rollwagen/archlinux_arm_on_esxi_fling.md

arch linux arm on esxi fling (on raspberry pi 4)

create / Register VM -> Linux / Other 4.x or Later (64bit) -> ...
- CD/DVD Drive: use a Linux ISO that can boot into a recue shell e.g 'debian-10.9.0-arm64-netinst.iso'; make sure "Connect at power on" is selected
- VM Options / Boot options: Firmware "EFI" (should be the default anyways)
power On VM -> should see GNU GRUB welcome screen (from debian ISO/cdrom) -> Advanced Options -> Rescue mode
- go through menu selections (language, keyborad, etc) until you have a shell ('Execute a shell in the intaller environment')
partition the disk; see also ArchLinux Wiki Partition the disk

One partition for the root directory /. For booting in UEFI mode: an EFI system partition.
- fdisk -l should list your hd; usually /dev/sda
- using fdisk create boot/EFI parition and root partition e.g.
```
fdisk /dev/sda
g
p
n # +300M
t # 1 'EFI System'
n # will per default be 'Linux fileystem'
w # write new GTP partition table to disk
```
format the partitions and mount the file systems
- format:
```
mkfs.fat /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
```
- mount the file systems
  - mkdir /mnt/root; mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/root
  - mkdir /mnt/boot; mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
still in rescue shell, download generic ArchLinux ARM package; see link
- cd /tmp; wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz
Unpack into /mnt/root
- tar -xzf /tmp/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt/root
- cd /mnt/root/boot; cp -a * /mnt/boot

Reboot system, in GRUB screen, select 'c' (grub command line), and boot ArchLinux:

grub> ls
grub> ls (hd0,gpt2)/
grub> linux (hd0,gpt2/boot/Image.gz root=/dev/sda2
grub> initrd (hd0,gpt2/boot/initramfs-linux.img
grub> boot

login with root / root
If root "/" is mounted as read-only, re-mount re-write
- mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda2 /

Setup pacman (database synche etc)

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
pacman -Syy`

install install helper scripts pacman -S arch-install-script (contains e.g. genfstab)

generate fstab, see also ArchLinux Wiki on fstab

 # ensure boot is mounted too, if not
 mv /boot /boot.bak
 mkdir /boot
 mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

 genfstab -U / >> /etc/fstab

install and setup GRUB (boot manager)
- update kernel etc with pacman -S linux linux-headers (select "1) linux-aarch64-headers")
- install grub etc pacman -S grub efibootmgr
install GRUB with
- grub-install --target=arm64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB --boot-directory=/boot
configure grub, see also ArchLinux Wiki on Grub link
- NOTE: generally grub-install look for the kernel image name '/boot/vmlinuz-*...', however, the arm kernel image in '/boot' is called 'Image.gz' (compressed) resp. 'Image' (uncompressed). Quick fix / dirty workaround for grub to find the kernel and generate respective grub.cfg is not copy/rename current kernel image to 'vmlinuz-linux' before calling grub-mkconfig
```
  cd /boot
  cp Image vmlinuz-linux
  grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
```
reboot ! 🤞
for remaining steps (e.g. setting hostname etc) see Installion guide and General Recommendations (post install) on ArchLinux Wiki