have been reported in the Arch Linux forums (https://bbs.archlinux.org/) regarding network problems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [1] (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68944) and [2] (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65728) ). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved by replacing the default pacman file er with an alternative (see Improve Pacman Performance for more details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in VirtualBox, this issue has also been addressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.

Install the base system The base system is installed using the pacstrap (https://github.com/falconindy/arch-installscripts/blob/master/pacstrap.in) script. The -i switch can be omitted if you wish to install every package from the base group without prompting. # pacstrap -i /mnt base

Note:

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If pacman fails to your packages, check the system time with cal . If the system date is invalid (e.g. it shows the year 2010), g keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks on packages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either by doing so manually or with the ntp (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=ntp) client, and retry running the pacstrap command. Refer to Time page for more information on correcting system

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time. If pacman complains that error: , run the following command:

failed to commit transaction (invalid or corrupted package)

# pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archlinux

This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using pacman.

Generate an fstab Generate an fstab file with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages (see fstab#Identifying filesystems). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the -U option with -L . # genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab # nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Warning: The fstab file should always be checked after generating it. If you encounter errors running genfstab or later in the install process, do not run genfstab again; just edit the fstab file. A few considerations: The last field determines the order in which partitions are checked at start up: use 1 for the (non- btrfs ) root partition, which should be checked first; 2 for all other partitions you want checked at start up; and 0 means 'do not check' (see fstab#Field definitions). All btrfs partitions should have 0 for this field. Normally, you will also want your swap partition to have 0 .

Chroot and configure the base system Next, we chroot into our newly installed system: # arch-chroot /mnt

Note: Use

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

to chroot into a bash shell.

At this stage of the installation, you will configure the primary configuration files of your Arch Linux base system. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults. Closely following and understanding these steps is of key importance to ensure a properly configured system. Locale

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Locales are used by glibc and other locale-aware programs or libraries for rendering text, correctly displaying regional monetary values, time and date formats, alphabetic idiosyncrasies, and other locale-specific standards. There are two files that need editing:

locale.gen

and

locale.conf

.

The locale.gen file is empty by default (everything is commented out) and you need to remove the # in front of the line(s) you want. You may uncomment more lines than just English (US), as long as you choose their UTF-8 encoding: # nano /etc/locale.gen en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8

# locale-gen

This will run on every glibc upgrade, generating all the locales specified in The locale.conf file does not exist by default. Setting only will act as the default value for all other variables.

LANG

/etc/locale.gen .

should be enough. It

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

Note: If you set some other language than English (US) at the beginning of the install, the above commands would be something like: # echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8

To use other locales for other LC_* variables, run locale to see the available options and add them to locale.conf . It is not recommended to set the LC_ALL variable. An advanced example can be found here. Console font and keymap If you set a keymap at the beginning of the install process, load it now, as well, because the environment has changed. For example: # loadkeys de-latin1 # setfont Lat2-Terminus16

To make them available after reboot, edit

vconsole.conf

:

# nano /etc/vconsole.conf KEYMAP=de-latin1

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FONT=Lat2-Terminus16

– Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or Xorg. KEYMAP

– Available alternate console fonts reside in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ . The default (blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It is recommended that you change it to Lat2-Terminus16 , because according to /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/REE.Lat2-Terminus16 , it claims to "about 110 language sets". FONT

Possible option FONT_MAP – Defines the console map to load at boot. Read Removing it or leaving it blank is safe. See Console fonts and

man vconsole.conf

man setfont

.

for more information.

Time zone Available time zones and subzones can be found in the directories. To view the available , check the directory

/usr/share/zoneinfo/ /<SubZone>

/usr/share/zoneinfo/

:

# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/

Similarly, you can check the contents of directories belonging to a <SubZone>: # ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe

Create a symbolic link using this command:

/etc/localtime

to your zone file

/usr/share/zoneinfo/ /<SubZone>

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/ /<SubZone> /etc/localtime

Example: # ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Minsk /etc/localtime

Hardware clock Set the hardware clock mode uniformly between your operating systems. Otherwise, they may overwrite the hardware clock and cause time shifts. You can generate

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/etc/adjtime

automatically by using one of the following commands:

UTC (recommended) Note: Using UTC for the hardware clock does not mean that software will display 07/31/2013 04:28 AM



time in UTC. # hwclock --systohc --utc

To synchronize your "UTC" time over the internet, see NTPd. localtime (discouraged; used by default in Windows) Warning: Using localtime may lead to several known and unfixable bugs. However, there are no plans to drop for localtime. # hwclock --systohc --localtime

If you have (or planning on having) a dual boot setup with Windows: Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick registry fix is needed. Also, be sure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will default back to localtime. Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to localtime and disable any time-related services, like NTPd . This will let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to to boot into Windows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when DST kicks in. So please do not ask on the forums why the clock is one hour behind or ahead if you usually go for days or weeks without booting into Windows. Kernel modules Tip: This is just an example, you do not need to set it. All needed modules are automatically loaded by udev, so you will rarely need to add something here. Only add modules that you know are missing. For kernel modules to load during boot, place a name based on the program that uses them.

*.conf

file in

/etc/modules-load.d/

, with a

# nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-net.conf # Load 'virtio-net.ko' at boot. virtio-net

If there are more modules to load per *.conf , the module names can be separated by newlines. A good example are the VirtualBox Guest Additions. Empty lines and lines starting with

#

or

;

are ignored.

Hostname

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Set the hostname to your liking (e.g. arch): # echo myhostname > /etc/hostname

Note: There is no need to edit

/etc/hosts .

Configure the network You need to configure the network again, but this time for your newly installed environment. The procedure and prerequisites are very similar to the one described above, except we are going to make it persistent and automatically run at boot. Note: For more in-depth information on network configration, visit Network Configuration and Wireless Setup. If you would like to use the old interface naming scheme (ie. eth* and wlan*) you can accomplish this by creating an empty file at /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot.rules which will mask the file of the same name located under /usr/lib/udev/rules.d (alternatively, instead of an empty file, using a symlink to /dev/null is also an acceptable masking method).

Wired Dynamic IP

Using dhcd If you only use a single fixed wired network connection, you do not need a network management service and can simply enable the dhcd service: # systemctl enable dhcd.service

Note: If it doesn't work, use:

# systemctl enable dhcd@interface_name.service

Using netctl Copy a sample profile from

/etc/netctl/examples

to

/etc/netctl

:

# cd /etc/netctl # examples/ethernet-dh my-network

Edit the profile as needed (modify

Interface ):

# nano my-network

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Enable the


my-network

profile:

# netctl enable my-network

Using netctl-ifplugd Alternatively, you can use new networks: Install

netctl-ifplugd

, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to

ifplugd (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=ifplugd)

netctl-ifplugd

, which is required for

:

# pacman -S ifplugd

Then enable for interface that you want: # systemctl enable netctl-ifplugd@ .service

Tip: Netctl also provides netctl-auto , which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction with netctl-ifplugd . Static IP

Using netctl Copy a sample profile from


to

/etc/netctl

:

# cd /etc/netctl # examples/ethernet-static my-network


Interface , Address , Gateway

and

DNS ):

# nano my-network

Notice the

/24

in

Address

which is the CIDR notation of a

255.255.255.0

netmask

Enable above created profile to start it at every boot: # netctl enable my-network

Wireless Note: If your wireless adapter requires a firmware (as described in the above Establish an internet connection section and also here), install the package containing your firmware. Most of the time, the linux-firmware (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=linux-firmware) package will contain the needed firmware. Though for some devices, the required

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firmware might be in its own package. For example: # pacman -S zd1211-firmware

See Wireless Setup for more info. Install

iw (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=iw)

,

wpa_supplicant (https://www.archlinux.org

and wpa_actiond (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=wpa_actiond) which you will need to connect to a network: /packages/?name=wpa_supplicant)

# pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond

Adding wireless networks

Using wifi-menu Install

dialog (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=dialog)

, which is required for

wifi-menu :

# pacman -S dialog

After finishing the rest of this installation and rebooting, you can connect to the network with wifi-menu interface_name (where interface_name is the interface of your wireless chipset). # wifi-menu interface_name

Warning: This must be done *after* your reboot when you are no longer chrooted. The process spawned by this command will conflict with the one you have running outside of the chroot. Alternatively, you could just configure a network profile manually using the following templates so that you do not have to worry ing wifi-menu at all. Using manual netctl profiles Copy a network profile from


to

/etc/netctl

:

# cd /etc/netctl # examples/wireless-wpa my-network


Interface , ESSID

and

Key ):

# nano my-network

Connect automatically to known networks

Enable the netctl-auto service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects:

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# systemctl enable netctl-auto@interface_name.service

Tip: Netctl also provides netctl-ifplugd , which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction with netctl-auto . Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection.

Create an initial ramdisk environment Tip: Most s can skip this step and use the defaults provided in mkinitio.conf . The initramfs image (from the /boot folder) has already been generated based on this file when the linux (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=linux) package (the Linux kernel) was installed earlier with pacstrap . Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr is on a separate partition. Edit

/etc/mkinitio.conf

as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:

# mkinitio -p linux

Note: Arch VPS installations on QEMU (e.g. when using modules in mkinitio.conf to be able to boot.

virt-manager )

may need

virtio

# nano /etc/mkinitio.conf MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net"

Set the root Set the root with: # wd

Install and configure a bootloader For BIOS motherboards For BIOS systems, two bootloaders are available: Syslinux and GRUB. Choose the bootloader as per your convenience.

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Syslinux is (currently) limited to loading only files from the partition where it was installed. Its configuration file is considered to be easier to understand. An example configuration can be found here (https://bbs.archlinux.org 07/31/2013 04:28 AM



/viewtopic.php?pid=1109328#p1109328) . GRUB is more feature-rich and s more complex scenarios. Its configuration file(s) is more similar to a scripting language, which may be difficult for beginners to manually write. It is recommended that they automatically generate one. Syslinux

Note: If you opted for a GUID partition table (GPT) for your hard drive earlier, you need to install the gptfdisk (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=gptfdisk) package now for this next step to work, assuming you have not installed it already. Install the

package and then use the script to automatically install the bootloader ( -i ), mark the partition active by setting the boot flag ( -a ), and install the MBR boot code ( -m ): syslinux (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=syslinux)

syslinux-install_update

# pacman -S syslinux # syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

Configure syslinux.cfg to point to the right root partition. This step is vital. If it points to the wrong partition, Arch Linux will not boot. Change /dev/sda3 to reflect your root partition (if you partitioned your drive as in the example, your root partition is sda1). Do the same for the fallback entry. # nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg ... LABEL arch ... APPEND root=/dev/sda3 rw ...

For more information on configuring and using Syslinux, see Syslinux. GRUB

Install the grub (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=grub) package and then run to install the bootloader:

grub-install

Note: Change /dev/sda to reflect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do not use sdaX ). For GPT-partitioned drives on BIOS motherboards, you also need a "BIOS Boot Partition". See GPT-specific instructions and Install to GPT BIOS boot partition in the GRUB page.

# pacman -S grub # grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

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Note: If it is an installation on virtualbox as guest, while running grub-install command as in above, you might get an error like "/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible". Executing parted -s /dev/sda set 1 bios_grub on and then retrying grub-install should solve the problem. While using a manually created grub.cfg is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one: Tip: To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install os-prober (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=os-prober) ( pacman -S os-prober ) before running the next command. # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see GRUB. For UEFI motherboards For UEFI systems, several options are available. A complete list of options is available at UEFI Bootloaders. You may find that some options work while others do not. Otherwise, choose one as per your convenience. Here, we give two of the possibilities as examples: Boot the Linux kernel directly using EFISTUB. gummiboot is a simple boot manager, useful if you are dual booting. rEFInd is another alternative. GRUB is a more complete bootloader, usefull if you run into problems with the other two options. Note: For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned and an UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or larger, type EF00 , formatted with FAT32) must be present. For the following examples, this partition must be mounted on /boot . If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these. Note: If you run into problems, such as not being able to boot after the bootloader has been installed without any visible error. In this case, you will instead have to enter the UEFI shell and manually add an entry to the UEFI boot menu with the bcfg command, as described here.

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On some ASUS motherboards, there is an EFI bug that always reports MaxVariableSize=0 . Combined with a recent kernel that enforces checks on this value, this prevents efibootmgr from setting new EFI variables. These motherboards do not the UEFI Shell v2, so you cannot use the bcfg method either. To work around this, add efi_no_storage_paranoia to the kernel command line. You can do this by pressing "e" at the bootloader menu. On some UEFI motherboards like the Intel Z77 boards, adding entries with efibootmgr or bcfg from efi shell will not work because they don't show up on the boot menu list after being added to NVRAM.

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To solve this you have to trick the UEFI firmware that Windows boot manager is present on the ESP partition. Copy the bootx64.efi file from USB drive as bootmgfw.efi efi file to your ESP partition by booting into EFI shell and typing: FS1: cd EFI mkdir Microsoft cd Microsoft mkdir Boot FS0:\EFI\BOOT\bootx64.efi FS1:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi

After reboot, any entries added to NVRAM should show up in the boot menu.

EFISTUB

Install the efibootmgr (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=efibootmgr) package and then add an Arch Linux boot entry, replacing /dev/sdaX with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2 : # pacman -S efibootmgr # efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux -u "root=/dev/sdaX ro initrd=/initramfs-linux.img"

Gummiboot

Install the

gummiboot (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=gummiboot)

gummiboot install

package and then run

to install the boot manager:

# pacman -S gummiboot # gummiboot install

Warning: You will probably see an error during gummiboot install, when it fails to add itself to NVRAM because of a bug (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/34292) . If you get this error message, manually use efibootmgr to add gummiboot to NVRAM: # efibootmgr -c -L "Gummiboot" -l /EFI/gummiboot/gummibootx64.efi

You will need to manually create a configuration file to add an entry for Arch Linux to the gummiboot manager. Create /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and add the following contents, replacing /dev/sdaX with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2 : # nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf title linux initrd options

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Arch Linux /vmlinuz-linux /initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/sdaX ro

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For more information on configuring and using gummiboot, see gummiboot. GRUB

Install the

and efibootmgr packages and then run

grub (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=grub)

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=efibootmgr)

grub-install

to install

the bootloader: # pacman -S grub efibootmgr # grub-install --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck

Next, while using a manually created grub.cfg is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one: Tip: To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install os-prober (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=os-prober) ( pacman -S os-prober ) before running the next command. # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see GRUB.

Unmount the partitions and reboot Exit from the chroot environment: # exit

Since the partitions are mounted under them:

/mnt ,

we use the following command to unmount

# umount /mnt/{boot,home,}

Reboot the computer: # reboot

Tip: Be sure to remove the installation media, otherwise you will boot back into it.

Post-installation Your new Arch Linux base system is now a functional GNU/Linux environment ready to be built into whatever you wish or require for your purposes.

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management Add any s you require besides root, as described in management. It is not good practice to use the root for regular use, or expose it via SSH on a server. The root should only be used for istrative tasks.

Package management Pacman is the Arch Linux package manager. See pacman and FAQ#Package Management for answers regarding installing, updating, and managing packages. Because of The Arch Way#Code-correctness over convenience it is imperative to keep up to date with changes in Arch Linux that require manual intervention before upgrading your system. Check the front page Arch news (https://www.archlinux.org/) and subscribe to the arch-announce mailing list (https://mailman.archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/arch-announce/) . Alternatively, you may find it useful to subscribe to this RSS feed (https://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/) or follow @archlinux (https://twitter.com/archlinux) on Twitter. If you installed Arch Linux x86_64, you may want to enable the [multilib] repository if you plan on using 32-bit applications. See Official Repositories for details about the purpose of each repository.

Service management Arch Linux uses systemd as init, which is a system and service manager for Linux. For maintaining your Arch Linux installation, it is a good idea to learn the basics about it. Interaction with systemd is done through the systemctl command. Read systemd#Basic systemctl usage for more information.

Sound ALSA usually works out-of-the-box. It just needs to be unmuted. Install alsa-utils (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=alsa-utils) (which contains alsamixer ) and follow these instructions. ALSA is included with the kernel and it is recommended. If it does not work, OSS is a viable alternative. If you have advanced audio requirements, take a look at Sound system for an overview of various articles.

Graphical Interface Install X The X Window System (commonly X11, or X) is a networking and display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays. It provides the standard toolkit and protocol to build graphical interfaces (GUIs). To install the base Xorg packages:

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# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit

Install mesa for 3D : # pacman -S mesa

Install a video driver Note: If you installed Arch as a VirtualBox guest, you do not need to install a video driver. See Arch Linux guests for installing and setting up Guest Additions, and jump to the configuration part below. The Linux kernel includes open-source video drivers and for hardware accelerated framebuffers. However, land is required for OpenGL and 2D acceleration in X11. If you do not know which video chipset is available on your machine, run: $ lspci | grep VGA

For a complete list of open-source video drivers, search the package database: $ pacman -Ss xf86-video | less

The vesa driver is a generic mode-setting driver that will work with almost every GPU, but will not provide any 2D or 3D acceleration. If a better driver cannot be found or fails to load, Xorg will fall back to vesa. To install it: # pacman -S xf86-video-vesa

In order for video acceleration to work, and often to expose all the modes that the GPU can set, a proper video driver is required:

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Multilib Package Brand

Type

Driver

(for 32-bit applications on

Documentation

Arch x86_64) xf86-video-ati

Open source

(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org

AMD/ATI Proprietary

Intel

Open source

lib32-ati-dri

/packages/?name=xf86-

/packages/?name=lib32-

video-ati)

ati-dri)

catalyst-dkms

lib32-catalyst-utils

(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org /packages


/?name=catalyst-dkms)

catalyst-utils)

xf86-video-intel

lib32-intel-dri

(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org /packages/?name=xf86-


video-intel)

intel-dri)

xf86-video-nouveau

lib32-nouveau-dri

ATI

AMD Catalyst

Intel Graphics

(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org

Open source

/packages/?name=xf86-


video-nouveau)

nouveau-dri)

Nouveau

xf86-video-nv (https://www.archlinux.org /packages/?name=xf86-

–

(legacy driver)

video-nv)

Nvidia

nvidia (https://www.archlinux.org /packages/?name=nvidia)

Proprietary

nvidia-304xx

lib32-nvidia-libgl (https://www.archlinux.org /packages/?name=lib32nvidia-libgl) lib32-nvidia-304xx-utils

NVIDIA

(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org /packages/?name=nvidia-


304xx)

nvidia-304xx-utils)

Install input drivers Udev should be capable of detecting your hardware without problems. The evdev driver (xf86-input-evdev (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-evdev) ) is the modern hot-plugging input driver for almost all devices, so in most cases, installing input drivers is not needed. At this point, evdev has already been installed as a dependency of the xorg-server (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xorg-server) package. Laptop s (or s with a tactile screen) will need the xf86-input-synaptics (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-synaptics) package for the touchpad/touchscreen to work: # pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

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For instructions on fine tuning or troubleshooting touchpad issues, see the Touchpad Synaptics article. Configure X Warning: Proprietary drivers usually require a reboot after installation. See NVIDIA or AMD Catalyst for details. Xorg features auto-detection and therefore can function without an xorg.conf . If you still wish to manually configure X Server, please see the Xorg wiki page. Here you may set a keyboard layout if you do not use a standard US keyboard. Note: The XkbLayout key may differ from the keymap code you used with the loadkeys command. A list of many keyboard layouts and variants can be found in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst (after the line beginning with ! layout ). For instance, the layout gb corresponds to "English (UK)", whereas for the console it was loadkeys uk . Test X Tip: These steps are optional. Test if you are installing Arch Linux for the first time, or if you are installing on new and unfamiliar hardware. Note: If your input devices are not working during this test, install the needed driver from the xorg-drivers (https://www.archlinux.org/groups/i686/xorg-drivers/) group, and try again. For a complete list of available input drivers, invoke a pacman search (press Q to exit): $ pacman -Ss xf86-input | less

You only need

xf86-input-keyboard (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-keyboard)

or

if you plan on will act as the input driver (recommended).

xf86-input-mouse (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-mouse)

disabling hot-plugging, otherwise,

evdev

Install the default environment: # pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm

If Xorg was installed before creating the non-root , there will be a template .xinitrc file in your home directory that needs to be either deleted or commented out. Simply deleting it will cause X to run with the default environment installed above. $ rm ~/.xinitrc

Note: X must always be run on the same tty where the occurred, to preserve the d session. This is handled by the default /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc . To start the (test) Xorg session, run:

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$ startx

A few movable windows should show up, and your mouse should work. Once you are satisfied that X installation was a success, you may exit out of X by issuing the exit command into the prompts until you return to the console. $ exit

If the screen goes black, you may still attempt to switch to a different virtual console (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2 ), and blindly as root. You can do this by typing "root" (press Enter after typing it) and entering the root (again, press Enter after typing it). You may also attempt to kill the X server with: # pkill X

If this does not work, reboot blindly with: # reboot

Troubleshooting

If a problem occurs, look for errors in Xorg.0.log . Be on the lookout for any lines beginning with (EE) which represent errors, and also (WW) which are warnings that could indicate other issues. $ grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If you are still having trouble after consulting the Xorg article and need assistance via the Arch Linux forums or the IRC channel, be sure to install and use wgetpaste (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=wgetpaste) by providing the links from: # $ $ $

pacman -S wgetpaste wgetpaste wgetpaste

wgetpaste ~/.xinitrc /etc/X11/xorg.conf /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Note: Please provide all pertinent information (hardware, driver information, etc) when asking for assistance. Fonts You may wish to install a set of TrueType fonts, as only unscalable bitmap fonts are included by default. DejaVu is a set of high quality, general-purpose fonts with good Unicode coverage:

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# pacman -S ttf-dejavu

Refer to Font Configuration for how to configure font rendering and Fonts for font suggestions and installation instructions. Choose and install a graphical interface The X Window System provides the basic framework for building a graphical interface (GUI). Note: Choosing your DE or WM is a very subjective and personal decision. Choose the best environment for your needs. You can also build your own DE with just a WM and the applications of your choice. Window Managers (WM) control the placement and appearance of application windows in conjunction with the X Window System. Desktop Environments (DE) work atop and in conjunction with X, to provide a completely functional and dynamic GUI. A DE typically provides a window manager, icons, applets, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, a suite of applications and abilities like drag and drop. Instead of starting X manually with startx from xorg-xinit (https://www.archlinux.org/packages /?name=xorg-xinit) , see Display Manager for instructions on using a display manager, or see Start X at for using an existing virtual terminal as an equivalent to a display manager.

Appendix For a list of applications that may be of interest, see List of Applications. See General Recommendations for post-installation tutorials like setting up a touchpad or font rendering.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Beginners%27_Guide& oldid=264494" Categories: About Arch Getting and installing Arch

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This page was last modified on 27 June 2013, at 17:45. Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later.

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