Void Linux Installation Guide (UEFI + chroot + brtfs + LUKS Encryption)

README.md

Void Linux installation guide!

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Logging in

User is anon and password is voidlinux. The root user is root and has the same password. This document implies you're using the root user, so no sudo is used until the main user is created and used.

Setting keyboard layout

loadkeys $(ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/**/*.map.gz | grep br-abnt2)

Connecting to the internet

cp /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-<interface>.conf
wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> | tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-<interface>.conf
sv restart dhcpcd
ip link set up <interface>

Formatting disk

Run:

fdisk /dev/sda

Then:

1. Select g to generate a GTP table
2. Select n to create the EFI partition with size of +200M
3. Change the created partition's type by selecting t and then selecting the option that represents EFI Partition
4. Select n to create the GRUB partition with size of +500M
5. Select n to create the btrfs partition with the remaining size

Creating the filesystems

mkfs.vfat -n boot -F 32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext2 -L GRUB /dev/sda2
cryptsetup luksFormat --type=luks -s=512 /dev/sda3
cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 cryptroot
mkfs.btrfs -L void /dev/mapper/cryptroot

Mounting the btrfspartition and creating subvolumes

mount -o rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120 /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@home
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@snapshots

Mounting top-level partitions

umount /mnt
mount -o rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120,subvol=@ /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/home
mkdir -p /mnt/.snapshots
mount -o rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120,subvol=@home /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/home
mount -o rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120,subvol=@snapshots /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt/.snapshots
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount -o rw,noatime /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
mount -o rw,noatime /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi

Creating nested partitions

mkdir -p /mnt/var/cache
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/var/cache/xbps
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/var/tmp
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/srv

Installing the base system

Using glibc

xbps-install -Sy -R https://alpha.de.repo.voidlinux.org/current -r /mnt base-system btrfs-progs cryptsetup grub-x86_64-efi

Using musl

export XBPS_ARCH=x86_64-musl
xbps-install -Sy -R https://alpha.de.repo.voidlinux.org/current/musl -r /mnt base-system btrfs-progs cryptsetup grub-x86_64-efi

Running chroot

mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -t devpts pts /mnt/dev/pts
cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/
cd /mnt
chroot /mnt /bin/bash
passwd root
chown root:root /
chmod 755 /
echo <hostname> > /etc/hostname

Then edit the file /etc/rc.conf to contain the following:

HOSTNAME="<hostname>"

# Set RTC to UTC or localtime.
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"

# Set timezone, availables timezones at /usr/share/zoneinfo.
TIMEZONE="America/Sao_Paulo"

# Keymap to load, see loadkeys(8).
KEYMAP="br-abnt2"

# Console font to load, see setfont(8).
#FONT="lat9w-16"

# Console map to load, see setfont(8).
#FONT_MAP=

# Font unimap to load, see setfont(8).
#FONT_UNIMAP=

# Kernel modules to load, delimited by blanks.
#MODULES=""

Then run the following commands:

echo 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8' > /etc/default/libc-locales
export GRUB_UUID=$(blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sda2)
export UEFI_UUID=$(blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sda1)
export ROOT_UUID=$(blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/mapper/cryptoroot)
export LUKS_UUID=$(blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sda3)
cat <<EOF > /etc/fstab
UUID=$GRUB_UUID /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=$UEFI_UUID /boot/efi vfat defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=$ROOT_UUID / btrfs rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120,subvolid=257 0 1
UUID=$ROOT_UUID /home btrfs rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120,subvolid=258 0 2
UUID=$ROOT_UUID /.snapshots btrfs rw,noatime,ssd,compress=zstd,space_cache,commit=120,subvolid=259 0 2
EOF
echo "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"${LUKS_UUID} i915.modeset=1\"" >> /etc/default/grub
echo 'add_dracutmodules+="crypt btrfs resume"' >> /etc/dracut.conf
echo 'tmpdir=/tmp' >> /etc/dracut.conf
dracut --force --hostonly --kver <kernel-version>
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=void_grub --boot-directory=/boot --recheck --debug
xbps-install -S void-repo-nonfree
xbps-install -Su
xbps-install intel-ucode
echo 'early_microcode="yes"' >> /etc/dracut.conf.d/intel_ucode.conf
xbps-reconfigure -f linux<kernel-version-major.minor>
exit
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Note: one can also add splash quiet to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub.

Post-installation

Creating the main user and adding them to sudoers

Log in as root

xbps-install -S zsh
usermod -m -G wheel -s $(which zsh) <username>
passwd <username>
visudo

After running visudo, uncomment the line that contains %wheel. Log out and log in with the newly created user.

Locking the root account

⚠️ Important ⚠️
Only run this after setting up the main user!

sudo passwd -dl root

Connecting to the internet

Run the proper wpa_supplicant steps to set Wi-Fi or stuff you need. Then, register and start the needed services:

sudo ln -s /etc/sv/dhcpcd /var/service/
sudo ln -s /etc/sv/wpa_supplicant /var/service/

By symlinking the services, runit will pick them up in the next five seconds and start them!

Installing drivers needed by Xorg

sudo xbps-install -S xorg-minimal xorg-fonts \
    xf86-video-intel xf86-video-ati \
    xf86-input-evdev xf86-video-fbdev \
    xf86-input-synaptics
echo 'exec bspwm' >> ~/.xinitrc

Rootless Xorg

First, check whether KMS is enabled:

sudo cat /sys/module/i915/parameters/modeset

If it returns 1, then KMS is enabled. If not, add i915.modeset=1 to the kernel parameters. Then, ensure /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config has needs_root_rights = no and add the user to the following groups:

sudo usermod -aG input,video <username>

Finally, to start Xorg, you should run, without sudo:

startx -- vt1

https://wiki.voidlinux.org/Xorg

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