How To Install Arch Linux

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.

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$ 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.

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

Make sure network is OK.

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$ ping -c 5 www.so.com

Use wifi network, recommend to use wire network

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 # connect to wifi network
$ wifi-menu

Enable ssh service to remote control.

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$ systemctl start sshd

Set timezone and time rsync.

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

Set most fast pacman mirrors

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$ pacman-mirror --country 'China'

Then disk management

Check disk partition.

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$ lsblk /dev/sdx

Use fdisk command to manage your paritions.

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

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$ 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.

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

Format new partitions.

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

Mount partitions.

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$ 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.

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

Generate fstab to target system.

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

Switch to the target system.

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$ arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Set timezone and local time.

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

Set language.

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$ 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.

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

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

Set root password.

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$ passwd root

Install grub.

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

Install grub to disk.

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# 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.

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

Enable dhcp client service.

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$ systemctl enable dhcpcd

Exit target system.

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$ exit

Umount target system and reboot computer.

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$ umount -R /mnt && reboot

Remember to remove usb disk.

Initial System

Read this catalogue first !

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

Enable sudo function to the new user.

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

Install extra fonts.

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# 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.

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$ sudo pacman -S xorg # choose the default vaules

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

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# 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：

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

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

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$ sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extras

xfce4 Desktop

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$ sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies sddm

KDE Desktop

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

KDE Minimal Desktop

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

Enable display server auto run when system boot up.

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$ sudo systemctl enable gdm # or sddm or lightDM

Install input method, either Ibus or fcitx.

Ibus

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$ 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

Fcitx

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$ 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

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$ 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

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$ 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

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# 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

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$ sudo pacman -S virtualbox virtualbox-host-dkms
$ sudo /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup
$ sudo gpasswd -a $USER vboxusers

aria2

aria2 downloader.

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$ 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

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$ sudo pacman -S nginx-mainline

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

Install php

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$ sudo pacman -S php php-fpm

Install mysql

Choose mariadb or percona.

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$ sudo pacman -S mariadb

Create data directory

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

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

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# 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.

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

Start and enable msqld service.

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systemctl start mysqld
systemctl enable mysqld

Set mysql root password.

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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.

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$ 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.

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$ 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 😂

Contents

USB Disk

Install Arch

Initial System

Software

AUR

Summary