24 KiB
24 KiB
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Guided installation
This is the default script the Arch Linux Archinstall package.
It will guide you through a very basic installation of Arch Linux.
Note
There are other scripts and they can be invoked by executing archinstall <script> (without .py). To see a complete list of scripts, see the source code directory examples/
- The installer has three pre-requisites:
- The latest version of Arch Linux ISO
- A physical or virtual machine to install on
- A working internet connection prior to running archinstall
Note
A basic understanding of machines, ISO-files and command line arguments are needed. Please read the official Arch Linux Wiki to learn more about your future operating system.
Warning
The installer will not configure WiFi before the installation begins. You need to read up on Arch Linux networking before you continue.
Running the guided installation
To start the installer, run the following in the latest Arch Linux ISO:
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.. code-block:: sh
archinstall --script guided
The --script guided argument is optional as it's the default behavior.
But this will use our most guided installation and if you skip all the option steps it will install a minimal Arch Linux experience.
Installing directly from a configuration file
The guided installation also supports installing with pre-configured answers to all the guided steps.
This can be a quick and convenient way to re-run one or several installations.
After each successful installation a pre-configured configuration will be found at /var/log/archinstall both on the live media and the installed system.
- There are three different configuration files, all of which are optional.
- --config that deals with the general configuration of language and which profiles to use.
- --creds which takes any superuser, user or root account data.
- --disk_layouts for defining the desired partition strategy on the selected "harddrives" in --config.
Note
You can always get the latest options with archinstall --dry-run, but edit the following json according to your needs. Save the configuration as a .json file. Archinstall can source it via a local or remote path (URL)
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.. code-block:: json
{
"audio": "pipewire",
"bootloader": "systemd-bootctl",
"custom-commands": [
"cd /home/devel; git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git",
"chown -R devel:devel /home/devel/paru",
"usermod -aG docker devel"
],
"filesystem": "btrfs",
"gfx_driver": "VMware / VirtualBox (open-source)",
"harddrives": [
"/dev/nvme0n1"
],
"swap": true,
"hostname": "development-box",
"kernels": [
"linux"
],
"keyboard-language": "us",
"mirror-region": "Worldwide",
"nic": {
"type": "NM"
},
"ntp": true,
"packages": ["docker", "git", "wget", "zsh"],
"profile": "gnome",
"services": ["docker"],
"sys-encoding": "utf-8",
"sys-language": "en_US",
"timezone": "US/Eastern",
}
To use it, assuming you put it on https://domain.lan/config.json:
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.. code-block:: sh
archinstall --config https://domain.lan/config.json
Options for --config
(To see which keys are required, scroll to the right in the above table.)
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Malformed table.
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Key | Values | Description | Required |
| | | | |
+======================+========================================================+=============================================================================================+===============================================+
| audio | pipewire/pulseaudio | Audioserver to be installed | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| bootloader | systemd-bootctl/grub-install | Bootloader to be installed *(grub being mandatory on BIOS machines)* | Yes |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| custom-commands | [ <command1>, <command2>, ...] | Custom commands to be run post install | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| gfx_driver | - "VMware / VirtualBox (open-source)" | Graphics Drivers to install | No |
| | - "Nvidia" | | |
| | - "Intel (open-source)" | | |
| | - "AMD / ATI (open-source)" | | |
| | - "All open-source (default)" | | |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| harddrives | [ <path of device>, <path of second device>, ... } | Multiple paths to block devices to be formatted | No[1] |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| hostname | any | Hostname of machine after installation. Default will be ``archinstall`` | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| kernels | [ "kernel1", "kernel2"] | List of kernels to install eg: linux, linux-lts, linux-zen etc | At least 1 |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| keyboard-layout | Any valid layout given by ``localectl list-keymaps`` | eg: ``us``, ``de`` or ``de-latin1`` etc. Defaults to ``us`` | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| mirror-region | | {"<Region Name>": { "Mirror URL": True/False}, ..} | | Defaults to automatic selection. | No |
| | | "Worldwide" or "Sweden" | | Either takes a dictionary structure of region and a given set of mirrors. | |
| | | | Or just a region and archinstall will source any mirrors for that region automatically | |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| nic | | { type: <ISO|NM|MANUAL> } | | Type must be one of ISO, NM, MANUAL. ISO will copy the configuration on the image, | No |
| | | | | NM configures NetworkManager and MANUAL allows to specify custom configuration | |
| | | { "iface": "eth0"} | | Only MANUAL: name of the interface | |
| | | { "dhcp": <boolean>} | | Only MANUAL: If set to true DHCP auto will be setup and all further configs ignored | |
| | | { "ip": <ip>} | | Only MANUAL: Ip address to set, is MANDATORY | |
| | | { "gateway": <ip>} | | Only MANUAL: Optional gateway | |
| | | { "dns": [<ip>]} | | Only MANUAL: Optional DNS servers | |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| ntp | <boolean> | Set to true to set-up ntp post install | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| packages | [ "package1", "package2", ..] | List of packages to install post-installation | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| profile | Name of the profile to install | Profiles are present in | No |
| | | `profiles/ <https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall/tree/master/profiles>`_, | |
| | | use the name of a profile to install it without the ``.py`` extension. | |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| services | [ "service1", "service2", ..] | Services to enable post-installation | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| sys-encoding | "utf-8" | Set to change system encoding post-install, ignored if --advanced flag is not passed | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| sys-language | "en_US" | Set to change system language post-install, ignored if --advanced flag is not passed | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| timezone | Timezone to configure in installation | Timezone eg: UTC, Asia/Kolkata etc. Defaults to UTC | No |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
Note
[1] If no entries are found in harddrives, archinstall guided installation will use whatever is mounted currently under /mnt/archinstall.
Options for --creds
Creds is a separate configuration file to separate normal options from more sensitive data like passwords.
Below is an example of how to set the root password and below that are description of other values that can be set.
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.. code-block:: json
{
"!root-password" : "SecretSanta2022"
}
| Key | Values | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| !encryption-password | any | Password to encrypt disk, not encrypted if password not provided | No |
| !root-password | any | The root account password | No |
| !users |
|
List of regular user credentials, see configuration for reference | No |
Note
[1] !users is optional only if !root-password was set. !users will be enforced otherwise and the minimum amount of users with sudo privileges required will be set to 1.
Options for --disk_layouts
Note
The layout of --disk_layouts is a bit complicated.
It's highly recommended that you generate it using --dry-run which will simulate an installation, without performing any damaging actions on your machine. (no formatting is done)
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.. code-block:: json
{
"/dev/loop0": {
"partitions": [
{
"boot": true,
"encrypted": false,
"filesystem": {
"format": "fat32"
},
"wipe": true,
"mountpoint": "/boot",
"size": "513MB",
"start": "5MB",
"type": "primary"
},
{
"btrfs": {
"subvolumes": {
"@.snapshots": "/.snapshots",
"@home": "/home",
"@log": "/var/log",
"@pkgs": "/var/cache/pacman/pkg"
}
},
"encrypted": true,
"filesystem": {
"format": "btrfs"
},
"wipe": true,
"mountpoint": "/",
"size": "100%",
"start": "518MB",
"type": "primary"
}
],
"wipe": true
}
}
The overall structure is that of { "blockdevice-path" : ...} followed by options for that blockdevice.
Each partition has it's own settings, and the formatting is executed in order (top to bottom in the above example).
Mountpoints is later mounted in order of path traversal, / before /home etc.
| Key | Values | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| filesystem | { "format": "ext4 / btrfs / fat32 etc." } | Filesystem for root and other partitions | Yes |
| boot | <bool> | Marks the partition as bootable | No |
| encrypted | <bool> | Mark the partition for encryption | No |
| mountpoint | /path | Relative to the inside of the installation, where should the partition be mounted | Yes |
| start | <size><B, MiB, GiB, %, etc> | The start position of the partition | Yes |
| type | primary | Only used if MBR and BIOS is used. Marks what kind of partition it is. | No |
| btrfs | { "subvolumes": {"subvolume": "mountpoint"}} | Support for btrfs subvolumes for a given partition | No |