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https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide
Beginners' Guide
From ArchWiki Tip: This guide is also available in multiple pages rather than one large copy. If you would rather read it that way, please start here. This document will guide you through the process of installing Arch Linux using the Arch Install Scripts (https://github.com /falconindy/arch-install-scripts) . Before installing, you are advised to skim over the FAQ. The community-maintained ArchWiki is the primary resource that should be consulted if issues arise. The IRC Channel (irc://irc.freenode.net/#archlinux) and the forums (https://bbs.archlinux.org/) are also excellent resources if an answer cannot be found elsewhere. In accordance with the Arch Way, you are encouraged to type man command to read the man page of any command you are unfamiliar with. Summary Provides a highly detailed, explanatory guide to installing, conguring and using a full-featured Arch Linux system. Related Category:Accessibility Installation Guide Network Installation Guide Install from SSH General Recommendations General Troubleshooting
Contents
1 Preparation 1.1 System requirements 1.2 Burn or write the latest installation medium 1.2.1 Installing over the network 1.2.2 Installing on a virtual machine 1.3 Boot the installation medium 1.3.1 Testing if you are booted into UEFI mode 1.3.2 Troubleshooting boot problems 2 Installation 2.1 Change the language 2.2 Establish an internet connection 2.2.1 Wired 2.2.2 Wireless 2.2.3 Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL 2.2.4 Behind a proxy server 2.3 Prepare the storage drive 2.3.1 Choose a partition table type 2.3.2 Partitioning tool 2.3.3 Partition scheme 2.3.4 Considerations for dualbooting with windows 2.3.5 Example 2.3.5.1 Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions 2.3.5.2 Using fdisk to create MBR partitions
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2.3.6 Create lesystems 2.4 Mount the partitions 2.5 Select a mirror 2.6 Install the base system 2.7 Generate an fstab 2.8 Chroot and congure the base system 2.8.1 Locale 2.8.2 Console font and keymap 2.8.3 Time zone 2.8.4 Hardware clock 2.8.5 Kernel modules 2.8.6 Hostname 2.9 Congure the network 2.9.1 Wired 2.9.1.1 Dynamic IP 2.9.1.2 Static IP 2.9.2 Wireless 2.9.2.1 Adding wireless networks 2.9.2.2 Connect automatically to known networks 2.9.3 Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL 2.10 Create an initial ramdisk environment 2.11 Set the root password 2.12 Install and congure a bootloader 2.12.1 For BIOS motherboards 2.12.1.1 Syslinux 2.12.1.2 GRUB 2.12.2 For UEFI motherboards 2.12.2.1 EFISTUB 2.12.2.2 Gummiboot 2.12.2.3 GRUB 2.13 Unmount the partitions and reboot 3 Post-installation 3.1 User management 3.2 Package management 3.3 Service management 3.4 Sound 3.5 Graphical User Interface 3.5.1 Install X 3.5.2 Install a video driver 3.5.3 Install input drivers 3.5.4 Congure X 3.5.5 Test X 3.5.5.1 Troubleshooting 3.5.6 Fonts 3.5.7 Choose and install a graphical interface 4 Appendix
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Preparation
Note: If you wish to install from an existing GNU/Linux distribution, please see this article. This can be useful particularly if you plan to install Arch via VNC or SSH remotely. Users seeking to perform the Arch Linux installation remotely via an SSH connection should read Install from SSH for additional tips.
System requirements
Arch Linux should run on any i686 compatible machine with a minimum of 64 MB RAM. A basic installation with all packages from the base (https://www.archlinux.org/groups/i686/base/) group should take about 500 MB of disk space. If you are working with limited space, this can be trimmed down considerably, but you will have to know what you're doing.
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1. 2. 3. 4.
Create the virtual disk image that will host the operating system. Properly congure the virtual machine parameters. Boot the downloaded ISO image with a virtual CD drive. Continue with Boot the installation medium.
The following articles may be helpful: Arch Linux as VirtualBox guest Arch Linux as VirtualBox guest on a physical drive Arch Linux as VMware guest Moving an existing install into (or out of) a virtual machine
Troubleshooting boot problems If you are using an Intel video chipset and the screen goes blank during the boot process, the problem is likely an issue with Kernel Mode Setting. A possible workaround may be achieved by rebooting and pressing e over the entry that you are trying to boot (i686 or x86_64). At the end of the string type nomodeset and press Enter . Alternatively, try video=SVIDEO-1:d which, if it works, will not disable kernel mode setting. You can also try i915.modeset=0 . See the Intel article for more information. If the screen does not go blank and the boot process gets stuck while trying to load the kernel, press Tab while hovering over the menu entry, type acpi=off at the end of the string and press Enter .
Installation
You are now presented with a shell prompt, automatically logged in as root.
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us .
fr , uk , dvorak , be-latin1 ,
The font should also be changed, because most languages use more glyphs than the 26 letter English alphabet. Otherwise some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. Note that the name is case-sensitive, so please type it exactly as you see it:
# setfont Lat2-Terminus16
By default, the language is set to English (US). If you would like to change the language for the install process (German, in this example), remove the # in front of the locale (http://www.greendesktiny.com/support/knowledgebase_detail.php?ref=EUH-483) you want from /etc/locale.gen , along with English (US). Please choose the UTF-8 entry. Use Ctrl+X to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press lename.
# nano /etc/locale.gen en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
and
Enter
Remember,
LAlt+LShift
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide
Google's webservers:
# ping -c 3 www.google.com PING www.l.google.com (74.125.132.105) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105): icmp_req=1 ttl=50 time=17.0 ms 64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105): icmp_req=2 ttl=50 time=18.2 ms 64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105): icmp_req=3 ttl=50 time=16.6 ms --- www.l.google.com ping statistics --3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.660/17.320/18.254/0.678 ms
If you get a ping: unknown host error, rst check if there is an issue with your cable or wireless signal strength. If not, you will need to set up the network manually, as explained below. Once a connection is established move on to Prepare the storage drive. Wired Follow this procedure if you need to set up a wired connection via a static IP address. First, disable the dhcpcd service which was started automatically at boot:
# systemctl stop dhcpcd.service
In this example, the Ethernet interface is enp2s0f0 . If you are unsure, your Ethernet interface is likely to start with the letter "e", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "w". You can also use iwconfig and see which interfaces are not wireless:
# iwconfig enp2s0f0 wlp3s0 no wireless extensions. IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"NETGEAR97" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: 2C:B0:5D:9C:72:BF Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:430 Missed beacon:0 no wireless extensions.
lo
In this example, neither enp2s0f0 nor the loopback device have wireless extensions, meaning enp2s0f0 is our Ethernet interface.
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You also need to know these settings: Static IP address. Subnet mask. Gateway's IP address. Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses. Domain name (unless you are on a local LAN, in which case you can make it up). Activate the connected Ethernet interface (e.g.
# ip link set enp2s0f0 up
enp2s0f0
):
For example:
# ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev enp2s0f0
man ip .
Add your gateway like this, substituting your own gateway's IP address:
# ip route add default via ip_address
For example:
# ip route add default via 192.168.1.1
Edit
resolv.conf
, substituting your name servers' IP addresses and your local domain name:
Note: Currently, you may include a maximum of three nameserver lines. In order to overcome this limitation, you can use a locally caching nameserver like Dnsmasq. You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Network Conguration page. Wireless Follow this procedure if you need wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) during the installation process.
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In this example, wlp3s0 is the available wireless interface. If you are unsure, your wireless interface is likely to start with the letter "w", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "e". Note: If you do not see output similar to this, then your wireless driver has not been loaded. If this is the case, you must load the driver yourself. Please see Wireless Setup for more detailed information. Bring the interface up with:
# ip link set wlp3s0 up
A small percentage of wireless chipsets also require rmware, in addition to a corresponding driver. If you get output like SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory , this means you will need to manually load the rmware. If unsure, invoke dmesg to query the kernel log for a rmware request from the wireless chipset. For example, if you have an Intel chipset which requires and has requested rmware from the kernel at boot:
# dmesg | grep firmware firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode
If there is no output, it may be concluded that the system's wireless chipset does not require rmware. Warning: Wireless chipset rmware packages (for cards which require them) are pre-installed under /usr/lib/firmware in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) but must be explicitly installed to your actual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it! Package installation is covered later in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and rmware before rebooting! See Wireless Setup if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding rmware installation for your particular chipset. Next, use network:
netctl (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=netctl)
's
wifi-menu
to connect to a
# wifi-menu wlp3s0
You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed
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You need to replace ssid with the name of your network (e.g. "Linksys etc...") and psk with your wireless password, leaving the quotes around the network name and password. Finally, you have to give your interface an IP address. This can be set manually or using the dhcp:
# dhcpcd wlp3s0
Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection. Behind a proxy server If you are behind a proxy server, you will need to export the http_proxy and environment variables. See Proxy settings for more information.
ftp_proxy
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workarounds. Note: If you are installing to a USB ash key, see Installing Arch Linux on a USB key. Partitioning tool Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php) is a good example, and is provided as a "live" CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php) . It is also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. A drive should rst be partitioned and the partitions should be formatted with a le system before rebooting. Tip: When using Gparted, selecting the option to create a new partition table gives an "msdos" partition table by default. If you are intending to follow the advice to create a GPT partition table then you need to choose "Advanced" and then select "gpt" from the drop-down menu. While gparted may be easier to use, if you just want to create a few partitions on a new disk you can get the job done quickly by just using one of the fdisk variants which are included on the install medium. There are short usage instructions for both gdisk and fdisk. Partition scheme You can decide into how many partitions the disk should be split, and for which directory each partition should be used in the system. The mapping from partitions to directories (frequently called 'mount points') is the Partition scheme. The simplest, and not a bad choice, is to make just one huge / partition. Another popular choice is to have a / and a /home partition. Additional required partitions: If you have a UEFI motherboard, you will need to create an extra UEFI System Partition. If you have a BIOS motherboard (or plan on booting in BIOS compatibility mode) and you want to setup GRUB on a GPT-partitioned drive, you will need to create an extra BIOS Boot Partition of size 1007 KiB and EF02 type code. Syslinux does not need one.
See Swap for details if you wish to set up a swap partition or swap le. A swap le is easier to resize than a partition and can be created at any point after installation, but cannot be used with a Btrfs lesystem. Considerations for dualbooting with windows If you have an existing OS installation, please keep in mind that if you where to just write a completely new partition table to disk then all the data which was previously on disk would be lost. The recommended way to setup a linux/windows dual booting system is to rst install
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windows, only using part of the disk for its partitions. When you have nished the windows setup, boot into the linux install environment where you can create additional partitions for linux while leaving the existing windows partitions untouched. Some newer computers come pre-installed with Windows 8 which will be using Secure Boot. Arch Linux currently does not support Secure Boot, but some Windows 8 installations have been seen not to boot if Secure Boot is turned o in the BIOS. In some cases it is necessary to turn o both Secure Boot as well as Fastboot in the BIOS options in order to allow Windows 8 to boot without Secure Boot. However there are potential security risks in turning o Secure Boot for booting up Windows 8. Therefore, it may be a better option to keep the Windows 8 install intact and have an independent hard drive for the Linux install which can then be partitioned from scratch using a GPT partition table. Once that is done, creating several ext4/FAT32/swap partitions on the second drive may be a better way forward if the computer has two drives available. This is often not easy or possible on a small laptop. Currently, Secure Boot is still not in a fully stable state for reliable operation, even for Linux distributions that support it. If you have already created your partitions, proceed to Create lesystems. Otherwise, see the following example. Example The Arch Linux install media includes the following partitioning tools: cgdisk , parted .
fdisk , gdisk , cfdisk ,
Tip: Use the lsblk command to list the hard disks attached to your system, along with the sizes of their existing partitions. This will help you to be condent you are partitioning the right disk.
The example system will contain a 15 GB root partition, and a home partition for the remaining space. Choose either MBR or GPT. Do not choose both! It should be emphasized that partitioning is a personal choice and that this example is only for illustrative purposes. See Partitioning.
Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions
# cgdisk /dev/sda
Root Choose New (or press N ) Enter for the rst sector (2048) type in default hex code (8300) Enter for a blank partition name. Home Press the down arrow a couple of times to move to the larger free space area. Choose New (or press N ) Enter for the rst sector Enter to use the rest of the drive
15G
Enter
for the
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30G )
(or you could type in the desired size; for example (8300) Enter for a blank partition name. Here is what it should look like:
Part. # Size Partition Type Partition Name ---------------------------------------------------------------1007.0 KiB free space 1 15.0 GiB Linux filesystem 2 123.45 GiB Linux filesystem
Enter
Double check and make sure that you are happy with the partition sizes as well as the partition table layout before continuing. If you would like to start over, you can simply select Quit (or press changes and then restart cgdisk.
Q)
If you are satised, choose Write (or press Shift+W ) to nalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type yes and choose Quit (or press Q ) to exit without making any more changes.
Using fdisk to create MBR partitions
Note: There is also cfdisk, which is similar in UI to cgdisk, but it currently does not automatically align the rst partition properly. That is why the classic fdisk tool is used here. Launch fdisk with:
# fdisk /dev/sda
Create the rst partition: 1. Command (m for help): type n and press Enter 2. Partition type: Select (default p): press Enter 3. Partition number (1-4, default 1): press Enter 4. First sector (2048-209715199, default 2048): press Enter 5. Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-209715199....., press Enter Then create a second partition: 1. Command (m for help): type n and press Enter 2. Partition type: Select (default p): press Enter 3. Partition number (1-4, default 2): press Enter 4. First sector (31459328-209715199, default 31459328): press Enter 5. Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (31459328-209715199....., default Now preview the new partition table:
default 209715199):
type
+15G
and
209715199):
press
Enter
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type
and press
Enter
Disk /dev/sda: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes, 209715200 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x5698d902 Device Boot /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 Start 2048 31459328 End 31459327 209715199 Blocks 15728640 89127936 Id 83 83 System Linux Linux
type
and press
Enter
If everything went well fdisk will now quit with the following message:
The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Syncing disks.
In case this doesn't work because fdisk encountered an error, you can use the to exit. Create lesystems
command
Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a lesystem. To format the partitions with an ext4 lesystem: Warning: Double check and triple check that it is actually want to format. You can use lsblk to help with this.
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
/dev/sda1
and
/dev/sda2
that you
If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), do not forget to format and activate it with:
# mkswap /dev/sdaX # swapon /dev/sdaX
For UEFI, you should format the ESP partition (usually sda1) with:
# mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
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Note: Do not mount more than one partition to the same directory. And pay attention, because the mounting order is important. First, mount the root partition on dierent), it would be:
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
/mnt .
Then mount the home partition and any other separate partition ( /boot , have any:
# mkdir /mnt/home # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home
/var ,
etc), if you
Select a mirror
Before installing, you may want to edit the mirrorlist le and place your preferred mirror rst. A copy of this le will be installed on your new system by pacstrap as well, so it is worth getting it right.
# nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist ## ## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist ## Sorted by mirror score from mirror status page ## Generated on 2012-MM-DD ## Server = http://mirror.example.xyz/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ...
to copy a Server line. PageUp key to scroll up. Ctrl+U to paste it at the top of the list. Ctrl+X to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press lename.
Alt+6
and
Enter
If you want, you can make it the only mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using Ctrl+K ), but it is usually a good idea to have a few more, in case the rst one goes oine.
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Tip: Use the Mirrorlist Generator (https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/) to get an updated list for your country. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP , because of something called keepalive. With FTP , pacman has to send out a signal each time it downloads a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways to generate a mirror list, see Sorting mirrors and Reector. Arch Linux MirrorStatus (https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/) reports various aspects about the mirrors such as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have been synced, etc. Note: Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always remember to force pacman to refresh all package lists with pacman -Syy . This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possible headaches. See Mirrors for more information. If you are using an older installation medium, your mirrorlist might be outdated, which might lead to problems when updating Arch Linux (see FS#22510 (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/22510) ). Therefore it is advised to obtain the latest mirror information as described above. Some issues have been reported in the Arch Linux forums (https://bbs.archlinux.org/) regarding network problems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [1] (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68944) and [2] (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65728) ). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved by replacing the default pacman le downloader with an alternative (see Improve Pacman Performance for more details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in VirtualBox, this issue has also been addressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.
Note: If pacman fails to verify your packages, check the system time with cal . If the system date is invalid (e.g. it shows the year 2010), signing keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks on packages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either by doing so manually or with the ntp (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=ntp) client, and retry running the pacstrap command. Refer to Time page for more information on correcting system
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This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using pacman.
Generate an fstab
Generate an fstab le with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages (see fstab#Identifying lesystems). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the -U option with -L .
# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab # nano /mnt/etc/fstab
Warning: The fstab le should always be checked after generating it. If you encounter errors running genfstab or later in the install process, do not run genfstab again; just edit the fstab le. A few considerations: The last eld determines the order in which partitions are checked at start up: use 1 for the (non- btrfs ) root partition, which should be checked rst; 2 for all other partitions you want checked at start up; and 0 means 'do not check' (see fstab#Field denitions). All btrfs partitions should have 0 for this eld. Normally, you will also want your swap partition to have 0 .
Note: Use
At this stage of the installation, you will congure the primary conguration les of your Arch Linux base system. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults. Closely following and understanding these steps is of key importance to ensure a properly congured system. Locale
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Locales are used by glibc and other locale-aware programs or libraries for rendering text, correctly displaying regional monetary values, time and date formats, alphabetic idiosyncrasies, and other locale-specic standards. There are two les that need editing:
locale.gen
and
locale.conf
The locale.gen le is empty by default (everything is commented out) and you need to remove the # in front of the line(s) you want. You may uncomment more lines than just English (US), as long as you choose their UTF-8 encoding:
# nano /etc/locale.gen en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
# locale-gen
This will run on every glibc upgrade, generating all the locales specied in The locale.conf le does not exist by default. Setting only will act as the default value for all other variables.
# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
/etc/locale.gen .
LANG
should be enough. It
Note: If you set some other language than English (US) at the beginning of the install, the above commands would be something like:
# echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
To use other locales for other LC_* variables, run locale to see the available options and add them to locale.conf . It is not recommended to set the LC_ALL variable. An advanced example can be found here. Console font and keymap If you set a keymap at the beginning of the install process, load it now, as well, because the environment has changed. For example:
# loadkeys de-latin1 # setfont Lat2-Terminus16
vconsole.conf
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Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or Xorg.
KEYMAP
Available alternate console fonts reside in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ . The default (blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It is recommended that you change it to Lat2-Terminus16 , because according to /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/README.Lat2-Terminus16 , it claims to support "about 110 language sets".
FONT
Possible option FONT_MAP Denes the console map to load at boot. Read Removing it or leaving it blank is safe. See Console fonts and Time zone Available time zones and subzones can be found in the directories. To view the available <Zone>, check the directory
# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
man setfont
man vconsole.conf
/usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone>
/usr/share/zoneinfo/
/etc/localtime
to your zone le
/usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone>
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone> /etc/localtime
Example:
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Minsk /etc/localtime
Hardware clock Set the hardware clock mode uniformly between your operating systems. Otherwise, they may overwrite the hardware clock and cause time shifts. You can generate
/etc/adjtime
UTC (recommended) Note: Using UTC for the hardware clock does not mean that software will display
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time in UTC.
# hwclock --systohc --utc
To synchronize your "UTC" time over the internet, see NTPd. localtime (discouraged; used by default in Windows) Warning: Using localtime may lead to several known and unxable bugs. However, there are no plans to drop support for localtime.
# hwclock --systohc --localtime
If you have (or planning on having) a dual boot setup with Windows: Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick registry x is needed. Also, be sure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will default back to localtime. Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to localtime and disable any time-related services, like NTPd . This will let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to remember to boot into Windows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when DST kicks in. So please do not ask on the forums why the clock is one hour behind or ahead if you usually go for days or weeks without booting into Windows. Kernel modules Tip: This is just an example, you do not need to set it. All needed modules are automatically loaded by udev, so you will rarely need to add something here. Only add modules that you know are missing. For kernel modules to load during boot, place a name based on the program that uses them.
# nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-net.conf # Load 'virtio-net.ko' at boot. virtio-net
*.conf
le in
/etc/modules-load.d/
, with a
If there are more modules to load per *.conf , the module names can be separated by newlines. A good example are the VirtualBox Guest Additions. Empty lines and lines starting with Hostname
#
or
are ignored.
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/etc/hosts .
Wired
Dynamic IP
Using dhcpcd If you only use a single xed wired network connection, you do not need a network management service and can simply enable the dhcpcd service:
# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service
Note: If it doesn't work, use: Using netctl Copy a sample prole from
/etc/netctl/examples
to
/etc/netctl
Interface ):
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Enable the
my-network
prole:
ifplugd (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=ifplugd)
netctl-ifplugd
# pacman -S ifplugd
Tip: Netctl also provides netctl-auto , which can be used to handle wired proles in conjunction with netctl-ifplugd .
Static IP
to
/etc/netctl
and
DNS ):
Notice the
/24
in
Address
255.255.255.0
netmask
Wireless Note: If your wireless adapter requires a rmware (as described in the above Establish an internet connection section and also here), install the package containing your rmware. Most of the time, the linux-firmware (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=linux-firmware) package will contain the needed rmware. Though for some devices, the required
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wpa_supplicant (https://www.archlinux.org
wifi-menu :
# pacman -S dialog
After nishing the rest of this installation and rebooting, you can connect to the network with wifi-menu interface_name (where interface_name is the interface of your wireless chipset).
# wifi-menu interface_name
Warning: This must be done *after* your reboot when you are no longer chrooted. The process spawned by this command will conict with the one you have running outside of the chroot. Alternatively, you could just congure a network prole manually using the following templates so that you do not have to worry about using wifi-menu at all. Using manual netctl proles Copy a network prole from
/etc/netctl/examples
to
/etc/netctl
Interface , ESSID
and
Key ):
Enable the netctl-auto service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects:
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Tip: Netctl also provides netctl-ifplugd , which can be used to handle wired proles in conjunction with netctl-auto . Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection.
# mkinitcpio -p linux
Note: Arch VPS installations on QEMU (e.g. when using modules in mkinitcpio.conf to be able to boot.
# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net"
virt-manager )
may need
virtio
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide
/viewtopic.php?pid=1109328#p1109328) . GRUB is more feature-rich and supports more complex scenarios. Its conguration le(s) is more similar to a scripting language, which may be dicult for beginners to manually write. It is recommended that they automatically generate one.
Syslinux
Note: If you opted for a GUID partition table (GPT) for your hard drive earlier, you need to install the gptfdisk (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=gptfdisk) package now for this next step to work, assuming you have not installed it already. Install the package and then use the script to automatically install the bootloader ( -i ), mark the partition active by setting the boot ag ( -a ), and install the MBR boot code ( -m ):
syslinux (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=syslinux) syslinux-install_update
# pacman -S syslinux # syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
Congure syslinux.cfg to point to the right root partition. This step is vital. If it points to the wrong partition, Arch Linux will not boot. Change /dev/sda3 to reect your root partition (if you partitioned your drive as in the example, your root partition is sda1). Do the same for the fallback entry.
# nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg ... LABEL arch ... APPEND root=/dev/sda3 rw ...
Install the grub (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=grub) package and then run to install the bootloader: Note:
grub-install
Change /dev/sda to reect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do not use sdaX ). For GPT-partitioned drives on BIOS motherboards, you also need a "BIOS Boot Partition". See GPT-specic instructions and Install to GPT BIOS boot partition in the GRUB page.
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Note: If it is an installation on virtualbox as guest, while running grub-install command as in above, you might get an error like "/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible". Executing parted -s /dev/sda set 1 bios_grub on and then retrying grub-install should solve the problem. While using a manually created grub.cfg is absolutely ne, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one: Tip: To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install os-prober (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=os-prober) ( pacman -S os-prober ) before running the next command.
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
For more information on conguring and using GRUB, see GRUB. For UEFI motherboards For UEFI systems, several options are available. A complete list of options is available at UEFI Bootloaders. You may nd that some options work while others do not. Otherwise, choose one as per your convenience. Here, we give two of the possibilities as examples: Boot the Linux kernel directly using EFISTUB. gummiboot is a simple boot manager, useful if you are dual booting. rEFInd is another alternative. GRUB is a more complete bootloader, usefull if you run into problems with the other two options. Note: For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned and an UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or larger, type EF00 , formatted with FAT32) must be present. For the following examples, this partition must be mounted on /boot . If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these. Note: If you run into problems, such as not being able to boot after the bootloader has been installed without any visible error. In this case, you will instead have to enter the UEFI shell and manually add an entry to the UEFI boot menu with the bcfg command, as described here. On some ASUS motherboards, there is an EFI bug that always reports MaxVariableSize=0 . Combined with a recent kernel that enforces checks on this value, this prevents efibootmgr from setting new EFI variables. These motherboards do not support the UEFI Shell v2, so you cannot use the bcfg method either. To work around this, add efi_no_storage_paranoia to the kernel command line. You can do this by pressing "e" at the bootloader menu. On some UEFI motherboards like the Intel Z77 boards, adding entries with ebootmgr or bcfg from e shell will not work because they don't show up on the boot menu list after being added to NVRAM.
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To solve this you have to trick the UEFI rmware that Windows boot manager is present on the ESP partition. Copy the bootx64.e le from USB drive as bootmgfw.e e le to your ESP partition by booting into EFI shell and typing:
FS1: cd EFI mkdir Microsoft cd Microsoft mkdir Boot cp FS0:\EFI\BOOT\bootx64.efi FS1:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
After reboot, any entries added to NVRAM should show up in the boot menu.
EFISTUB
Install the efibootmgr (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=efibootmgr) package and then add an Arch Linux boot entry, replacing /dev/sdaX with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2 :
# pacman -S efibootmgr # efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux -u "root=/dev/sdaX ro initrd=/initramfs-linux.img"
Gummiboot
Install the
gummiboot (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=gummiboot)
gummiboot install
Warning: You will probably see an error during gummiboot install, when it fails to add itself to NVRAM because of a bug (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/34292) . If you get this error message, manually use ebootmgr to add gummiboot to NVRAM:
# efibootmgr -c -L "Gummiboot" -l /EFI/gummiboot/gummibootx64.efi
You will need to manually create a conguration le to add an entry for Arch Linux to the gummiboot manager. Create /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and add the following contents, replacing /dev/sdaX with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2 :
# nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf title linux initrd options Arch Linux /vmlinuz-linux /initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/sdaX ro
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Install the
grub (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=grub)
(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=efibootmgr)
grub-install
to install
the bootloader:
# pacman -S grub efibootmgr # grub-install --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck
Next, while using a manually created grub.cfg is absolutely ne, it is recommended that beginners automatically generate one: Tip: To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install os-prober (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=os-prober) ( pacman -S os-prober ) before running the next command.
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
/mnt ,
Tip: Be sure to remove the installation media, otherwise you will boot back into it.
Post-installation
Your new Arch Linux base system is now a functional GNU/Linux environment ready to be built into whatever you wish or require for your purposes.
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User management
Add any user accounts you require besides root, as described in User management. It is not good practice to use the root account for regular use, or expose it via SSH on a server. The root account should only be used for administrative tasks.
Package management
Pacman is the Arch Linux package manager. See pacman and FAQ#Package Management for answers regarding installing, updating, and managing packages. Because of The Arch Way#Code-correctness over convenience it is imperative to keep up to date with changes in Arch Linux that require manual intervention before upgrading your system. Check the front page Arch news (https://www.archlinux.org/) and subscribe to the arch-announce mailing list (https://mailman.archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/arch-announce/) . Alternatively, you may nd it useful to subscribe to this RSS feed (https://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/) or follow @archlinux (https://twitter.com/archlinux) on Twitter. If you installed Arch Linux x86_64, you may want to enable the [multilib] repository if you plan on using 32-bit applications. See Ocial Repositories for details about the purpose of each repository.
Service management
Arch Linux uses systemd as init, which is a system and service manager for Linux. For maintaining your Arch Linux installation, it is a good idea to learn the basics about it. Interaction with systemd is done through the systemctl command. Read systemd#Basic systemctl usage for more information.
Sound
ALSA usually works out-of-the-box. It just needs to be unmuted. Install alsa-utils (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=alsa-utils) (which contains alsamixer ) and follow these instructions. ALSA is included with the kernel and it is recommended. If it does not work, OSS is a viable alternative. If you have advanced audio requirements, take a look at Sound system for an overview of various articles.
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Install a video driver Note: If you installed Arch as a VirtualBox guest, you do not need to install a video driver. See Arch Linux guests for installing and setting up Guest Additions, and jump to the conguration part below. The Linux kernel includes open-source video drivers and support for hardware accelerated framebuers. However, userland support is required for OpenGL and 2D acceleration in X11. If you do not know which video chipset is available on your machine, run:
$ lspci | grep VGA
For a complete list of open-source video drivers, search the package database:
$ pacman -Ss xf86-video | less
The vesa driver is a generic mode-setting driver that will work with almost every GPU, but will not provide any 2D or 3D acceleration. If a better driver cannot be found or fails to load, Xorg will fall back to vesa. To install it:
# pacman -S xf86-video-vesa
In order for video acceleration to work, and often to expose all the modes that the GPU can set, a proper video driver is required:
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Documentation
ATI
(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org
AMD Catalyst
Intel
Open source
Intel Graphics
(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org
Nouveau
Open source
(legacy driver)
Nvidia
Proprietary
nvidia-304xx /packages/?name=nvidia304xx)
NVIDIA
(https://www.archlinux.org (https://www.archlinux.org
Install input drivers Udev should be capable of detecting your hardware without problems. The evdev driver (xf86-input-evdev (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-evdev) ) is the modern hot-plugging input driver for almost all devices, so in most cases, installing input drivers is not needed. At this point, evdev has already been installed as a dependency of the xorg-server (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xorg-server) package. Laptop users (or users with a tactile screen) will need the xf86-input-synaptics (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-synaptics) package for the touchpad/touchscreen to work:
# pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics
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For instructions on ne tuning or troubleshooting touchpad issues, see the Touchpad Synaptics article. Congure X Warning: Proprietary drivers usually require a reboot after installation. See NVIDIA or AMD Catalyst for details. Xorg features auto-detection and therefore can function without an xorg.conf . If you still wish to manually congure X Server, please see the Xorg wiki page. Here you may set a keyboard layout if you do not use a standard US keyboard. Note: The XkbLayout key may dier from the keymap code you used with the loadkeys command. A list of many keyboard layouts and variants can be found in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst (after the line beginning with ! layout ). For instance, the layout gb corresponds to "English (UK)", whereas for the console it was loadkeys uk . Test X Tip: These steps are optional. Test if you are installing Arch Linux for the rst time, or if you are installing on new and unfamiliar hardware. Note: If your input devices are not working during this test, install the needed driver from the xorg-drivers (https://www.archlinux.org/groups/i686/xorg-drivers/) group, and try again. For a complete list of available input drivers, invoke a pacman search (press Q to exit):
$ pacman -Ss xf86-input | less
or
xf86-input-mouse (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-input-mouse)
If Xorg was installed before creating the non-root user, there will be a template .xinitrc le in your home directory that needs to be either deleted or commented out. Simply deleting it will cause X to run with the default environment installed above.
$ rm ~/.xinitrc
Note: X must always be run on the same tty where the login occurred, to preserve the logind session. This is handled by the default /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc . To start the (test) Xorg session, run:
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$ startx
A few movable windows should show up, and your mouse should work. Once you are satised that X installation was a success, you may exit out of X by issuing the exit command into the prompts until you return to the console.
$ exit
If the screen goes black, you may still attempt to switch to a dierent virtual console (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2 ), and blindly log in as root. You can do this by typing "root" (press Enter after typing it) and entering the root password (again, press Enter after typing it). You may also attempt to kill the X server with:
# pkill X
Troubleshooting
If a problem occurs, look for errors in Xorg.0.log . Be on the lookout for any lines beginning with (EE) which represent errors, and also (WW) which are warnings that could indicate other issues.
$ grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
If you are still having trouble after consulting the Xorg article and need assistance via the Arch Linux forums or the IRC channel, be sure to install and use wgetpaste (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=wgetpaste) by providing the links from:
# $ $ $ pacman -S wgetpaste wgetpaste wgetpaste wgetpaste ~/.xinitrc /etc/X11/xorg.conf /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Note: Please provide all pertinent information (hardware, driver information, etc) when asking for assistance. Fonts You may wish to install a set of TrueType fonts, as only unscalable bitmap fonts are included by default. DejaVu is a set of high quality, general-purpose fonts with good Unicode coverage:
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# pacman -S ttf-dejavu
Refer to Font Conguration for how to congure font rendering and Fonts for font suggestions and installation instructions. Choose and install a graphical interface The X Window System provides the basic framework for building a graphical user interface (GUI). Note: Choosing your DE or WM is a very subjective and personal decision. Choose the best environment for your needs. You can also build your own DE with just a WM and the applications of your choice. Window Managers (WM) control the placement and appearance of application windows in conjunction with the X Window System. Desktop Environments (DE) work atop and in conjunction with X, to provide a completely functional and dynamic GUI. A DE typically provides a window manager, icons, applets, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, a suite of applications and abilities like drag and drop. Instead of starting X manually with startx from xorg-xinit (https://www.archlinux.org/packages /?name=xorg-xinit) , see Display Manager for instructions on using a display manager, or see Start X at Login for using an existing virtual terminal as an equivalent to a display manager.
Appendix
For a list of applications that may be of interest, see List of Applications. See General Recommendations for post-installation tutorials like setting up a touchpad or font rendering.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Beginners%27_Guide& oldid=264494" Categories: About Arch Getting and installing Arch This page was last modied on 27 June 2013, at 17:45. Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later.
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