As promised from my previous Sham journey to Arch Linux post, here goes my step by step guide on getting Arch Linux up and running!

I highly recommend you check out the official installation guide on the Arch website. Mine is more of a personal guide. Meaning some steps are optional, and some are pure preference.

I repeat, if you are coming from windows, Distro Hopping is the initiation stage to Linux. Optional, but crucial!

Disclaimer

There are many ways to kill a rat, you could bomb it, shoot it, or just poison it. (If you ask me, there are also other solutions that don't involve killing the rat.)

Similarly, there are many ways to install Arch. You could go the manual way, use an installation script, install an Arch based Linux Distro, or use the super easy Archinstall.

We aren't here to argue which method is the best, just as in the example above the goal was getting rid of the rat, the goal here is to get Arch installed. Archinstall for the win.

🛠 Requirements

• A Backup: We aren't dual-booting. Backup your data to the cloud or an external drive.
• The ISO: Download from Arch website
• Ventoy: The best tool for bootable USBs. Get it at ventoy website
• A working brain: very important, reboot if necessary. Will come in handy in-case something goes south.
• Hardware: a working PC, a USB flash drive, and a stable internet connection.

Mirrors

On the download page, you’ll see "Mirrors." These are just servers globally hosting duplicate copies of the ISO. Think of them as copies of the official Arch server, if the main server updates, the mirrors update to reflect the changes... Mirrors they are indeed!

🚀 Pre-installation

1. Brain Check: Confirm whether your PC uses BIOS or UEFI.
2. Prepare the USB: Install Ventoy to your flash drive and simply copy the Arch ISO file onto it.
3. Boot: Plug it in, boot from the USB, and select the Arch Linux image.

For ventoy install, choose between MBR or GPT mode. I choose GPT. Stick to MBR if on BIOS only system.

Step 1 - Internet connection

If you're on a wired connection, you're already set. If you're on Wi-Fi, type: iwctl (Follow the prompts to connect to your network).

Step 2 - Preparation (The optional "Cool" Tweaks)

First we do some settings, and no, there are no settings app to launch yet. We do settings the Linux way. By editing the config file directly. We are going to use nano text editor for that.

1. Enable Flair: This is just for looks and download speed.

   • Run sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf.
   • Find #Color and remove the #. (This makes your terminal text colored)
   • Add a new line: ILoveCandy (This turns the progress bar into a Pac-Man character).
   • Uncomment ParallelDownloads and change it to 8 for faster installs.
   • To save your changes, press Ctrl + O (the letter O, not zero) and then hit Enter to confirm the filename.
   • Exit the editor by pressing Ctrl + X to close nano and return to the command prompt.

Screenshot

2. Update Mirrors: We want the fastest servers. Lets install reflector for that

   • sudo pacman -Sy reflector to install reflector
   • sudo reflector --protocol https --latest 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist to update mirrors

Step 3 - Final boss (Archinstall)

1. Run archinstall to launch the Arch Linux guided installer.

Archinstall Screenshot

Let's cover each of those options one by one:

Option	Selection / Recommendation
Archinstall language	Default (English) (SKIP)
Keyboard layout	Default (us)(SKIP)
Mirror region	We Already set this (SKIP)
Locale Language	Default (English)(SKIP)
Locale encording	Default (UTF-8)(SKIP)
Drive	Choose your target disk (check sizes carefully!)
Disk Layout	Choose Best effort partition layout and choose Separate /home folder
File System	Choose XFS (My preference) or EXT4
Encryption password	Optional (SKIP) or Set your password
Boot loader	Choose GRUB. It's the classic for a reason.
Swap	I prefer to set-up a swapfile after SKIP
Hostname	Name your PC this appears in your terminal & when connected to other devices
Root password	Enter password for your root user.
User Account	Create your user and make sure to Yes to sudo privileges
Profile	Select Desktop, then choose KDE
Audio	Choose pipewire
Kernels	Choose linux
Additional packages	we will install packages late SKIP
Network configuration	Choose Network Manager
Timezone	Optional, choose your Timezone or SKIP
Automatic time sync (NTP)	Optional, choose yes or SKIP
Optional repositories	Optional, try testing repo or SKIP

Install

Hit install to start the installation process.

At this point, you are done, no further input required from you.

Archinstall will start downloading the packages for installation.

After installation is complete, you will be prompted whether you want to chroot, choose no

Now you can click reboot to boot to your new system!

🛠 Post-install

Time to do some setup.

Now that you have your system up and running, hopefully 😂😅 I mean, I didn't get it right the first time either. But trust me, 99.9% of the issues you encounter can be resolved by digging the Arch wiki.The remaining 0.01% just Google the error message or ask AI.

First, you'll want to install some packages. Good new is, you have access to the Arch User Repository AKA the AUR. An ocean full of open-source packages. No need to be a pirate!

Installing packages from AUR can be... a bit of a job. Thats why we are going to use a AUR helper My favourite is paru.

To install paru, run: (Note I added rust as it is required to install paru)

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel rust
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
makepkg -si

To search for a package from the AUR with paru:

paru <package-name>

To install a specific package.

paru -S <package-name>

For example, to install google chrome browser

paru -S google-chrome

You can install multiple packages at once. Which mean you can install all your packages with one command!

Example

paru -S google-chrome firefox p7zip-gui warpgui-bin telegram-desktop-bin freedownloadmanager kdeconnect visual-studio-code-bin --noconfirm

While the packages are downloading, head over to System settings and setup your KDE to your liking. Stay tuned for a future update where i dig into a detailed KDE setup. Now you use Arch, BTW!

Next

Feel free to try out diffrent options. Like installing with linux-zen kernel, a diffrent Desktop Enviroment from kDE, with ZRAM on, and the vast options you could explore!

Stay Curious,

Sham.