Arch Linux: From Zero To Hero

UNIX is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity, Dennis Ritchie

That’s what makes Linux so good: you put in something, and that effort multiplies. It’s a positive feedback cycle, Linux Torvald.

Arch Linux is an independently developed, free and open-source, rolling release distribution. It is a minimalist, lightweight, and bleeding edge distribution that targets advanced users.

Installation

1. Calam-Arch-Installer is an easy way to install pure Arch Linux.  

   Download it and burn the image to a flash drive using Ventoy or balenaEtcher. Boot from the flash drive, then click on the Install Arch Linux icon.

   The installation process is quite simple: Language (American/British English), Region/Zone (e.g., Europe/Madrid), Keyboard Layout, and Partitions: Select storage device (the drive or partition where Linux will be installed, e.g., /dev/sda); Erase disk: this will delete all data currently present on the selected storage device; and Encrypt system (the drive will be encrypted).

   Package selection (e.g., Base-devel + Common packages; drivers and desktop environments -i3, Gnome, Kde-); Users (full name, user name/password, enable/disable Log in automatically without asking for the password). Then, tap on Next, and Install.

2. Arch Linux installer is a menu-driven, command line, Arch Linux installer. It is an easy way to install Arch and more importantly, it is an official script supported by Arch. Burn the Arch ISO and the archinstall package is part of it so can be run directly, just type: archinstall  

• Archinstall language: SET: English.
• Locales: Keyboard layout, set your preferred keyboard layout, e.g., SET: es; Locale language, e.g., SET: en_US; Locale encoding: SET: UTF-8.
• Bootloader: System-boot (default).

  Later on, sudo vim /boot/loader/loader.conf, timeout 0 (the system will boot directly into the default operating system without delay.)

• Unified Kernel Image: False.
• Mirror region. It is asking for the region to download packages from, e.g., SET: [‘Spain’].
• Drive. This is where you need to select the disk where you want to install Arch, e.g., /dev/nvme0n1p1  
• Disk layout. Select Wipe all selected drives and use a best-effort default partition layout (this is kind of automatically partitioning), then choose which filesystem your main partition should use, e.g., ext4. Would you like to create a separate partition for /home? Select yes (default).
• Encryption password: SET: None. If you are using this installation in a real machine, use disk encryption.
• Swap: SET: True.
• Hostname. It is asking you for a hostname, e.g., SET: myArch.
• Root password. You should set a strong password for the admin account. Keep it safe (use KeePass).
• User account. Create your user account, and you can also choose to allow this user to be a superuser. Besides, you can create additional users.
• Profile. What kind of installation you would like: desktop, minimal, server, or xorg. Choose desktop, then you will be asked to select your desired desktop environment: Awesome, i3-wm, Gnome, etc. Next, select i3-gaps/i3-wm and a graphic driver, e.g., Graphic drivers: Nvdia (propietary), Greeter: lighted-gtk-greeter.
• Audio. SET: pipewire. Decide whether you need to install the PipeWire or PulseAudio for audio support
• Kernel. SET: [`linux’]
• Additional packages. SET: [`vim’]. Add additional packages to be installed after the installation.
• Network configuration. Use Network Manager. It is a program for providing detection and configuration for systems to automatically connect to networks.
• Timezone. SET: Europe/Madrid.
• Automatic time sync (NTP). It synchronizes with NTP servers to set the time automatically, SET: TRUE.
• Additional repositories to enable. SET: [`multilib’].

The installer gives you the chance to save these configurations, which is helpful if you want to use the same configuration on other systems. Finally, it’s time to choose Install. Would you like to chroot into the newly created installation and perform post-installation configuration? Select no.

Postinstallation

• Update the system: sudo pacman -Syu

• Reflector is a Python script which can retrieve the latest mirror list from the Arch Linux Mirror Status page. It filters the most up-to-date mirrors, sorts them by speed, and overwrites the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist: sudo reflector –verbose –country ‘Spain’ –latest 5 –sort rate –save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

• Setting Pacman options:

1. sudo sed -i ‘/Color/s/^#//’ /etc/pacman.conf
2. sudo sed -i ‘/Color/a ILoveCandy’ /etc/pacman.conf
3. sudo sed -i “/[multilib]/,/Include/"’s/^#//’ /etc/pacman.conf
4. yay -S powerpill (Powerpill is a package manager wrapper for Pacman, designed to improve download speeds by using parallel and segmented downloads.)

• Some packages:

1. sudo pacman -Sy –noconfirm rsync bash-completion reflector neofetch zsh zsh-completions conky bat
2. sudo pacman -Sy –noconfirm alacritty nautilus cmatrix bat powerline cowsay zsh lolcat lsd. Notice: lolcat is a command-line utility used to output text with rainbow colors, e.g., echo “Hello, world!” | lolcat. lsd is a ls command with a lot of pretty colours and some other stuff to enrich and enhance the directory listing experience. Remember: ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
3. sudo pacman -Sy –noconfirm stow copyq man-db wget scrot cron clamav copyq exa feh openssh. scrot is a minimalist command-line screen capturing application, exa is a modern replacement for ls, feh is a lightweight image viewer aimed mainly at users of command line interfaces.
4. sudo pacman -Sy –noconfirm filezilla vlc barrier rofi keepassxc gnupg gparted unzip. GnuPG enables you to secure your files on Windows, macOS, and Linux using state of the art cryptography.
5. Fonts.

i3

i3 is a minimalist tiling manager that is primarily targeted at developers and advanced users.

When you log in for the first time, you are then prompted on whether to: auto-generate an i3 configuration file (~/.config/i3/config) or use the default configuration file. Press Enter to generate an i3 configuration file. Next, you need to define the i3 modifier key ($mod). You can use the Windows (Super) key or the Alt key. Press Enter to use the Windows key.

Open a terminal: $mod + ENTER. Open more than one terminal and you will notice that i3 automatically tiles them to occupy all available space. You may want to use Mod + v to split them vertically or Mod + h to split them horizontally. You can launch applications with dmenu: $mod + d. You could enter a fullscreen mode (on and off): $mod + f; close an application window with $mod + Shift + q; restart i3: $mod + Shift + r; exit i3: $mod + Shift + e; switch to workspace n: $mod + n; move focused windows to workspace n: $mod + Shift + n. More information: How to use Windows Managers (i3) and i3 - Reference Card