2021-10-19

Arch Linux Installation Handbook

Index

• Install Arch Linux
  • Verify Boot Mode
  • Make sure you have internet
  • Update the system clock
  • Partitioning the disk
  • Format partitions
  • Mount the file systems
  • Installation
    • Select the mirrors
    • Install essential packages
  • Configure the system
    • Fstab (contains all the drivers)
    • Chroot
    • Enable network manager at boot
    • Install a boot loader (grub)
  • Optional
    • User setup
    • Timezone
    • Localization
    • Set users
• Install blackarch on top of arch linux
  • You may now install tools from the blackarch repository

Install Arch Linux

Verify Boot Mode

Check if you have an efi or bios system.

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Make sure you have internet

To make sure you have internet connection, simply ping to any valid website.

ping saifshahriar.github.io

Update the system clock

Use timedatectl to make sure the system clock is accurate.

timedatectl set-ntp true

To check the status simply type,

timedatectl status

Partitioning the disk

Use cfdisk tool to partition the disks.

• Make 3 partitions
  • boot
    • Size: 128M
    • Bootable: [ * ]
    • Name: /dev/sda1
  • swp
    • Size: 1G
    • Type: Swap/Solaris
    • Name: /dev/sda2
  • rooot
    • Size: Rest of the space
    • Name: /dev/sda3

Format partitions

# format boot & root
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

# format swp
mkswap /dev/sda2

Mount the file systems

1. Mount root first:

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

2. Boot:
   • Now make a boot directory inside /mnt:

   mkdir /mnt/boot
   

   • Now mount boot:

   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
   

3. Mount swp:

swapon /dev/sda2

lsblk to check the partition info

Installation

Select the mirrors:

vim /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install essential packages

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware vim networkmanager git grub opendoas 

Configure the system

Fstab (contains all the drivers)

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

Chroot

arch-chroot /mnt

Enable network manager at boot

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Install a boot loader (grub)

grub-install /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Optional

User setup

vim /etc/hostname

put arch there

Timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Localization

vim /etc/locale.gen
# Uncomment needed locale

locale-gen

Now go to the vim /etc/locale.conf and add the line LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Set users

# To setup root passwd
passwd 

# Add another user and passwd
useradd -m saif
passwd saif

# Give user the permission
usermod -aG wheel,audio,video,optical,storage saif

• Configure superuser privilege:
  • Edit the sodoers file. (if you are using doas insted of sudo then see the next point)

visudo

Uncomment the following line

## Allow members of group wheel to execute any command
- # %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
+ %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
- # %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
+ %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

• doas configuration: Create a name /etc/doas.conf

touch /etc/doas.conf

Now add these lines to the file. To permit the user saif to execute any command as a root user:

permit saif as root

To permit any user from the :wheel to execute any command as a root user.

permit :wheel as root

Don’t ask for password for some times:

permit persist saif as root

Now unmount -R /mnt remove the installation media and reboot

Install blackarch on top of arch linux

# Run https://blackarch.org/strap.sh as root and follow the instructions.
curl -O https://blackarch.org/strap.sh

# Verify the SHA1 sum
echo 8bfe5a569ba7d3b055077a4e5ceada94119cccef strap.sh | sha1sum -c

# Set execute bit
chmod +x strap.sh

# Run strap.sh
sudo ./strap.sh

Enable multilib: To enable multilib repository, uncomment the [multilib] section in /etc/pacman.conf.

vim /etc/pacman.conf

Find

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

and uncomment the section.

Now synchronize the packages and upgrade the system.

sudo pacman -Syu

• Tip: Run pacman -Sl multilib to list all packages in the multilib repository. 32-bit library package names begin with lib32-.

You may now install tools from the blackarch repository.

To list all of the available tools, run

sudo pacman -Sgg | grep blackarch | cut -d' ' -f2 | sort -u

To install all of the tools, run

sudo pacman -S blackarch

To install a category of tools, run

sudo pacman -S blackarch-<category>

To see the blackarch categories, run

sudo pacman -Sg | grep blackarch

• Note - it maybe be necessary to overwrite certain packages when installing blackarch tools. If you experience “failed to commit transaction” errors, use the –needed and –overwrite switches

For example:

sudo pacman -Syyu --needed blackarch --overwrite='*'