There are already dozens of tutorials to setup an Arch and Windows dual boot - welcome to a dozen + 1. Like most others this is a step by step guide. Unlike most others the steps are ordered in a way that makes sense (starting with the download first - duh!) so you won't have to restart your computer a gazillion times.
I did this on a single SSD Dell XPS 15 with windows 10 preinstalled. It's obviously possible to follow this guide if you're installing Arch onto a different drive or if you're running older hardware. If you run into any problems please be sure to read through the Arch Installation Guide and the Arch Dual boot with Windows wiki.
To get started you will need:
- a stable internet connection
- a USB key with 1GB storage
- a cup of coffee & and a can do attitude
Let's begin by downloading the .iso preferably using BitTorrent and verifying the checksum [1].
If you recently purchased a laptop it will most likely be using UEFI. In case you're performing this dual-boot installation on an old laptop you should check this by:
- starting the run dialog with
Win key + R - type
msinfo32and press enter - in the System information section open System Summary and take note of the value of BIOS mode
Let's begin by doing some wiping. In Windows 10 launch the Disk Management tool and create a partition of the desired size by reducing the size of the existing windows installation:
- start the run dialog with
Win key + R - type
diskmgmt.mscand press enter - shrink the partition to the desired size
I recommend you use Etcher but you can also use Rufus. Simply download the tool, plug in your USB and flash it with the .iso.
Note: I recommend that you keep the .iso installed on the USB key. You might need it after completing the setup since Windows updates may overwrite your boot partition (see FAQ for more info)
This may sound dumb but trust me on this one: since you'll be restarting your computer, read all the steps in this section before following through:
- use your favourite search engine to lookup what key to press during boot to enter the UEFI settings
- restart your computer and press it
- the UEFI interface varies depending on your motherboard but they shouldn't be too hard to find:
- disable Fast Boot
- disable Secure Boot
- change the boot order to prioritise your USB over the Windows Boot Loader
- (optional) if you have problems partioning your disk switch from RAID to AHCI
- save & exit & restart your computer & drop into the Arch root prompt!
If you're using a particular keyboard layout, search for it with:
# list available layouts
$ ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz
# modify the layout by running
$ loadkeys whatever-your-layout-is1# Find your interface name
$ iw dev
# use an network manager to do the work for you
$ wifi-menu whatever-your-interface-is
# check your connection
$ ping cloudflare.comHere you will need to create 3 partitions: boot (>200MB), swap (match your RAM [3]), and a root partition (whatever space you have left)
# find out the name of your drive (sometimes /dev/sda - I'll be using /dev/nvme0n1)
$ fdisk -l
# make sure to check the storage of the drive to verify that you're not formatting your USB stick
$ fdisk /dev/nvme0n1
n # create a new partition
<Enter> # use default partition number
<Enter> # use default starting sector
+256MB # or whatever size you want your boot sector to be
n # create a new partition
<Enter> # use default partition number
<Enter> # use default starting sector
+256MB # or whatever size you want your swap to be
t # change the partition type
<Enter> # use default partition
82 # use Linux swap partition type
n # create a new partition
<Enter> # use default partition number
<Enter> # use default starting sector
<Enter> # fill the rest of the disk
t # change the partition type
<Enter> # use default partition
83 # use Linux partition type
w # write the changes to disk & exitYou should end up with something similar to this:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1 259:0 0 477G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 680M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 128M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 204.8G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 990M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p5 259:5 0 13.2G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p6 259:6 0 1.3G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p7 259:7 0 244M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p8 259:8 0 954M 0 part
└─nvme0n1p9 259:9 0 254.8G 0 part# create & enable your swap
$ mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p8
$ swapon /dev/nvme0n1p8
# format the partitions
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p9
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p7
# mount the partitions
$ mount /dev/nvme0n1p9 /mnt
$ mount /dev/nvme0n1p7 /mnt/boot
# mount your UEFI boot partition
$ mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
$ mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi# optionally add base-devel at the end of the following command for development tools
$ pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmwareThe fstab (short for filesystems table) is used to list disk partitions or various block devices and specify how they should be mounted into the filesystem.
# generate the fstab file
$ genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# verify that /, /boot, /boot/efi, and swap are here
$ cat /mnt/etc/fstab
# /dev/nvme0n1p9
UUID=UUID-should-be-here / ext4 rw,relatime 0 1
# /dev/nvme0n1p7
UUID=UUID-should-be-here /boot ext4 rw,relatime 0 2
# /dev/nvme0n1p1 LABEL=ESP
UUID=UUID-should-be-here /boot/efi vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remou
nt-ro 0 2
# /dev/nvme0n1p8
UUID=UUID-should-be-here none swap defaults 0 0Now that your base packages have been installed and that your partitions are mounted, let's change the root directory for the current running process. These steps are the exact same as arch's installation guide configure the system section, so feel free to switch, follow those instructions and come back before you start the boot loader setup. If you prefer to stay here, the commands are the exact same except you won't get the usefull documentation links in case of a boo-boo.
# change root
$ arch-chroot /mnt
# set the timezone
$ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
$ hwclock --systohc
# set your locale by uncommenting en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen (and any other locales you may use)
$ locale-gen
$ echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
# set the keyboard layout
$ echo "KEYMAP=whatever-your-keymap-from-the-keyboard-setup-section-is1" > /etc/vconsole.conf
# set your hostname
$ echo "whatever-you-want-your-hostname-to-be" > /etc/hostname
# set the root password
$ passwdAnd now for the main event: the boot loader installation! For this step to work, the partitions must be properly mounted:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1 259:0 0 477G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 680M 0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 128M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 204.8G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 990M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p5 259:5 0 13.2G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p6 259:6 0 1.3G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p7 259:7 0 244M 0 part /boot
├─nvme0n1p8 259:8 0 954M 0 part
└─nvme0n1p9 259:9 0 254.8G 0 part /$ pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober
$ grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=grub
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
$ os-proberTo check that grub has properly detected the windows boot loader have a look in /boot/grub/grub.cfg you should see a menuentry that looks a little like this:
menuentry 'Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/nvme0n1p1)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-efi-UUID-XXXX' {
insmod part_gpt
insmod fat
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root UUID-XXXX
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root BUUID-XXXX
fi
chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}
You've partitoned your system, installed your base packages and your bootloader - what could you possibly be missing? Oh yeah the wpa_supplicant package used for key negociation when you want to connect via WiFi... I made these mistakes so that you don't have too:
# update & install wpa_supplicant along with the easy to use wifi-menu
$ pacman -Syyu wpa_supplicant wifi-menu dialogIf you got to this stage without any errors, crashes or additional reboots - please let me know because you're probably the one we've all been waiting for and I could use you to debug some C. I hope this guide helped you, give me a thumbs up if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel /s
$ exit
$ umount -R /mnt
$ rebootThere are so many different ways forward from here but I recommend following the Arch general recommendations to secure your system by doing some system administration before you move on to more exciting stuff. If you want to dive into the rabbit hole you should have a look at i3. You can find my Arch + i3 setup guide here.
Q: After a Windows update my computer boots directly to Windows instead of grub, how do I fix this?
Windows updates can sometimes mess with your boot partition. To fix this you will need a USB key with the Arch .iso on hand. It's quite simple to fix if you follow these steps.
- Plug-in the USB key with the Arch .iso
- Boot into BIOS settings and switch from RAID to AHCI
- Boot into Arch
- Reinstall grub by using these commands
[1] This is recommended to guarantee that the file you downloaded hasn't been tampered with. You shouldn't compare the checksum of the downloaded .iso with the checksum provided to you in the install since if the torrent or ftp server has been compromised it is likely both image and the checksum will have been modified. To verify the checksum, simply follow these steps:
- open a command line by running
Win key + Rand typingcmdand pressing enter - run
certutil -hashfile C:\path\to\arch-linux.iso MD5and compare the output to the MD5 checksum on the arch download page
[2] As you can see in the output of lsblk I only allocated 1GB for my swap. Since then, I have upgraded this to 8GB. It is also possible to use a swapfile instead of creating a swap partition.
[3] Although this guide is for setting up an encrypted arch linux system it is clear & easy to follow
Hi, you forgot the command to generate fstab
# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab