Arch linux installation guide (robust)

This guide is a convenient combination of Offical Arch Linux Installation Guide and Ermanno's amazing guide.

Important: This is an installation for a robust Archlinux system. For more intresting installation (Wayland, ZRAM, etc.), please refer to my Arch linux installation guide with the latest & greatest tools available (2021).

Minimal archlinux installation

1-10 steps

• BTRFS filesystem
• Pipewire

For full Desktop GUI

11 step

Minimal Desktop GUI installation (Xorg):

• i3-gaps (Window manager)

• lightdm (Login manager)

• picom (Window compositor)

• rofi (App Launcher)

• dunst (System notifications manager)

• lxappearance (Theme customization)

• python-pywal (Theme color generator)

• nitrogen (Wallpaper manager)

• pcmanfm-qt (File manager)

• pass (Password manager)

• kitty (Terminal emulator)

• neofetch (CLI to display system specs)

• polybar (Status bar)

• betterlockscreen (Lockscreen)

• timeshift (System backup & restore tool)

• firefox-developer-edition (Mozilla Firefox browser)

Installation

1. Boot from USB drive with Arch ISO

2. Prepare the disk (partitions) - using GPT device

# check the disks
lsblk

# partition the disk - create GPT Labels
gdisk /dev/***

# 1st Partition for EFI
# choose new GPT Label command:
o
# choose new command:
n
# choose default partition number
# choose default First Sector memory
# choose Last Sector memory:
+550M
# enter the EFI partition code:
ef00

# 2nd Partition for main SSD storage
# choose new command
n
# choose default partition number
# choose default First Sector memory
# choose Last Sector memory:
+2G
# enter the Linux swap partition code:
8200

# 3d Partition for main SSD storage
# choose new command
n
# choose default partition number
# choose default First Sector memory
# choose default Last Sector memory
# choose default partition type (Linux Filesystem)

# Choose "write" command to overwrite exiting partitions:
w

3. Format partitions (create filesystems)

# make fat32 filesystem for EFI
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/***p1

# make linux swap filesystem Swap
mkswap /dev/***p2
swapon /dev/***p2

# make butterFS filesystem for main storage
# -f if needed
mkfs.btrfs  /dev/***p3

3. ButterFS configuration

# mount main partition - root subvolume
mount  /dev/***p3 /mnt

cd /mnt
# make btrFS subvolume for root subvolume
btrfs subvolume create @
# make btrFS subvolume for home subvolume
btrfs subvolume create @home
# make btrFS subvolume for var subvolume
btrfs subvolume create @var

cd
# unmount main partition - root subvolume
umount /mnt

# mount root subvolume
mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache,discard=async,subvol=@ /dev/***p3 /mnt

# directories var, home & var
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mkdir /mnt/{home,var}

# mount home & var subvolumes
mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache,discard=async,subvol=@home /dev/***p3 /mnt/home

mount -o noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache,discard=async,subvol=@var /dev/***p3 /mnt/var

4. Mount EFI partition

mount /dev/***1 /mnt/boot/efi

5. Install the base linux packages

# for amd processor: amd-ucode instead of intel-ucode
pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware git vim intel-ucode btrfs-progs

6. Generate filesystem table

# -U : use UUIDs of block devices
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

7. Make new root directory with all mounts needed

# detach from main filesystem and process tree
arch-chroot /mnt

# check the fs & table
ls
cat /etc/fstab

8. Run base archlinux system intall script

# give exec permissions to script
git clone https://github.com/arcbjorn/arc-robust-arch-linux-installation-guide
cd arc-arch-linux-installation-guide
# don't forget to change username & password to yours :)
chmod +x base.sh

# run from root filesystem
cd /
./arc-robust-arch-linux-installation-guide/base.sh

# choose xdr-desktop-portal-gtk (to use with i3wm)

9. Check system init config

vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
# if butterFS used on 2 disks - put "btrfs" parameter in MODULES
# if amd or nvidia card is used - put "amdgpu" or "nvidia" parameters in MODULES accordingly

# if config was changed, recreate initramfs:
mkinitcpio -p linux

10. Finish base packages installation

exit
umount -a
reboot

11. Install Desktop GUI & tools

# copy the guide from root filesystem to home repository
cp -r /arc-robust-arch-linux-installation-guide .
cd /arc-robust-arch-linux-installation-guide

# give exec permissions to script
chmod +x i3wm.sh

# go back to home directory
cd ..
./arc-robust-arch-linux-installation-guide/sway.sh

reboot

Enjoy your fresh system :)