Install Arch Linux step by step, making you understand Linux system more effectively.

USB Disk

Recommend to use dd command create bootable usb, or other methods click Here.

$ dd bs=4m if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync

Install Arch

Read this installation guide first !

Check the boot type is UEFI or MBR.

# echo nothing means MBR
$ ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Make sure network is OK.

$ ping -c 5 www.so.com

Use wifi network, recommend to use wire network

 # connect to wifi network
$ wifi-menu

Enable ssh service to remote control.

$ systemctl start sshd

Set timezone and time rsync.

$ timedatectl set-ntp true
$ timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Shanghai

Set most fast pacman mirrors

$ pacman-mirror --country 'China'

Then disk management

Check disk partition.

$ lsblk /dev/sdx

Use fdisk command to manage your paritions.

Sectors formula：1024 x 1024 x 1024 / 512 x Gigabyte = total sectors numbers.

$ fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x73c4c07a

# use man fdisk for how to create a new partition.

Also you can use cfdisk , which is more humanity.

UEFI mode need a ESP partition ，click here for more in details.

$ mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Format new partitions.

# /dev/sda1  /
# /dev/sda2  /home
# /dev/sda3  swap
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
$ mkswap /dev/sda3

Mount partitions.

$ swapon /dev/sda3

# Make sure mount / first.
$ mount /dev/sda1/ /mnt
$ mkdir /mnt/home && mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

# Check the mount details.
$ lsblk -f

Install target system.

# WIFI network needs these, iw dialog wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond
$ pacstrap /mnt base base-devel

Generate fstab to target system.

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

Switch to the target system.

$ arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Set timezone and local time.

$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime
$ hwclock --systohc --utc

Set language.

$ locale-gen

$ sed -i '/zh_CN\.UTF\-8/ s/#//' /etc/locale.gen
$ sed -i '/en_US\.UTF\-8/ s/#//' /etc/locale.gen
$ locale-gen

$ cat > /etc/locale.conf << EOF
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.UTF-8
EOF

Set hostname and hosts.

# hostname
$ echo 'JeffArch' > /etc/hostname

# hosts
$ cat > /etc/hosts << EOF
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1       localhost
EOF

Set root password.

$ passwd root

Install grub.

# os-prober uses for dual-system
$ pacman -S grub os-prober

Install grub to disk.

# MBR mode without sda partition number
$ grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda --recheck

# UEFI mode， mount 512M esp partition to /boot
$ pacman -S efibootmgr dosfstools
$ grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub --recheck

Generate grub configuration.

# system can not boot without this action
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Enable dhcp client service.

$ systemctl enable dhcpcd

Exit target system.

$ exit

Umount target system and reboot computer.

$ umount -R /mnt && reboot

Remember to remove usb disk.

Initial System

Read this catalogue first !

Login as root and create a new normal user for daily management.

$ useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash jeff
$ passwd jeff

Enable sudo function to the new user.

$ echo "%jeff ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/jeff
$ chmod 600 /etc/sudoers.d/jeff

Install extra fonts.

# google open source fonts
$ sudo pacman -S noto-fonts noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-emoji

# wenquanyi
$ sudo pacman -S wqy-microhei wqy-zenhei

$ sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu

$ sudo pacman -S ttf-win7-fonts ttf-office-2007-fonts

# monaco fonts

Install display server，which I chose here is Xorg. You can not run desktop environment without it.

$ sudo pacman -S xorg # choose the default vaules

Install graphical driver，vesa is default，others can click ATI 、Intel 、Nvidia.

# check what your graphic driver is
$ lspci | grep VGA

$ sudo pacman -S xf86-video-vesa # default
$ sudo pacman -S xf86-video-ati  # AMD
$ sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel  # intel
$ sudo pacman -S xf86-video-nouveau  # nvidia
$ sudo pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils # virtualbox

Install Display Manager，here as shown：

  1. gdm for GNOME desktop.
  2. sddm for KDE desktop.
  3. lightDM for Cross-desktop display manager, like ubuntu unity desktop.

Install Desktop environment，choose one of your faviour.
Gnome Desktop

$ sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extras

xfce4 Desktop

$ sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies sddm

KDE Desktop

$ sudo pacman -S plasma kde-applications-meta sddm kde-l10n-zh_cn

KDE Minimal Desktop

$ sudo pacman -S plasma dolphin kate konsole sddm kde-l10n-zh_cn

Enable display server auto run when system boot up.

$ sudo systemctl enable gdm # or sddm or lightDM

Install input method, either Ibus or fcitx.

$ sudo pacman -S ibus

$ sudo pacman -S ibus-qt

$ sudo pacman -S ibus-rime

$ ibus-setup

$ cat >> ~/.bashrc << EOF
export GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus
export XMODIFIERS=@im=ibus
export QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
EOF

$ sudo pacman -S fcitx fcitx-rime fcitx-configtool fcitx-gtk3 fcitx-gtk2 fcitx-qt5

$ fcitx-config-gtk3

echo -e "GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx\nQT_IM_MODULE=fcitx\nXMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx" | sudo tee -a /etc/environment

Now reboot new system and login it again to the desktop environment.

Software

Recommend these software as shown here.

Basic software

$ pacman -S wget zsh w3m curl openssh sudo terminator proxychains vim fakeroot net-tools gparted zip unzip unrar tree ntfs-3g yajl ufw archey3 cronie git

Multiply media software

$ pacman -S gedit remmina libvncserver freerdp smplayer smplayer-themes qbittorrent chromium mkvtoolnix-cli mkvtoolnix-gui aegisub subtitleeditor firefox extra/firefox-i18n-zh-cn telegram-desktop chromium
  • SecureCRT
# download the tar file yourself
$ tar -xf scrt-8.1.4.1443.ubuntu16-64.tar.gz
$ sudo mv scrt-8.1.4 /usr/local/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/scrt-8.1.4/SecureCRT /usr/bin/SecureCRT
$ sudo cp /usr/local/scrt-8.1.4/SecureCRT.desktop /usr/share/application
$ sudo perl securecrt_linux_crack.pl /usr/bin/SecureCRT
  • Virutalbox
$ sudo pacman -S virtualbox virtualbox-host-dkms
$ sudo /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup
$ sudo gpasswd -a $USER vboxusers
  • aria2

aria2 downloader.

$ cat > /lib/systemd/system/aria2.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description=Aria2c download manager
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=${USER}
ExecStart=/usr/bin/aria2c --conf-path=/home/${USER}/.aria2/aria2.conf

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

$ systemctl daemon-reload

Create your own aria2.conf, you can google it for more in details.

  • LNMP

Install nginx

$ sudo pacman -S nginx-mainline

Web username is http, while ubuntu web username is www-data.

Install php

$ sudo pacman -S php php-fpm

Install mysql

Choose mariadb or percona.

$ sudo pacman -S mariadb

Create data directory

$ mkdir /data/mysql
$ chown mysql:mysql /data/mysql

Change some settings in /etc/mysql/my.cnf.

# enable innodb
sed -i '/innodb_/ s/#//' /etc/mysql/my.cnf

sed -i 's/no\-auto\-rehash/auto\-rehash/g' /etc/mysql/my.cnf
sed -i '/myisam_sort_buffer_size/a bind-address = 0.0.0.0' /etc/mysql/my.cnf

# change to new data directory
sed -i '/myisam_sort_buffer_size/a datadir = /data/mysql' /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Initial database.

mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr --datadir=/data/mysql

Start and enable msqld service.

systemctl start mysqld
systemctl enable mysqld

Set mysql root password.

mysql_secure_installation

AUR

Arch User Repository，short as AUR, provides another way to user install extra software, which is difficult to use. Thanks to yaourt , allows user to install AUR software easily like pacman.

Add Yaourt warehouse, option.

$ echo -e "[archlinuxfr]\nSigLevel = Never\nServer = http://repo.archlinux.fr/\$arch\n" | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf  ```

Requirement.

​```bash
$ sudo pacman -Sy yaourt fakeroot

Install personal software.

$ yaourt -S typora  # markdown editor
$ yaourt -S netease-cloud-music
$ yaourt teamviewer-beta

# gnome themes
$ yaourt -S paper-gtk-theme-git
$ yaourt -S gtk-theme-arc-git
$ pacman -S numix-gtk-theme

# gnome icon
$ yaourt -S paper-icon-theme-git
$ yaourt -S papirus-icon-theme-git
$ yaourt -S ultra-flat-icons-blue
$ yaourt -S ultra-flat-icons-green
$ yaourt -S ultra-flat-icons-orange
$ yaourt -S fcitx-skins

Summary

This post was a draft , ignore it pls 😂