Arch linux installation guide

This guide is a convenient combination of Offical Arch Linux Installation Guide and Ermanno's amazing guide.

Important: This is an installation with the latest & greatest tools available (2021). For more robust installation (Xorg, Swap partition, etc.), please refer to my robust Arch linux installation guide.

Minimal archlinux installation

1-11 steps

• BTRFS filesystem
• ZRAM
• Pipewire
• Wayland

For full Desktop GUI

12 step

Minimal Desktop GUI with native Wayland support installation:

• sway (Window manager)
• ly (Login manager)
• firefox-developer-edition (Mozilla Firefox browser)
• wofi (App Launcher)
• lxappearance (Theme customization for apps with GTK+ frontend)
• qt5ct (Theme customization for apps with Qt frontend)
• python-pywal (Theme color generator)
• waybar (Status bar)
• pcmanfm-qt (File manager)
• pass (Password manager)
• foot (Terminal emulator)
• neofetch (CLI to display system specs)
• dunst (System notifications manager)
• timeshift (System backup & restore tool)
• xorg-xwayland (Compatibility layer between Xorg and Wayland)
• qt5-wayland (Compatibility layer between Qt and Wayland)
• swayidle (Idle manager)
• swaylock-effects (Screenlock)

Installation

1. Boot from USB drive with Arch ISO

2. Prepare the disk (partitions) - using GPT device

# check the disks
lsblk

# partition the disk - create GPT Labels
gdisk /dev/***

# choose new GPT Label command:
o

# First Partition for EFI
# choose new command:
n
# choose default partition number
# choose default First Sector memory
# choose Last Sector memory:
+550M
# enter the EFI partition code:
ef00

# Second Partition for main SSD storage
# choose new command
n
# choose default partition number
# choose default First Sector memory
# choose Last Sector memory:
(remaining SSD space - 2 GB)G
# choose default partition type (Linux Filesystem)

# Choose "write" command to overwrite exiting partitions:
w

3. Format partitions

# make fat32 filesystem for EFI
mkfs.vfat /dev/***1
# make butterFS filesystem for main storage
mkfs.btrfs  /dev/***2

3. ButterFS configuration

# mount main partition - root subvolume
mount  /dev/***2 /mnt

cd /mnt
# make btrFS subvolume for root subvolume
btrfs subvolume create @
# make btrFS subvolume for home subvolume
btrfs subvolume create @home
# make btrFS subvolume for var subvolume
btrfs subvolume create @var

cd
# unmount main partition - root subvolume
umount /mnt

# mount root subvolume
mount -o noatime, compress=zstd, space_cache,discard=async,subvol=@ /dev/***2 /mnt

# directories var, home & var
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mkdir /mnt/{home,var}

# mount home & var subvolumes
mount -o noatime, compress=zstd, space_cache,discard=async,subvol=@home /dev/***2 /mnt/home

mount -o noatime, compress=zstd, space_cache,discard=async,subvol=@var /dev/***2 /mnt/var

4. Mount EFI partition

mount /dev/***1 /mnt/boot/efi

5. Install the base system

# for amd processor: amd-ucode instead of intel-ucode
pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware git vim intel-ucode btrfs-progs

6. Generate filesystem table

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

7. Make new root directory with all mounts needed

# detach from main filesystem and process tree
arch-chroot /mnt

# check the fs & table
ls
cat /etc/fstab

8. Run base archlinux system intall script

# give exec permissions to script
git clone https://github.com/arcbjorn/arc-arch-linux-installation-guide
cd arc-arch-linux-installation-guide
# don't forget to change username & password to yours :)
chmod +x base.sh

# run from root filesystem
cd /
./arc-arch-linux-installation-guide/base.sh

# choose xdr-desktop-portal-wlr (to use with Sway)

9. Check system init config

vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
# if butterFS used on 2 disks - put "btrfs" parameter in MODULES
# if amd or nvidia card is used - put "amdgpu" or "nvidia" parameters in MODULES accordingly

# if config was changed, recreate initramfs:
mkinitcpio -p linux

10. Finish base packages installation

exit
umount -a
reboot

11. Install Desktop GUI & tools

# copy the guide from root filesystem to home repository
cp -r /arc-arch-linux-installation-guide .
cd /arc-arch-linux-installation-guide

# give exec permissions to script
chmod +x sway.sh

# go back to home directory
cd ..
./arc-arch-linux-installation-guide/sway.sh

12. Configure ZRAM (used for SWAP)

paru -S zramd
sudo systemctl enable --now zramd.service

# check the block devices table
lsblk

reboot

Enjoy your fresh system :)