Arch Installation Scripts

Personal scripts for bootstrapping an Arch Linux system with i3.

• Installs Arch Linux per the Installation Guide
• Configures systemd-boot (assumes system supports EFI)
• Creates a user and adds it to common groups, plus any groups defined in chroot/packages/groups
• Installs aurutils and configures a local pacman repository
• Optionally, installs packages listed in chroot/packages
• Optionally, enables services listed in chroot/services
• Optionally, installs the long-term support kernel
• Detects CPU manufacturer and installs microcode package
• Detects a VirtualBox environment, installs the guest libraries and enables vboxservice.service
• Optionally, installs my dotfiles (e.g. .Xresources, i3 config, bash aliases) and system-specific configuration files (e.g. mouse/trackpad settings, pacman hooks, bluetooth audio config)
• Optionally, performs the installation over wireless (assumes WPA)

Usage

1. Boot with Arch ISO: https://www.archlinux.org/download/

2. Prepare the partitions (Cheat sheet)

3. Make sure the internet is available

4. Download and extract the project:

   $ curl -L https://github.com/Lizards/arch-installer/tarball/master | tar -xz --strip-component=1

5. Edit the variables in .config

   Variable	Description	Required
   BOOT_PART	Device name of boot partition, mounted at /boot	⚫
   ROOT_PART	Device name of root partition, mounted at /	⚫
   SWAP_PART	Device name of swap partition, optional
   HOME_PART	Device name of /home partition, optional
   USERNAME	The installer will create a user with this username. This user will be added to groups defined by USER_GROUPS, and the groups listed in chroot/packages/groups that are provided by installed packages	⚫
   PASS	Password for the user created by the installer	⚫
   USER_GROUPS	Default: wheel,optical,audio,video,lp
   ROOT_PASS	Root password	⚫
   HOSTNAME	Computer's hostname, also used to install machine-specific system configs With INSTALL_DOTFILES=1, accepted values are asds-laptop (ThinkPad W540), boris (ThinkPad X1 Carbon), or mikhail (a desktop PC with dual monitors). If HOSTNAME matches none of these, a generic system config base package and mikhail's dotfiles will be installed. If installing in VirtualBox, a branch of the dotfiles specific to VirtualBox will be installed.	⚫
   INSTALL_PACKAGES	Default: 1 With 1, install the packages in chroot/packages/arch, import GPG keys from chroot/packages/gpg-keys then chroot/packages/aur, enable the services in chroot/services/system and chroot/services/user, and add the USERNAME user to the groups in chroot/packages/groups. Edit these files and opt out of installing the dotfiles to install an alternative Desktop Environment.
   INSTALL_DOTFILES	Default: 1 With 1, install system configs and dotfiles. See HOSTNAME below. Set to 0 to disable. Dotfiles will not be installed with INSTALL_PACKAGES=0.
   INSTALL_BLUETOOTH	Default: 1 With 1, install and configure Bluetooth for PulseAudio
   INSTALL_LTS_KERNEL	Default: 0 With 1, install the long-term support kernel and make its bootloader entry the default
   TIMEZONE	Default: US/Eastern
   COUNTRY	Default: United States Used with reflector to generate pacman mirror list
   PAUSE_BETWEEN_STEPS	For debugging, set to 1 to pause and wait for keyboard input between steps
   CHROOT_SCRIPT_DIR	Default: /usr/local/lib/bootstrap Directory where the install scripts are copied during chroot step, deleted on successful installation
   WLAN_INSTALL	Default: 0 Set to 1 to enable installation over wireless. Wireless installation assumes WPA. Manually enable wireless per the Arch Wiki if unsure.
   WLAN_SSID	Wireless network SSID. Required with WLAN_INSTALL=1
   WLAN_PASS	Wireless network password. Required with WLAN_INSTALL=1
   WLAN_INTERFACE	With WLAN_INSTALL=1, script will attempt to discover the wireless interface name, but assumes there's only one. Set this variable to explicitly declare the interface name.
   ETH_INTERFACE	With WLAN_INSTALL=1, script will attempt to discover the active ethernet interface to stop dhcp. Set this variable to explicitly declare the interface name.

6. Run the install script:

   $ ./install.sh

   You will be prompted at least once for the user password. This happens during the installation of AUR packages, as aur sync is run as the user to build the packages, then the user must authenticate to install them.

7. System will reboot upon successful installation. You should be greeted with an LXDM login screen. Select i3 under Desktop in the bottom left corner before logging in for the first time.

Wait, not done yet

• Networking requires setup: NetworkManager service should be running, but network connectivity will not work without configuration. Use ip link to list interfaces.

• If screen resolution is wrong, use arandr to change it. Export an xrandr command from arandr. If dotfiles were installed, update $HOME/dotfiles/bin/xrandr.local with it, then run make in $HOME/dotfiles to fix permanently. If not, put it in the i3 config as an exec_always command.

• If dotfiles were not installed, there is no Polybar and the default i3bar display is broken.

  • Install i3status then Win+Shift+R to fix the i3bar display, or
  • Launch Polybar with its default config with polybar -c /usr/share/doc/polybar/config example > /dev/null 2>&1 &

If dotfiles were installed...

• If Polybar doesn't appear, run polybar.local to inspect errors. A common culprit is the monitor value in the bar definitions in $HOME/dotfiles/.config/polybar/config. Run polybar -m to find active display names.

• If network status is missing from Polybar, update the eth and wlan modules in $HOME/dotfiles/.config/polybar/config with the correct interface names. This can be done with POLYBAR_ETH_INTERFACE and POLYBAR_WLAN_INTERFACE environment variables (look in .xprofile).

• If using a Mac, i3 keyboard controls probably won't work as configured, which means you can't do anything in i3. You must drop to a shell (Fn+Ctrl+Opt+F2?) to do anything further. Edit $HOME/.config/i3/config, adding the line bindsym Shift+Return exec i3-sensible-terminal to temporarily enable Shift+Enter to open a terminal in i3, reboot, and...

  • Use i3-config-wizard to generate a new config, then replace the key bindings in the existing config with the newly generated ones, or
  • Bind some other key to Mod4:
    • sudo pacman -Syu xorg-xmodmap to install xmodmap
    • Use xev to capture key input, and configure xmodmap to map the Command or some other key to Mod4

VirtualBox

The installer will detect a VirtualBox environment and install the guest libraries. If dotfiles are being installed, they will be installed from a dedicated virtualbox branch with some small tweaks.

Credit

Originally forked from leomao/arch-bootstrap