Automated installation script for arch linux written in bash. It works similar to preseeding the debian installer d-i.
- You are booted into an arch linux environment like archiso
- The internet connection has been set up
- The configuration found in ari.conf is valid
- The script is run as 'root' user
The required utilities can be installed with the following packages:
- arch-install-scripts
- gptfdisk
- For UEFI support: dosfstools
- For btrfs filesystems: btrfs-progs
- For nilfs filesystems: nilfs-utils
All utilities are included on archiso, which can be downloaded at https://www.archlinux.org/download/ .
- clone the repository:
git clone git://github.com/vitamins/archinstaller
- download the tarball:
curl -L https://github.com/vitamins/archinstaller/tarball/master | tar xz
- Edit the configuration file:
nano ari.conf - Run the script:
./archinstaller
- Configured in a single file
- Can run completely automated
- Supported bootloaders: GRUB or gummiboot for UEFI, GRUB or syslinux for BIOS
- Configure basic system settings like language, timezone, keymap and hostname
- Optionally create separate partitions for swap and home
- Choose how much space to allocate for swap, root and home partition
- Select filesystems for root and home partition
- Supports encrypting the home partition with LUKS and dm-crypt
- Allows you to download packages from the preferred mirror
- Allows you to set passwords for root and standard user
- Allows you to create an additional user
- Allows you to configure the network with dhcpcd, netctl or ifplugd
- Allows you to install Xorg and a desktop environment
- Optionally install additional packages
A simple partitioning tool that creates partitions as well as filesystems is included in the script. It is controlled by variables in the configuration file. If you want to create more advanced partition layouts, see paragraph "Manual Partitioning". The partition sizes are set via variables "swap_size", "root_size", and "home_size". The size is in the format of number + letter. K stands for Kib, M for Mib, G for Gib and T for Tib.
- The Master Boot Record (MBR) is erased.
- A new empty GUID Partition Table (GPT) is created.
- For BIOS booting, a separate boot partition with ext2 filesystem is created, and mounted at /boot.
- For BIOS booting and GRUB, a BIOS boot partition is created.
- For UEFI booting a EFI System partition (ESP) with FAT32 filesystem is created, and mounted at /boot.
The order of the partitions is from first to last ESP/BIOS boot, boot, swap, root, home.
A list of possible partition layouts that can be created by archinstaller. For simplification ESP, BIOS boot and boot partition have been left out of the examples.
0. example:
Single root partition spanning the whole disk.
---------- 0
| /
---------- End
=> options: swap='no'; home='no'; root_size='0';
1. example:
Root partition of size X GiB, with free space left.
---------- 0
| /
---------- X GiB
| free
---------- End
=> options: swap='no'; home='no'; root_size='XG';
2. example:
Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition spanning the remaining space.
---------- 0
| [swap]
---------- Y GiB
| /
---------- End
=> options: swap='yes'; home='no'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='0';
3. example:
Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition of size X GiB.
---------- 0
| [swap]
---------- Y GiB
| /
---------- Y+X GiB
| free
---------- End
=> options: swap='yes'; home='no'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='XG';
4. example:
Root partition of size X GiB, home partition spanning the remaining space.
---------- 0
| /
---------- X GiB
| /home
---------- End
=> options: swap='no'; home='yes'; root_size='XG'; home_size='0';
5. example:
Root partition of size X GiB, home partition of size Z GiB.
---------- 0
| /
---------- X GiB
| /home
---------- X+Z GiB
| free
---------- End
=> options: swap='no'; home='yes'; root_size='XG'; home_size='ZG';
6. example:
Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition of size X GiB, home partition
spanning the remaining space.
---------- 0
| [swap]
---------- Y GiB
| /
---------- Y+X GiB
| /home
---------- End
=> options: swap='yes'; home='yes'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='XG';
home_size='0';
7. example:
Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition of size X GiB, home partition
of size Z GiB.
---------- 0
| [swap]
---------- Y GiB
| /
---------- Y+X GiB
| /home
---------- Y+X+Z GiB
| free
---------- End
=> options: swap='yes'; home='yes'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='XG';
home_size='ZG';
If you want to create the partitions and filesystems on your own, set "manual_part" to 'yes'. The various partitioning options (like "dest_disk") can be left unset. Then the following assumptions are made by the script:
- The root partition is mounted to /mnt.
- If using UEFI, the ESP is mounted to /mnt/boot.
- Any other separate partition like /usr or /var is mounted below the /mnt/ directory.
- The kernel commandline is configured using the variable "cmdline".
When using BIOS booting and GRUB, the bootloader is installed to the MBR of "dest_disk", that means in this special case you also need to configure "dest_disk".
Choose manual partitioning for more complex setups, such as lvm, RAID, btrfs subvolumes, full disk encryption, etc.
The mirror used for downloading packages can be configured with variable "mirror".
- For the format see https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/.
- Do not leave out the last slash.
- To use the mirrorlist from the install host, set mirror to 'keep'.
- This setting overwrites the mirrorlist on the host and on the installed system.
Important configuration files should be checked after they have been generated. This is done by opening them in the editor, which is 'nano' by default. The editor can be changed with the "EDITOR" environment variable or in ari.conf. If you want to skip this step, set the configuration option edit_conf='no'. The following files are opened in the editor, when necessary: /etc/mdadm.conf, /etc/crypttab, /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, /etc/default/grub, /boot/loader/entries.arch.conf, /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
The language setting in "locale" is not verified by the script, but english (en_US) is generated as fallback setting.
For kernel modules to load during boot, add the module's name to the "k_modules" array in the configuration file.
example:
k_modules=( 'dm_mod' kvm coretemp )
All needed modules are automatically loaded by udev, so you will rarely need to add something here. Only add modules that you know are missing.
Configure netctl profiles of your choice by setting network='netctl'. For example, you can use this option to configure static ip addresses or wireless connections. The netctl profile has to be copied from /etc/netctl/examples to the working directory of the script and edited to reflect your setup. It is necessary to set netctl_profile='filename' to the profile's name in ari.conf, so the script can find it. The network interface names are set to eth0 and wlan0 by the script.
There are two possibilities to make the script install additional packages. You can add them to the packages array in the configuration file. Alternatively you can write the packages to pkglist.txt, one on each line. To generate a list of explicitly installed packages on an existing installation, use this command: pacman -Qqent > pkglist.txt You can also use both options at the same time, duplicated entries are eliminated by pacman.
Should one of the packages not be found in the repositories, e.g. if you have misspelled it, no packages are installed. Leave the "packages" array empty to skip this step.
If you want to set up passwords for the root account and user account, use set_passwords='yes'. You can set the passwords directly from the configuration file using variables "root_password" and "user_password". If left empty, you will be prompted for the passwords during installation. When using encryption, think about a strong passphrase before starting the installation.
To encrypt the home partition with LUKS and dm-crypt set "encrypt_home" to 'yes'. Details like the cipher used can be configured in ari.conf with the variable "cryptsetup_options". Run cryptsetup benchmark for a list of available options and their performance.