Arch-Linux-Installer/install.md

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

If you won't run into any issues, this should take you under an hour from nothing to a graphical interface. Good luck!

Load the preferred keyboard. In my case it's "de" for Germany.
$ loadkeys de

List devices to make sure you partition the right device.
$ lsblk

Partition the device using gdisk (assuming /dev/sda).
$ gdisk /dev/sda

Create GPT and EFI-partion.
Creates new GPT-partition table.
$ o
Create LVM logical volumes for /root and /home.
Your root volume should be 25-50 GB big, your home volume takes up the remaining space.
$ lvcreate -L 25G -n root main
$ lvcreate -l 100%FREE -n home main

Create the filesystems and mount your volumes.
$ mkfs.fat -F 32 -n UEFI /dev/sda1
-F specifies the type of file allocation tables used (12, 16 or 32 bit).
-n sets the volume name (label) of the filesystem to "UEFI".

Create ext4 filesystem on root and home volumes.
$ mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/mapper/main-root
$ mkfs.ext4 -L home /dev/mapper/main-home

Create mountpoints and mount partitions.
$ mount /dev/mapper/main-root /mnt
$ mkdir /mnt/boot
$ mkdir /mnt/home
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
$ mount /dev/mapper/main-home /mnt/home

Optionally update mirrorlist using reflector.
In this case use the latest 10 mirrors from Germany, that have been synchronized within the last 24 hours and sort the by download-rate and write them to the pacman mirrorlist.
$ reflector --verbose --latest 10 --country Germany --age 24 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install base system and basic packages (network, editor, sudo).
The package base-devel is not necessary but recommended.
$ pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware networkmanager nano sudo lvm2

Optional: install all basic packages for KDE Plasma:
$ pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-zen linux-firmware networkmanager nano sudo lvm2 sddm sddm-kcm plasma-desktop konsole firefox

Generate fstab.
$ genfstab -Up /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
-U = Use UUID for source identifiers.
-p = Exclude pseudofs mounts (default behavior).

Chroot into your installation.
$ arch-chroot /mnt

Set your hostname.
$ echo $host > /etc/hostname

Generate locale.gen for your preferred language (and preferribly english).
$ nano /etc/locale.gen
Uncomment your language, e.g. de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8 (and en_US.UTF-8).

Generate the locale.
$ locale-gen
The uncommented languages should appear followed by "done".

echo KEYMAP=de-latin1 > /etc/vconsole.conf
echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

Add necessary HOOKS and MODULES.
$ nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

MODULES=(ext4)  
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block keyboard keymap encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck shutdown)

Create mkinitcpio.
$ mkinitcpio -p linux-zen

Enable NetworkManager and SDDM to start on next boot.
$ systemctl enable NetworkManager sddm

Set a root-password.
$ passwd

Install systemd-boot bootloader.
$ bootctl install

Create the bootloader config.
$ nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

Add the following:

title    Arch Linux
linux    /vmlinuz-linux-zen
initrd   /initramfs-linux-zen.img
options   cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:main root=/dev/mapper/main-root rw  
options   init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd  
options   lang=de locale=de_DE.UTF-8  

Create a fallback config.
$ cp /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf /boot/loader/entries/arch-fallback.conf

Edit the fallback config.
$ nano /boot/loader/entries/arch-fallback.conf

Change it to the following:

title    Arch Linux Fallback
linux    /vmlinuz-linux
initrd   /initramfs-linux-fallback.img

Edit loader config.
$ nano /boot/loader/loader.conf

Change it to the following:

timeout 1
default arch.conf

Set your keyboard to your language.
$ localectl --no-convert set-keymap de-latin1-nodeadkeys

Create a user with a /home-directory.
$ useradd -m $myusername

Set password for your user.
$ passwd $myusername

Add $myusername to group wheel for sudo access.
$ gpasswd -a $myusername wheel

Edit sudoers-file for sudo access.
$ nano /etc/sudoers

Uncomment „%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL“.
Don't forget to also delete the space between the # and %wheel.

Since it's an encrypted single-user system, we don't need a login screen after boot.
Create the following directory and config-file for sddm:

$ mkdir /etc/sddm.conf.d $ nano /etc/sddm.conf.d/autologin.conf

[Autologin]
User=john
Session=plasma

Exit and reboot.
$ exit
$ umount /mnt/boot
$ umount /mnt/home
$ reboot

Now you are logged in to your Plasma desktop environment and ready to configure and use your Arch Linux.