HowTo Install Arch Linux

Installation Media

• Get the latest Arch install disk from https://www.archlinux.org/download/
• Boot from it

Initializing the Disk

Install/reinitialize GPT (Guid Partition Table) on the disk` <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sgdisk --zap /dev/vda </syntaxhighlight>

Create partition 1, leave 2048 sectors blank for the syslinux bootloader, and don't specify an end size, so that it takes the rest of the drive. <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sgdisk --new 1:2048: /dev/vda </syntaxhighlight>

For Partition 1, set the bootable flag, (flag 2) <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sgdisk --attributes=1:set:2 /dev/vda </syntaxhighlight>

Now that you have a partition, it will show as /dev/vda1. Format The partition as ext4 <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda1 -F </syntaxhighlight>

Mount The partiton, so that we can install arch onto it. <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> mount /dev/vda1 /mnt </syntaxhighlight>

Install Arch

Install Arch to /mnt <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> pacstrap /mnt base </syntaxhighlight>

Now that arch is isntalled, build a partition to mount point table, and write it to /mnt/etc/fstab <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> genfstab /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab </syntaxhighlight>

Change Root (chroot) to Arch

Switch into the arch installtion. <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> arch-chroot /mnt </syntaxhighlight>

Set time Timezone <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime </syntaxhighlight>

Prepraring to Boot

Create your initial ramdisk - The initial file system before the real one boots <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> mkinitcpio -p linux </syntaxhighlight>

Install syslinux <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> pacman -S syslinux </syntaxhighlight>

Install syslinux's GPT MBR (Master Boot Record) to the root of MBR. This will sit in the 2048 of reserved space from when we partitioned the drive. <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/bios/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/vda </syntaxhighlight>

Prepare the /boot folder with syslinux's modules. The .c32 files that ship with syslinux are for systems that use a bios to boot. Symlink the bios modules into syslinux's boot folder. <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux/ </syntaxhighlight>

Run the syslinux extlinux installer.

• extlinux is the filesystem variant of syslinux

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> extlinux --install /boot/syslinux </syntaxhighlight>

By default, syslinux tries to boot /dev/sda3. Change it to boot /dev/vda1 <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sed -i 's#/dev/sda3#/dev/vda1#' /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg </syntaxhighlight>

Reboot

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> exit reboot </syntaxhighlight>

When Something Goes Wrong

If something goes wrong with rebooting and you end up back on the live cd, you don't need to start over. Running the following 2 commands will bring you back to your Arch Linux Environment <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> mount /dev/vda1 /mnt arch-chroot /mnt </syntaxhighlight>

Once you are back in the Arch environment, Check the following:

• You set the bootable flag on the partions
• You setup the syslinux boot loader correctly.

PS:One Flavor

Salt

Some settings common to most of the computers at PS:One can be applied by running the following commands: <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> pacman -S salt-zmq systemctl start salt-minion salt-call state.highstate </syntaxhighlight>

Network Logins

Enable Network logins by joining the domain server. After this command is run, the machine will support network authentication. <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> net ads join -U <your user name> </syntaxhighlight>