Personal Arch Linux Install Guide

I'm using this repo to record the steps I take to install and personalize arch linux. Hopefully I can automate some of the later steps over time.

Part 1 - Installation

Generally following the steps on the arch install guide to get to a chrooted environment.

• Verify we booted as x64 UEFI cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size

Network

• Check device with ip link
• Auth wifi with iwctl station wlan0 connect $AP_NAME
• ping archlinux.org to verify

Partitioning

Use fdisk to partition: /boot : 1G partition, type=1 (EFI), bootable (press M then a) / : remainder of the disk, default type

For /boot (/dev/sda1) call mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1

Follow the steps here to encrypt the root partition. Consider increasing the cryptographic parameters as mentions.

Mount the partitions at /mnt and /mnt/boot.

Install

Install the base: pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware

Followed by important packages: pacstrap /mnt grub efibootmgr e2fsprogs networkmanager vim man-db man-pages texinfo sudo

Either pacstrap intel-ucode or amd-ucode for the processor. It will be automatically loaded by grub.

Part 2 - Configure

Generally follow the configure the system steps in the install guide.

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

arch-chroot /mnt

• Set the time as described.

• Set the localization as described.

• Enable NetworkManager systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

• Update the initramfs as described here

• Add encrypt after block in HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

• Run mkinitcpio -P

• Set the root password

• Run grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

• Update /etc/default/grub to have the line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=UUID=device-UUID:root root=/dev/mapper/root" (Get the UUID using blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sda2, can be inserted into vim using :r!CMD).

• Run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

• Reboot sucessfully(?) into the new system.

In the new system

Connect to wifi

• nmcli device wifi list
• nmcli device wifi connect --ask $SSID
• nmcli c modify $SSID connection.autoconnect true

Create a user:

• useradd -m -G wheel drew
• passwd drew
• EDITOR=vim visudo and uncomment the line starting %wheel

Install helpful utilities:

• pacman -S git

TODO: Install graphics driver pagckages?

Update DNS

Set in /etc/systemd/resolved.conf

DNS=66.42.73.247#itramisu.one
DNSOverTLS=yes

ln -sf ../run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

systemctl enable systemd-resolved

Create a swapfile (optional)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/swap#Swap_file

For laptops: Check suspend method -> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management/Suspend_and_hibernate#Changing_suspend_method

Configure hibernation: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management/Suspend_and_hibernate#Hibernation

Set /etc/systemd/sleep.conf parameters for timed sleep/hibernate. Set /etc/systemd/logind.conf to HandleLidSwitch to SuspendThenHibernate

Part 3 - Desktop

Reboot and login as the new user.

Clone this git repo at /home/drew/install.

• sudo ./install_packages.sh
• Run sudo ./install_desktop.sh
• Run ./install_usr.sh

May have to add a udev rule to allow brightness keys to work. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Backlight#ACPI

Part 4 - Applications

mkdir Documents/ Downloads/ Pictures/

Log into firefox w/ sync (installs bitwarden.) Set firefox to search with kagi.

Part 5 - Dev environment

Run nvim -u nvim-bootstrap.lua to install plugins as nvim won't start up until they are.

Add ssh keys to gitea and gitlab.

mkdir prog and clone a c++ code base, a python code base, and a rust code base to test the language server.

Part 6 - Optional

Steam?

Setup Syncthing

systemctl enable syncthing@drew

systemctl start syncthing@drew

ssh -L 8385:localhost:8384 tiramisu.one

Use the GUIs at localhost:8384 and localhost:8385 to enable sync.