Base Install Questions

03 October 2019, 19:06:04

Hi all,

Just curious how basic is the no-desktop install? Does it already have networking, wifi, and such or would it be more like a pure Arch install? I'm looking for something where i could simplpy install the WM/DEs of my choice, but have no desire to go through all the steps of a pure Arch install. (Succeeded once after hours of trying, and never did get wifi working.)

Thanks for thoughts on whether the no-desktop install might be a good fit for me.

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #1 – 04 October 2019, 12:22:20

I found the base install very easy to add a desktop environment to. The instructions are complete:
https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Installation

The install of networkmanager will provide easily configurable access to wireless; nmcli or nmtui can be used in commandline.

I used the base install, then installed xorg, displaymanager-openrc, sddm, and plasma-desktop; and had a working kde desktop. Starting with base is now my standard way of installing, I find it a very good "fit".

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #2 – 06 October 2019, 09:16:18

Quote from: billd – on 03 October 2019, 19:06:04

Hi all,

Just curious how basic is the no-desktop install? Does it already have networking, wifi, and such or would it be more like a pure Arch install? I'm looking for something where i could simplpy install the WM/DEs of my choice, but have no desire to go through all the steps of a pure Arch install. (Succeeded once after hours of trying, and never did get wifi working.)

Thanks for thoughts on whether the no-desktop install might be a good fit for me.

I generally have come to start with the bare bones installation because Calimari, in my experience, is not an easy application to work with and it seems to just fail to often. It is even worst now with UEFI installations. After I get it up and running, I can get everything up with DHCP and pacman.

Your experience might be different. Try it and see? Worst you can do is waste some time learning.

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #3 – 11 October 2019, 08:32:55

Thanks guys for your input!

While it says this is ok for uefi, the install guide shows only a bios install. I'd like to make the / install into one of several partitions, and install its grub into my existing efi/boot partition without formatting the latter ( so that i can continue to use a multi-boot system). Any advice on how to go about this? Thx!

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #4 – 11 October 2019, 11:08:58

Quote from: billd – on 11 October 2019, 08:32:55

Thanks guys for your input!

While it says this is ok for uefi, the install guide shows only a bios install. I'd like to make the / install into one of several partitions, and install its grub into my existing efi/boot partition without formatting the latter ( so that i can continue to use a multi-boot system). Any advice on how to go about this? Thx!

Do you have a working boot loader already in the efi system? If so you really don't need grub and you can install from the bootloader. You need to add OS to the boot loaders options.

Otherwise, if you are going to use grub, it needs to be loaded in the EFI partiion
https://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/grub2.html
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB/EFI_examples

THIS doesn't include the troubles caused by secure boot

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #5 – 11 October 2019, 22:35:18

I was able to install base in EFI. I have a single OS, no dual boot, X86_64. Documented below are the steps I took, that are different from the wiki at https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Installation.

I used iso artix-base-openrc-20190826-x86_64.iso.

First, something troubling about this install; there was no kernel installed at all. I ran the install twice and there was nothing in /boot other than what grub installed there. So I ended up manually installing kernel via pacman, documented below. nano also was not installed.

EFI INSTALL

everything is the same for EFI except what is listed here.

In the format partitions and mount instructions:

Quote

Format partitions
Next, format the new partitions, for example as ext4:

mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/sda2 <- root partition
mkfs.ext4 -L HOME /dev/sda3 <- home partition, optional
mkfs.ext4 -L BOOT /dev/sda4 <- boot partition, optional
mkswap -L SWAP /dev/sda1 <- swap partition
The -L switch assigns labels to the partitions, which helps referring to them later through /dev/disk/by-label without having to remember their numbers

mkdir /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/home
Mount Partitions
Now, mount your partitions:

swapon /dev/sda1 (if created)
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home (if created)
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/boot (if created)

Do not do anything with /dev/sda1 at this time (assuming you already have a usable ESP). I have a simple single partition for / at /dev/sda3, my swap is /dev/sda2. What I did:

Quote

=>mkfs.ext4 -L SDA3 /dev/sda3
=>mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

=>swapon /dev/sda2
this errored, so:
=>swapoff /dev/sda2
=>swapon /dev/sda2
ok

for my basestrap, nothing different here:

Quote

=>basestrap /mnt base base-devel openrc

After chrooting, I noticed nano was not installed:

Quote

=>pacman -S nano

In the boot loader instructions:

Quote

Boot Loader
First, install grub and os-prober (for detecting other installed operating systems):

pacman -S grub os-prober
grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Do this instead, note you need to install efibootmgr. /boot/efi is the mount point for /dev/sda1, and where grub will install the grubx64.efi, no different from any other Artix install.

Quote

=>pacman -S grub os-prober efibootmgr
=>mkdir /boot/efi
=>mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
=>grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader=Artix
=>grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

It would be interesting to see if your install installed a kernel.

Quote

=>cd /boot
=>ls

vmlinuz-linux, initramfs* there? if not:

Quote

=>pacman -S linux
=>grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Now finish up the install as wiki states.

There is certainly other needed packages, firmware for example.

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #6 – 11 October 2019, 23:23:26

Quote from: dxrobertson – on 11 October 2019, 22:35:18

Do not do anything with /dev/sda1 at this time (assuming you already have a usable ESP).

what is ESP in this context?

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #7 – 12 October 2019, 00:12:57

EFI System Partition. I am no expert on EFI specs, so what I quote here may need some corrections.

With EFI, its the 1st partition (/dev/sda1). Its formatted as FAT32, has a top level directory of EFI, and contains sub-directories of each OS "stub loaders", or whatever you want to call them. For Artix, installed onto /dev/sda1 will be /EFI/Artix/grub64.efi (for x86_64). This gets mounted in linux at /boot/efi.

My quote meant that it is assumed that there already is a /dev/sda1 formatted as FAT32.

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #8 – 13 October 2019, 04:30:39

Thanks so much! I'll try it first on a secondary laptop.

Re: Base Install Questions

Reply #9 – 13 October 2019, 16:58:31

Quote from: dxrobertson – on 12 October 2019, 00:12:57

EFI System Partition. I am no expert on EFI specs, so what I quote here may need some corrections.

With EFI, its the 1st partition (/dev/sda1). Its formatted as FAT32, has a top level directory of EFI, and contains sub-directories of each OS "stub loaders", or whatever you want to call them. For Artix, installed onto /dev/sda1 will be /EFI/Artix/grub64.efi (for x86_64). This gets mounted in linux at /boot/efi.

My quote meant that it is assumed that there already is a /dev/sda1 formatted as FAT32.

it needs to be extended vfat because of the size limitation, I think, to fat32