Arch Linux Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Arch Installation

Download .iso file Insert file into new VM. It will not detect which OS so choose most recent ‘other linux kernel’ version.

Give hard disk size (around 20 GB min) and memory (2 GB).

Run pre-installation checks

Verifying bootmode with ls will not list anything because we are in BIOS.

Timezone issues with syncing, minutes were also wrong sometimes, this fixes the permissions

$ sudo chmod 0700 /var/lib/private

$ sudo systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd

$ sudo timedatectl status

Partition and format the disk

$cfdisk /dev/sda

• 1M to BIOS
• 4 GB to swap partition
• Remaining goes to root partition

Create Ext4 file system on root partition

$mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

Initialize swap partition

$mkswap /dev/sda2

Mount file systems

$ mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

enable swap volume

$ swapon /dev/sda2

Install

$ pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware grub

pacstrap is only used during the install phase.

It is crucial for the previous steps including mounting the filesystems to /mnt for this to work.

The first three packages are the essentials, kernel, and firmware. Grub is the bootloader.

Configure

$ genfstab -UI /mnt » /mnt/etc/fstab

$ arch-chroot /mnt

It will give errors if /mnt is not mounted to the file system like during the previous steps.

chroot failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’ permission denied

Ensure /mnt is mounted and umount when rebooting or powering off.

Localization

$ echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

Put the language into that file/create the file.

Host

$ echo hostname > /etc/hostname

Root password

$ passwd

Reboot

$ exit

$ umount -a

$ reboot

It will reboot into the gnu grub. During my first installation, when I rebooted it went right back to the screen I first saw when I started. The boot into arch installation so I thought my work was for nothing. I ended up starting over. But it was because I didn’t install any bootloader.

I trashed that VM because I wasn’t sure if I had done something irredeemable during my trial and errors of throwing commands. I had successfully made it to the reboot but I wasn’t sure if it worked so I started over.

VM Modifications

We are no longer using pacstrap, pacman is the proper package manager now.

Install a desktop environment

_{-S is for sync}

$ pacman -S lxde lxdm

$ systemctl enable lxdm

This will enable lxde to boot

Add user accounts with sudo permissions

$ useradd tiffany/sal

$ passwd ***

$ passwd -e sal | to force him to change his password

$ pacman -S sudo

create group for sudo

$ EDITOR=vim visudo

uncomment sudo to give users in sudo group permission

$ sudo usermod -aG sudo sal/tiffany

Install packages

$ pacman -S openssh

ssh

$ pacman -Syu firefox

browser, -Syu is needed when there are url request errors.

$ pacman -S zsh

zsh shell

If public key is not found when using pacman

1. Install public keys
2. pacman-key –init
3. pacman-key –populate archlinux
4. pacman -Sc
5. pacman -Syyu

Color coding terminal

$ ls –color=auto

edit /.bashrc file to color code

Aliases

made permanent by appending alias the /etc/bash.bashrc file. Close and reopen terminal after saving.

error couldn’t write to file when using vim ~./bashrc so instead:

$ sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc

append aliases to the end of the file

$ alias c=’clear’

$ alias ping=’ping -c 3’

$ alias ls=’ls -l -h’

install a package from AUR

$ install base-devel

aur packages assume the system has this installed

$ git clone [url]

$ cd packagename

$ makepkg -si

$ sudo pacman -U packagename.tar.zst

SSH

host key verification failed ,need to type yes to prompt with digital ocean open ~_~

$ ssh root@137.184.118.57

need to use sudo for editing files bc they are read only

make sure server has clients key