【Install Arch Linux】Step by Step Guide ▷ 2022

The initial release of Arch Linux it was made in the first quarter of the year 2002 and, during the following years, improvements have been made that have kept it as one of the safest, most stable and fastest systems currently available.

We must clarify that Arch Linux is not a distro for newbies, since some specific knowledge is required to carry out the installation on the computer. It is not one of the OS that you install and when finished you can use it with the rest of the applications. In this case, only the base system comes. The user you have to determine the configuration and tools to install.

In this course, we are going to teach you the requirements you need to install Arch Linux on your computer and, secondly, you will have a step-by-step explanation of how to install it without errors on your PC.

What are the requirements and features that my computer must have to install Arch Linux?

almost any computer will do to install this free distribution from its official website, which has a weight of 650MB.

The minimum requirements that must be met are the following:

• CPU with 32-bit or 64-bit architecture.
• 512 of RAM.
• at least 2GB of free space.
• Internet connection functional to download the packages.

Learn step by step how to install Arch Linux on your desktop or laptop without errors like an expert

Above we mentioned that to use this distribution, it is necessary to have some computer knowledge, since commands are required to get it installed perfectly. But don’t be discouraged We are going to teach you what the commands are and how to execute them.

By following the steps to the letter, it will be a little easier for you to install:

Download the image

Before going into installation details, it is necessary that from the official site of archlinux.org/ download, selecting one of the options offered. It is recommended that the image is “x86_64” because it is compatible for both 32 bits and 64 bits and in the ISO format, which you must save on a USB memory and from there you will run it later on the computer.

For you have to use a program that allows you to do it, some options are Unetbootin, Balena Etcher or any other similar program you have worked with.

The steps to burn the ISO image are as follows:

• We download the program etcher.

• We proceed to install it on the computer.
• After installation, we open the program and we select the ISO image, either from the computer or from a web link.
• Upon loading, the next step is activated which is move the image to the USB device.
• Once the device is installed, we indicate to the program what is the drive where you are going to record the picture.
• Touch the button “Flash” to start the process.
• A window appears to confirm the operation and we click on “To accept“.
• And ready, In a few minutes we will have the image ready.

Set the keyboard to your language

So that the installation is more comfortableyou can configure the keyboard to work in Spanish.

To do this, use the following command:

Then we will update the date and time so as not to have problems connecting.

We will do it with the following code:

Make partitions on the disk

Everyone determines how many partitions you want to make to the hard drive according to your needs.

To start this process, we must find in which sector we are going to install the distro using the following command:

Is required a partition for the root file, the same as for the rest of the mount points.

The commands to use for the partition are the following:

• Use the command fdisk /dev/sda for manage partitions.
• we type “n” for create a new partition.
• With “p” we choose the primary partition.
• we choose “1”, which is the first partition, we can resize it by default or leave it as it is.
• with the command “w” we will save the changes made.

This will be the partition that root will be mounted on. It is important that it is in the “EXT4” format because otherwise we will not be able to mount it.

To do the verification we enter this command:

Now we have to mount the partition, in this case we enter:

If we have made other partitions, we will use the command mount to mount them.

Arch Linux installation begins

With the above stepswe leave the computer ready for install operating system.

Now we do the following:

• We execute the command: pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware
• We install the text editor which is not included. To do this we type the following: pacstrap /mnt nano
• We continue creating a file fstab with the following command: genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
• We check that all drives go fine with this command: cat /mnt/etc/fstab
• If everything goes in order, the image will indicate that Arch Linux has the selected hard drive partitionbut some configurations are needed to start it normally from the computer.

first configurations

First, we will change the root directory or “chroot” so that the configurations are saved in the Arch Linux installed on the computer and not on the USB memory.

To do it correctly follow these steps:

• run arch-chroot /mnt
• Once inside the terminall, we set the time zone: ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/continent /city /etc/localtime
• To change the time and datewe insert this command: hwclock –systohc followed by nano /etc/hostname

Configure idiom

To set the language that will be used in the distro, we are going to generate the packages with this command:

Now we edit this code:

• nano /etc/hostname and then add LANG=es_ES.UTF-8

Next we change “/etc/locale.gen” with the following command:

With these steps, we complete the language format in the distro. We search the screen for the command that we have added and we remove the symbol “#” that appears to your left.

To check that everything is in order, we execute the command:

GRUB bootloader

In order for the new distribution installed on the computer to boot, a bootloader is needed. in our guide we are going to use GRUB and we will do it Manually used this command: pacstrap /mnt grub-bios. To configure it, it is necessary to enter the chroot. For it we type arch-chroot /mnt and proceed to configure.

Being inside chroot, we execute grub-install /dev/sda. In seconds it will be installed and we will have to generate a new file that will tell Arch Linux to appear at boot.

We do it with this command:

• grub-mkconfig –o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

set password

With all the process we have done, the distro is almost ready to use.

We only need to configure a user password and we will do it with this command: “passwd”:

• we left chroot using the function “exit”we remove the USB drive and restart the computer.
• When turning on, We will observe in the GRUB boot screen showing boot option ArchLinux.
• We select that option and cWe will place the user “root” and the password we set earlier.

enable features

Default, the network is not enabled and it is one of the steps that we must leave configured in the first boot.

We do it with this command:

• systemctl enable dhcpcd@eth0.service
• Now it’s time create a new user: adduser.

Y we will have to choose the groups to which we want to belongwhich are the installation permits for audio, video, printers, games, scanners and storage, among others.

After we give the permissions, we reboot again and the system will show complete. Remember that the rest of the configurations depend on the needs you have and the use that you are going to give to the system. In this case we are talking about the graphical environment and the application packages for Arch Linux. Installation is a process that seems complicated, but Doing it calmly, the objectives set are achieved.