Dual boot with Windows (BIOS/MBR) - Archlinux

Simple instructions to install Arch Linux alongside Windows (Legacy-BIOS/MBR). Last update: 16/06/18.

Full documentation: Wiki

Windows UEFI vs BIOS

According to the ArchWiki:

The best way to detect the boot mode of Windows is to do the following:

• Boot into Windows
• Press Win key and 'R' to start the Run dialog
• In the Run dialog type "msinfo32" and press Enter
• In the System Information windows, select System Summary on the left and check the value of BIOS mode item on the right
• If the value is UEFI, Windows boots in UEFI/GPT mode. If the value is Legacy, Windows boots in BIOS/MBR mode.

Pre-installation

Windows setup

Partition

1. Within the console (Win + R) go to Disk Management by typing:

   $ diskmgmt.msc
   

2. Right click the partition you would like to expand and then choose Extend Volume (e.g. D partition).

Fast-boot

2. Open Power options.

3. “Choose what the power buttons do”.

4. "Change settings that are currently unavailable.”

5. Under “Shutdown settings” make sure “Turn on fast startup” is disabled.

Boot usb

6. Enter BIOS (F1, F2 or F10 during boot sequence).

7. Give a USB device boot sequence priority over the hard drive

Linux setup

Network connection

8. If not using an ethernet conexion:

   $ wifi-menu
   

   Pick network, enter password.

   Verify it's working by using [ping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_(networking_utility):

   $ ping archlinux.org
   

9. Update the system clock

   $ timedatectl set-ntp true
   

   To verify use timedatectl status.

Installation

Partition the disks

10. Identify the disks (e.g. /dev/sda) with fdisk:

    $ fdisk -l
    

    As you already have installed Windows, the output should look something like this:

    Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
    Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    Disklabel type: dos
    Disk identifier: 0xd275cc93
    
    Device     Boot      Start        End   Sectors   Size Id Type
    /dev/sda1  *          2048    1026047   1024000   500M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sda2          1026048  437999615 436973568 208.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sda3        437999616 1401948159 963948544 459.7G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sda4       1401948160 1953525167 551577008   263G  5 Unallocated
    

    We are going to unallocated partition (i.e. /dev/sda4) to install Linux.

11. Enter the disk /dev/sda:

    $ fdisk /dev/sda
    

    With this we will enter fdisk's command prompt.

    We will install Linux in 2 partitions (root and home). To do so, we will make the Type of the unallocated partition Extended (source):

    $ Command (m for help): n
    

    Select Extended partition type. For the fist and last sector enter the default.

    Create the root partition (n command). Partition type: Primary. First sector: default. Last sector: +XXXG (i.e. +63G).

    Create the home partition. Partition type: Primary. First sector: default. Last sector: default.

    To finalize, enter w to write the changes.

    After fdisk -l, the output should look something like this:

    Device     Boot      Start        End   Sectors   Size Id Type
    /dev/sda1  *          2048    1026047   1024000   500M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sda2          1026048  437999615 436973568 208.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sda3        437999616 1401948159 963948544 459.7G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sda4       1401948160 1953525167 551577008   263G  5 Extended
    /dev/sda5       1401950208 1534070783 132120576    63G 83 Linux
    /dev/sda6       1534072832 1953525167 419452336   200G 83 Linux
    

Format the partitions

12. Format both partitions to ext4:

    $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5
    

    $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda6
    

Mount the partitions

13. We will mount /dev/sda5 to /mnt and /dev/sda6 to /mnt/home:

    $ mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
    

    We need to create the directory /home first:

    $ mkdir /mnt/home
    

    $ mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/home
    

    Mount them all with mount.

Install the base packages

14. Use the pacstrap script to install the basic configuration:

    $ pacstrap /mnt base
    

Configure the system

15. Generate the fstab. According to the wiki:

The fstab file can be used to define how disk partitions, various other block devices, or remote filesystems should be mounted into the filesystem.

```
$ genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
```
Look at it:
```
$ cat /mnt/etc/fstab
```

16. Use arch-chroot to enter /mnt and change its privileges to root:

    $ arch-chroot /mnt
    

17. Install packages using the pacman command.

    $ pacman -S grub-bios linux-headers linux-lts linux-lts-headers
    

    The linux-lts (long term support) packages are optional.

18. OPTIONAL Install these packages for wireless-card (source):

    $ pacman -S dialog network-manager-applet networkmanager networkmanager-openvpn wireless_tools wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond
    

19. Recreate the initramfs image (already done with pacstrap):

    $ mkinitcpio -p linux
    

    If you installed linux-lts, run the previous command again now using the lts version.

20. Uncomment localizations (i.e. en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8) in /etc/locale.gen (use nano). Generate them with:

    $ locale-gen
    

21. Set the root password with paswd.

Grub configuration

22. Run the following command:

    # grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sdX
    

    where /dev/sdX is the partitioned disk where grub is to be installed (e.g. /dev/sda and not partition /dev/sda5).

23. In the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom (or /boot/grub/custom.cfg) copy the following (for Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10):

    if [ "${grub_platform}" == "pc" ]; then
      menuentry "Microsoft Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 BIOS/MBR" {
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ntfs
        insmod search_fs_uuid
        insmod ntldr     
        search --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
        ntldr /bootmgr
      }
    fi
    

    where XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is the filesystem UUID which can be found with command lsblk --fs (in most cases this corresponds to the first partition, i.e. /dev/sda1).

24. Copy the locale:

    $ cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo
    

25. Generate the main configuration file:

    $ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
    

Swap file

26. Create the swapfile:

    $ fallocate -l XG /swapfile
    

    where X (e.g. 2G, 4G) is the size of the file in gigabytes.

27. Change file permissions so that only the owner has privileges (using chmod):

    $ chmod 600 /swapfile
    

28. Swap format:

    $ mkswap /swapfile
    

    Add this file to /etc/fstab:

    $ echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | tee -a /etc/fstab
    

29. Exit arch-chroot with exit. Unmount all devices with umount -a. Reboot (remove the USB).

Networking (wifi)

30. Check if you have an IP address with ip:

    $ ip a
    

    If not, check the status of NetworkManager using systemctl:

    $ systemctl status NetworkManager
    

    To enable/start it use the following command:

    $ systemctl XXXXX NetworkManager
    

    Where XXXXX can be start or enable.

31. Having installed NetworkManager we can use nmcli, a command line interface which we will use to connect to wifi.

    To show a list of UUID's:

    $ nmcli dev show
    

    Choose your corresponding wifi and connect using:

    $ nmcli dev wifi connect <SSID> password <PASSWORD>
    

    Verify you have an IP address with ip a.

Users

32. Add an user with useradd:

    $ useradd -m <USER>
    

    Verify a user home directory has been created:

    $ ls /home
    

    Add a password to the user with passwd <USER>.

GUI

33. Install the display server Xorg:

    $ pacman -S xorg-server
    

34. Check which video driver you have with lspci. For example:

    00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
    00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
    00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
    00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
    00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
    00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
    00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
    00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
    00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4)
    00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d4)
    00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d4)
    00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
    00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM86 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
    00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
    00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
    01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] (rev a1)
    03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
    04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
    

    Check which video driver (Inter, NVIDIA, VirtualBox, etc.) you have under VGA compatible controller or 3D controller. If you have both, I recommend installing the Intel driver.

    Intel:

    $ pacman -S xf86-video-intel libgl mesa
    

    NVIDIA:

    $ pacman -S nvidia nvidia-lts nvidia-libgl mesa
    

    VBOX:

    $ pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-modules- arch mesa
    

    (Remember to enable the vboxservice.service service with systemctl enable).

35. Now its time to install a display manager. In this example we will install SDDM.

    $ pacman -S sddm
    

    Enable the service (but not start it yet):

    $ systemctl enable sddm
    

36. We will install the desktop environment. I prefer KDE:

    $ pacman -S plasma-meta
    

    If you want the most basic installation, install plasma instead (remember to install some terminal like konsole).

37. REBOOT!