Virtual Machines

For those unfamiliar, a VM is:

• A way to run other OSes on your machine
• A way to segregate resources
• A place to break things with no consequences

Create the VM

• Type: Linux, Arch Linux (64-bit)
• RAM: 1024MB is fine, more if you can spare
• Storage: Dynamically allocated, 8GB
• In settings:
  • System -> Motherboard -> Enable EFI (important!)

Booting into the Arch ISO

• Click on the VM, press Start
• Select start-up disk: find your downloaded ISO
• Wait a bit (eat pizza?)
• root@archiso ~ #

Device files

Hard drives, SSDs, USB drives etc. are usually /dev/sdX

Our HDD is on /dev/sda

Partitions exist as /dev/sdXN, e.g. /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 etc.

Partitioning

$ cgdisk /dev/sda

1. Start 2048 (default), end 256M, type ef00
2. (under partition 1): use all defaults (100% size, Linux partition)

Formatting

$ mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda2

Mount the partitions

For installation, mount everything under /mnt

/dev/sda2 will be the root filesystem:

$ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

/dev/sda1 will become /boot:

$ mkdir /mnt/boot
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Copy files

Do the install:

$ pacstrap /mnt base

Generate /etc/fstab:

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

Chroot into new system

/mnt now has a ready system, switch to it:

$ arch-chroot /mnt

Passwords

Set root password:

$ passwd

Locales

Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment desired locales: probably en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8.

Generate locales:

$ locale-gen

System language

Set the default locale in /etc/locale.conf (create it):

LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

Timezone

Set the system timezone with the /etc/localtime symlink

$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime

Console keymap

Set the keymap permanently in /etc/vconsole.conf:

KEYMAP=uk

Networking

Create /etc/systemd/network/enp0s3.network:

[Match]
Name=enp0s3
[Network]
DHCP=yes

Enable required services to run on boot:

$ systemctl enable systemd-networkd systemd-resolved

Bootloader

$ bootctl --path=/boot install
$ cp /usr/share/systemd/bootctl/arch.conf /boot/loader/entries/
$ cp /usr/share/systemd/bootctl/loader.conf /boot/loader/

Edit /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf:

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/sda2 rw

Now exit the chroot:

$ exit

Create a final symlink needed for networking:

$ ln -sf /usr/lib/systemd/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf

Unmount partitions:

$ umount -R /mnt

Reboot!

Username is root

Test the system

$ ping 8.8.8.8
$ ping google.com