At Devforth, we primarily use Dell XPS 15 laptops. Since several our developers prefer Arch Linux and we installed it occasionally, I decided to prepare a simplified & fast guide to install Arch Linux with minimal steps. The guide will work for most modern notebooks with enabled UEFI mode (Steps for legacy MBR mode would differ).

Our setup will include installation of KDE Desktop Environment.

1. Prepare

ISO file could be downloaded from official website, we used Torrent way to download. 

Write ISO file to flash drive. You can use UUI tool if you are on Windows or UNetbootin for Linux

2. Connect to Internet

Run iwctl tool to connect WiFi

iwctl

List adapters:

device list

For us it is generally called wlan0

Scan networks and connect to your's:

station wlan0 scan
station wlan0 get-networks

# here we connect to our WiFi network
station wlan0 connect devforth_5G

# exit to terminal
exit

Check internet:

ping 8.8.8.8

You should see a packets exchange.

Also enable automatic time sync

timedatectl set-ntp true

3. Partition disk partitions and format them

First check your disks and partitions list using:

lsblk

For empty fresh SSD NVMe M2 disk it looks like this:

NAME     MAJ:MIN   RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk

  Anyway even if you have some partitions, we will delete them and recreate partition table.

To work with partitions open gdisk:

gdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Delete all existing partitions:

Command (? for help): o

Confirm questions like a "Do you want to proceed?" with Y.

We have to create 2 partitions: EFI 512M and a root partition for rest of the space.

# type in gdisk
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):<keep empty, press ENTER>
First sector (34-20971486, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:<keep empty, press ENTER>
Last sector (2048-20971486, default = 20971486) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +512M
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): ef00

Then create root partition:

# type in gdisk
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):<keep empty, press ENTER>
First sector (34-20971486, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:<keep empty, press ENTER>
Last sector (2048-20971486, default = 20971486) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: <keep empty, press ENTER>
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): <keep empty, press ENTER>

Write changes:

Command (? for help): w

Now you should be returned to terminal. Check how partitions look now using

lsblk

Format created partitions:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1       # Format the EFI System Partition
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2          # Format the root partition

4. Mount partitions and install base packages

mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

Update the package index:

pacman -Syy

Install base packages:

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware

5. Mandatory system configs

Generate fstab

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot into a new system

arch-chroot /mnt

Set timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Sync system and hardware clocks:

hwclock --systohc

Install required packages:

pacman -S nano vim sudo networkmanager network-manager-applet grub mtools dosfstools git linux-headers bluez-utils bluez pulseaudio reflector xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs cups

Enable network manager:

systemctl enable NetworkManager

Config locale:

nano /etc/locale.gen

Save file using Ctrl+X.

Search for:

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Uncomment it and save file using Ctrl+X.

Generate locale:

locale-gen

Edit locale:

nano /etc/locale.conf

Write line:

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Save file using Ctrl+X.

Edit hostname:

nano /etc/hostname

Write the name of the host, which will be used to identify your pc in the network e.g. myhost, and save using Ctrl+X.

Edit hosts file:

nano /etc/hosts

Write next content:

127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	myhost.localdomain myhost

Save file.

6. Install Grub and bootloader

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
bootctl install

7. Create a user

Use your preferred username instead of username:

useradd -m -G wheel username
passwd username

Allow sudoers in system who belong to wheel group. Open visudo editor:

nano /etc/sudoers

Uncomment the line %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL by removing the # character and save file

8. Install KDE:

pacman -S plasma-meta kde-applications sddm

Enable loading of sddm on system load

systemctl enable sddm

9. Finalize and boot into system

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Don't forget to eject flash during reboot.

Useful links

  1. Arch quick installation gist from Mattias Lundberg. We did not use it as a base, but we see several exciting commands and aliases that you might find better.
  2. Official arch installation guide, pretty complex but sometimes it has a lot of details and explanations that will help you to understand Linux software world
#linux