Guide To Installing Arch Linux

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arch linux install splash screen

This is a guide to installing archlinux and was last updated March 13, 2012.  It fixes numerous things not addressed in the archwiki, especially the pacman upgrade failures right after the system is installed.  Also, I demystify using visudo to add the group ‘wheel’ to the sudoers list.

Download Archlinux – here
Burn it to CD/DVD.
Boot from the Media

Type:

cd /arch
./setup

You have to go through all of these.

  • Select Source
    • default option
  • Set Editor
    • default option
  • Set Clock
    • set to local timezone
    • set hardware clock to local time
    • set time and date manually
  • Prepare Hard Disk
    • Auto-Prepare
    • boot – default
    • swap – default
    • / – bump up to 10GB
    • /home – default
    • select ext4 for type
  • Select Packages
    • choose bootloader – default, grub
    • package groups – default, base – these will be updated later
    • list of packages – default, nothing extra
  • Install Packages
    • yep
  • Configure System
    • /etc/rc.conf
      • HOSTNAME = “archBox”
      • interface = eth0
      • CTRL – O, write out (save)
      • CTRL – X, exit nano
    • /etc/pacman.conf
      • uncomment XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget –passive-ftp -c (…)
      • CTRL – O, write out (save)
      • CTRL – X, exit nano
    • /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
      • uncomment a number of hostnames
      • CTRL – O, write out (save)
      • CTRL – X, exit nano
  • Set the Root-Password
  • Install Bootloader
    • CTRL – X, no changes
    • Default Boot Device

Exit Install

This will drop you to the console.  Type:

 reboot

Login as root

Update the pacman package database:

pacman -Syy

Update the system

pacman -Syu

Allow it to update pacman first.

Extra packages will be downloaded. ex. linux-api-headers, glibc, …

Once the update of the pacman package completes type:

pacman-key --init

Open up a new console window with a CTRL-ALT-F2

Login as root.

Start the system upgrade again.

 pacman -Syu

Select default, download will begin. It will download everything and then fail to install properly.

error: failed to commit transaction(conflicting files)
 filesystem: /etc/mtab exists in filesystem
 initscripts: /etc/profile.d/locale/sh exists in filesystem

To fix it type:

 rm /etc/profile.d/locale.sh
 pacman -S filesystem --force

This will fix those two errors.  Start the upgrade (again…)

 pacman -Syu

Once completed I always restart.

Login as root.

Add a new user.  In this case, bill.

 useradd -m -g users -G audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,games,power,scanner -s /bin/bash bill

Set the password for the user

 passwd bill

Now install sudo.

 pacman -S sudo

In order to allow the new user to use sudo you need to add the group ‘wheel’ to the sudoers using visudo.

visudo

vi is not intuitive software. It does not work like nano.

Scroll down to where it says

#Same thing without a password
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Press ‘i’ to enter insert mode
Press the delete key to remove the ‘#’ to un-comment the second line from above.
Press the ESC key to exit insert mode
Type:

 :wq

…and hit Enter, this will exit and save the file.

Now reboot.

Login with the user you created and you should have password-less sudo.

Install GNOME (optional)

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils mesa xf86-video-intel gdm gnome-session gnome-shell network-manager-applet gnome-tweak-tool gnome-extra

add daemons: to /etc/rc.conf
dbus

Config fallback mode:
System Settings -> System Info -> Graphics
Enable Fallback Mode

Install XFCE4 (optional)

sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies lxdm

add daemons: to /etc/rc.conf
dbus lxdm

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