Minimal basic installation of an x86_64 machine

This page describes how to install a fresh and minimal Arch Linux system for x86_64 machines on a single drive (SSD or HDD).

This installation method has the least amount of dependencies by using systemd-boot as UEFI boot manager and ext4 as file system for the root partition.

Only an EFI configuration is supported.

You can check in which mode you’ve booted: If the folder /sys/firmware/efi exists, the kernel has booted in EFI mode, else it’s booted in BIOS mode.

Download the most recent iso

Go to https://www.archlinux.org/download/ and download the most recent iso file

Write the iso file to a USB stick

You can use lsblk -f to determine the drive to write the iso file to. When the drive is determined as i.e. /dev/sdX do:

dd if=<isofile> of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

… boot the device from the USB stick

Determine and define the drive to install on

You can use lsblk -f to determine the drive to install to. When the drive is determined as i.e. /dev/sdX do:

export DRIVE=/dev/sdX # or i.e. /dev/mmcblk0 for eMMC devices
BOOT=${DRIVE}1 # or ${DRIVE}p1 for eMMC devices
ROOT=${DRIVE}2 # or ${DRIVE}p2 for eMMC devices

Partitioning

Call:

gdisk $DRIVE

… and configure as follows:

1. o
   1. Y
2. n
   1. default
   2. 4M
   3. +124M
   4. ef00
3. n
   1. all defaults
4. w
   1. Y

Preparing filesystems

Format & Mount Root partition

mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT $ROOT
mount -o noatime $ROOT /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot

Format & Mount Boot partition

mkfs.fat -F32 $BOOT
mount -o noatime $BOOT /mnt/boot

Creating minimal environment

pacstrap -c /mnt base linux
genfstab -Up /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Initialize bootloader configuration in Bootstrap environment

Install bootloader

bootctl install --path=/mnt/boot

Initialize bootloader configuration

tee /mnt/boot/loader/loader.conf <<EOF
default        arch
EOF
tee /mnt/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf <<EOF
title          Arch Linux
linux          /vmlinuz-linux
initrd         /initramfs-linux.img
options        root=LABEL=ROOT rootfstype=ext4 rw init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd
EOF

Finalize

reboot

For configuration of installation essentials, please see Installation Essentials