archinstall

Just a bare bone automated Arch install with network deployment instructions based on MAC-address.

Pre-built ISO's can be found here: https://hvornum.se/archiso/

Autorun on Arch Live CD (Unattended install)

# cd ~/archlive
# echo -e "git\npython-psutil" >> packages.both
# cat <<EOF >> ./airootfs/root/customize_airootfs.sh
cd /root
git clone https://github.com/Torxed/archinstall.git
chmod +x ~/archinstall/archinstall.py
EOF
# mkdir ./airootfs/etc/skel
# echo '[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && sh -c "~/archinstall/archinstall.py"' >> ./airootfs/etc/skel/.zprofile

# rm -v work*; ./build.sh -v

Note: ~/archlive might be different on your system, see ArchISO#Setup for more info.

Whenever this live-cd boots, from here on now - it'll run archinstall.py and attempt to unattendely install a default Arch Linux base OS with base base-devel as packages. Or - if successfull - a profile was found at /deployments for the machine being installed (MAC-address based lookup).

CAUTION: If no parameters are given, it will devour the first disk in your system (/dev/sda, /dev/nvme0n1 etc).

Autorun on Arch Live CD (User specified profile)

Everything in the steps above are the same, except for one line that needs to change:

# echo '[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && sh -c "~/archinstall/archinstall.py --no-default"' >> ./airootfs/etc/skel/.zprofile

This will cause the script to halt and ask for a profile to install before proceeding. When asked, enter workstation for instance - to install based on the workstation template.

CAUTION: Even if --no-default is given, if a MAC-address matches under /deployments, that profile will forcefully be installed.

Autorun on Arch Live CD (With custom webserver for deployment profiles)

Again, one line differs from the unattended install, change the following line:

# echo '[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && sh -c "~/archinstall/archinstall.py --profiles-path=http://example.com/profiles"' >> ./airootfs/etc/skel/.zprofile

This will cause the script to look at http://example.com/profiles/<mac>.json for instructions.

Manually run it on a booted Live CD

# wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Torxed/archinstall/master/archinstall.py
# python3 archinstall.py

Rerunning a installation

# umount -R /mnt; cryptsetup close /dev/mapper/luksdev
# python3 ./archinstall/archinstall.py

Note: This assumes --post=stay is set to avoid instant reboot at the end or if during any time a user pressed Ctrl-C and aborted the installation.

Some parameters you can give it

--drive=</dev/sdX>
  Which drive to install arch on, if absent, the first disk under /dev/ is used

--size=100% (Default)
  Sets the size of the root filesystem (btrfs)

--start=513MiB (Default)
  Sets the starting location of the root partition
  (TODO: /boot will take up space from 1MiB - <start>, make sure boot is no larger than 513MiB)

--password=0000 (Default)
  Which disk password to use, --password="<STDIN>" for prompt of password.

--pwfile=/tmp/diskpw (Default)
  Which file to store the disk encryption password while sending it to cryptsetup

--hostname=Arcinstall (Default)
  Sets the hostname of the box

--country=SE (Default)
  Default mirror allocation for fetching packages.

--packages='' (Default)
  Which additional packages to install, defaults to none.
  (Space separated as it's passed unchanged to `pacstrap`

--user=<name>
  Adds an additional username to the system (default group Wheel)

--post=reboot (Default)
  After a successful install, reboots into the system. Use --post=stay to not reboot.

--no-default
  This parameter causes the installation script to halt if no MAC-based profile was found under /deployments

--profiles-path=https://example.com/profiles
  Changes the default path the script looks for deployment profiles.
  The default path is 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Torxed/archinstall/master/deployments'

Deployment profile structs support all the above parameters and more, for instance, custom arguments with string formatting. See deployments/workstation.json for examples.

End note