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>
