New PC and Installing Arch Linux
I built my new PC (my first custom built pc) and of course I install arch linux on it.
here is basic built information.
| component |
spec |
| CPU |
AMD fx6300 3.5GHZ 6cores |
| RAM |
16Gb |
| HDD |
1TB HDD and 64GB SSD |
| GPU |
MSI GeForce GTX950 |
| MOBO |
MSI970A G46 |
Arch Linux Installation Log
This is a log of my installation. Not a guide to installation. If you try to install arch linux, follow installation guide of arch wiki.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide
and beginners’ guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_guide
Preinstallation
I prepared iso media on my macbook pro.
1. Download and boot the installation medium
I will write image on flash media and boot from it. usb flash installation media
Download iso (https://www.archlinux.org/download/)
downloaded archlinux-2015.11.01-dual.iso
follow installation media guide
$ diskutil list
unmount usb
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
copy iso to usb
$ sudo dd if=archlinux-2015.11.01-dual.iso of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m
without sudo I got Permission denied.
The output was
659+0 records in
659+0 records out
691011584 bytes transferred in 146.929573 secs (4703012 bytes/sec)
eject usb
$ diskutil eject
- boot from usb
turned on pc and insert usb (skip bios)
2. Partitioning
Procedure is almost same as arch linux beginners’ guide suggest here.
My mobo supports UEFI so I tried to make partition UEFI/GPT setup using GNU parted.
$ fdisk -l
# output of fdisk
# /dev/sda is ssd and /dev/sdb is hdd for me
$ parted /dev/sda
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB
(parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 513MiB 35GiB
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 35GiB 100%
(parted) quit
$ parted /dev/sdb
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 1MiB 20GiB
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 20GiB 40GiB
(parted) mkpart primary linux-swap 40GiB 64GiB
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 64GiB 100%
(parted) quit
#partition #Size #type #Mount Point
/dev/sda1 512M FAT32 /boot
/dev/sda2 35 G ext4 /
/dev/sda3 30 G ext4 /usr
/dev/sdb1 20 G ext4 /var
/dev/sdb2 20 G ext4 /tmp
/dev/sdb3 24 G swap
/dev/sdb4 950G ext4 /home
This partition scheme is not optimal or recommended. This is just a log of my scheme.
If you are interested in recommended partition scheme see arch wiki’s partitioning page.
$ mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
$ mkswap /dev/sdb2
$ swapon /dev/sdb2
4. mount drives
First mount SSD
$ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
$ mkdir -p /mnt/boot
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
$ mkdir -p /mnt/usr
$ mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/usr
and mount HDD
$ mkdir -p /mnt/var
$ mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/var
$ mkdir -p /mnt/tmp
$ mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/tmp
$ mkdir -p /mnt/home
$ mount /dev/sdb4 /mnt/home
5. install arch linux
Before download and install check internet access
$ ping -c 3 google.com
Fortunately my ethernet was already working.
Now install arch linux.
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
installation was fine.
6. Configuration
Now generate fstab, chroot to /mnt, set locale, time, keyboard and initramfs.
Since I separate / and /usr, a special care is needed in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. Should read about mkinitcpio on arch wiki especially this part. I found this problem on Stackoverflow here and here. This took me two days googling and to spot.
Setting is below.
- edit
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
change HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck" to HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard shutdown usr fsck"
- mark
/usr with a passno 0 in /etc/fstab
- create new init image
$ arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
$ mkinitcpio -p linux
- update
/boot/grub.cfg (no need maybe?)
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
$ exit
$ umount -R /mnt
7. Install a boot loader
For boot loader, I didn’t follow exactly the way beginners’ guide show because I felt that the way it shows for UEFI/GPT using bootctl is not so popular compared with GRUB. So I used GRUB as boot loader.
Follow the instruction on the arch wiki’s GRUB/UEFI systems.
$ pacman -S grub bootmgr
- --- --- --- --
- Don’t forget generate the main configuration file
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
So it’s almost done. Configure host name, network, set password. Once configuration is done, unmount all disks and reboot
Written with StackEdit.
