Arch Linux Installation Guide

This guide covers everything you need to install a full fledged Arch Linux System with KDE Plasma Desktop Environment.

Initial Configuration

Network Config for liveiso

• systemctl start iwd dhcpcd - Starts IW Daemon and DHCP Client Daemon
• iwconfig - Use this to Check Wi-Fi Interface Name (wlan0/wlo1/wlp2s0)
• iwctl station <interface> scan - Scan SSIDs
• iwctl station <interface> get-networks - Check SSID for your preferable network
• iwctl station <interface> connect "<ssid>" - Enter password after hitting enter
• ping 1.1.1.1 - Check if DHCP is working
• ping archlinux.org - Check if DNS is working

Timezone Config for liveiso

• timedatectl set-timezone <Region/City> - Put your timezone here (Asia/Kolkata)
• timedatectl set-ntp true - Enable Network Time Sync
• timedatectl set-local-rtc true - Sync local time with hardware clock

Partitioning Filesystem

• fdisk -l - List Devices and Partitions
• cfdisk /dev/<device> - Make 3 partitions:

1. 512M EFI System Partition (<efi>)
2. 8.8G Linux Swap Partition (<swap>)
3. Remaining Size (Preferably 140.3G) Linux Filesystem (<root>)

• fdisk -l - Check the partition numbers properly.
• mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/<efi> - Format the EFI Filesystem in Fat32
• mkswap /dev/<swap> - Format the Swap Filesystem

Mounting Filesystem

Mount Root

BTRFS as root (Skip to next section for EXT4 guide)

• mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/<root> - Format the Root Filesystem in B-Tree Filesystem
• mount /dev/<root> /mnt - Mount the Root to /mnt

Create BTRFS Subvolumes

• btrfs su cr /mnt/@
• btrfs su cr /mnt/@home
• btrfs su cr /mnt/@var
• btrfs su cr /mnt/@opt
• btrfs su cr /mnt/@tmp
• btrfs su cr /mnt/@.snapshots

Unmount Root

• umount /mnt

Mount "@" subvoume to /mnt

• mount -o noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,subvol=@ /dev/<root> /mnt

Create necessary mountpoints

• mkdir /mnt/{boot,home,var,opt,tmp,.snapshots}

Mount other subvolumes with proper options

• mount -o noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,subvol=@home /dev/<root> /mnt/home
• mount -o noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,subvol=@opt /dev/<root> /mnt/opt
• mount -o noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,subvol=@tmp /dev/<root> /mnt/tmp
• mount -o noatime,commit=120,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2,subvol=@.snapshots /dev/<root> /mnt/.snapshots
• mount -o subvol=@var /dev/<root> /mnt/var

OR, EXT4 as root

• mkfs.ext4 /dev/<root> - Format the Root Filesystem in Ext4 Filesystem
• mount /dev/<root> /mnt - Mount the Root to /mnt

Mount Boot and Swap

• mkdir /mnt/boot/efi - Make the EFI mount point folder
• mount /dev/<efi> /mnt/boot/efi - Mount the EFI Partition
• swapon /dev/<swap> - Using the Swap Partition

Installing the Base Linux System

• nano /etc/pacman.conf - Uncomment the following:

Color
ParallelDownloads = 5

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

then save and exit

• pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware vim nano btrfs-progs - Select the default.

NOTE: If you want Linux Zen Kernel, replace "linux" with "linux-zen".
Don't replace "linux-firmware".
Also, if you are using Ext4, then "btrfs-progs" is not needed.

• genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab - Generating fstab configuration

Chrooting

• arch-chroot /mnt

Network Configuration

• nano /etc/hostname - Write your hostname here and remember it (<hostname>), save and exit
• nano /etc/hosts - Write the following in it:

127.0.0.1   localhost
::1         localhost
127.0.1.1   <hostname>

Locale Configuration

• nano /etc/locale.gen - Uncomment your locale here (en_US.UTF-8)
• locale-gen - Generates your locales based on "/etc/locale.gen"
• nano /etc/locale.conf - Type here "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" (or whatever locale you chose)
• export LANG=en_US.UTF-8 - If you chose another locale, type accordingly

Installing necessary packages

• nano /etc/pacman.conf - Uncomment the following:

Color
ParallelDownloads = 5

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

then save and exit

• pacman -Syy sudo linux-headers efibootmgr grub intel-ucode git base-devel grub-btrfs dkms avahi os-prober

NOTE: If you have an AMD Processor instead, replace "intel-ucode" with "amd-ucode"
If you have installed "linux-zen" in the previous pacstrap command, then replace "linux-headers" with "linux-zen-headers"
Also, if you have Ext4 then "grub-btrfs" is not required.

Adding a sudo user

• passwd - Enter new password for root
• useradd -m <username> - Enter your new username (<username>)
• usermod -aG wheel <username> - Add user to wheel group for sudo permissions
• passwd <username> - Enter new password for your new user
• EDITOR=nano visudo - At the bottom of the file, uncomment the line "%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL", save and exit

Installing a Bootloader (GRUB)

• grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=archlinux --efi-directory=/boot/efi --recheck - Installing GRUB

NOTE: If your UEFI Entry disappears on reboot due to the requirement of known location to bootable file before showing up UEFI NVRAM Boot entries, just use "--removable" flag after the whole command.

• nano /etc/default/grub - Uncomment the line at the end of file saying "GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false"
• mkinitcpio -P - Generating Initramfs
• grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg - Generating GRUB Configuration file

Installing a Desktop Environment (KDE Plasma)

• pacman -S plasma plasma-wayland-session kde-applications sddm noto-fonts-emoji packagekit-qt5 gnome-keyring - Read carefully and select the options
  Go for pipewire, pipewire-media-session, vlc, pyqt5, cronie or all in the options, then wait till installation
• systemctl enable NetworkManager sddm avahi-daemon - Enabling KDE's NetworkManager, Display Manager and Avahi Daemon
• exit - Exiting Chroot
• reboot now - Rebooting to Installed Arch Linux. Do not forget to change DE to Plasma (X11).

Post Install Configuration

Fix Audio when using PipeWire

• sudo systemctl --global mask wireplumber
• reboot

NOTE: In case of any issues, just run "sudo systemctl --global unmask wireplumber" and reboot. to undo changes.

Installing an AUR Helper (YAY)

• cd /opt
• sudo git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-git.git
• sudo chown -R <username>:<username> ./yay-git
• cd yay-git
• makepkg -si

Optional: Performance Tweak for YAY

• sudo pacman -S ccache
• sudo nano /etc/makepkg.conf

Find BUILDENV and remove the exclamation (!) mark from "ccache" like this:

BUILDENV=(fakeroot !distcc color ccache check !sign)

Find MAKEFLAGS, uncomment it and edit the numerical value to the number of CPU threads you have. For example, for 16 threads, do this:

MAKEFLAGS="-j16"

Save and Exit

• sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc - If you use zsh, then replace the path with "/etc/zsh/zshrc"

Put this in the last line of the file:

export PATH="/usr/lib/ccache/bin/:$PATH"

Save and Exit Close the terminal and reopen to apply changes.

Installing FlatPak

• sudo pacman -S flatpak
• sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo - Adding FlatHub repo
• sudo flatpak override --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-3.0 - Forcing FlatPak to use System GTK Themes
• reboot - Reboot to complete installation

Alternate: Installing Snapd

• yay -S snapd
• sudo systemctl enable snapd snapd.socket snapd.seeded snapd.apparmor
• sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
• reboot - Reboot to complete installation

Installing Plymouth

• yay -S plymouth-git

Configure Initramfs

• sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Edit HOOKS to have "plymouth" after "base" and "udev" and MODULES to have "i915" (for Intel GPU only) at beginning like this:

MODULES=(i915 ...)
HOOKS=(base udev plymouth ...)

NOTE: If you have AMD GPU, replace "i915" with "amdgpu" and for NVIDIA GPU, replace it with "nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm"

NOTE: For Laptops having a dGPU and an iGPU, consider using iGPU in this part, i.e., usually Intel GPU or AMD GPU.

Save and Exit

Regenerate Initramfs

• sudo mkinitcpio -P

Configure GRUB

• sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Edit GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to have "splash" after "quiet" like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Save and Exit

Regenerate GRUB Configuration

• yay -S update-grub
• sudo update-grub

Enable SDDM Plymouth

• sudo systemctl disable sddm
• sudo systemctl enable sddm-plymouth

Install a Plymouth Theme

• yay -S plymouth-theme-arch-breeze-git
• sudo plymouth-set-default-theme -R arch-breeze
• reboot - Reboot to complete installation

Install a better GRUB Theme (Xenlism GRUB Theme)

• git clone https://github.com/xenlism/Grub-themes.git
• cd ./Grub-themes/xenlism-grub-arch-1080p/

NOTE: If your monitor has a higher resolution than 1080p, then select the theme directory accordingly.

• sudo ./install.sh
• reboot now - Reboot to complete installation

Install Missing Kernel Headers

• yay -S mkinitcpio-firmware

Install better shell (Oh-My-Zsh)

Install Zsh

• sudo pacman -S zsh zshdb zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-autosuggestions zsh-history-substring-search
• touch ~/.zshrc - Create Initial Empty Zsh Config
• chsh -s /bin/zsh - Change Default Shell to Zsh zsh
• sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)" - Install Oh-My-Zsh on top of zsh
• nano .zshrc

Edit the value of ZSH_THEME to "xiong-chiamiov" like this:

ZSH_THEME="xiong-chiamiov"

Edit the last line of the file to have the following:

source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-history-substring-search/zsh-history-substring-search.zsh
source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh

Save and Exit

• reboot - Reboot to complete installation

Install Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Web Browser

• yay -S google-chrome microsoft-edge-stable-bin

Optional: Enable Dark Mode in Google Chrome

Edit the application launcher to have the following as the command:

/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode --force-dark-mode %U

Configure Automatic System Backup

• yay -S timeshift timeshift-autosnap

Open Timeshift from your app launcher and set BTRFS Backup to Boot, Daily and Hourly. Also select @home subvolume for backup. That's it.

Install BlackArch Repository

• curl -O https://blackarch.org/strap.sh
• chmod +x strap.sh
• sudo ./strap.sh
• sudo pacman -Syyu

Allow udisks to mount disks without asking sudo password

• sudo nano /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/.rules

Add the following in this file:

polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
        if (((action.id == "org.freedesktop.udisks2.filesystem-fstab") ||
            (action.id == "org.freedesktop.udisks2.filesystem-fstab")) &&
            subject.local && subject.active) {
            return polkit.Result.YES;
        }
});

polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
        if (((action.id == "org.freedesktop.udisks2.filesystem-mount-system") ||
            (action.id == "org.freedesktop.udisks2.filesystem-mount-system")) &&
            subject.local && subject.active) {
            return polkit.Result.YES;
        }
});

Save and Exit

• reboot - Reboot to apply changes