Arch linux

Arch Linux is a Unix like linux distribution. Arch started it’s journey in 2002, and is usually used by advanced users. Arch Linux is not super user friendly to begin, and therefore not recommended for rookies. However, the deal with Arch Linux is that it’s free of bloat-wares and uses a very minimalistic approach, moreover it pushes to user to put great effort into understanding how the system works.

The main reasons to install Arch Linux are as follows: 1. Arch Linux is community based, and not market based. It doesn’t need to bother about the markets and customers, in fact it’s all about the development process. Furthermore, Arch doesn’t need to be patched, it is kind of like a stock Android, where the user uses what the upstream developed. Arch Linux probably has the best community support of all the linux distros, and the Arch WIKI contains pretty much everything a user might require.

2. Arch has massive software repositories. Arch has pretty much every application that is available through the packaging system on other distros, if not more. Arch calls it the Arch User Repository. It is a repository maintained by users, whereby users can compile and install packages from the source. Of course, users can also use Yaort command, if they prefer.

3. Support for majority of desktop environments. Mainstream linux distro like Ubuntu uses Unity uptill 16.10, and Unity by far the slowest desktop environment I’ve used. Although, users have the option to install Plasma, XFCE, MATE. Other environments like Gnome doesn’t work well on ubuntu. However, as of Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu has switched back to Gnome. Arch Linux supports LXDE,XFCE,Gnome,Mate and Cinnamon, and nothing seems to make it laggy, or break it.

4. Total User Control. Arch puts you in the pilot’s chair. The user has the ability to build everything from scratch, hence they can choose whatever they want instead of having to deal with unnecessary packages.

5. Rolling Releases. Unlike other distros, you do not come across a major update every 6 months. Arch uses rolling updates. That means, you are always running the latest packages, both desktop and kernel, as you don’t have to wait for a new distro, and you automatically get the latest packages.

How to install Arch Linux on VirtualBox for a EFI System

This is a long process, but first of all you need to get the official Arch Linux ISO from [1] On Virtual Box you will need to create a EFI enabled virtual machine. In my case, I used 20GB dynamically allocated hard drive, 1.5GB RAM and 85% Processor power. Once that's all done,mount the ISO and fire up the virtual machine.

Once inside the virtual machine, you will see a promt like root@archoiso ~ # first thing you want to do is check whether the internet is working by simply doing ping -c 3 www.google.com

Creating file systems, formatting and mounting I recommend cgdisk or gdisk for EFI systems, it is very user friendly and straightforward. FIrst of all you need to check your block devices and partitions.

lsblk to view block devices

cgdisk /dev/sda In my case it was /dev/sda

Now you need to start creating the partitions. You basically need just 3 partitions, boot, swap and root. For all of the partitions leave the first sector empty. Now create a partition.

Remember first sector empty

KGMTP 512MB 512MB is enough for a EFI boot.

Hexcode: L to view all. Go with ef00

Partition name : boot

Create another partition /dev/sda2

Size in sectors(KMGTP): 2GB The rule is to allocate around 1.5 times the RAM for your Swap partition, so in my case it was 2GB approx.

Hexcode: 8200

Partition name : swap

Create the final partition /dev/sda3

Size in sectors(KMGTP): leave blank By leaving blank it will allocate the remaining space to this partition.

Hexcode: 8300 This is the main linux file system and is suitable for our root partition.

Partition name : root

lsblk To verify the partitions exist

Formatting:

Format boot partition mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 FAT32 is used for EFI boot.

Format swap partion mkswap /dev/sda2 Intialize swap swapon /dev/sda2

Format root partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 Ext4 journaling system is used for root.

Mounting:

Mount root mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

Now make directory mkdir /mnt/boot

Mount boot mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Mirrorlist (Optional) Now you have the option to rank the mirrorlist, even though you do not really have to do this. To do so you need to edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist and uncomment the mirrors you want to rank. I sugguest uncommenting at least 20 countries. Use rankmirrors -n 5 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist to rank the top five mirrors , could take a few minutes.

Install base packages, Generate fstab

To install base packages pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel These are the core packages of an Arch Linux Installation. FSTAB basically lists all the partitions and data sources and show how they are being used.

To generate fstab genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab Check if fstab generated in /mnt/etc

Basic configurations

First of all you need to get inside the newly installed system arch-chroot /mnt You should see a slightly different prompt now.

Change language to EN_US:

Use the command nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 There should be two of these

Generate the locale locale-gen

Now the output needs to be saved echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf and exported export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Set up the time :

Now change to Tallinn by creating a soft link ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Tallinn > /etc/localtime This might already exists Now set hardware clock to utc hwclock –systohc –utc

Set up the hostname:

setup the hostname echo bossman-arch > /etc/hostname Double check to see if hostname exists

Enable multilib and create custom repository: (Optional Step)

Type in nano /etc/pacman.conf Find and uncomment multlib, not the testing, just the multilib and line beneath of course. Multilib makes sure you have access to 32bit programs

In the same file, all the way in the bottom add a custom repository :

[archlinuxfr]

SigLevel= Never

Server= http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

Save changes and exit,and of course if you are editing a file you are expected to save it, so I might not always write save changes.

Run pacman to get yaourt pacman -Sy yaourt Yaourt is basically the Arch Linux Users version of pacman. It is slighltly different, more on that later.

Setup root password passwd

Simply type in “passwd” and confirm password

Add a regular user

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage -s /bin/bash axon -m flag is to create -g is the group flag -G on the other hand is the secondary group. Wheel is the Arch equivalent of nano, storage gives access to removable devices, and bash is the shell environment. Now set up a password for the user, passwd axon

Sudo Permissions: We need to make sure to edit one file so that the sudo password is asked everytime when doing a sudoers task.

EDITOR=nano.visudo find %wheel and add on the line below Defaults root pw Now the sudo password will be prompted when doing sudeoers task. At this point you might have to restart the system, you may encounter some error messages in the next step just reboot, remount and get chroot back in if it happens.

Bootloader installation and configuration

mount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars This should return that it's busy or already in use,it's a good thing if that happens, otherwise you need to recheck all the steps.

Now install the bootloader bootctl install

blkid Make a note of the UUID of /dev/sda3. The following steps must be done exactly this way except you will have a very different UUID.

blkid -s PARTUUID -o value /dev/sda3 > /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf You just outputted the UUID in arch.conf.

nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf You need to edit this configuration file. You will see the UUID generated and nothing else on it.

Above the uuid type in

title Arch Linux

linux /vmlinuz-linux

initrd /initramfs-linux.img

options root=PARTUUID=*UUID* rw”

Save and exit. Vmlinuz is the name of a linux kernel executable. You should know that kernel is like the heart of an OS. Vmlinuz is compressed and bootale. Initrd is a scheme for temporary root file system into memory, which may be used as part of the Linux startup process. initrd and initramfs refer to two different methods of achieving this.

For intel processors only pacman -S intel-ucode Is basically a microcode update file for Intel CPUs. I recommend doing this for compatability issues.

Now you have add ucode to config file /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and add another initrd above the former initrd like initrd /intel-ucode.img

Exit chroot exit

Unmount everything umount -R /mnt Mnt was a placeholder for root, now that we have the actual system waiting we do not need it.

Shutdown the system Shutdown now

Power off virtual machine

Eject ISO

Arch Linux Installation should be complete,however it is time to power up the VM without ISO, double check to see if the ISO is ejected and and the boot is set to hard drive.

If you have done everything correctly a login prompt should appear. You can login using the your credentials.