Arch Linux on laptop

Installation guide for Arch Linux on a modern laptop (EFI). Basic installation part should work with almost any laptop (you may encounter problems with wifi though). Advanced part is mostly optimized for ASUS UX32L.

Basic installation

Connect to the Internet and set correct time

First of all we need to set up connection to the Internet and set the right time:

# wifi-menu
# timedatectl set-ntp true

Partitioning and formatting disk

This example shows how to create two partitions using 'parted': one 512Mb for EFI and one other using 100% of remaining space:

# parted /dev/sdx
(parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB
(parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 513MiB 100%

Once the partitions have been created, each must be formatted with an appropriate file system:

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdxY
# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdxY

Now mount partitions:

# mount /dev/sdxY /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sdxY /mnt/boot

Install the base packages

Note: you may want to set SigLevel = Never in /etc/pacman.conf to avoid key issues while installing base packages. Clearly it's not the best solution but I haven't found a better one yet:

# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel

Generate fstab

Generate an fstab file. The -U option indicates UUIDs, labels can be used instead through the -L option:

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

Change root

Chroot to the new system in /mnt:

# arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Setting locales

Uncomment needed localisations (en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8) in /etc/locale.gen, generate the new locales:

# locale-gen

Create new /etc/locale.conf file:

# echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

Time

Create the symbolic link /etc/localtime:

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Moscow /etc/localtime

It is recommended to adjust the time skew, and set the time standard to UTC:

# hwclock --systohc --utc

Initramfs

Generate the initramfs image:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

Install a boot loader

First, install intel-ucode package:

# pacman -S intel-ucode

Install systemd-boot to the EFI system partition:

# bootctl install

When successful, create a boot entry in /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf:

title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /intel-ucode.img
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=XXXX rw

Where XXXX is PARTUUID of your ext4 partition. You can get one with this command:

# ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid/ | grep sdxY | cut -d ' ' -f9

Hostname

Set the hostname to your liking:

# echo "deepthought" > /etc/hostname

Wireless

Install iw, wpa_supplicant, and (for wifi-menu) dialog:

# pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant dialog

Root

Set root password with:

# passwd

User

Create user profile:

# useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash myusername
# passwd myusername

Sudo without password

So you don't have to enter password every fucking time:

# echo "%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/10-grant-nopasswd-sudo

Here the basic installation comes to an end.

Advanced installation

Configuring wifi

You don't want to use wifi-menu every time, right? Let's automate this process. First, install wpa_actiond package:

# pacman -S wpa_actiond

Then start and enable the service:

# systemctl start netctl-auto@interface.service
# systemctl enable netctl-auto@interface.service

Install yaourt

You will need this to install packages from AUR. First, install git:

# pacman -S git

Then install package-query and yaourt packages:

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/package-query.git
$ cd package-query
$ makepkg -si
$ cd ..
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yaourt.git
$ cd yaourt
$ makepkg -si
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf package-query/ yaourt/

Graphics drivers

Download nvidia drivers:

# pacman -S nvidia

Install bumblebee:

# pacman -S bumblebee

In order to use Bumblebee, it is necessary to add your regular user to the bumblebee group:

# gpasswd -a username bumblebee

Enable bumblebeed service and reboot:

# systemctl enable bumblebeed.service
# reboot

Xorg

First, install xorg-server and xorg-xinit:

# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit

Dotfiles

Install dotfiles from pinguinson/dotfiles-mba, then install few packages:

$ yaourt -S bspwm sxhkd compton-git lemonbar-xft-git ttf-ubuntu-font-family xorg-xrdb xorg-xsetroot rxvt-unicode-patched zsh prezto-git

Then switch to zsh:

$ chsh -s /bin/zsh

Fonts

Install infinality. First, add two repositories to /etc/pacman.conf:

[infinality-bundle]
Server = http://bohoomil.com/repo/$arch
SigLevel = Never

[infinality-bundle-fonts]
Server = http://bohoomil.com/repo/fonts
SigLevel = Never

Then install meta-packages:

# pacman -S ibfonts-meta-base infinality-bundle

Install few fonts:

$ yaourt -S ttf-monaco ttf-ubuntu-font-family

Appearance

Install few packages:

$ yaourt -S lxappearance gtk-theme-arc-git vertex-icons-git xcursor-human

Then set themes in LXAppearance app.

Touchpad

Install Synaptics driver:

# pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

Create a file with synaptics config:

# sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf

This basic configuration is quite enough for start:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Option "TapButton1" "1"
        Option "TapButton2" "2"
        Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "35"
        Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "8"
        Option "TapButton3" "3"
        Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
        Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
        Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
        Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"
        Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
        Option "HorizScrollDelta" "100"
        Option "CoastingSpeed" "8"
        Option "CornerCoasting" "1"
        Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
        Option "CircScrollTrigger" "7"
EndSection

But if you want to have more options, you can find the full description in manual:

# man 4 synaptics