Newb's Guide to installing Arch Next to Pre-installed Windows 10

The steps I took to dual boot Arch Linux alongside the preinstalled Windows 10 that came with my new Lenovo Ideapad. I used Ubuntu exclusively for the last 6 years so I'm Window's illiterate. I don't know a whole lot about the inner workings of Linux either.

Pre-Instllation Steps

Prepare the preinstalled Windows to share the system.

Verify the boot mode...

Boot into Windows
Press Win key and 'R' to start the Run dialog
In the Run dialog type "msinfo32" and press Enter
In the System Information windows, select System Summary on the left and check the value of BIOS mode item on the right.
Make sure the value is UEFI, which means Windows boots in UEFI/GPT mode

Disable secure boot

Open Settings (The gear icon in the start menu)
Click "Updates & Security"
In the "Recovery" menu, click "Restart now" under the "Advanced startup" header
After restart, choose the "Troubleshoot" option.
Choose "Advanced Options"
Choose "UEFI Firmware Settings"
Press the restart button to load the UEFI firmware
In the Security settings find and disable Secure Boot
In the Boot settings also find and disable Fast Boot

Disable Fast Startup

Open Control Panel (Press Windows key, Type "Control Panel" and press enter)
In the "View by" menu, choose "Small Icons" and click on "Power Options".
Open "Choose what power buttons do" on the left side menu.
Click "Change settings that are currently unavailable"
Uncheck "Turn on Fast Startup" and save changes.

Shrink the Windows partition

Press Windows Key + R and type diskmgmt.msc - hit enter
Right click the C drive and choose "Shrink Volume"
Enter the amount of space to shrink the partition (I shrunk mine by 200000mb - 200 gigs)
Click "Shrink"

Make a bootable USB

Choose a mirror from www.archlinux.org/download - I used the American pair.com mirror because it's the first reputable domain I recognised.
Download the .iso file.
Download Rufus from https://rufus.akeo.ie/
Plug in a new USB stick and open Rufus
Select the USB drive and the downloaded Linux iso.
Choose the GPT partition scheme, FAT32 file system
Press start

Install Arch

We're ready to boot and install Arch.

Boot the USB

Plug in the USB
Hold down the shift key while clicking Restart
Choose "Troubleshoot" then "Advanced Options" then "UEFI Firmware Settings" then restart.
In the Boot menu, find your bootable USB and move it up above the Windows boot manager so it will boot the USB first.
Save and exit

Load keyboard layout & locale

Type loadkeys us at the command line and press enter
Type locale-gen at the command line and press enter

Hookup them internets

At the command line type rfkill unblock wifi and press enter
Type iw dev and press enter. It will tell you the name of the Wifi interface.
Type wifi-menu <wifi_interface_name> (using your actual interface name) and press enter.
A UI will show allowing you to choose a network and log into it.
After logging in, ping google.com to verify the internets work. After a few packets are sent, CTRL+C to stop pinging - if it says no packets were lost then we're good.

Partitioning

First type free -m, hit enter. Take note of the amount of total memory available.
Type gdisk /dev/sda and hit enter to start the GPT partitioning program
Create SWAP partition
- At the prompt, type n, press enter to create a new partition
- It will prompt for a partition number. Just hit enter to use the default.
- It asks where to start the first sector. Press enter to accept the default which is automatically the start of unallocated space.
- It asks for the last sector. Type +12GB (I have 12 gigs of memory - if you have more or less you should adjust accordingly) and press enter.
- If it says anything other than "Linux Filesystem" type 8200 at the next prompt. Hit enter.
Create Root partition
- At the prompt, type n, press enter to create a new partition
- It will prompt for a partition number. Just hit enter to use the default.
- It asks where to start the first sector. Press enter to accept the default which is automatically the start of unallocated space.
- It asks for the last sector. Press Enter to accept the default and use all of remaining unallocated space.
- If it says anything other than "Linux Filesystem" type 8300 at the next prompt. Hit enter.
At the prompt, type W, press enter to write changes to the drive. When prompted, type Y and press enter to confirm.

Create SWAP space

Type gdisk -l /dev/sda, press enter and take note of the partition number of the Swap part.
Type mkswap -L "Linux Swap" /dev/sda7 (My swap partition was number 7 - if yours is 5 use /dev/sda5 instead). Hit enter.
Type swapon /dev/sda7 (again, using the apprpriate swap partition number). Hit enter.
Verify status of swap space by typing free -m and press enter. If the last line starts with "Swap:" we're good.

Format and mount the root partition

Type gdisk -l /dev/sda, press enter and take note of the partition number of the Root part.
Type mkfs.ext4 -L /dev/sda8 (My root partition was number 7 - if yours is 6 use /dev/sda6 instead). Hit enter.
Type mount /dev/sda8 /mnt (again, using the apprpriate swap partition number). Hit enter.

Start the installation

Type pacstrap /mnt base, hit enter.

Mount the EFI partition

Type gdisk -l /dev/sda, press enter and take note of the partition number of the EFI part.
Type mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi (My efi partition was number 1 - if yours is 2 use /dev/sda2 instead). Hit enter.

Configure the system

Type genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab. Hit enter.
Type cat /mnt/etc/fstab, press enter, to verify the file was created correctly.
Change root into the new installation: type arch-chroot /mnt and press enter.

Set the timezone

Type cd /usr/share/zoneinfo && ls press enter. Take note of the appropriate region and use it as follows...
Type cd <region> && ls (replacing <region> with the most appropriate region.) press enter. Take note of the most appropraite city.
Type ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/<region>/<city> /etc/localtime (replacing <region> and <city> with the most appropriate region and city.)
Type hwclock --systohc. Hit enter.

Set the host

Create the file /etc/hostname and write your hostnme in it with nano or vim
Create the file etc/hosts and populate it like this (replacing myhostname with whatever you put in your hostname file.)

127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname

Create the root user's password

Type passwd and press enter
Enter a new root password and press enter. verify it and press enter.

Create new initramfs image

Type mkinitcpio -p linux. Hit enter.

Install Grub bootloader

Type pacman -Syu grub efibootmgr and hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu efibootmgr and hit enter.
Type grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Hit enter.
Type grub-install /dev/sda. Hit enter.
Verify the install... Type ls -l /boot/efi/EFI/arch/. Hit Enter. If you see a file called grubx64.efi then all is well.

Create new user

Type useradd -s /bin/bash -m username (replace "username" with the new user's name). Hit enter.
Type passwd username (replace "username" with the new user's name). Hit enter.
Enter and verify the password.

Install a desktop environment and some important packages

Type pacman -Syu gnome-desktop. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu gdm. Hit enter.
Type systemctl enable gdm. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu xterm. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu iw. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu dialog. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu vim. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu wpa_supplicant. Hit enter.
Type pacman -Syu os-prober. Hit enter.
Type grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Hit enter.

Unmount and reboot

Remove USB
Type exit. Hit enter.
Type umount -R /mnt. Hit enter.
Type reboot. Hit enter.
After a moment it will load back into Arch, this time with a desktop GUI.

Pamblam/Initial Setup.md