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 May 2024.

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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 plasma-wayland-session && 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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