(3 May 2026)
To follow this tutorial, you must know how to use an editor such as
nano or vim (this manual shows commands for
nano). Find a brief video tutorial about nano. Ideally, the reader is
somewhat experienced and comfortable with computers; if not, then it’s a
good idea spending a day or two familiarizing yourself with computer
basics, for example, by watching a video course (here
is a good one;
here is another
useful course) so that you understand what we are doing. It is important
that BIOS (lately known as UEFI) of your computer has not been updated.
(If you don’t know what BIOS is or whether you have updated it, don’t
worry and skip the rest of this paragraph.) If you have updated it for
some reason, then you need to downgrade BIOS/UEFI to the factory-installed
version or close to it; otherwise, you may run into problems with
installation of any Linux (not only Arch). Disable "Secure Boot" in the
BIOS (you can try re-enabling it later). I recommend notebooks and
motherboards manufactured by ASUS, Lenovo, or Hewlett-Packard (now known
as HP Inc.) if you want to install any Linux (do a little research
beforehand, for example,
https://linux-hardware.org/).
This tutorial is organized into sections and subsections in the same way as the official installation guide is, and there are endnotes for some subsections. If you want more details about some step of this tutorial (or encounter some problems), then see the corresponding endnote at the bottom of this web page and/or the corresponding subsection of the official installation guide. Additionally, you can search Arch Wiki or Google or ask ChatGPT or AI on Google Search (note that these AI tools may make mistakes or offer outdated information about Arch Linux). Because the present tutorial is not an official Arch Linux document, it’s not a good idea to seek technical support for this tutorial on the official Arch Linux forums. On the positive side, after completing this tutorial, you will be able to follow instructions in the official guide on your own and will be able to repeat Arch Linux installation on other computers, in accordance with the official installation guide. Don't blame yourself if you cannot follow the official guide or if you have worked through it and failed (see the endnote). Incidentally, there is a way to install Arch Linux automatically (a guided installer called archinstall, my tutorial is here), but I recommend installing Arch manually as described here because it will be a good learning experience and because the automatic installation has some disadvantages. Let’s begin.
1.1. Downloading
Download an ISO file of Arch Linux on the official website either as a torrent or from one of the mirrors (scroll down to the bottom of that webpage).
1.2. Verification of the file
You need to verify the integrity of the downloaded file in Linux or Windows. In Linux, use Terminal to navigate to the folder containing the downloaded file, for example
cd ~/Downloads
Then execute this command:
sha256sum archlinux-2024.01.01-x86_64.iso
(use the actual name of the downloaded file in the command above)
Wait a minute or so and compare the hash value from the output (a string of letters and numbers) to the SHA256 hash value posted on the above webpage in the section “Checksums.”
In Windows, open Windows PowerShell by typing “PowerShell” (without quotes) in the Windows Start menu command box. In the window that opens, type the command Get-FileHash followed by a space. Drag the downloaded .iso file into the PowerShell window to a place after the Get-FileHash command. You will see something like this:
PS C:\Users\user> Get-FileHash C:\Users\user\Downloads\archlinux-2024.01.01-x86_64.iso
Press the Enter key. Wait a minute or so and compare the hash value from the output to the SHA256 hash value posted on the above-mentioned webpage in the section “Checksums.” By the way, all commands in this tutorial are blue, and my comments (which may be on the same line) are always the regular black font.
1.3. Create a USB flash drive
If these hashes match (upper and lower case of the letters do not matter), then you can burn the .iso file to a USB flash drive using a program called Balena Etcher (either in Windows or in Linux). Now you have your Arch Linux installation medium.
1.4. Boot your computer into the Arch ISO
Insert the flash drive into a USB port of your computer, reboot the latter, quickly press the key for entry into BIOS (F2 or Del key on computers from ASUS) repeatedly when you see the splash screen or when you hear a reboot sound. In the BIOS/UEFI, change the boot sequence, so that the computer boots from your USB drive first. Save and exit BIOS/UEFI, the computer will restart and will boot from the Arch Linux installation USB drive.
1.5. Font size
If the text is too small on your screen, you can make it larger by entering
setfont ter-128b
or
setfont ter-132b
1.7. Internet connection
I am assuming that your computer has a wired connection to the Internet. The Arch Linux installation USB will be able to use your wired network connection without any problems (99.9% chance); if you want to use a wireless connection (Wi-Fi), see the official guide (my advice is to install Arch Linux with the wired connection and then you can install Wi-Fi if you need it). I do not use Wi-Fi and do not recommend it to others because it’s bad for health; the wired connection is much safer, faster, and more reliable. You can check whether the Internet connection works by typing this command at the command prompt of Arch ISO:
ping archlinux.org
You will see incoming packets, one line after another. To stop this process, hold down the Ctrl key and press the C key (hereafter referred to as Ctrl+C).
1.8. Updating the operating-system clock
Next, we will synchronize the time of your computer with Internet time:
timedatectl set-ntp true
1.9. Disks and partitions
Now let’s prepare a hard disk of your computer for the installation (if you want disk encryption, my tutorial is here). You probably already know where you are going to install Arch Linux, this is either an empty hard drive or empty space on your hard drive. You probably know the size of the destination hard drive in gigabytes and which partitions it contains or not contains. (If not, you can abort the installation by means of the poweroff command, find this information, and then continue from the start.) Launch this command
lsblk
to see what your drives are called. Judging by the size and partitions within, you will recognize the hard drive where you are going to install Arch Linux. The hard drive(s) in the output of this command have such names as sda, sdb, nvme0n1, etc., and partitions have similar names, e.g., sda1, sda2, etc. Let’s say that the name of your destination hard drive is sdb. Then you need to execute this:
cfdisk /dev/sdb
(replace “sdb” with the actual name of your hard drive). In the commands in this tutorial, you will need to replace green text with your own.
At the top of the screen, you will see disk size, and the next line below is “label”: dos or gpt. Alternatively (a new empty disk), you will be prompted to select the label type. If your computer is relatively new (manufactured in the last 7 years), then it does not matter what kind of label you have there, but gpt is preferable. If you have an old computer (manufactured 10–15 years ago), then see the endnote for this subsection.
In the cfdisk program, you can select partitions or free space on your hard drive (upper part of the screen) by means of up and down arrow keys. And you can select and perform actions (lower part of the screen) using left and right arrow keys and the Enter key.
We will create two partitions for the installation. Select the free space and create the first partition with a size of 2 gigabytes (enter “2G”) by selecting the “New” option at the bottom and pressing the Enter key. If asked about the type of new partition, choose “primary.” (In this case, while the new partition is selected above, press the space bar to make it bootable; you will see an asterisk appear in the table.) If not asked about “primary,” then don’t worry and move on. This will be a so-called “boot” partition of your Arch Linux.
After that, similarly, make a second (main) partition; preferably, the size should be 30 gigabytes (30G) or more. (If asked, choose “primary” but do not make it bootable.)
Make sure that it says “Linux filesystem” or “Linux” in the “Type” column on the right. Select the “Write” option, press the “Enter” key, and type “yes” when asked for confirmation. Next, select the “Quit” option and press the Enter key. You will see the text “Syncing disks”; this means that everything went smoothly.
In the tutorial below, my boot partition is called sdb1 (2 gigabytes) and my main partition is sdb2 (100 gigabytes). Your disk may have other names of partitions.
Execute this again
lsblk
to verify the disks and partitions in your computer. We can proceed.
1.10. Formatting your partitions
Let’s format our partitions using these commands:
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sdb1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb2
1.11. Switching the partitions on
(If you have an old computer, then please see the endnote.) Let’s mount the partitions (i.e., make them available for work in your computer):
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi (here we are creating a boot folder)
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot/efi
Next, execute
lsblk
to verify that the partitions are mounted where they should be. Congratulations! The most difficult part of this tutorial is over.
2.1. Finding and enabling mirrors for downloading software
It’s time to select download mirrors for your installation. Launch this command (this is all one line):
curl -o /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/all/
On another computer or tablet, go to https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/
Click on “Successfully syncing mirrors” and sort mirrors by country (click on the “Country” column). At the top of the list for your country, make a note of three mirrors that have https in the “Protocol” column and 100% in the “Completion” column. Let us edit the mirrorlist file on your computer using nano:
nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
(If the screen is empty [empty file], this means that something went wrong with the previous command. Redo it correctly.)
Scroll down the list using the down arrow key and/or the PageDown key. Activate the three chosen mirrors in this file. For this purpose, delete the # sign at the beginning of each line that contains a chosen mirror. The # sign makes the line of text that follows it inactive (turns the code into a comment). Therefore, by deleting # we activate (“uncomment”) this line of text in the configuration file. Press Ctrl+O and then the Enter key to save your changes, and after that, press Ctrl+X to exit nano.
Now, we need to synchronize mirrors and configuration information via this command:
pacman -Syy
2.2. Installation of crucial software packages
At this point, we can install Arch Linux by downloading all the necessary up-to-date software from the mirrors. My advice is to install all four official kernels and headers, this is all one command:
pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux-firmware linux-lts linux-zen linux-hardened linux linux-lts-headers linux-zen-headers linux-hardened-headers linux-headers nano vim git terminus-font gnome-terminal
When the operation finishes, look at the output of pacstrap; if you encounter some errors and the installation failed, then see the endnote.
3.1. The table of partitions
If pacstrap installed the software without errors, then run the following command to create the table of partitions in your new file system:
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
3.2. Switching to the installed operating system
The next command will switch our active operating system from the Arch installation ISO to our newly installed Arch Linux:
arch-chroot /mnt
3.3. Your time zone
To find out your correct time zone settings, enter these commands:
cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
ls
You will see a list of folders; make a note of the folder whose name matches your geographic region, for example, Europe or America. Then enter this folder using the cd command, for example,
cd Europe
ls
and find your city or a city in the same time zone as your city or town.
Then run a command as follows by replacing Region and City with what you found above (this is all one line):
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime
Let’s go back to the Home directory:
cd ~
Now we need to set the clock of your computer (a so-called hardware clock in BIOS/UEFI) to your system time (which we acquired from the Internet at the beginning). Execute this:
hwclock --systohc
(If you will be dual-booting with Windows, i.e., using two operating systems on this computer, then see the endnote).
3.4. Local language and text encoding settings
At this point, we will set up only English as an interface language, to ensure problem-free installation of the operating system. You can set another language as the user interface language after the Arch Linux installation is finished (see the endnote). Edit the appropriate configuration file in nano:
nano /etc/locale.gen
Uncomment the line en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8. Save the file and exit nano.
Next, to enforce the language settings, execute this
locale-gen
After that, create the configuration file for the system language (the language of all options, labels, and buttons in Arch Linux):
nano /etc/locale.conf
and enter the English language for now:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Save the changes and exit nano.
3.5. Configuring the network connection
Let’s give your computer a name (for your local network, regardless of whether you have it or not)
nano /etc/hostname
Enter a recognizable name, one word, such as archnotebook
Save and close the file. After that, let’s install network software and
ensure that it is launched every time the computer boots (this procedure
is for a wired connection, not Wi-Fi):
pacman -S networkmanager
systemctl enable NetworkManager
(make sure the letters N and M are capitalized)
NetworkManager does not work well with wireless connections; if you want to use Wi-Fi, then my advice is to install iwd instead of NetworkManager (do this after you finish Arch Linux installation, see the endnote).
3.7. The password of the root account
The most powerful user account on your computer is “root.” It can do anything it wants without restrictions. It’s time to give the root account a password:
passwd root
Enter a desired password that you can remember, and confirm it. We will create a regular user account for you later.
3.8. Installing a bootloader
Install microcode for your microprocessor (CPU). Depending on whether your CPU was made by AMD or Intel, execute
pacman -S amd-ucode
or
pacman -S intel-ucode
Next, install a so-called bootloader, which loads your operating system when the computer boots:
pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober
Open a configuration file for editing:
nano /etc/default/grub
We installed four kernels of Arch Linux. To enable easy switching between kernels at boot, uncomment and/or edit these lines in the file as shown here:
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved (I edited this line)
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 (I edited this line)
...
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true (I uncommented these three lines)
...
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y
...
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
Save the file and exit nano. After that, let’s finalize the installation of the bootloader.
grub-install
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
If there are no error messages, then the installation of Arch Linux is completed. We will perform some post-installation tasks after rebooting.
Execute this command to log out of the root account:
exit
Next, unmount (turn off) your file system:
umount -R /mnt
and finally
reboot
and remove the installation medium.
When the computer restarts, on the grub screen, select the kernel that is called simply "linux"; it is also known as "Stable." I recommend starting with the Stable Kernel if you have a new computer (manufactured in the last 3 years) and with "linux-lts" if you have an older computer.
You will get to a login screen:
login: root
enter the password
Optional: make the text larger on the screen:
setfont ter-128b or
setfont ter-132b
5.1. The user account
Create your user account by executing this command:
useradd -mg wheel yourusername
“-mg wheel” means that we are creating a home folder for your user account and assigning this user to the “wheel” group. This group can execute any commands by entering a password (so-called sudo privileges).
Let’s create a password for your account:
passwd yourusername
To activate the wheel group, we need to edit a so-called sudoers file. Remember that to prevent corruption of sensitive data, the sudoers file should be edited only using vim. You should not use nano directly with this file. It’s OK to use nano indirectly as follows:
EDITOR=nano visudo
Scroll down and uncomment this line
# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
Save the file and exit nano. Now your user account can perform sudo commands.
To log out of root, enter this command:
exit
and then log in to your user account
5.2. Video drivers
Let's install a video driver. This is tricky; please read this whole subsection before you do anything.
To find out what kind of GPU (graphics card) you have, execute this command:
lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
If the output says that a kernel driver is in use (for your GPU), and you think this driver is suitable, then you don't need to install a video driver. With some exceptions, you can uninstall the video driver (mentioned by the lspci command) as follows:
sudo pacman -R drivername
but only if you think that one of the drivers described below is more suitable. After that, install the more suitable driver using one of these three commands:
sudo pacman -S mesa (for an AMD or Intel GPU; this command also installs nouveau, which is suitable for older Nvidia graphics cards: GeForce GeForce RTX 2060, GTX 1660, or older) or
sudo pacman -S nvidia-open (for newer NVidia graphics cards: GeForce GTX 1660, GeForce RTX 2060, or newer) or
sudo pacman -S mesa-amber (for an old AMD or Intel GPU)
If you have an NVidia graphics card, then see the endnote (it’s a somewhat complicated matter). Otherwise, things are much simpler. (If you want more details about mesa drivers, see this article).
5.3. Enabling the graphical user interface
Let's install some basic programs, a login screen (i.e., a desktop manager), and several desktop environments (this is all one line):
sudo pacman -S libreoffice-still hunspell hunspell-en_us hyphen hyphen-en firefox xterm timeshift ly xorg-xauth cinnamon xfce4 awesome qtile evince 7zip file-roller vlc vlc-plugins-all celluloid
We installed only desktop environments that are the stablest for Arch Linux. Enable the desktop manager:
sudo systemctl enable ly@tty1.service
sudo systemctl disable getty@tty1.service
sudo reboot
When presented with the login screen, you can select one of several desktop environments (I recommend "Cinnamon").
Later, if you are going to use the xfce4 desktop environment, you will need to also install a useful group of packages:
sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S xfce4-goodies
Of the two commands, the first one updates your Arch Linux, and you need to always execute this command before installing any software package on Arch Linux.
The installation procedure is finished, now you can customize your desktop
environment to make it more beautiful and convenient. If the stable kernel
(“linux”) of Arch Linux works OK, then continue using it. If not, then you
can try the fallback and other kernels. Suppose you tested the Stable Kernel and it works fine; in this case, do
not try using another kernel because it requires slightly different
versions of some software packages (nvidia and virtualbox). For other packages, the required version is identical among kernels but bugginess differs. If you are content
with the Stable Kernel, then uninstall the other kernels to prevent
yourself from booting into them accidentally and to reduce the number and
frequency of package updates:
sudo pacman -Rns linux-lts linux-lts-headers linux-hardened
linux-hardened-headers linux-zen linux-zen-headers
5.4. Concluding remarks
What to expect from Arch Linux: This Linux distribution is for more advanced users and requires you to use the command line more often and to have more knowledge about computers and operating systems. Arch Linux is fast, reliable, and compatible with all kinds of hardware (especially new hardware). Of course, it is no rival to Windows in hardware support, but still very impressive. If you have a notebook from a less known manufacturer, some components (such as a touchpad) may not work with Arch Linux. This is normal; you need to find a workaround (such as using a mouse). Some features of some software packages may not work for some period of time, for example, spellchecking in LibreOffice (but the package is stable and will not crash the whole system). For comparison, everything works as expected in a stable or oldstable version of Debian, but the version of the Linux kernel is older (and the support of the latest hardware is worse as compared to Arch Linux). Finally, keep in mind that Arch Linux involves rolling updates (things change often, in contrast to Debian), and it is possible that some package updates in a distant future will break something on your system, for example, a wireless modem may start acting up. For this reason, I recommended installing timeshift above, which you can use to revert to a functional state of your operating system (kind of like System Restore in Windows). After that, wait 1-2 months before updating again. Alternatively, instead of using timeshift, try a different Arch kernel (you have four) or a fallback version; it may still be problem-free. You can uninstall the three kernels that you do not use, to minimize the amount of software updates.
Finally, keep in mind that in many cases, you can repair your operating system by booting from the Arch Linux installation medium (the flash drive), mounting your partitions, executing the arch-chroot command to boot into your existing installed operating system, and then performing some repair tasks. For example, if you installed Windows after Linux on the same computer (for dual booting), the Windows will overwrite your grub files and make your Linux unbootable. Or you installed Arch Linux with a graphical user interface and forgot to install a terminal emulator such as gnome-terminal. In both cases, you don't need to reinstall Arch Linux, simply use the above-mentioned approach (for details, see the endnote for this subsection). It is extremely important to create a snapshot (backup) of your Arch Linux installation in the timeshift software after you installed all programs, configured the operating system as you want it, and everything is working fine. There may come a day when some Arch Linux updates will make your operating system unbootable on your computer (especially a notebook computer). The usual problem is a bug in your greeter (the desktop manager showing the login screen; currently you have ly: it is very reliable) or a bug in your desktop environment (currently you have cinnamon). Try selecting a different desktop environment in your greeter (e.g., awesome or qtile). If you still cannot load a desktop environment, then you can boot into the installation flash drive, execute arch-chroot, and either install a different greeter (sddm is a safe choice, see the endnote) or use timeshift in command line to restore the previously created snapshot, i.e., roll back your system to a working state (the endnote for this subsection describes correct settings in timeshift for creating a good snapshot). On another note, if you accidentally deleted your Windows boot partition and your Windows became unbootable (for example, boot files were hidden in a Linux boot partition, and you reinstalled Linux), then see the very last endnote regarding how to rebuild your Windows boot partition.
intro) The official installation guide is written by people with
advanced technical expertise for advanced techies. This is not a problem,
but it would be nice to have another version of this guide tailored to
less experienced Linux users. Furthermore, the official guide contains
some errors and outdated details. For example, subsection 1.6 is
applicable only to old computers and is best moved to a footnote. In
subsection 1.9.1, the mention of swap is applicable to very old computers
and needs to be moved to a footnote. If you do not have enough random-access memory (RAM) on your computer, then it is much better to purchase and install more RAM than to use a swap partition. Although old
computers that have a 32-bit CPU cannot have more than 4 GB of RAM, 4 GB
is still enough for Arch Linux, and you can skip swap installation, or if
you still want a swap partition, then you must install it on a solid-state drive. The only reason for installing swap on a modern computer is the suspend-to-disk mode (hibernation), which is not really necessary because you have the suspend-to-RAM option (also known as "Sleep" or "Suspend"). Furthermore, in
subsection 1.11, the recommended scheme of mounting the boot partition,
/mnt/boot, will not work with many UEFI computers; it should
be replaced with /mnt/boot/efi
1.8) Keep in mind that the time zone of the IP address of your computer should be the same as the time zone of the download mirrors that you will choose later in this manual (at least in the same country) and the same as the time zone that you will chose later in this manual. Otherwise, you may experience some weird problems. This may be an issue if you have a proxy or VPN installed on your router. To find out your public (external) IP address, launch this command:
curl ifconfig.me
and using another computer, check the geographic location of this IP address for example at www.whatsmyip.com
1.9) If you have an old computer and it has BIOS instead of UEFI (check the technical specs of your motherboard or notebook), then you will need to choose or use “dos” formatting (also known as MBR) of your hard drive. A gpt-formatted disk may not work for booting an operating system in your computer. Keep in mind that dos-formatted hard drives can have no more than four primary partitions and bootable operating systems on them. In this tutorial, the mounting of the boot partition will be slightly different in your case, as you will see later in the tutorial.
1.11) If you have a dos-formatted disk (dos label), and BIOS instead of UEFI, then you need to ignore subsection 1.11 and execute the following commands instead:
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot (here we are creating a boot folder)
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot
We just mounted the partitions (i.e., made them available for work in your computer). To verify:
lsblk
We did not create a so-called swap partition in this tutorial because it is not really needed on newer computers, but even on old computers, you can install 8 or 16 GB of random access memory (RAM), and it will work 10 times faster than the swap partition (which is intended to be a replacement of RAM when there is a shortage of the latter).
2.2) If you got an “unknown trust” error (the downloading and the installation failed), then execute:
pacman -Syy
pacman -S archlinux-keyring
and repeat the above pacstrap command (press the up arrow key to load previously entered commands).
If the error is “404,” (mirror cannot find the requested files), then execute this command
pacman -Syy
and repeat the above pacstrap command.
If the download is too slow, then rearrange the order of your active mirrors (place one above the others, we hope it’s faster) in the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist using nano.
For this purpose, place the cursor at the beginning of a line containing an active mirror, press Ctrl+K to cut the text, move the cursor up to an empty line (or create an empty line above) and paste the line by pressing Ctrl+U
Save your changes and exit nano.
3.1) With this command, we are copying the information about your mounted partitions into a table that will be used to mount these partitions automatically when your computer boots. The -U parameter makes sure that the table contains unique device IDs instead of plain names such as “/dev/sdb1”
3.3) For dual booting with Windows on the same computer, it is recommended to configure Windows to use UTC, rather than local time. (Windows by default assumes that the hardware clock shows local time, and therefore Windows will be displaying incorrect time.) The problem can be solved by editing the registry: Hold down the Windows key and press the R key, type regedit and press the Enter key. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation.
While “TimeZoneInformation” is selected in the left-hand panel, right-click in the right-hand panel, select “New” then “DWORD (32-bit) value,” name it RealTimeIsUniversal and press Enter. Double-click this registry entry and enter 1 as a hexadecimal value. Click OK and close the registry editor. The next time Windows boots, it will display the correct time. If you accidentally deleted your Windows boot partition and your Windows became unbootable (for example, boot files were hidden in a Linux boot partition, and you reinstalled Linux), then see the very last endnote regarding how to rebuild your Windows boot partition.
3.4) This procedure is described here for the Cinnamon desktop
environment. I am assuming that you have successfully logged in to the
Cinnamon graphical user interface. Open a terminal (for example,
gnome-terminal) and execute the following command (copy each command from
this manual and then paste it into the terminal by pressing
Ctrl+Shift+V):
sudo nano /etc/locale.gen
We opened a configuration file for editing in a program called nano. Using
either the ↓ or PageDown (PgDn) key, find the line(s) corresponding
to your language (may be more than one). Delete the # symbol at the
beginning of the line(s) to activate these options. After that, save the
file (Ctrl+O and next the Enter key), exit the editor (Ctrl+X), and
execute this command:
sudo locale-gen
If the locales were created successfully, then we can install a
translation of the user interface into your native language:
sudo pacman -S cinnamon-translations
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -sri
If you see the question "Packages to cleanBuild?" please respond No
If you see the question "Diffs to show?" please respond N
The last procedure will take some time to finish. Next, execute:
yay -S mintlocale
(respond to the questions in the same way)
We installed everything needed for changing the interface language. Now
press the Menu button (corresponds to the Start button in Windows) and go
to "System Settings" → section "Preferences" → the "Languages"
button. In the dialog window that pops up, set all three options to your
native language (otherwise the procedure may fail) and reboot your
computer. Now almost all menus, tool tips, and buttons in the desktop
environment will be in your language. It is possible that in some
programs, you will have to select your native language manually within
settings. To add a keyboard layout in your language, go to System Settings
→ section "Hardware" → the "Keyboard" button → Layouts.
3.5) If you will be using Wi-Fi on your notebook computer only occasionally, then you can simply connect to Wi-Fi using your smartphone and then share this connection with your notebook via USB tethering (ignore the text below). If you want to install Wi-Fi access on your notebook PC permanently, then follow the instructions below. First, let's install iwd (Wi-Fi driver) and configure it:
sudo pacman -S iwd impala
sudo nano /etc/iwd/main.conf
We opened a configuration file for editing. Add the following lines to
enable an internal DHCP client and DNS support (copy the text from this
manual and paste it into the file using the menu Edit → Paste of the
terminal):
[General]
EnableNetworkConfiguration=true
[Network]
NameResolvingService=systemd
Save the file (Ctrl+O and then Enter) and exit the editor (Ctrl+X), then
execute these two commands:
sudo systemctl enable --now systemd-resolved
sudo ln -sf /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
The configuration of iwd is complete. It is recommended to install a
firewall along with iwd. Your wired connection is protected by your
router, whereas your Wi-Fi connection is currently protected by nothing.
We will install ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall):
sudo pacman -S ufw
sudo systemctl enable --now ufw.service
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw enable
Check that the firewall is active and running with your new rules:
sudo ufw status verbose
The setup of the firewall is finished. Now we can disable NetworkManager,
enable the Wi-Fi driver (iwd), and launch a simple graphical user
interface for Wi-Fi (impala). This is one long command:
sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager && sudo systemctl stop
NetworkManager && sudo systemctl enable --now iwd.service
&& impala
To move between the three sections of the program, use the Tab key.
If you don't see your router in the list, then press the s key (scan) (for
more details, see
ArchWiki).
To disable iwd and return to your wired connection, do the following.
First, disconnect Wi-Fi in impala (select your activated connection and
press Enter) and shut down impala (Ctrl+C). Next (one long command):
sudo systemctl stop ufw.service && sudo systemctl disable
ufw.service && sudo systemctl stop iwd.service && sudo
systemctl disable iwd.service && sudo systemctl enable --now
NetworkManager
To disable the wired connection and return to your Wi-Fi, execute the
following single long command:
sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager && sudo systemctl disable
NetworkManager && sudo systemctl enable --now iwd.service
&& sudo systemctl enable --now ufw.service &&
impala
5.2) If you have an NVidia graphics card, then this command
lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
is likely to show that either nouveau or nvidia is in use as a video driver. Nouveau is an open-source driver suitable for older Nvidia graphics cards (GeForce GeForce RTX 2060, GTX 1660, or older with any Arch kernel), whereas “nvidia” may mean that Arch Linux installed either a proprietary (closed-source) NVidia driver or an open-kernel NVidia driver (open source). To find out which one, you need to launch this command:
pacman -Q | grep nvidia
If it outputs nvidia, nvidia-lts, or nvidia-dkms <version number>, then you have a proprietary driver installed, or if it outputs nvidia-open or nvidia-open-dkms <version number>, then you have an open-source driver installed. If there is nothing in the output, this means that no nvidia driver is currently installed. See the following list of installation commands and choose an appropriate one for your NVidia graphics card and for your kernel (right now, you are running the stable kernel “linux”):
sudo pacman -Syu (updating the system; necessary before installing anything)
sudo pacman -S nvidia-open (for newer NVidia graphics cards: GeForce GTX 1660, GeForce RTX 2060, or newer and the stable kernel of Arch Linux) or
sudo pacman -S nvidia-open-dkms (for newer NVidia graphics cards: GeForce GTX 1660, GeForce RTX 2060, or newer and all other Arch kernels: zen, lts, and hardened)
Both of the above are open-source video drivers; there are of course closed-source NVidia drivers if you want them:
sudo pacman -S nvidia (for new and moderately old NVidia GPUs and the stable kernel of Arch Linux) or
sudo pacman -S nvidia-lts (for new and moderately old NVidia GPUs and the lts kernel of Arch Linux) or
sudo pacman -S nvidia-dkms (for new and moderately old NVidia GPUs and all other Arch Linux kernels)
If you want to replace an nvidia driver with nouveau, then simply uninstall your nvidia driver:
sudo pacman -Rns
nvidia-lts nvidia-settings nvidia-utils
lib32-nvidia-utils
sudo reboot
(For more details about nouveau see this article.)
Unfortunately, you can install only one NVidia driver (they conflict with each other, two cannot coexist). On the other hand, you have four different Arch kernels, and they need different NVidia drivers. For now, you can install an appropriate driver for the stable kernel, and if you decide to use a different kernel in the future, then you will install a different video driver. Fortunately, the open-kernel drivers will work satisfactorily when they don’t match the kernel precisely. For example, nvidia-open-dkms will work more-or-less OK with the stable Arch kernel.
If you currently have the nouveau driver and you think that it is suitable, then do nothing. If you want to replace nouveau with an NVidia driver, then you don’t need to uninstall nouveau; simply install the desired NVidia driver, and nouveau will be automatically disabled. If you have an unsuitable NVidia driver installed, and you want to replace it with a different NVidia driver, then install the desired driver as described above. When presented with the option to remove the conflicting existing NVidia driver, select this option.
In most cases, it is preferable to remove or replace NVidia drivers in console mode (without a graphical user interface), which is the case right now because we have not yet installed the graphical interface. Therefore, your manipulations with video drivers will go smoothly. Later, after we install the graphical user interface and a desktop environment, you will have to reboot your computer into the minimal mode (no graphical interface) in order to remove or replace NVidia drivers. This is how to enter the minimal mode:
sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
sudo reboot
(you don’t need sudo if you are logged in as root.) After your manipulations with video drivers, to return to the normal mode (with graphical user interface), execute these commands:
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo reboot
If your computer contains two graphics cards (for example, a weak GPU that comes with an Intel microprocessor and a powerful Nvidia GPU that you added to the motherboard), then it's a good idea to install an appropriate driver for the powerful added GPU (if you don't have it). In most cases, Arch Linux will install a video driver only for the powerful added GPU, and you don’t have to worry about the two drivers.
For more details:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA
5.4) (Warning: This repair method should not be used if you installed your
Arch Linux by means of archinstall, i.e., automatically, because in this
case, a complicated procedure of chroot for LVM is necessary; by using
the simple procedure below, you will break your operating system
irrevocably.) Boot into your Arch ISO (the installation flash drive) as you did at
the beginning of this tutorial and execute
lsblk
to examine the names and sizes of your partitions. Then mount your
existing partitions as follows:
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot/efi
where sdb2 is the name of your system (larger) partition and sdb1 is the
name of the much smaller boot partition (replace with your names). Now you
can switch from the live USB drive to your existing operating system (we
are launching your installed Arch Linux), which needs to be repaired:
arch-chroot /mnt
We are now logged in as root into your installed operating system. At this
point, you can perform some repair tasks, for example, you can install the
missing terminal emulator:
pacman -S gnome-terminal
or you can repair your corrupted grub files by rebuilding them:
grub-install
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
mkinitcpio -P
or you can install a different greeter (if you believe that it is the
cause of your problem):
pacman -S sddm
systemctl disable ly@tty1.service
systemctl enable getty@tty1.service
systemctl enable sddm.service
Or you can use timeshift to restore a previous state of your Arch Linux
(you can find command line details on the Internet). Of course, you must
already have a timeshift snapshot of your operating system, created some
time ago when everything was working fine.
(I will describe correct settings for creating such a snapshot: First,
launch timeshift in your graphical user interface; then, press the
"Settings" button. On the "Location" tab, select a partition with enough
space for at least 3 snapshots, each is about 10 GB. On the "Users" tab,
select "Include only hidden files" for each user except root ["Include
all files"]. On the "Filters" tab, add program folders from your home
directory, for example, "yay" and "go." For each added folder, click in
the "+" column, so that the folder is added to [not excluded from] your
snapshot. Examine contents of your home directory and of hidden folders
.cache and .config regarding folders that you don't want to go back in
time together with the state of your systemt [in the dialog box,
right-click and select "show hidden files"]. Exclude them from the
snapshot as described above, but save them manually on an external
storage device for each snapshot and clearly mark the folder with the
date. If you have a cryptocurrency wallet installed on your computer,
then using timeshift and its settings can be highly confusing and unsafe
[risk of losing money]; timeshift is not recommended under this
scenario. Leave settings within other tabs at defaults or change them to
your liking. Finally, click "OK" at the bottom. These settings will
preserve the state of your operating system but will not save your
documents, pictures, e-mail messages, etc. [I am assuming that you know
where your e-mail messages are stored]; they will not go back in time.
You need to back them up by some other method, preferably once a week as
well as immediately before updating Arch Linux; just in case, also save
your folders ".thunderbird" and ".cache/thunderbird" on an external
storage device if you use Thunderbird; it can create a lot of confusion
when used with timeshift.)
Now you should either go to the official Arch Linux forum and—with
the help of experienced users—try to fix the bug that broke your
system or do not update your Arch Linux for 6–12 months. In the
latter case, you should take a snapshot of your operating system every
time just before you update Arch Linux. Going back to our chroot
procedure, when you finish all the repair tasks, you can log out and
restart the computer:
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot
(now disconnect the USB drive)
If your Windows became unbootable (how to rebuild a Windows boot
partition)
Boot from a Windows installation medium (such as a USB flash drive), and
instead of "Install" choose "Repair your system" or something like that.
In menus that follow ("Troubleshooting" → "Advanced Options"), find
Command Prompt and launch it. Next, let's launch the disk partition
utility:
diskpart
Let's see all the disks within our computer:
list disk
Select the disk where you have the Windows system partition (known as disk
"C:" when Windows is fully active), suppose it's "disk 2":
select disk 2
Let's see all the partitions within this disk:
list partition
Select the Windows system partition, suppose it's "partition 3":
sel part 3
(I am using the abbreviated command)
Let us assign the letter "C" to it (otherwise, the whole procedure will
fail):
assign letter c
If this command fails, then execute
exit
to shut down diskpart, close Command Prompt, go to one of the menus above
(such as Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset), and use File
Explorer to check which partition has the letter c; give it a different
letter as described above (using diskpart), and assign the letter c to the
Windows system partition. This command should work now.
After
that, select a disk that has 100–500 MB of free space (not occupied
by any partition), preferably but not necessarily the same disk where the
Windows system partition is located:
sel disk 2
If you need to delete some partition, then select it and then execute
del part override
(you can safely delete Windows auxiliary partitions, they typically
have sizes 16 MB, 100 MB, and 500 MB)
Create the prospective Windows boot partition:
create partition primary size=450
(450 here means 450 megabytes)
list partition
Select the newly created partition (suppose it's "partition 1"):
sel part 1
Let's format it:
format fs=fat32 quick label=Boot
assign letter s
We now can exit diskpart:
exit
While still in Command Prompt, we will recreate boot partition contents
using the following command:
bcdboot c:\windows /s S: /f UEFI
Now you should be able to boot into your existing Windows installation,
but its recovery tools will be screwed up (you can always use the
installation USB instead).