Beginners' Guide - ArchWiki

Summary

Provides a highlydetailed, explanatoryguide to installing,configuring and using afull-featured Arch Linuxsystem.

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General Troubleshooting

Beginners' GuideFrom ArchWikiRevision as of 17:45, 27 June 2013 by Lonaowna (Talk | contribs)

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Tip: This guide is also available in multiple pages rather than one large copy. If you would rather read it thatway, please start here.

This document will guide you through the process of installing Arch Linux usingthe Arch Install Scripts (https://github.com/falconindy/arch-install-scripts) . Beforeinstalling, you are advised to skim over the FAQ.

The community-maintained ArchWiki is the primary resource that should beconsulted if issues arise. The IRC Channel (irc://irc.freenode.net/#archlinux) andthe forums (https://bbs.archlinux.org/) are also excellent resources if an answercannot be found elsewhere. In accordance with the Arch Way, you are encouragedto type man command to read the man page of any command you are unfamiliarwith.

Contents

1 Preparation1.1 System requirements1.2 Burn or write the latest installation medium

1.2.1 Installing over the network1.2.2 Installing on a virtual machine

1.3 Boot the installation medium1.3.1 Testing if you are booted into UEFI mode1.3.2 Troubleshooting boot problems

2 Installation2.1 Change the language2.2 Establish an internet connection

2.2.1 Wired2.2.2 Wireless2.2.3 Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL2.2.4 Behind a proxy server

2.3 Prepare the storage drive2.3.1 Choose a partition table type2.3.2 Partitioning tool2.3.3 Partition scheme2.3.4 Considerations for dualbooting with windows2.3.5 Example

2.3.5.1 Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions2.3.5.2 Using fdisk to create MBR partitions

Beginners' Guide - ArchWiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Beginners'_Guide&oldid=264494

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2.3.6 Create filesystems2.4 Mount the partitions2.5 Select a mirror2.6 Install the base system2.7 Generate an fstab2.8 Chroot and configure the base system

2.8.1 Locale2.8.2 Console font and keymap2.8.3 Time zone2.8.4 Hardware clock2.8.5 Kernel modules2.8.6 Hostname

2.9 Configure the network2.9.1 Wired

2.9.1.1 Dynamic IP2.9.1.2 Static IP

2.9.2 Wireless2.9.2.1 Adding wireless networks2.9.2.2 Connect automatically to known networks

2.9.3 Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL2.10 Create an initial ramdisk environment2.11 Set the root password2.12 Install and configure a bootloader

2.12.1 For BIOS motherboards2.12.1.1 Syslinux2.12.1.2 GRUB

2.12.2 For UEFI motherboards2.12.2.1 EFISTUB2.12.2.2 Gummiboot2.12.2.3 GRUB

2.13 Unmount the partitions and reboot3 Post-installation

3.1 User management3.2 Package management3.3 Service management3.4 Sound3.5 Graphical User Interface

3.5.1 Install X3.5.2 Install a video driver3.5.3 Install input drivers3.5.4 Configure X3.5.5 Test X

3.5.5.1 Troubleshooting3.5.6 Fonts3.5.7 Choose and install a graphical interface

4 Appendix

Preparation


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Note: If you wish to install from an existing GNU/Linux distribution, please see this article. This can be usefulparticularly if you plan to install Arch via VNC or SSH remotely. Users seeking to perform the Arch Linuxinstallation remotely via an SSH connection should read Install from SSH for additional tips.

System requirements

Arch Linux should run on any i686 compatible machine with a minimum of 64 MB RAM. A basic installationwith all packages from the base (https://www.archlinux.org/groups/i686/base/) group should takeabout 500 MB of disk space. If you are working with limited space, this can be trimmed down considerably, butyou will have to know what you're doing.

Burn or write the latest installation medium

The latest release of the installation media can be obtained from the Download (https://archlinux.org/download/)page. Note that the single ISO image supports both 32 and 64-bit architectures. A new ISO image is releasedabout once every month and it is highly recommended to always use the latest ISO image.

Burn the ISO image on a CD or DVD with your preferred software.

Note: The quality of optical drives and the discs themselves varies greatly. Generally, using a slow burnspeed is recommended for reliable burns. If you are experiencing unexpected behaviour from the disc,try burning at the lowest speed supported by your burner.

Or you can write the ISO image to a USB stick. For detailed instructions, see USB Installation Media.

Installing over the network

Instead of writing the boot media to a disc or USB stick, you may alternatively boot the .iso image over thenetwork. This works well when you already have a server set up. Please see this article for more information,and then continue to Boot the installation medium.

Installing on a virtual machine

Installing on a virtual machine is a good way to become familiar with Arch Linux and its installation procedurewithout leaving your current operating system and repartitioning the storage drive. It will also let you keep thisBeginners' Guide open in your browser throughout the installation. Some users may find it beneficial to have anindependent Arch Linux system on a virtual drive, for testing purposes.

Examples of virtualization software are VirtualBox, VMware, QEMU, Xen, Varch, Parallels.

The exact procedure for preparing a virtual machine depends on the software, but will generally follow thesesteps:

Create the virtual disk image that will host the operating system.1.Properly configure the virtual machine parameters.2.Boot the downloaded ISO image with a virtual CD drive.3.Continue with Boot the installation medium.4.

The following articles may be helpful:


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Arch Linux as VirtualBox guestArch Linux as VirtualBox guest on a physical driveArch Linux as VMware guestMoving an existing install into (or out of) a virtual machine

Boot the installation medium

First, you may have to change the boot order in your computer's BIOS. To do this, you have to press a key(usually Delete , F1 , F2 , F11 or F12 ) during the POST phase. Then, select "Boot Arch Linux" from themenu and press Enter in order to begin with the installation.

Once you have booted into the live environment, your shell is Zsh; this will provide you advanced Tabcompletion, and other features as part of the grml config (http://grml.org/zsh/) .

Testing if you are booted into UEFI mode

In case you have a UEFI motherboard and UEFI Boot mode is enabled (and is preferred over BIOS/Legacymode), the CD/USB will automatically launch Arch Linux kernel (EFISTUB via Gummiboot Boot Manager). Totest if you have booted into UEFI mode check if directory /sys/firmware/efi has been created:

# ls -1 /sys/firmware/efi

Troubleshooting boot problems

If you are using an Intel video chipset and the screen goes blank during the boot process, the problem islikely an issue with Kernel Mode Setting. A possible workaround may be achieved by rebooting andpressing e over the entry that you are trying to boot (i686 or x86_64). At the end of the string typenomodeset and press Enter . Alternatively, try video=SVIDEO-1:d which, if it works, will not disablekernel mode setting. You can also try i915.modeset=0 . See the Intel article for more information.

If the screen does not go blank and the boot process gets stuck while trying to load the kernel, press Tab

while hovering over the menu entry, type acpi=off at the end of the string and press Enter .

Installation

You are now presented with a shell prompt, automatically logged in as root.

Change the language

Tip: These are optional for the majority of users. Useful only if you plan on writing in your own language inany of the configuration files, if you use diacritical marks in the Wi-Fi password, or if you would like toreceive system messages (e.g. possible errors) in your own language.

By default, the keyboard layout is set to us . If you have a non-US keyboard layout, run:

# loadkeys layout


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...where layout can be fr , uk , dvorak , be-latin1 , etc. See here for a comprehensive list.

The font should also be changed, because most languages use more glyphs than the 26 letter English alphabet.Otherwise some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. Note that the name iscase-sensitive, so please type it exactly as you see it:

# setfont Lat2-Terminus16

By default, the language is set to English (US). If you would like to change the language for the install process(German, in this example), remove the # in front of the locale (http://www.greendesktiny.com/support/knowledgebase_detail.php?ref=EUH-483) you want from /etc/locale.gen , along with English (US). Pleasechoose the UTF-8 entry.

Use Ctrl+X to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press Y and Enter to use the same filename.

# nano /etc/locale.gen

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8

# locale-gen# export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8

Remember, LAlt+LShift activates and deactivates the keymap.

Establish an internet connection

Warning: As of v197, udev no longer assigns network interface names according to the wlanX and ethXnaming scheme. If you are coming from a different distribution or are reinstalling Arch and not aware of thenew interface naming style, please do not assume that your wireless interface is named wlan0, or that yourwired interface is named eth0. You can use the command ip link to discover the names of your interfaces.

The dhcpcd network daemon starts automatically during boot and it will attempt to start a wired connection.Try to ping a server to see if a connection was established. For example, Google's webservers:

# ping -c 3 www.google.com

PING www.l.google.com (74.125.132.105) 56(84) bytes of data.64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105) : icmp_req=1 ttl=50 time=17.0 ms64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105) : icmp_req=2 ttl=50 time=18.2 ms64 bytes from wb-in-f105.1e100.net (74.125.132.105) : icmp_req=3 ttl=50 time=16.6 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003msrtt min/avg/max/mdev = 16.660/17.320/18.254/0.678 m s

If you get a ping: unknown host error, first check if there is an issue with your cable or wireless signalstrength. If not, you will need to set up the network manually, as explained below. Once a connection isestablished move on to Prepare the storage drive.


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Wired

Follow this procedure if you need to set up a wired connection via a static IP address.

First, disable the dhcpcd service which was started automatically at boot:

# systemctl stop dhcpcd.service

Identify the name of your Ethernet interface.

# ip link

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noque ue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00 :00:002: enp2s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc n oop state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 1000 link/ether 00:11:25:31:69:20 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff :ff3: wlp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 15 00 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT qlen 1000 link/ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff :ff

In this example, the Ethernet interface is enp2s0f0 . If you are unsure, your Ethernet interface is likely to startwith the letter "e", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "w". You can also use iwconfig and seewhich interfaces are not wireless:

# iwconfig

enp2s0f0 no wireless extensions.wlp3s0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"NETGEAR97" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: 2C:B0:5D:9C:72:BF Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragm ent thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:430 Missed beacon:0lo no wireless extensions.

In this example, neither enp2s0f0 nor the loopback device have wireless extensions, meaning enp2s0f0 isour Ethernet interface.

You also need to know these settings:

Static IP address.Subnet mask.Gateway's IP address.Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses.Domain name (unless you are on a local LAN, in which case you can make it up).

Activate the connected Ethernet interface (e.g. enp2s0f0 ):

# ip link set enp2s0f0 up

Add the address:


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# ip addr add ip_address/ mask_bits dev interface_name

For example:

# ip addr add 192.168.1.2/24 dev enp2s0f0

For more options, run man ip .

Add your gateway like this, substituting your own gateway's IP address:

# ip route add default via ip_address

For example:

# ip route add default via 192.168.1.1

Edit resolv.conf , substituting your name servers' IP addresses and your local domain name:

# nano /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 61.23.173.5nameserver 61.95.849.8search example.com

Note: Currently, you may include a maximum of three nameserver lines. In order to overcome thislimitation, you can use a locally caching nameserver like Dnsmasq.

You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Network Configurationpage.

Wireless

Follow this procedure if you need wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) during the installation process.

First, identify the name of your wireless interface.

# iw dev

phy#0 Interface wlp3s0 ifindex 3 wdev 0x1 addr 00:21:6a:5e:52:bc type managed

In this example, wlp3s0 is the available wireless interface. If you are unsure, your wireless interface is likely tostart with the letter "w", and unlikely to be "lo" or start with the letter "e".

Note: If you do not see output similar to this, then your wireless driver has not been loaded. If this is the case,


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you must load the driver yourself. Please see Wireless Setup for more detailed information.

Bring the interface up with:

# ip link set wlp3s0 up

A small percentage of wireless chipsets also require firmware, in addition to a corresponding driver. If you getoutput like SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory , this means you will need to manually load thefirmware. If unsure, invoke dmesg to query the kernel log for a firmware request from the wireless chipset. Forexample, if you have an Intel chipset which requires and has requested firmware from the kernel at boot:

# dmesg | grep firmware

firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode

If there is no output, it may be concluded that the system's wireless chipset does not require firmware.

Warning: Wireless chipset firmware packages (for cards which require them) are pre-installed under/usr/lib/firmware in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) but must be explicitly installed to youractual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it! Package installation is coveredlater in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and firmware before rebooting! SeeWireless Setup if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding firmware installation for yourparticular chipset.

Next, use netctl (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=ne tctl) 's wifi-menu to connect to anetwork:

# wifi-menu wlp3s0

You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Wireless Setup page.

Alternatively, use iw dev wlp3s0 scan | grep SSID to scan for available networks, then connect to anetwork with:

# wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp3s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase " ssid" " psk")

You need to replace ssid with the name of your network (e.g. "Linksys etc...") and psk with your wirelesspassword, leaving the quotes around the network name and password.

Finally, you have to give your interface an IP address. This can be set manually or using the dhcp:

# dhcpcd wlp3s0

If that does not work, issue the following commands:

# echo 'ctrl_interface=DIR=/run/wpa_supplicant' > / etc/wpa_supplicant.conf


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# wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> >> /etc/wpa_su pplicant.conf# ip link set <interface> up # May not be needed as dhcpcd should bring it up but may be needed for wpa_supplicant.# wpa_supplicant -B -D nl80211 -c /foobar.conf -i < interface name># dhcpcd -A <interface name>

Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL

For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection.

Behind a proxy server

If you are behind a proxy server, you will need to export the http_proxy and ftp_proxy environmentvariables. See Proxy settings for more information.

Prepare the storage drive

Warning: Partitioning can destroy data. You are strongly cautioned and advised to backup any critical databefore proceeding.

Choose a partition table type

You have to choose between GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR). GPT is moremodern and recommended for new installations.

If you want to setup a system which dual boots with windows, then you have to pay special attention tothis choice. See Partitioning#Choosing_between_GPT_and_MBR for the gory details.It is recommended to always use GPT for UEFI boot, as some UEFI firmwares do not allow UEFI-MBRboot.Some BIOS systems may have issues with GPT. See http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html andhttp://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html for more info and possible workarounds.

Note: If you are installing to a USB flash key, see Installing Arch Linux on a USB key.

Partitioning tool

Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php) is a good example, and is provided as a "live" CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php) . Itis also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. A drive should first bepartitioned and the partitions should be formatted with a file system before rebooting.

Tip: When using Gparted, selecting the option to create a new partition table gives an "msdos" partition tableby default. If you are intending to follow the advice to create a GPT partition table then you need to choose"Advanced" and then select "gpt" from the drop-down menu.

While gparted may be easier to use, if you just want to create a few partitions on a new disk you can get the jobdone quickly by just using one of the fdisk variants which are included on the install medium. There are shortusage instructions for both gdisk and fdisk.

Partition scheme


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You can decide into how many partitions the disk should be split, and for which directory each partition shouldbe used in the system. The mapping from partitions to directories (frequently called 'mount points') is thePartition scheme. The simplest, and not a bad choice, is to make just one huge / partition. Another popularchoice is to have a / and a /home partition.

Additional required partitions:

If you have a UEFI motherboard, you will need to create an extra UEFI System Partition. It will need tobe at least 512 MiB.If you have a BIOS motherboard (or plan on booting in BIOS compatibility mode) and you want tosetup GRUB on a GPT-partitioned drive, you will need to create an extra BIOS Boot Partition of size1007 KiB and EF02 type code. Syslinux does not need one.

See Swap for details if you wish to set up a swap partition or swap file. A swap file is easier to resize than apartition and can be created at any point after installation, but cannot be used with a Btrfs filesystem.

Considerations for dualbooting with windows

If you have an existing OS installation, please keep in mind that if you were to just write a completely newpartition table to disk then all the data which was previously on disk would be lost.

The recommended way to setup a linux/windows dual booting system is to first install windows, only using partof the disk for its partitions. When you have finished the windows setup, boot into the linux install environmentwhere you can create additional partitions for linux while leaving the existing windows partitions untouched.

Some newer computers come pre-installed with Windows 8 which will be using Secure Boot. Arch Linuxcurrently does not support Secure Boot, but some Windows 8 installations have been seen not to boot if SecureBoot is turned off in the BIOS. In some cases it is necessary to turn off both Secure Boot as well as Fastboot inthe BIOS options in order to allow Windows 8 to boot without Secure Boot. However there are potentialsecurity risks in turning off Secure Boot for booting up Windows 8. Therefore, it may be a better option to keepthe Windows 8 install intact and have an independent hard drive for the Linux install - which can then bepartitioned from scratch using a GPT partition table. Once that is done, creating several ext4/FAT32/swappartitions on the second drive may be a better way forward if the computer has two drives available. This isoften not easy or possible on a small laptop. Currently, Secure Boot is still not in a fully stable state for reliableoperation, even for Linux distributions that support it.

If you have already created your partitions, proceed to Create filesystems.

Otherwise, see the following example.

Example

The Arch Linux install media includes the following partitioning tools: fdisk , gdisk , cfdisk , cgdisk ,parted .

Tip: Use the lsblk command to list the hard disks attached to your system, along with the sizes of theirexisting partitions. This will help you to be confident you are partitioning the right disk.


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The example system will contain a 15 GB root partition, and a home partition for the remaining space. Chooseeither MBR or GPT. Do not choose both!

It should be emphasized that partitioning is a personal choice and that this example is only for illustrativepurposes. See Partitioning.

Using cgdisk to create GPT partitions

# cgdisk /dev/sda

Root

Choose New (or press N ) – Enter for the first sector (2048) – type in 15G – Enter for the default hexcode (8300) – Enter for a blank partition name.

Home

Press the down arrow a couple of times to move to the larger free space area.Choose New (or press N ) – Enter for the first sector – Enter to use the rest of the drive (or you couldtype in the desired size; for example 30G ) – Enter for the default hex code (8300) – Enter for a blankpartition name.

Here is what it should look like:

Part. # Size Partition Type P artition Name--------------------------------------------------- ------------- 1007.0 KiB free space 1 15.0 GiB Linux filesystem 2 123.45 GiB Linux filesystem

Double check and make sure that you are happy with the partition sizes as well as the partition table layoutbefore continuing.

If you would like to start over, you can simply select Quit (or press Q ) to exit without saving changes and thenrestart cgdisk.

If you are satisfied, choose Write (or press Shift+W ) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive.Type yes and choose Quit (or press Q ) to exit without making any more changes.

Using fdisk to create MBR partitions

Note: There is also cfdisk, which is similar in UI to cgdisk, but it currently does not automatically align thefirst partition properly. That is why the classic fdisk tool is used here.

Launch fdisk with:

# fdisk /dev/sda


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Create the first partition:

Command (m for help): type n and press Enter1.Partition type: Select (default p): press Enter2.Partition number (1-4, default 1): press Enter3.First sector (2048-209715199, default 2048): press Enter4.Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-2097151 99....., default 209715199): type+15G and press Enter

5.

Then create a second partition:

Command (m for help): type n and press Enter1.Partition type: Select (default p): press Enter2.Partition number (1-4, default 2): press Enter3.First sector (31459328-209715199, default 31459328) : press Enter4.Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (31459328-209 715199....., default 209715199):

press Enter

5.

Now preview the new partition table:

Command (m for help): type p and press Enter

Disk /dev/sda: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes, 209715 200 sectorsUnits = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytesSector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 byt esI/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytesDisk identifier: 0x5698d902

Device Boot Start End Blocks I d System/dev/sda1 2048 31459327 15728640 8 3 Linux/dev/sda2 31459328 209715199 89127936 8 3 Linux

Then write the changes to disk:

Command (m for help): type w and press Enter

If everything went well fdisk will now quit with the following message:

The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.Syncing disks.

In case this doesn't work because fdisk encountered an error, you can use the q command to exit.

Create filesystems

Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a filesystem. To format the partitions with an ext4filesystem:

Warning: Double check and triple check that it is actually /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 that you want toformat. You can use lsblk to help with this.


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# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), do not forget to format and activate it with:

# mkswap /dev/sda X# swapon /dev/sda X

For UEFI, you should format the ESP partition (usually sda1) with:

# mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1

Mount the partitions

Each partition is identified with a number suffix. For example, sda1 specifies the first partition of the firstdrive, while sda designates the entire drive.

To display the current partition layout:

# lsblk /dev/sda

Note: Do not mount more than one partition to the same directory. And pay attention, because the mountingorder is important.

First, mount the root partition on /mnt . Following the example above (yours may be different), it would be:

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Then mount the home partition and any other separate partition (/boot , /var , etc), if you have any:

# mkdir /mnt/home# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

In case you have a UEFI motherboard, mount the UEFI partition:

# mkdir -p /mnt/boot# mount /dev/sda X /mnt/boot

Select a mirror

Before installing, you may want to edit the mirrorlist file and place your preferred mirror first. A copy ofthis file will be installed on your new system by pacstrap as well, so it is worth getting it right.

# nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

##


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## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist## Sorted by mirror score from mirror status page## Generated on 2012-MM-DD##

Server = http://mirror.example.xyz/archlinux/$repo/ os/$arch...

Alt+6 to copy a Server line.PageUp key to scroll up.Ctrl+U to paste it at the top of the list.Ctrl+X to exit, and when prompted to save changes, press Y and Enter to use the same filename.

If you want, you can make it the only mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using Ctrl+K ), but it isusually a good idea to have a few more, in case the first one goes offline.

Tip:

Use the Mirrorlist Generator (https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/) to get an updated list for yourcountry. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP, because of something called keepalive. With FTP, pacmanhas to send out a signal each time it downloads a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways togenerate a mirror list, see Sorting mirrors and Reflector.Arch Linux MirrorStatus (https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/) reports various aspects about the mirrorssuch as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have beensynced, etc.

Note:

Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always remember to force pacman to refresh allpackage lists with pacman -Syy . This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possibleheadaches. See Mirrors for more information.If you are using an older installation medium, your mirrorlist might be outdated, which might lead toproblems when updating Arch Linux (see FS#22510 (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/22510) ). Thereforeit is advised to obtain the latest mirror information as described above.Some issues have been reported in the Arch Linux forums (https://bbs.archlinux.org/) regarding networkproblems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [1](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68944) and [2] (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65728) ). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved byreplacing the default pacman file downloader with an alternative (see Improve Pacman Performance formore details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in VirtualBox, this issue has also beenaddressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.

Install the base system

The base system is installed using the pacstrap (https://github.com/falconindy/arch-install-scripts/blob/master/pacstrap.in) script.

The -i switch can be omitted if you wish to install every package from the base group without prompting.

# pacstrap -i /mnt base


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Note:

If pacman fails to verify your packages, check the system time with cal . If the system date is invalid(e.g. it shows the year 2010), signing keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks onpackages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either bydoing so manually or with the ntp (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=ntp) client, andretry running the pacstrap command. Refer to Time page for more information on correcting systemtime.If pacman complains thaterror: failed to commit transaction (invalid or cor rupted package) , run the followingcommand:

# pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archli nux

This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using pacman.

Generate an fstab

Generate an fstab file with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages(see fstab#Identifying filesystems). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the -U option with -L .

# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab# nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Warning: The fstab file should always be checked after generating it. If you encounter errors running genfstabor later in the install process, do not run genfstab again; just edit the fstab file.

A few considerations:

The last field determines the order in which partitions are checked at start up: use 1 for the (non-btrfs )root partition, which should be checked first; 2 for all other partitions you want checked at start up; and0 means 'do not check' (see fstab#Field definitions).All btrfs partitions should have 0 for this field. Normally, you will also want your swap partition to have0 .

Chroot and configure the base system

Note: If you are planning to reboot Arch in EFI mode, read For UEFI motherboards as there are some thingsto take care of before entering the chroot. This is necessary to ensure the boot loader or manager can becorrectly configured within the chroot.

Next, we chroot into our newly installed system:

# arch-chroot /mnt

Note: Use arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash to chroot into a bash shell.


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At this stage of the installation, you will configure the primary configuration files of your Arch Linux basesystem. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults.

Closely following and understanding these steps is of key importance to ensure a properly configured system.

Locale

Locales are used by glibc and other locale-aware programs or libraries for rendering text, correctly displayingregional monetary values, time and date formats, alphabetic idiosyncrasies, and other locale-specific standards.

There are two files that need editing: locale.gen and locale.conf .

The locale.gen file is empty by default (everything is commented out) and you need to remove the #

in front of the line(s) you want. You may uncomment more lines than just English (US), as long as youchoose their UTF-8 encoding:

# nano /etc/locale.gen

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8

# locale-gen

This will run on every glibc upgrade, generating all the locales specified in /etc/locale.gen .

The locale.conf file does not exist by default. Setting only LANG should be enough. It will act as thedefault value for all other variables.

# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Note: If you set some other language than English (US) at the beginning of the install, the above commandswould be something like:

# echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf# export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8

To use other locales for other LC_* variables, run locale to see the available options and add them tolocale.conf . It is not recommended to set the LC_ALL variable. An advanced example can be found here.

Console font and keymap

If you set a keymap at the beginning of the install process, load it now, as well, because the environment haschanged. For example:

# loadkeys de-latin1# setfont Lat2-Terminus16


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To make them available after reboot, edit vconsole.conf :

# nano /etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=de-latin1FONT=Lat2-Terminus16

KEYMAP – Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers orXorg.

FONT – Available alternate console fonts reside in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/ . The default(blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It isrecommended that you change it to Lat2-Terminus16 , because according to/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/README.Lat2-Terminus16 , it claims to support "about 110 languagesets".

Possible option FONT_MAP – Defines the console map to load at boot. Read man setfont . Removing itor leaving it blank is safe.

See Console fonts and man vconsole.conf for more information.

Time zone

Available time zones and subzones can be found in the /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone>

directories.

To view the available <Zone>, check the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo/ :

# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/

Similarly, you can check the contents of directories belonging to a <SubZone>:

# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe

Create a symbolic link /etc/localtime to your zone file /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone> usingthis command:

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Zone>/<SubZone> /etc/l ocaltime

Example:

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Minsk /etc/local time

Hardware clock

Set the hardware clock mode uniformly between your operating systems. Otherwise, they may overwrite thehardware clock and cause time shifts.


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You can generate /etc/adjtime automatically by using one of the following commands:

UTC (recommended)

Note: Using UTC for the hardware clock does not mean that software will display time in UTC.

# hwclock --systohc --utc

To synchronize your "UTC" time over the internet, see NTPd.

localtime (discouraged; used by default in Windows)

Warning: Using localtime may lead to several known and unfixable bugs. However, there are no plansto drop support for localtime.

# hwclock --systohc --localtime

If you have (or planning on having) a dual boot setup with Windows:

Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick registry fix is needed. Also, besure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will defaultback to localtime.

Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to localtime and disable any time-related services, like NTPd . Thiswill let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to remember to boot intoWindows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when DST kicks in. So please do not ask onthe forums why the clock is one hour behind or ahead if you usually go for days or weeks without bootinginto Windows.

Kernel modules

Tip: This is just an example, you do not need to set it. All needed modules are automatically loaded by udev,so you will rarely need to add something here. Only add modules that you know are missing.

For kernel modules to load during boot, place a *.conf file in /etc/modules-load.d/ , with a name basedon the program that uses them.

# nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-net.conf

# Load 'virtio-net.ko' at boot.

virtio-net

If there are more modules to load per *.conf , the module names can be separated by newlines. A goodexample are the VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Empty lines and lines starting with # or ; are ignored.


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Hostname

Set the hostname to your liking (e.g. arch):

# echo myhostname > /etc/hostname

Note: There is no need to edit /etc/hosts .

Configure the network

You need to configure the network again, but this time for your newly installed environment. The procedure andprerequisites are very similar to the one described above, except we are going to make it persistent andautomatically run at boot.

Note:

For more in-depth information on network configration, visit Network Configuration and WirelessSetup.If you would like to use the old interface naming scheme (ie. eth* and wlan*) you can accomplish thisby creating an empty file at /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot.rules which will mask the fileof the same name located under /usr/lib/udev/rules.d (alternatively, instead of an empty file,using a symlink to /dev/null is also an acceptable masking method).

Wired

Dynamic IP

Using dhcpcd

If you only use a single fixed wired network connection, you do not need a network management service andcan simply enable the dhcpcd service:

# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

Note: If it doesn't work, use: # systemctl enable dhcpcd@ interface_name.service

Using netctl

Copy a sample profile from /etc/netctl/examples to /etc/netctl :

# cd /etc/netctl# cp examples/ethernet-dhcp my-network

Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface ):

# nano my-network


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Enable the my-network profile:

# netctl enable my-network

Using netctl-ifplugd

Warning: You cannot use this method in conjunction with explicitly enabling profiles, such asnetctl enable <profile> .

Alternatively, you can use netctl-ifplugd , which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks:

Install ifplugd (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=i fplugd) , which is required fornetctl-ifplugd :

# pacman -S ifplugd

Then enable for interface that you want:

# systemctl enable netctl-ifplugd@<interface>.servi ce

Tip: Netctl also provides netctl-auto , which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction withnetctl-ifplugd .

Static IP

Using netctl

Copy a sample profile from /etc/netctl/examples to /etc/netctl :

# cd /etc/netctl# cp examples/ethernet-static my-network

Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface , Address , Gateway and DNS):

# nano my-network

Notice the /24 in Address which is the CIDR notation of a 255.255.255.0 netmask

Enable above created profile to start it at every boot:


Wireless

Note: If your wireless adapter requires a firmware (as described in the above Establish an internet connection


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section and also here), install the package containing your firmware. Most of the time, the linux-firmware

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=linux-fir mware) package will contain the neededfirmware. Though for some devices, the required firmware might be in its own package. For example:

# pacman -S zd1211-firmware

See Wireless Setup#Installing driver/firmware for more info.

Install iw (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=iw) and wpa_supplicant

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=wpa_suppl icant) which you will need to connect to anetwork:

# pacman -S iw wpa_supplicant

Adding wireless networks

Using wifi-menu

Install dialog (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=di alog) , which is required forwifi-menu :

# pacman -S dialog

After finishing the rest of this installation and rebooting, you can connect to the network withwifi-menu interface_name (where interface_name is the interface of your wireless chipset).

# wifi-menu interface_name

Warning: This must be done *after* your reboot when you are no longer chrooted. The process spawned bythis command will conflict with the one you have running outside of the chroot. Alternatively, you could justconfigure a network profile manually using the following templates so that you do not have to worry aboutusing wifi-menu at all.

Using manual netctl profiles

Copy a network profile from /etc/netctl/examples to /etc/netctl :

# cd /etc/netctl# cp examples/wireless-wpa my-network

Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface , ESSID and Key ):

# nano my-network

Enable above created profile to start it at every boot:


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Connect automatically to known networks

Warning: You cannot use this method in conjunction with explicitly enabling profiles, such asnetctl enable <profile> .

Install wpa_actiond (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?na me=wpa_actiond) , which is required fornetctl-auto :

# pacman -S wpa_actiond

Enable the netctl-auto service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming anddisconnects:

# systemctl enable netctl-auto@ interface_name.service

Tip: Netctl also provides netctl-ifplugd , which can be used to handle wired profiles in conjunction withnetctl-auto .

Analog modem, ISDN or PPPoE DSL

For xDSL, dial-up and ISDN connections, see Direct Modem Connection.

Create an initial ramdisk environment

Tip: Most users can skip this step and use the defaults provided in mkinitcpio.conf . The initramfs image(from the /boot folder) has already been generated based on this file when the linux

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=linux) package (the Linux kernel) was installed earlierwith pacstrap .

Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr is on aseparate partition.

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

Note: Arch VPS installations on QEMU (e.g. when using virt-manager ) may need virtio modules inmkinitcpio.conf to be able to boot.

# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net"


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Set the root password

Set the root password with:

# passwd

Install and configure a bootloader

For BIOS motherboards

For BIOS systems, two bootloaders are available: Syslinux and GRUB. Choose the bootloader as per yourconvenience.

Syslinux is (currently) limited to loading only files from the partition where it was installed. Itsconfiguration file is considered to be easier to understand. An example configuration can be found here(https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1109328#p1109328) .

GRUB is more feature-rich and supports more complex scenarios. Its configuration file(s) is more similarto a scripting language, which may be difficult for beginners to manually write. It is recommended thatthey automatically generate one.

Syslinux

Note: If you opted for a GUID partition table (GPT) for your hard drive earlier, you need to install thegptfdisk (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name= gptfdisk) package now for this next step towork, assuming you have not installed it already.

Install the syslinux (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name= syslinux) package and then use thesyslinux-install_update script to automatically install the bootloader (-i ), mark the partition active bysetting the boot flag (-a ), and install the MBR boot code (-m ):

# pacman -S syslinux# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

Configure syslinux.cfg to point to the right root partition. This step is vital. If it points to the wrong partition,Arch Linux will not boot. Change /dev/sda3 to reflect your root partition (if you partitioned your drive as inthe example, your root partition is sda1). Do the same for the fallback entry.

# nano /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

...LABEL arch ... APPEND root= /dev/sda3 rw ...

For more information on configuring and using Syslinux, see Syslinux.

GRUB


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Install the grub (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=grub ) package and then rungrub-install to install the bootloader:

Note:

Change /dev/sda to reflect the drive you installed Arch on. Do not append a partition number (do notuse sda X ).For GPT-partitioned drives on BIOS motherboards, you also need a "BIOS Boot Partition". SeeGPT-specific instructions and Install to GPT BIOS boot partition in the GRUB page.

# pacman -S grub# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda

While using a manually created grub.cfg is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginners automaticallygenerate one:

Tip: To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install os-prober

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=os-prober ) ( pacman -S os-prober ) before runningthe next command.

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see GRUB.

For UEFI motherboards

For UEFI systems, several options are available. A complete list of options is available at UEFI Bootloaders.You may find that some options work while others do not. Otherwise, choose one as per your convenience.Here, we give two of the possibilities as examples:

Boot the Linux kernel directly using EFISTUB.gummiboot is a simple boot manager, useful if you are dual booting. rEFInd is another alternative.GRUB is a more complete bootloader, useful if you run into problems with the other two options.

Note: For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned and an UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or larger,type EF00 , formatted with FAT32) must be present. For the following examples, this partition must bemounted on /boot . If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you have already done all of these.

EFISTUB

Install the efibootmgr (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?nam e=efibootmgr) package and thenadd an Arch Linux boot entry, replacing /dev/sdaX with your root partition, usually /dev/sda2 :

Note: The below commands should be run BEFORE chroot, if any.

# umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars# modprobe -r efivars


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# modprobe efivars

Note: The below commands should be run AFTER chroot, if any.

# pacman -S efibootmgr # efibootmgr -c -L "Arch Linux" -l /vmlinuz-linux - u "root= /dev/sdaX rw initrd=/initramfs-linux.img"

You may need to add -d /dev/sdX -p Y where X is replaced with the device letter where /boot is located andY is replaced with the /boot partition number, usually -d /dev/sda -p 1

Gummiboot

Install the gummiboot (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name =gummiboot) package and then rungummiboot install to install the boot manager:


# umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars# modprobe -r efivars# modprobe efivarfs# mount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efiv ars


# pacman -S gummiboot# gummiboot install

Warning: You will probably see an error during gummiboot install, when it fails to add itself to NVRAMbecause of a bug (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/34292) . If you get this error message, manually useefibootmgr to add gummiboot to NVRAM:


# umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars# modprobe -r efivars# modprobe efivars


# efibootmgr -c -L "Gummiboot" -l /EFI/gummiboot/gu mmibootx64.efi

You will need to manually create a configuration file to add an entry for Arch Linux to the gummiboot manager.Create /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and add the following contents, replacing /dev/sdaX with yourroot partition, usually /dev/sda2 :

# nano /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

title Arch Linux


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linux /vmlinuz-linuxinitrd /initramfs-linux.imgoptions root= /dev/sdaX rw

For more information on configuring and using gummiboot, see gummiboot.

GRUB

Install the grub (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=grub ) and efibootmgr

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=efibootmg r) packages and then run grub-install toinstall the bootloader:


# umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars# modprobe -r efivars# modprobe efivars


# pacman -S grub efibootmgr# grub-install --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-i d=arch_grub --recheck

Next, while using a manually created grub.cfg is absolutely fine, it is recommended that beginnersautomatically generate one:

Tip: To automatically search for other operating systems on your computer, install os-prober

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=os-prober ) ( pacman -S os-prober ) before runningthe next command.

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For more information on configuring and using GRUB, see GRUB.

Unmount the partitions and reboot

Exit from the chroot environment:

# exit

Since the partitions are mounted under /mnt , we use the following command to unmount them:

# umount /mnt/{boot,home,}

Reboot the computer:

# reboot


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Tip: Be sure to remove the installation media, otherwise you will boot back into it.

Post-installation

Your new Arch Linux base system is now a functional GNU/Linux environment ready to be built into whateveryou wish or require for your purposes.

User management

Add any user accounts you require besides root, as described in User management. It is not good practice to usethe root account for regular use, or expose it via SSH on a server. The root account should only be used foradministrative tasks.

Package management

Pacman is the Arch Linux package manager. See pacman and FAQ#Package Management for answersregarding installing, updating, and managing packages.

Because of The Arch Way#Code-correctness over convenience it is imperative to keep up to date with changesin Arch Linux that require manual intervention before upgrading your system. Check the front page Arch news(https://www.archlinux.org/) and subscribe to the arch-announce mailing list (https://mailman.archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/arch-announce/) . Alternatively, you may find it useful to subscribe to this RSS feed(https://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/) or follow @archlinux (https://twitter.com/archlinux) on Twitter.

If you installed Arch Linux x86_64, you may want to enable the [multilib] repository if you plan on using 32-bitapplications.

See Official Repositories for details about the purpose of each repository.

Service management

Arch Linux uses systemd as init, which is a system and service manager for Linux. For maintaining your ArchLinux installation, it is a good idea to learn the basics about it. Interaction with systemd is done through thesystemctl command. Read systemd#Basic systemctl usage for more information.

Sound

ALSA usually works out-of-the-box. It just needs to be unmuted. Install alsa-utils

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=alsa-util s) (which contains alsamixer ) and followthese instructions.

ALSA is included with the kernel and it is recommended. If it does not work, OSS is a viable alternative. If youhave advanced audio requirements, take a look at Sound system for an overview of various articles.

Graphical User Interface


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Install X

The X Window System (commonly X11, or X) is a networking and display protocol which provides windowingon bitmap displays. It provides the standard toolkit and protocol to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

To install the base Xorg packages:

# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-xini t

Install mesa for 3D support:

# pacman -S mesa

Install a video driver

Note: If you installed Arch as a VirtualBox guest, you do not need to install a video driver. See Arch Linuxguests for installing and setting up Guest Additions, and jump to the configuration part below.

The Linux kernel includes open-source video drivers and support for hardware accelerated framebuffers.However, userland support is required for OpenGL and 2D acceleration in X11.

If you do not know which video chipset is available on your machine, run:

$ lspci | grep VGA

For a complete list of open-source video drivers, search the package database:

$ pacman -Ss xf86-video | less

The vesa driver is a generic mode-setting driver that will work with almost every GPU, but will not provideany 2D or 3D acceleration. If a better driver cannot be found or fails to load, Xorg will fall back to vesa. Toinstall it:

# pacman -S xf86-video-vesa

In order for video acceleration to work, and often to expose all the modes that the GPU can set, a proper videodriver is required:


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Brand Type Driver Multilib Package(for 32-bit applications on Arch x86_64)

Documentation

AMD/ATI

Opensource

xf86-video-ati

(https://www.archlinux.org

/packages/?name=xf86-

video-ati)

lib32-ati-dri


/packages/?name=lib32-

ati-dri)

ATI

Proprietarycatalyst-dkms

(https://aur.archlinux.org

/packages/catalyst-dkms/)

lib32-catalyst-utils


/packages/lib32-catalyst-

utils/)

AMD Catalyst

IntelOpensource

xf86-video-intel



video-intel)

lib32-intel-dri



intel-dri)

Intel Graphics

Nvidia

Opensource

xf86-video-nouveau



video-nouveau)

lib32-nouveau-dri



nouveau-dri)

Nouveau

xf86-video-nv



video-nv)

– (legacy driver)

Proprietary

nvidia


/packages/?name=nvidia)

lib32-nvidia-libgl



nvidia-libgl)

NVIDIA

nvidia-304xx


/packages/?name=nvidia-

304xx)

lib32-nvidia-304xx-utils



nvidia-304xx-utils)

nvidia-173xx


/packages/nvidia-173xx/)



/packages/lib32-nvidia-

173xx-utils/)

nvidia-96xx


/packages/nvidia-96xx/)



/packages/lib32-nvidia-

96xx-utils/)

VIAOpensource

xf86-video-openchrome



video-openchrome)

– VIA

Install input drivers

Udev should be capable of detecting your hardware without problems. The evdev driver (xf86-input-evdev


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(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-inpu t-evdev) ) is the modern hot-plugging inputdriver for almost all devices, so in most cases, installing input drivers is not needed. At this point, evdev hasalready been installed as a dependency of the xorg-server (https://www.archlinux.org/packages

/?name=xorg-server) package.

Laptop users (or users with a tactile screen) will need the xf86-input-synaptics

(https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=xf86-inpu t-synaptics) package for thetouchpad/touchscreen to work:

# pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

For instructions on fine tuning or troubleshooting touchpad issues, see the Touchpad Synaptics article.

Configure X

Warning: Proprietary drivers usually require a reboot after installation. See NVIDIA or AMD Catalyst fordetails.

Xorg features auto-detection and therefore can function without an xorg.conf . If you still wish to manuallyconfigure X Server, please see the Xorg wiki page.

Here you may set a keyboard layout if you do not use a standard US keyboard.

Note: The XkbLayout key may differ from the keymap code you used with the loadkeys command. A listof many keyboard layouts and variants can be found in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst (after theline beginning with ! layout ). For instance, the layout gb corresponds to "English (UK)", whereas for theconsole it was loadkeys uk .

Test X

Tip: These steps are optional. Test if you are installing Arch Linux for the first time, or if you are installing onnew and unfamiliar hardware.

Note: If your input devices are not working during this test, install the needed driver from the xorg-drivers

(https://www.archlinux.org/groups/i686/xorg-drivers /) group, and try again. For a complete list ofavailable input drivers, invoke a pacman search (press Q to exit):

$ pacman -Ss xf86-input | less

You only need xf86-input-keyboard (https://www.archlinux.org/pack ages/?name=xf86-input-

keyboard) or xf86-input-mouse (https://www.archlinux.org/package s/?name=xf86-input-mouse)

if you plan on disabling hot-plugging, otherwise, evdev will act as the input driver (recommended).

Install the default environment:

# pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm


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If Xorg was installed before creating the non-root user, there will be a template .xinitrc file in your homedirectory that needs to be either deleted or commented out. Simply deleting it will cause X to run with thedefault environment installed above.

$ rm ~/.xinitrc

Note: X must always be run on the same tty where the login occurred, to preserve the logind session. This ishandled by the default /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc .

To start the (test) Xorg session, run:

$ startx

A few movable windows should show up, and your mouse should work. Once you are satisfied that Xinstallation was a success, you may exit out of X by issuing the exit command into the prompts until youreturn to the console.

$ exit

If the screen goes black, you may still attempt to switch to a different virtual console (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2 ), andblindly log in as root. You can do this by typing "root" (press Enter after typing it) and entering the rootpassword (again, press Enter after typing it).

You may also attempt to kill the X server with:

# pkill X

If this does not work, reboot blindly with:

# reboot

Troubleshooting

If a problem occurs, look for errors in Xorg.0.log . Be on the lookout for any lines beginning with (EE)

which represent errors, and also (WW) which are warnings that could indicate other issues.

$ grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If you are still having trouble after consulting the Xorg article and need assistance via the Arch Linux forums orthe IRC channel, be sure to install and use wgetpaste (https://www.archlinux.org/packages

/?name=wgetpaste) by providing the links from:

# pacman -S wgetpaste$ wgetpaste ~/.xinitrc$ wgetpaste /etc/X11/xorg.conf


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$ wgetpaste /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Note: Please provide all pertinent information (hardware, driver information, etc) when asking for assistance.

Fonts

You may wish to install a set of TrueType fonts, as only unscalable bitmap fonts are included by default. DejaVuis a set of high quality, general-purpose fonts with good Unicode coverage:

# pacman -S ttf-dejavu

Refer to Font Configuration for how to configure font rendering and Fonts for font suggestions and installationinstructions.

Choose and install a graphical interface

The X Window System provides the basic framework for building a graphical user interface (GUI).

Note: Choosing your DE or WM is a very subjective and personal decision. Choose the best environment foryour needs. You can also build your own DE with just a WM and the applications of your choice.

Window Managers (WM) control the placement and appearance of application windows in conjunctionwith the X Window System.

Desktop Environments (DE) work atop and in conjunction with X, to provide a completely functional anddynamic GUI. A DE typically provides a window manager, icons, applets, windows, toolbars, folders,wallpapers, a suite of applications and abilities like drag and drop.

Instead of starting X manually with startx from xorg-xinit (https://www.archlinux.org/packages

/?name=xorg-xinit) , see Display Manager for instructions on using a display manager, or see Start X atLogin for using an existing virtual terminal as an equivalent to a display manager.

Appendix

For a list of applications that may be of interest, see List of Applications.

See General Recommendations for post-installation tutorials like setting up a touchpad or font rendering.

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