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Inside the ISO ​

1. Load Keyboard Layout (Default: usa) ​

TIP

If your keyboard layout isn’t USA, use loadkeys to switch it. For example, German keyboards use de-latin1.

sh
loadkeys de-latin1

2. List Your Drives ​

INFO

To see all connected drives (like hard drives or USB), run:

sh
lsblk

3. Wipe the Target Drive ​

WARNING

This erases all data on the drive. Back up anything important first.

For NVMe drives: ​

bash
gdisk /dev/nvme0n1

For SATA or HDD drives: ​

bash
gdisk /dev/sda1

Steps:

  1. Press x for expert mode.
  2. Press z to wipe the drive, confirming with y.

4. Create Partitions ​

INFO

Use cfdisk for an easy partition editor. Navigate with arrow keys and create partitions.

bash
cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Create these partitions:

  • Boot Partition: 1 GiB (EFI)
  • Swap Partition: 4 GiB
  • System Partition: Remaining space

Example layout:

p1 = 1GiB, EFI
p2 = 4GiB, Linux Swap
p3 = Remaining, Linux Filesystem

5. Format the Partitions ​

Format Boot Partition (FAT32): ​

bash
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/nvme0n1p1

Set Up Swap Partition: ​

bash
mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p2
swapon /dev/nvme0n1p2

Format System Partition (EXT4): ​

bash
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p3

6. Mount Your Partitions ​

Mount System Partition: ​

bash
mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt

Mount Boot Partition: ​

bash
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

7. Install Arch Linux ​

INFO

Install the essential system packages:

bash
pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux-zen linux-zen-headers linux-firmware sof-firmware nano networkmanager grub efibootmgr intel-ucode bash-completion

8. Generate the fstab File ​

INFO

Generate the fstab file, which tells the system which partitions to mount on boot.

bash
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

9. Enter the New System Environment ​

INFO

Change the root directory to your new installation for further setup:

bash
arch-chroot /mnt