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arch-install-virtualbox.md

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Install Arch Linux

This guide is for installing Arch Linux as a VirtualBox guest using UEFI, grub bootloader, and Plasma (KDE 5) desktop

These instructions are collated from the following sources:

Other usefull guides:

Unless othewise noted, text sections enclosed in tags (e.g. <hostname>) should be replaced

Pre-Install

  • Configure VirtualBox to use UEFI:
    • Go into motherboard settings and check Enable EFI
  • Start VM

Check internet connection

dhcpcd
ping -c 3 www.google.com

Setup Disk

Partition Disk

lsblk
cfdisk /dev/sda
  • select gpt
  • create 512M EFI System type partion as sda1
    • Can this be smaller if needed, 200M maybe?
  • create larger Linux Filesystem type partion as sda2
  • write and quit

Disk Usage After Basic Install

This is an example based on a 16GB Virtual HDD

Partition Used Size %age
sda1 42M 512M 9%
sda2 3.2G 16G 22%

Format partitions

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

Mount main and EFI partitions

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Prepare mirror list

Sync package databases

pacman -Sy

Sort mirror list

pacman -S reflector
reflector --verbose --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

This sorts the mirrorlist in order of download rate (fastest first)

Configure Arch

Install Arch base packages

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel

Configure FSTAB

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

-U means use UUIDs instead of partition labels

Change Arch Root

arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Use the bash shell Exit back to previous session using exit command

Configure Localizations

nano /etc/locale.gem
    # Uncomment 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8' line
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Set System Time

Use tzselect to find correct timezone if necessary

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/<region>/<zone> /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utc
    # Sets hardware clock to UTC

Configure Network

echo <hostname> > /etc/hostname
systemctl enable dhcpcd

Advance Networking (not required)

  • List interface devices ip link
  • Make note of ethernet interface e.g. enp0s3
  • Copy netctl profile cp /etc/netctl/examples/ethernet-dhcp /etc/netctl/enp0s3-dhcp
  • Set internet interface above in profile vim /etc/netctl/enp0s3-dhcp

Set Root Password

passwd

Setup Bootloader

Install Packages and Add GRUB Entry

packman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober
    # os-prober is for multi-boot
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=arch_grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Note that this only works if the ESP (EFI System Partition) is mounted at /boot as per instructions above

Configure Bootloader for VirtualBox

mkdir /boot/EFI/boot
cp /boot/EFI/arch_grub/grubx64.efi /boot/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

Reboot Into New Arch Install

exit
umount -R /mnt
shutdown now
  • Remove ISO from virtual CD drive
  • Start VM

Post Install

Enable 64 bit Pacman Repo (multilib)

nano /etc/pacman.conf
    # Uncomment the '[multilib]' line and the 'Include' line below it
pacman -Sy

Install Packages

pacman -S sudo bash-completion vim

Create New User

useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash <username>
passwd <username>
EDITOR=nano visudo
    # Uncomment the '%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' line

Install VirtualBox Guest Additions

pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils

When prompted choose: * virtualbox-guest-modules-arch * mesa-libgl * default option

Install Plasma

Install display Server

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils

Install Plasma Packages

pacman -S plasma sddm sddm-kcm
  • sddm = Simple Desktop Display Manager
  • sddm-kcm enables management of SDDM through System Settings

Configure SDDM

nano /etc/sddm.conf

Ensure the Theme section has the following settings

[Theme]
Current=breeze
CursorTheme=breeze_cursors
FacesDir=/usr/share/sddm/faces
ThemeDir=/usr/share/sddm/themes

systemctl enable sddm

Install Basic Apps

pacman -S dolphin konsole ttf-{dejavu,liberation}

Reboot

reboot