Arch Linux 2013 Installation

Arch Linux is a Linux-based operating system for i686 and x86-64 computers. It is composed predominantly of free and open source software, and supports community involvement. The design approach of the development team focuses on simplicity from a developer’s standpoint rather than a user’s standpoint, elegance, code correctness, and minimalism. A package manager written specifically for Arch Linux, pacman, is used to install, remove and update software packages. Arch Linux uses a rolling release model, such that a regular system update is all that is needed to obtain the latest Arch software; the installation images released by the Arch team are simply up to date snapshots of the main system components. Next update for this tutorial will be when XFCE 4.12 final released in official Arch repo.

Download latest version of Arch Linux from https://www.archlinux.org/download/ and create usb stick by running command bellow. Make sure to replace “X” with your own usb drive letter. You can find it by using “blkid” command. You can also burn this image to cd by using software like “Xfburn” or “Brasero”.

 dd if=archlinux-2013.03.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdX 

Create partitions using “cfdisk”.

* bootable flag (required)

Format Partitions

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4

Mount Partitions

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot && mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/sda2
mkdir /mnt/home && mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home

Optionally Change Mirror

 echo "Server = http://mirrors.kernel.org/archlinux/\$repo/os/\$arch" > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist 

Install Base System

 pacstrap /mnt base base-devel 

Install Grub2

 arch-chroot /mnt pacman -S grub-bios 

Generate fstab

 genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab 

Login to chroot

 arch-chroot /mnt 

Create hostname

nano /etc/hostname
and add desired hostname

Set Timezone

 ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/YourCountryHere/YourCityHere /etc/localtime 

Config Language

nano /etc/locale.gen
and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 line or your own locale.

Also Create Locale Config

nano /etc/locale.conf
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="C"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"

Generate Locale

 locale-gen 

Config Kernel

 mkinitcpio -p linux 

Config Bootloader

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install --recheck /dev/sda

Set root password

passwd root
** enter new root password **

Exit chroot

 Type exit or press Ctrl+D 

Unmount Partitions

 umount /mnt/{boot,home,} 

** REBOOT **

Arch Linux – Post Install

** Login as Root **

Start Network

systemctl start dhcpcd
systemctl enable dhcpcd

After newest systemd version release all of the interfaces are now named diferently. See this page for more info Predictable Network Interface Names

Install X-Server and Default Fonts

 pacman -S xorg-server ttf-dejavu 

Find Your Video Card

 lspci | grep VGA 

If You Have NVidia Card Install

 pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils pangox-compat 

Note: “pangox-compat” package required by nvidia-utils

If you have intel video card look it up and install apropreate package.

 pacman -Ss xf86-video | less 

Install Intel Video Driver.

 pacman -S xf86-video-intel 

or install standard one, which supports many intel video cards.

 pacman -S xf86-video-vesa 

To install ATI or any other video card please see official wiki at Install a Video Driver.

Add Regular User

useradd -m -g users -G optical,power,storage -s /bin/bash USERNAME
** then set users password **
passwd USERNAME

Install XFCE + SLiM

 pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies slim gvfs 

Note: gvfs needed for thunar auto-mount drives like usb’s and external hard drives.

Enable SLiM on Boot

 systemctl enable slim 

** At this point logout from root and login as your regular user that you created. **

Create xinitrc file to start XFCE on boot.

cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
nano ~/.xinitrc
(uncomment exec startxfce4)

** REBOOT **

Now you should have freshly installed Arch Linux with XFCE.

Optional Instructions for Laptops.

Install touchpad

 pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics 

If touchpad is too sensitive to finger touch do this:

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf
(find Section "InputClass" and add this option)
Option "FingerHigh" "8"

Now log-off and log back in, this should fix it.