DISCLAIMER

This guide is ONLY for EFI systems. Although a large part of the process is the same.
I am not responsible for any damages, loss of data, system corruption, or any other mishap you may somehow cause by following this guide.

This is mainly a step-by-step reminder/log for myself of how I installed Arch on my laptop. I am putting this out there in case it is useful for someone else, it is not intended to be an official guide. As a result, you may find that this guide is very tedious or lists a lot of unnecessary/intuitive steps or just straight up does things in a way that is considered bad practice. Apart from the latter, this is intentional.

I will try, but I cannot promise that I will keep this guide up-to-date with the the Arch Wiki. If you are reading this a couple of months down the line and I have not updated it in a while, you might will want to check with/refer to the Arch Wiki either completely or at least in parallel to this guide as settings/commands/recommendations might have changed.

Why should I even install Arch manually when archinstall is a thing?

I'll admit that the idea of a competent install script for Arch sounds very tempting, archinstall is not that(yet). Aside from very few options to work with, very poor default partitioning options and just generally frequent crashes when you even try to do something that is remotely hacky makes it a very bad option as of now. Hopefully it improves but for now manual is the way.

Preinstallation

BIOS update

Make sure that the latest BIOS update is installed. You can usually find this on your laptop/motherboard manufacturer's website.

BIOS settings

Make sure you have Secure Boot disabled and Virtualisation(If you plan on running VMs) enabled.
They should be pretty easy to find. You can always Google where it is on your specific machine but it's usually in a somewhat relevant category like Security.
On my test rig(ThinkPad T460) it can be found under:

• Security > Secure Boot > Secure Boot > Disabled
• Security > Virtualization > Intel (R) Virtualization Technology > Enabled

Create the Arch installer USB

Download the ISO file and flash it on to a USB stick or any other bootable medium(Using something like Balena Etcher) For more information you can refer to the ArchWiki here

Main installation

Boot from the Arch install USB

Interrupt the boot sequence(usually you just need to press the Esc, F10, or Enter key and navigate to the appropriate option) and boot into the USB we just flashed.

Connect to the internet

An internet connection is required for installation. Plug in an ethernet cable(or connect to your WiFi using the iwd refer to the ArchWiki) and make sure you are connected to the internet:

ping google.com

Update the system clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

Partition the disks

Note: If you are installing Arch on an NVME drive you might see that your partitions are named like nvme0nX instead of sdaX.

Use cfdisk to make your partitions. You will need an EFI partition at the start of your disk(sda1) of at least 500Mb. Set its type as ESP.
Allocate the rest of the drive to your root partition(I know, I know seperate home drive but it isn't required to have a functional machine). Set it to primary and ext4 and select write to write changes to the drive(Don't forget to mark it with the boot flag!). Now select quit.

Format the boot partition

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

Format the root partition

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

Mount the file systems

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

Install the base packages

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware nano networkmanager

Fstab

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

Note: Check the resulting file in `/mnt/etc/fstab` and make sure it covers boot and root.

Chroot

arch-chroot /mnt

Time zone

Note: Change the location as per your needs.

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Locale

Uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen, then

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

Hostname

Note: Change the hostname(Zensho in my case) to suit your needs

echo Zensho > /etc/hostname

In /etc/hosts, add:

127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	Zensho.localdomain Zensho

Root password

passwd

Configure mkinitcpio and create the initramfs image

In /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, the hooks must be:

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt filesystems fsck)

Then run

mkinitcpio -P

Boot loader and Intel microcode

Install and configure GRUB:

pacman -S grub efibootmgr

Add Microcode:
pacman -S intel-ucode(only for Intel devices)
pacman -S amd-ucode(only for AMD devices)

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

Add user

Note: Replace the user name(In my case kami) with whatever you want

useradd -m kami
passwd kami

Add kami to sudoers:

pacman -S vim
visudo

1. Go to the line starting with "root".
2. Press Y twice to yank it.
3. Go to the next line and press P to paste it.
4. Use X to delete "root" from that line.
5. Press I to enter insert mode, and replace the deleted "root" by "kami".
6. Press Esc, then type ":wq", then press Enter.

Reboot

exit
umount -R /mnt
shutdown now

Remove the Arch installer USB and power the computer back on.

Internet

Find the wireless interface name (e.g., wlp4s0):

ip link

Enable the wireless interface:

sudo ip link set wlp4s0 up

NetworkManager will be used to manage connections:

sudo pacman -S networkmanager
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service
sudo systemctl mask systemd-resolved.service

Remove the /etc/resolv.conf file (if it exists), then:

sudo echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf

In /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, under the [main] section (create it if it does not exist) add:

dns=none

yay

Install yay, an AUR helper:

cd ~
sudo pacman -S --asdeps go
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si
cd ..
rm -rf yay

Fonts

To cover most characters:

sudo pacman -S noto-fonts noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-extra ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation

Note: noto-fonts-emoji is not part of the installation.

Sound

sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa

Touchpad

sudo pacman -S xf86-input-libinput

Note: Put the backup file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-touchpad.conf

Man pages

sudo pacman -S man-db man-pages

X

Basic X packages:

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-xrdb

Desktop Enviroment(KDE Plasma)

sudo pacman -S plasma-meta

Note: Feel free to install any other DE(Like GNOME, i3, Xfce ,etc)

Post-installation

Firefox(or LibreWolf)

sudo pacman -S firefox

TLP(Desktop users can skip this)

sudo pacman -S tlp
sudo pacman -S --asdeps acpi_call ethtool smartmontools x86_energy_perf_policy
sudo systemctl enable tlp.service
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service
sudo systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket

Okular(or Zathura)

sudo pacman -S okular

If prompted, choose phonon-qt5-vlc.

htop

sudo pacman -S htop

LibreOffice

sudo pacman -S libreoffice-still

SSH

sudo pacman -S openssh sshpass

VLC(or mpv)

sudo pacman -S vlc

Pacman User Guide for Dummies

Installing packages:

sudo pacman -S [packages]

Updating packages:

sudo pacman -Syu

Removing and purging packages:

sudo pacman -Rns [packages]

Displaying a list of unused packages (orphans):

pacman -Qtdq

Removing unused packages (orphans):

sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq)

yay

Updating packages:

yay -Syu --devel

Misc.

Cannot write on external hard drive: https://askubuntu.com/a/172671

Post Notes

Disclaimers(Yes again)

Since this guide was written with the intent to act as a general guide I will not be covering many things. However all of these should be very easy to do on your own and if you're ever lost refer to ArchWiki, it has the answer to everything you're looking for.This includes:

• Fingerprint scanners
• Facial Identification
• Graphics Drivers
• The answer to life, the universe and everything
• Workarounds and fixes for niche problems that you may run into for your specific system.
  

Credits

This guide was based on @PhilippeOlivier guide for installing Arch on a ThinkPad, If you use a ThinkPad I suggest you use his guide instead considering it is tailormade for it. Also thanks to @CodingCellist whose disclaimer I shamelessly stole.

P.S.
If for some unknown reason my English teacher is reading this I just want to say that I'm sorry.