Arch system installation
Arch is a great rolling distribution. It has very good information on most things we need.
Installation and usage
- Download the iso and write the iso to a bootable usb. If on a linux system use dd bs=1M if=pathtoiso of=/dev/sdb
- Boot into the arch system, if required, need to change the boot order
- You will land in the root terminal
- Exaclty follow the arch installation instructions: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide
- First biggest problem comes when you connect to network.
- If you are on lan, Arch linux always start DHCP. Sometimes, the DHCP server in your network may require the mac ID to give you an IP ( like that in IIT Kanpur). In such case open /etc/dhcpcd.conf and
comment out first line #Hostname and remove the comments on ClientID and DUID
- restart networking systemctl restart systemd-networkd
This should start the networking. try pinging archlinux.Copyright
- Either lan/wifi, if the link is down, then 'ip link set interface up' should be used. If still link is down, check the cables and see if the driver is installed.
- If you are on wifi, 'ip link set wlan0 up' should bring the interface up. Then you should use wifi-menu to join to a wifi network. DHCP is enabled by default. I actually found that directly running wifi-menu to work.
- See if ip address has been obtained, 'ip address' will give the address. If not, just set up an static ip and get on for now.
- If pingin archlinux.org doesnt work, then you need to: systemctl restart systemd-networkd systemctl restart systemd-resolved
- you will install the base-package using pacman if you follow the instructions. In addition also install NetworkManager, so that nextime when you boot, you will have networking. I also found connMan much better than NetworkManager for managing wifi. So just install that and use it manage the network.
- Also install some X manager: like Gnome/Kde before rebooting the system
- You also will need to install grub. Check if you are on EFI or normal boot. Check the internet and install the right one
The -u option is used to prevent upgradating in the destination a file with same name and the destination file was last modified.
FSTAB entry for mounting a windows file system
UUID=a-Z0-9 mount-point ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=022,fmask=133 0 0
uid=1000 mounts the file system as the main user. and dmask and fmask is used consider them as 777 - values. So, 022 will make the directors as 755, so every one as read and open directors. Owner can always do anything. this is the most ideal setting. Always follow this.!
Things to do behind a proxy
- In case your computer is behind a proxy, pacman in arch will not access the internet. So you add the proxy information in /etc/pacman.conf. Change the XferCommand as: XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl -x http://proxyname:port -L -C - -f -o %o %u
- In case the ntp doesnt connect behind a proxy. You need to use the right ntp server in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf. In the case of IITD, we have a dedicated ntp server which needs to be added as follows: NTP = ntp1.iitd.ac.in and the fallback FallbackNTP=ntp2.iitd.ac.in