Simple, modern and secure installation of Arch Linux with KDE Plasma.

This is my personal installation routine, which I continously expand and redefine.

This installation script aims for a simple (read minimal) Arch Linux installation, which is modern in the way that it uses UEFI, systemd-boot and Wayland, secure in the way that it uses full-disk encryption using LUKS as well as flexibility by using Btrfs subvolumes for the root and home partition.

Tested and working as of October 2024.

To automatically install Arch Linux, clone this repository:

$ pacman -Sy git
$ git clone https://gitlab.com/dataprolet/arch
$ cd arch
$ sh install.sh

Or as a one-liner:

# pacman -Sy git --noconfirm && git clone https://gitlab.com/dataprolet/arch && cd arch && sh install.sh

To switch from X11 to Wayland on an existing installation use the following command and reboot:

# pacman -S wayland xorg-xwayland && sed -i 's/plasma/plasmawayland/g' /etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf

There are now two additional versions of the script:

• install-lvm.sh - Installs using Ext4 and uses LVM for /root and /home.
• install-grub.sh - Installs using GRUB for legacy BIOS (and Btrfs).
• ìnstall-x11.sh- Installs using X11 (and systemd-boot/Btrfs).

All features:

• Prompt for all user input at the start (hostname, username, passwords).
• Partitions a primary and a boot partition.
• Encrypts the primary partition using LUKS.
• Creates Btrfs filesystems with zstd compression.
• Creates Btrfs volumes for /root and /home.
• Refreshes the latest mirror list.
• Installs a base system (base linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs nano networkmanager sudo).
• Installs very few additional packages (firefox konsole linux-zen)
• Installs a minimal KDE Plasma desktop environment (plasma-desktop, sddm, sdmd-kcm)
• Installs systemd-boot as a bootloader.
• Sets German keyboard layout and English locale.
• Enables SDDM auto-login to boot into Plasma after the first reboot.

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