I'm writing this as a set of notes for future Arch Linux installations. I decided to revisit Arch Linux after hearing that their ncurses menu-based installer was long gone and how they have started using install scripts. I came upon this while reading the systemd vs SysV initialization method debate that everyone is raging about. I haven't installed Arch in years as my current machines still happily run on the old installs which are up to date since Arch is a rolling release distribution. I figured now would be a good time to check it out (along with a growing interest in tiling window managers such as i3 or ratpoison).

Anyhoo, I installed Arch Linux from the latest ISO using the new method along with a help of numerous Arch wikis. I mixed the install a little bit with my way of setting up Linux computers and added LVM. One thing I must say is that installing Arch Linux has become a little bit harder than previous menu-based installation. I'm not saying it's not doable, but it's definitely a bit more complex or at least daunting for a newbie than just following some menus. It does help to know how Linux already works but this installation method should teach you a bit if you don't know.
  • Download and boot off of the LiveCD.

  • Make sure the internet works from the LiveCD (it should if you have DHCP and/or set VirtualBox networking to "Bridge" mode. [code]ping google.com[/code]

  • Let's view the partition layout and build some partition that will be the base of our system.  We will be using LVM for actual system partitions. [code] fdisk -l fdisk /dev/sda [/code]

  • Create /dev/sda1, set type as 83 Linux boot, press "a" to set a bootable flag, create /dev/sda2, set type as 82 Linux Swap/Solaris, create /dev/sda3, set type as 8e LVM, and then write changes by pressing "w"

  • Create the LVM partitioning scheme by first creating the physical volume. [code] pvcreate /dev/sda3 pvdisplay [/code]

  • Create a virtual group of drives [code] vgcreate vg_arch_01 /dev/sda3 vdisplay [/code]

  • Create logical volumes [code] lvcreate -C y -L 5120 vg_arch_01 -n lv_root lvcreate -C y -L 2048 vg_arch_01 -n lv_home [/code]

  • Verify everything by running vgs and lvs. They both should display the following:
    vgs:
    [code]
    VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
    vg_arch_01 1 2 0 wz--n- 7.40g 408.00m
    [/code]
    lvs:
    [code]
    LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Move Log Copy% Convert
    lv_home vg_arch_01 -wc-ao-- 2.00g
    lv_root vg_arch_01 -wc-ao-- 5.00g

    [/code]

  • Let's make some filesystems on our partitions. [code] mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1 e2label /dev/sda1 /boot mkswap /dev/sda2 && /swapon /dev/sda2 mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg_arch_01/lv_root [/code]

  • Let's mount our filesystems. [code] mount /dev/vg_root_01/lv_root /mnt mkdir /mnt/{boot,home} mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot mount /dev/vg_root_01/lv_home /mnt/home [/code]

  • Generate the fstab file. [code] genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab [/code]

  • Chroot into Arch. [code] arch-chroot /mnt [/code]

  • Install the packages. [code] pacstrap /mnt base base-devel [/code]

  • Make system changes such as networking, time zones, etc. [code] echo "hostname" >> /etc/hostname [/code] Edit /etc/hosts and append the hostname: [code] 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost hostname [/code] Edit /etc/hosts and append "hostname" to the end of the "127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost "hostname" line. Set the timezone and the locale: [code] ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime [/code] Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment #en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8, then run locale-gen. Edit /etc/rc.conf, uncomment network information, set "interface" as "interface=eth0" for dhcpd

  • Make necessary changes to permit mounting/booting from LVM. Edit /etc/rc.conf and change # USELVM="no" to USELVM="yes" Add "lvm2" to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf HOOKS section before "filesystems" [code]HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata lvm2 filesystems usbinput fsck"[/code] Regenerate the kernel image [code] cd /boot mkinitcpio -p linux [/code]

  • Install the Syslinux bootloader. [code] pacman -S syslinux [/code] Change /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg /dev/sda3 to /dev/mapper/vg_arch_01-lv_root [code] # (0) Arch Linux LABEL arch MENU LABEL Arch Linux LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux APPEND root=/dev/mapper/vg_arch_01-lv_root ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img [/code] Install the bootloader in MBR [code] syslinux-install_update -iam [/code]

  • Set root password. [code]passwd root [/code]

  • Umount the system partitions and reboot. [code] exit umount /mnt/{boot,home,} [/code]


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