Artix Linux Forum

Pre-installation

Download (https://artixlinux.org/download.php) and boot the installation medium. You will have to log in as artix user with password artix, and presented with a Zsh (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Zsh) shell prompt. You can access to root user with su command.

To switch to a different console—for example, to view this guide with ELinks (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ELinks) alongside the installation—use the Alt+arrow shortcut (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_shortcuts). To edit (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Textedit) configuration files, nano (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nano#Usage), vi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vi) and vim (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vim#Usage) are available.

Set the keyboard layout

The default console keymap (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Console_keymap) is US (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_United_States-NoAltGr.svg). To list available layouts, run ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz. To modify the layout, append a corresponding file name to loadkeys(1) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/loadkeys.1), omitting path and file extension. For example, run loadkeys de-latin1 to set a German (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Germany.svg) keyboard layout.

Console fonts (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Console_fonts) are located in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ and can likewise be set with setfont(8) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/setfont.8).

Verify the boot mode

If UEFI mode is enabled on an UEFI (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI) motherboard, Artix ISO will boot (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Boot) Artix Linux accordingly via GRUB (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#UEFI_systems). To verify this, list the efivars (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI#UEFI_variables) directory:

 # ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

If the directory does not exist, the system may be booted in BIOS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS) or CSM mode. Refer to your motherboard's manual for details.

Connect to the Internet

The installation image enables the dhcpcd (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dhcpcd) daemon on boot for wired (https://git.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/configs/releng/airootfs/etc/udev/rules.d/81-dhcpcd.rules) network devices. The connection may be checked with:

 # ping archlinux.org

If no connection is available, stop the dhcpcd service with rc-service dhcpcd stop, and see Network configuration (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration).

For wireless connections, iw(8) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/iw.8), wpa_supplicant(8) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/wpa_supplicant.8) are available. See Wireless network configuration (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_network_configuration).

Update the system clock

Use ntpd(1) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/ntpd.1) to ensure the system clock is accurate:

 # pacman -S ntp
# ntpd -qg

Partition the disks

When recognized by the live system, disks are assigned to a block device such as /dev/sda. To identify these devices, use lsblk (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lsblk) or fdisk — results ending in rom, loop or airoot may be ignored:

 # fdisk -l

The following ''partitions'' (shown with a numerical suffix) are required for a chosen device:

• One partition for the root directory /.
• If UEFI (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI) is enabled, an EFI System Partition (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_System_Partition).

Swap space (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Swap_space) can be set on a separate partition or a swap file (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Swap_file).

To modify partition tables, use fdisk (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fdisk) or parted (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Parted). See Partitioning (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Partitioning) for more information.

If you want to create any stacked block devices for LVM (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM), disk encryption (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_encryption) or RAID (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RAID), do it now.

Format the partitions

Once the partitions have been created, each must be formatted with an appropriate file system (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_system). For example, to format the root partition on /dev/sda1 with ext4, run:

 # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

See File systems#Create a file system (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_systems#Create_a_file_system) for details.

Mount the file systems

Mount (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mount) the file system on the root partition to /mnt, for example:

 # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Create mount points for any remaining partitions and mount them accordingly, for example:

 # mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot

fstabgen (https://github.com/artix-linux/artools/blob/97eaf3fd1655be657ce190de759d3520a6ab37ae/bin/fstabgen.in) will later detect mounted file systems and swap space.

Installation

Select the mirrors

Packages to be installed must be downloaded from mirror servers, which are defined in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist for Artix repositories and in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch for Archlinux repositories. On the live system, all Archlinux mirrors are enabled, and sorted by their synchronization status and speed at the time the installation image was created.

The higher a mirror is placed in the list, the more priority it is given when downloading a package. You may want to edit the file accordingly, and move the geographically closest mirrors to the top of the list, although other criteria should be taken into account.

This file will later be copied to the new system by basestrap, so it is worth getting right.

Install the base packages

First fix an issue on basestrap as following:

# sed -e 's/${hostcache} && pacman/${hostcache} || pacman/g' -e 's/${interactive} && pacman/${interactive} || pacman/g' -i /usr/bin/basestrap

Use the basestrap (https://github.com/artix-linux/artools/blob/97eaf3fd1655be657ce190de759d3520a6ab37ae/bin/basestrap.in) script to install the base package group:

 # basestrap -i /mnt base openrc-system openrc-world systemd-dummy libsystemd-dummy

This group does not include all tools from the live installation, such as btrfs-progs (https://github.com/artix-linux/system/tree/master/btrfs-progs) or specific wireless firmware; see import.list.d (https://github.com/artix-linux/artools/tree/master/data/import.list.d) for comparison.

To install (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install) packages and other groups such as base-devel, append the names to basestrap (space separated) or to individual pacman (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman) commands after the Chroot step.

Configure the system

Fstab

Generate an fstab (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab) file (use -U or -L to define by UUID (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UUID) or labels, respectively):

 # fstabgen -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Check the resulting file in /mnt/etc/fstab afterwards, and edit it in case of errors.

Chroot

Change root (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Change_root) into the new system:

 # artools-chroot /mnt

Time zone

Set the time zone (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Time_zone):

 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Run hwclock(8) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/hwclock.8) to generate /etc/adjtime:

 # hwclock --systohc

This command assumes the hardware clock is set to UTC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC). See Time#Time standard (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Time#Time_standard) for details.

Locale

Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and other needed localizations (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Localization) in /etc/locale.gen, and generate them with:

 # locale-gen

Set the LANG variable (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Variable) in locale.conf(5) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/locale.conf.5) accordingly, for example:

#/etc/locale.conf

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

If you set the keyboard layout, make the changes persistent in /etc/conf.d/keymaps:

#/etc/conf.d/keymaps

keymap="de-latin1"

Hostname

Add the hostname to /etc/conf.d/hostname:

#/etc/conf.d/hostname
hostname="myhostname"

Consider adding a matching entry to hosts(5) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/hosts.5):

#/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.1.1 myhostname.localdomain myhostname

See also Network configuration#Set the hostname (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration#Set_the_hostname).

Init scripts

Enable the needed following init scripts:

rc-update add udev boot
rc-update add elogind boot
rc-update add dbus default

Network configuration

The newly installed environment has no network connection activated by default. See Network configuration#Network managers (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration#Network_managers).

For Wireless configuration (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_configuration), install (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install) the iw and wpa_supplicant packages, as well as needed firmware packages (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless#Installing_driver.2Ffirmware). Optionally install dialog for usage of wifi-menu.

Initramfs

Creating a new initramfs is usually not required, because mkinitcpio (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio) was run on installation of the linux-lts package with basestrap.

For special configurations, modify the mkinitcpio.conf(5) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/mkinitcpio.conf.5) file and recreate the initramfs image:

# mkinitcpio -p linux-lts

Root password

Set the root password (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Password):

# passwd

Boot loader

See Category:Boot loaders (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Boot_loaders) for available choices and configurations.

If you have an Intel CPU, install the intel-ucode (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=intel-ucode) package in addition, and enable microcode updates (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode#Enabling_Intel_microcode_updates).

Reboot

Exit the chroot environment by typing exit or pressing Ctrl+D.

Optionally manually unmount all the partitions with umount -R /mnt: this allows noticing any "busy" partitions, and finding the cause with fuser(1) (http://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/fuser.1).

Finally, restart the machine by typing reboot: any partitions still mounted will be automatically unmounted by eudev. Remember to remove the installation media and then login into the new system with the root account.

Post-installation

See General recommendations (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/General_recommendations) for system management directions and post-installation tutorials (like setting up a graphical user interface, sound or a touchpad).

For a list of applications that may be of interest, see List of applications (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications).