(Based on Beginners' guide)

ArchLinux installation on KVM Virtual Machine

Host :

Debian Jessie

Guest :

ArchLinux 2016.01.01
Kernel 4.3.3
Partition table type : MBR

First settings

To verify you are booted in UEFI mode, check that the following directory is populated:
```
  # ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
```
Set the keyboard layout
```
  # loadkeys fr-pc
```
Update the system clock
```
  # timedatectl set-ntp true
```

Disk partitioning

Identify the devices
```
  # lsblk
```
To create a new MBR/msdos partition table for BIOS systems instead, use:
```
  # parted /dev/vda
  (parted) mklabel msdos
```

Create separate /boot (100MiB), / (2.5GiB), swap (1GiB), and /home (all remaining space) partitions :

  (parted) mkpart primary ext4 1MiB 100MiB
  (parted) set 1 boot on
  (parted) mkpart primary ext4 100MiB 2.5GiB
  (parted) mkpart primary linux-swap 2.5GiB 3.5GiB
  (parted) mkpart primary ext4 3.5GiB 100%
  (parted) quit

Verify created partition
```
  # lsblk /dev/vda
```

Format partitions with ext4 file system except swap

  # mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda1
  # mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda2
  # mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda4

Format swap

  # mkswap /dev/vda3
  # swapon /dev/vda3

Mount the root partition to the /mnt directory of the live system
```
  # mount /dev/vda2 /mnt
```

Remaining partitions (except swap) may be mounted in any order, after creating the respective mount points.

  # mkdir -p /mnt/boot
  # mount /dev/vda1 /mnt/boot
  # mkdir -p /mnt/home
  # mount /dev/vda4 /mnt/home

Installation

Install the base packages

# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel

Configuration

Generate an fstab file. The -U option indicates UUIDs: see Persistent block device naming. Labels can be used instead through the -L option.

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

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

Change root

# arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Edit `/etc/locale.gen` and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8, as well as other needed localisations. Save the file, and generate the new locales:

# locale-gen

Create `/etc/locale.conf`, where `LANG` refers to the first column of an uncommented entry in `/etc/locale.gen`:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

If you set the keyboard layout, make the changes persistent in `/etc/vconsole.conf`. Assign the `KEYMAP` and `FONT` variables accordingly:

KEYMAP=fr-latin9
FONT=lat9w-16

Select a time zone:

# tzselect

Create the symbolic link `/etc/localtime`, where `Zone/Subzone` is the `TZ` value from tzselect :

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris /etc/localtime

It is recommended to adjust the time skew, and set the time standard to UTC:

# hwclock --systohc --utc

Install a boot loader

If you have an Intel CPU, install the intel-ucode package :

# pacman -S intel-ucode

Install the grub package. To search for other operating systems, also install os-prober :

# pacman -S grub os-prober

Install the bootloader to the drive Arch was installed to :

# grub-install --recheck /dev/vda

Generate `grub.cfg` :

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Note: When reinstalling GRUB, you may receive warnings like /run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory or WARNING: failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning. This is because /run is not available inside the chroot. These warnings will not prevent the system from booting, provided that everything has been done correctly, so you may continue with the installation.

Set the hostname in `/etc/hostname` :

myhostname

Network configuration

Wired

When only requiring a single wired connection, enable the dhcpcd service :

# systemctl enable [email protected]

To use systemd-networkd, start the service and enable it to run on system boot:

# systemctl start systemd-networkd.service
# systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service

Unmount the partitions and reboot

Set the root password with :

# passwd

Exit from the chroot environment by running `exit` or pressing `Ctrl+D`.

Partitions will be unmounted automatically by systemd on shutdown. You may however unmount manually as a safety measure:

# umount -R /mnt

Reboot the computer :

# reboot

bugyt/install.md