ArchLinux32 - Install guide

Configure keymap

We can see all availale keympas with the following command:

To set keyboard layout we nee to use loadkeys command. For example:

Verify boot mode

Unless you are using some Intel Atom device that are only able on 32-bit UEFI you most probably are booting in Legacy mode. To be sure of your current boot mode you can use the following command:

If this command return:

• 64: the system is booted in UEFI mode on 64-bit systems (most unlikely situation on ArchLinux32)

• 32: the system is booted in UEFI mode on 32-bit systems

• 'empty': the system is booted in legacy BIOS mode

Check internet connection

By default, the live system tries to configure DHCP client on all available connection. If you are using a WWAN adapter plaase check that is not blocked by rfkill.

You can check all enabled interfaces with:

You can also check all addresses of the interfaces with:

As last step you can also check internet connectivity with ping:

Check available disks

You can se all available drives by using the following command:

Make notes of the drive path that you want o use. Should be a path like /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*n* or /dev/mmcblk* where * need to be replaced with the selected one.

Partitioning

Please take a look to the relative part of the Arch Wiki.

Format the partitions

Once the partition schema is chosen and created we can proceed by formatting all the needed partition. For data partition we can use Ext (suggested Ext4). If EFI boot partition is required need to be formatted as FAT32.

For example to create a Ext4 partition we can use:

If you created a swap partition you can initialize it with mkswap as follows:

If you need an EFI system partition you can format it as follows:

Update keyring

Due to usually old iso we need to update all keyring before continue. If we have on the system expired keys pacman and pacstrap can lead to errors during package installation leaving with a partial or unsuccessful installation.

Before updating the keyring we update the repos db:

To update keyring we can use the following command:

Mounting partitions

As first things we need to mount our root partition on the /mnt path. We can achieve this with the command:

If you need to mount EFI boot partition you need to create /boot directory inside the path we mounted with the last command and mount it with:

If you created a swap partition now can be enabled with:

Select the mirrors

Packages to be installed need to be downloaded form a repository on a mirror servers. They are defined in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. We used them previously for updating keyring. If you want to change them like prefer a server next to your location you can do it right now.

This changes will be later copied to the destination system by pacstrap.

Warning!

No software or configuration (except for /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist) get carried over from the live environment to the installed system.

Installing essential packages

Now we are going to use pacstrap to install base packages and Linux kernel and firmware for common hardware configuration:

Fstab

At this point the first step into the configuration of the new installation is to define how disk partitions and various other block devices are mounted into the final system. To do this we need to create the fstab file located in /etc/fstab.

We can do this in two ways. The first one by using fstab command that see current mounted folders and automatically generate fstab file using UDID or Labels. The second one is by creating the file by hand (suggested only for advanced configurations).

Access the new system root

Now we can change root from the installation media to the new system. To do this we use the arch-chroot as follows:

Configuring Timezone

Configuring the timezone is an easy process. Just a link to the appropriate configuration to /etc/localtime is needed. This can be done with the following command:

After this we need to run hwclock to generate /etc/adjtime file:

Localization

At this point we need to configure system and console localization. Currently, we are using en_US.UTF-8 from the installation media, but we can change our target installation one. First things we need to change locale-gen by editing /etc/locale-gen and removing # from desired locale (default is en_US.UTF-8).

After this changes we need to rebuild locales by executing:

Now we need to set LANG variable in /etc/locale.conf. You can set it by following this example and replacing the locale with the one chosen:

As last step we need to configure KEYMAP variable in /etc/vconsole.conf. This will make persistant any keyboard layout change that you have done at the beginning of the installation. You can see vconsole.conf for more info. This is an example configuration:

Network configuration

The first step is to configure hostname buy editing /etc/hostname and setting it with the chosen one. After this step is suggested to configure a network manager. This is a list of the most popular one to choose. You can also see more details on the appropriate ArchWiki page.

Initramfs

Creating a new initramfs is usually not required because mkinitcpio was already run buy pacstrap during kernel install. If you are using LVM, system encryption or RAID you need to modify mkinitcpio.conf with appropriate settings and then recreate the image with:

Boot loader

This is the last configuration step. We need to install a Linux-capable bootloader. If you have an Intel or AMD CPU is also suggested to install their microcode. For better chose the appropriate bootloader we suggest to follow the ArchWiki page. This part does not differ from the original one.