install arch linux

1_install_arch_linux.txt

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I- Partitionate the disk
  fdisk -l
  fdisk /dev/sda
  * boot partition
  n -> p -> enter -> enter (defines first sector for boot partition by default 2048) -> 1002048 sectors (defines last sector for boot partition)
  a (toogle boot) -> t (type) -> ef (EFI)
  * disk parttion
  n -> p -> enter -> enter (fst sector) -> enter (last sector)
  * to see parttion table
  p
  * to write save & quit
  w
  fdisk -l
  
  NOTE: 
  - we can also partitionate using cfdisk
  - normally we should create 3 partitions boot partition, swap partition and root partition
  
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II- Format
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

NOTE:
if we have 3 partitions sda1 sda2 and sda3, we can format them like that:
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1 => for the boot also we can format using ext4
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 => for the root partition
mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2 => for the swap partition


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III- Mount partitions to system
  ls -l /mnt==> we should fint nothing
  mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
  mkdir /mnt/boot
  mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
  df -h ==> should print that /dev/sda1 & /dev/sda2 are mounted
  
  The reason why we mount in this way (one partion at /mnt and the second partition as folder in that parttion /mnt/boot)
  is to allow pacstrap to write into a single folder wich in facts write in two partitions and that makes it easy to install
  So pacstrap will put the base system onto the mount point wich write it into both partitions some inside /mnt/boot and some into /mnt 
  
  NOTE: if we have a swap partition we dont need to mount it
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IV- Install the base packages
  pacstrap is a binary of arch (/usr/bin/pacstarp) it writes the base system to a mount point
  
  pacstrap /mnt base => live installation will start
  
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V- Generate the fsatb file
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
cat /mnt/etc/fstab => to chack its content

what this file does is once our system boots it will use this file to know:
which partions to mount, where to mount them, the options to mount them with and then the order of mounting
In our case it will be two entries:
* the root system /dev/sda2 mounetd on / its type is ext4 read/write
* the boot partition mounetd at /boot type vfat

blkid  ==> this command also give us idea about the system mounted partition

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VI- chroot the system
arch-chroot /mnt => arch linux iso root will change to our installed / (but we are still on the iso)

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VII- set time zone
now we are on our system any thing we will it will remain on our system, so we can set time
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/africa/casablanca /etc/localtime
date => to check out the time

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VIII- set localization
we will generate the local files
nano /etc/locale.gen => uncomment locale you want and ctrl+O and ctrl+X to save

locale-gen => will generate locale uncommented

now we should create the locale.conf
nano /etc/locale.conf => and then add the LANG and KEYMAP for example
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
and finally ctrl+O and ctrl+X to save

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IX- set hostname 
hostname => to see the actual hostname it will be archiso
nano /etc/hostname => insert wanted hostname myHostname then ctrl+X
hostname => to see the new hostname

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IX- set hosts file
it contains different host names to ip adresses

on docs we have
nano /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname
then save

for me I did:
127.0.0.1 localhost myHostname

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IX- set password
passwd => insert the new password

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X- install grub

grub is meant for allowing us access arch from Boot existing os
The GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) is the first program which starts when the program is switched on. The bootloader transfers the control to the operating system kernel.

pacman -S grub
grub-install /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

df -h => to see our disk how it looks like

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XI- Exit
now we can exit from chroot envirement
exit
umount /mnt/boot
umount /mnt
reboot

now we can access arch from Boot existing os

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XII - Logging
we boot from Boot existing os
we insert for login : root
for password: the password that we created

2_in_case_of_pb_after_installation.txt

back to Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
arch-chroot /mnt

make the fix you want

exit
umount /mnt/boot
umount /mnt
reboot

then Boot from existing os

3_enable_networking.txt

networking is not enabled (so ifconfig ping wont work) => we need to enable DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) precisely DHCP clinet which is for Arch it's dhcpcd.

note that Arch comes with systemd wich means we have systemctl command

ip addr => to see if we have a network interface

systemctl enable dhcpcd => to make this service start each time we reboot
systemctl start dhcpcd

this will enable our network interface and we ill have an IP to work with

to test if it works

ping google.com

4_add_mate_dm.txt

to get somthing graphical on our machine we need: desktop or display managers "dms" & desktop environement "des"
globaly we need:
- X server
- GPU driver
- Window Manager (Gnome, KDE, i3wm)
- Apps (terminal urxvt for example)
for our example we will install:
- 1st we need xorg-server: X server
Xorg is the X Window server which allows users to have a graphical environment at their fingertips. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting with a mouse and keyboard. The X.Org Server implements the server side of the X Window System core protocol 
- 2nd lxdm: display manager
LXDM is a lightweight display manager for the LXDE desktop environment. 
- 3rd mate is one of many desktop env like gnome, kde, kde/plasma, lxde, Xfce, nome
- 4th mate-extra

pacman -S xorg-server lxdm mate mate-extra
useradd -m -d /home/taha taha => we need a user with pwd beacause on arch we are root
passwd taha
systemctl enable lxdm
systemctl start lxdm => launch the display manager


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NOTE: to go back to arch terminal ctrl + F2 

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to let a user do root things
ctrl+F2
login
nano /etc/sudoers
taha ALL=(ALL) ALL

5_lxde_installation.txt

another example of installing dektop env.
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part 1: create a user acount

useradd -m -g users -s /bin/bash taha => creates a user called taha -s to use bash as defalut shell -m create /home/taha -g to add taha to group of users
passwd taha
visudo => to add taha to sudoers, when visudo opened scroll to root ALL=(ALL) ALL and insert taha ALL=(ALL) ALL

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part 2: install prerequisites (display server, graphics driver, display manager)

* display server is the link between software and hardware, it allows the computer to display images taht we want by configuring the graphic card to dispaly them on the monitor => the most popular display server is xorg
*find the appropriate gpu driver and install it, xf86-video-vesa is a standard of all gpu cards
*display manager is the login page, for each desktop env ther is a recomanded display manager like below in the list: 
KDE Plasma 5 - sddm
KDE4 - kdm*
GNOME - gdm
LXDE - lxdm
Universal Display manager - lgthdm, mdm-dispaly-manager, slim, xorg-xdm  

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit => the default package of xorg is xorg-server and the other are utilities that we may need later
pacman -S driver-of-my-gpu
pacman -S lxdm

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NOTE:
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To choose the right driver, first detect the graphics card. lspci can be used for this task:

lspci -v => all devices

or

root #lspci | grep -i VGA
This should show something like this:

root #lspci | grep -i VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)

the 3rd gen is an intel i915

Generation	Chipset	                                      OpenGL OpenGL-ES OpenCL VAAPI  Vulkan  VIDEO_CARDS
Gen 3	915G/GM, 945G/GM, G/Q33, Q35, Atom D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx	 1.4	 No	 No	 No    No   intel i915

so we will install for intel the driver xf86-video-intel

Note that generally for:
AMD -> xf86-video-amdgpu
NVIDIA -> xf86-video-nouveau
INTEL -> xf86-video-intel
xf86-video-vesa is a standard driver

pacman -S xf86-video-intel

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part 3: install the desktop environement

we are going to instal the group that contains the packages that we need for tha desktop environment
KDE Plasma 5 -> plasma
Cinnamon -> cinnamon
GNOME -> gnome
LXDE -> lxde or lxde-gtk3*
MATE -> lxde or mate-gtk3*
Xfce -> xfce4

pacman -S lxde

By default it only install the minimum of desktop env, and not many other apps that go with it, to do that we can install other packages that have a bundle of group of packages like
KDE Plasma 5 -> kade-applications
Cinnamon -> N/A (not applicable or available)
GNOME -> gnome-extra
LXDE ->  (not applicable or available)
MATE -> mate-extra
Xfce -> xfce4-goodies

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part 4: launch the display manager while booting

systemctl enable lxdm
systemctl start lxdm
reboot

virtualbox_installation.txt

when installing on virtualox we have to install Guest Additions, to be able to improve image resolution and better control of the mouse. :

- first way: from terminal 
pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils => for VirtualBox Guest utilities with X support, then choose for the default linux kernel choose virtualbox-guest-modules-arch and for non-default kernels choose virtualbox-guest-dkms
pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils-nox => for VirtualBox Guest utilities without X support
systemctl enable vboxservice
reboot

- second way: 
mount the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso on cdrom of virtualbox app
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt => this will mount the  cdrom
cd /mnt
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

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NOTE:
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we may need to have as graphical card VBoxVGA to be able to have full screen
so go to the virtualbox app => arch vdi setting => display => choose as graphics controller VBoxVGA