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Last modified: 2024-06-01

Keyboard layout

loadkeys de_CH-latin1

Check UEFI mode

If the following command works, the system is booted in EFI.

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Verify internet connection

ping wiki.exu.li

Update system clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

Creating partitions

cfdisk

Use EFI System for EFI partition
Use Linux filesystem for other partitions

(LUKS) Create encrypted partition

Note: Do not put your /efi partition on an encrypted partition!

Create encrypted Partition with a label. This label will later be used to identified the bootdevice as a simpler alternative to UUIDs.

cryptsetup luksFormat --label=disk /dev/(partition)

Open the partition and specify a name

cryptsetup open /dev/(partition) mapper

Check if this worked with ls /dev/mapper/
The name should show up there

Format partitions

EFI or BIOS partition

Fat 32:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/(partition)

Root and other partitions

Ext4

mkfs.ext4 /dev/(partition)

Btrfs

mkfs.btrfs /dev/(partition)

Bcachefs

bcachefs format /dev/(partition)

Mounting partitions

Generally partitions have to be mounted where you will later use them in your system.
BTRFS with its subvolumes is a special case, see the additional chapter below.
Be careful in choosing you EFI mountpoint when using full disk encryption.
Using /efi will lead to much longer boot times in GRUB and be completely unsupported in other bootloaders.
See this feature comparison for details.
For /efi size really doesn't matter much and can be 1 or 2 megabytes. 16MB is probably a good size.
If you're using /boot, the kernel and initramfs will also be stored on this partition among others. Recommended sizes range from 256MB to 512MB

Root: /mnt
EFI: /mnt/efi or /mnt/boot
Home: /mnt/home
etc...

(BTRFS) Btrfs preparation of subvolumes and mounting

Mount root partition

mount /dev/(partition) /mnt

Root subvolume

btrfs subv create /mnt/@

Home subvolume

btrfs subv create /mnt/@home

Snapshots subvolume for snapper

btrfs subv create /mnt/@snapshots

Var subvolume

btrfs subv create /mnt/@var_log

umount /mnt

Mount root
mount -o noatime,compress-force=zstd,subvol=@ /dev/(partition) /mnt

With /efi
mkdir -p /mnt/{efi,home,.snapshots,var/log}
With /boot
mkdir -p /mnt/{boot,home,.snapshots,var/log}

Mount home
mount -o noatime,compress-force=zstd,subvol=@home /dev/(partition) /mnt/home

Mount snapshots for snapper
mount -o noatime,compress-force=zstd,subvol=@snapshots /dev/(partition) /mnt/.snapshots

Mount var/log mount -o noatime,compress-force=zstd,subvol=@var_log /dev/(partition) /mnt/var/log

Don't forget mounting other partitions!!

Essential packages

Install a few essential packages using pacstrap.
Additional packages might also be necessary, see the list below.

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware linux-headers vim git openssh networkmanager dialog

Other packages

Package	Category	Component
amd-ucode	CPU microcode
intel-ucode	CPU microcode
dosfstools	Filesystems	Fat32
mtools	Filesystems	Fat32
e2fsprogs	Filesystems	Ext4
btrfs-progs	Filesystems	Btrfs
compsize	Filesystems	Btrfs
wpa_supplicant	Wifi
snapper	System	Snapshots
ca-certificates	System	Certificates
ca-certificates-mozilla	System	Certificates
zram-generator	System	Zram
cups	Printing	General
hplip	Printing	HP
xdg-utils	System	Defaults
xdg-user-dirs	System	Defaults
inetutils	Tools	Networking

Generate fstab

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

Make sure the fstab file has everything included

Chroot into the system

arch-chroot /mnt

Set timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich /etc/localtime

Set hardware clock

hwclock --systohc

Set locale

vim /etc/locale.gen
Uncomment the locales that should be generated.
Make sure to use a UTF-8 entry.

locale-gen

echo "LANG=de_CH.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

Set keymap permanently

echo "KEYMAP=de_CH-latin1" > /etc/vconsole.conf

Set hostname

echo "(hostname)" > /etc/hostname

Edit /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   localhost (hostname)
::1         localhost

Change root password

passwd

Configure zram

Create the file /etc/systemd/zram-generator.conf

[zram0]
zram-size = ram / 2
compression-algorithm = zstd

Bootloader installation

rEFInd

pacman -S refind

Use the rEFInd installation script. In most cases no specific configuration is necessary

refind-install

Manual editing of the generated configuration file is necessary when installing rEFInd from the Arch boot ISO

Autodetection

/boot/refind_linux.conf

With LUKS:

"Boot with standard options" "rw loglevel=3 quiet cryptdevice=LABEL=<label>disk:<name>mapper root=/dev/mapper/<name>mapper rootflags=subvol=@ zswap.enabled=0"

With unencrypted disks, only rw and root= are required.
Make sure to include additional kernel options like zswap.enabled=0 if required.

"Boot with standard options"  "rw root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX"
"Boot to single-user mode"    "rw root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX single"
"Boot with minimal options"   "ro root=PARTUUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX"

Manual boot stanza

Assuming you use a /boot partition containing the EFI directory and linux kernels.
refind-nord-theme is required for the icon configured below. Install it from the AUR or change the icon to /EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png.

/boot/EFI/refind/refind.conf

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
    icon     /EFI/refind/themes/nord/icons/os_arch.png
    loader   /vmlinuz-linux
    initrd   /initramfs-linux.img
    options  "rw loglevel=3 quiet cryptdevice=LABEL=(label):(name) root=/dev/mapper/(name) rootflags=subvol=@ zswap.enabled=0"
    submenuentry "Boot using fallback initramfs" {
        initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
    }
    submenuentry "Boot to terminal" {
        add_options "systemd.unit=multi-user.target"
    }
}

Edit /boot/EFI/refind/themes/nord/theme.conf to show keyboard options by removing hints from hideui

...
hideui singleuser,badges
...

GRUB

pacman -S grub efibootmgr

Make sure the /boot or /efi partition is mounted

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

Generate the grub config file

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

(LUKS) mkinitcpio with LUKS

Some additional settings are necessary in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf in order to enable booting from LUKS-encrypted disks.

Edit the HOOKS section in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf by adding encrypt after block and before filesystems

Also ensure keyboard keymap are present before encrypt in order to allow the loading of the default keyboard language from /etc/vconsole.conf to enter the decryption password.

Regenerate all initramfs presets

mkinitcpio -P

Networking

systemctl enable NetworkManager

(CUPS) Printing

systemctl enable cups

Add user

useradd -mG wheel (user)

Set password
passwd (user)

Enable sudo

visudo
Uncomment %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Finishing installation

exit
poweroff
Remove the installation cd

Post-reboot

Zram

Create the zram device

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start systemd-zram-setup@zram[X].service

(Snapper) Setup

# umount /.snapshots

# rm -r /.snapshots

Create snapper config
# snapper -c root create-config /

Delete unneeded volume
# btrfs subv del /.snapshots/

# mkdir /.snapshots

Mount snapshots volume
# mount -a

# chmod 750 /.snapshots

# vim /etc/snapper/configs/root

Change these things:
ALLOW_USERS="(user)"

TIMELINE_LIMIT_HOURLY="5"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_DAILY="7"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_WEEKLY="4"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_MONTHLY="0"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_YEARLY="0"

Enable snapper
# systemctl enable --now snapper-timeline.timer
# systemctl enable --now snapper-cleanup.timer

Allow user to access snapshots
# chmod a+rx /.snapshots
# chown :(user) /.snapshots

Install AUR helper

paru

cd $(mktemp -d)
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru-bin.git
cd paru-bin
makepkg -si

Automatic snapshots on package changes

pacman -S snap-pac

(rEFInd) Show snapshots in bootmenu

This requires a manual boot entry definition in /boot/EFI/refind/refind.conf as shown in Manual boot stanza

paru -S refind-btrfs

In /etc/refind-btrfs.conf, embed the btrfs logo.

...
[boot-stanza-generation.icon]
mode = "embed_btrfs_logo"
...

Use the inverted logo for darker themes such as Nord.

...
[boot-stanza-generation.icon.btrfs-logo]
variant = "inverted"
...

systemctl enable --now refind-btrfs.service

NOTE: this doesn't work yet, as the UUID naming scheme is not supported by refind-btrfs.
See issue 46 for details.