archlinux/README.md

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Installing Arch Linux
======================
> John Hammond | September 29th, 2019
This are my notes while installing and setting up my Arch Linux environment.
I did this on my DELL XPS 15 laptop on September 29th, 2019.
Downloading the ISO
-------------------
I downloaded the `archlinux-2019.09.01-x86_64.iso` from here: [https://www.archlinux.org/download/](https://www.archlinux.org/download/).
I searched for a United States mirror and chose one: specifically, I used: [http://mirrors.acm.wpi.edu/archlinux/iso/2019.09.01/](http://mirrors.acm.wpi.edu/archlinux/iso/2019.09.01/)
Burning the ISO to a Disc
-------------------------
I still had Ubuntu at the time, so I burned the Arch Linux ISO to a disc with [Brasero].
Booting the Arch Linux Live Disc
------------------------
On my DELL XPS 15, I needed to spam the `F12` key when booting to get to the menu and choose "Boot from CD". **I made sure to boot in UEFI**.
Once I got into the Arch Linux prompt, I followed the instructions from their [Installation Guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide).
I didn't need to change the keyboard layout, so I went on just to verify the UEFI boot mode:
```
ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
```
This had results, so I knew I successfully booted with UEFI. Good enough!
Connecting to the Internet
----------------
On my DELL XPS 15, I wanted to connect to the Internet right away. To get started, I needed to know the name of the
interface I was working with.
```
ip link
```
In my case, my interface name was `wlp59s0`.
Now I needed to actually connect to my Wi-Fi. I used `netctl` to keep it easy.
```
cp /etc/netctl/examples/wireless-wpa /etc/netctl/home
vim /etc/netctl/home
```
With that configuration file, I could fill in the interface name, SSID, and Wi-Fi password.
```
net start home
```
At that point, I could connect to the Internet!
Updating the Time Service
----------------------
```
timedatectl set-ntp true
```
Partitioning the Disks
----------------------
I used this command to determine which devices are set up already.
```
fdisk -l
```
In my case of my DELL XPS 15, I had `/dev/nvmen1p1`, `/dev/nvmen1p2` and `/dev/nvmen1p3` all set up (because I did have Ubuntu installed on this previously).
My `/dev/nvmen1p1` was the EFI partition for GRUB, `/dev/nvmen1p2` was my EXT4 filesystem, and `/dev/nvmen1p3` was my swapspace.
_If you needed to partition the drive manually, like you were setting up in a virtual machine, I would recommend using `cfdisk`._
In my case, I needed to format these partitions with their appropriate purposes.
```
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvmen1p2
mkswap /dev/nvmen1p3
swapon /dev/nvmen1p3
```
I handled the `/dev/nvmen1p1` EFI partition later, when I would install GRUB.
Mounting the Filesystem
-------------------
```
mount /dev/nvmen1p2 /mnt
```
Installing Arch
-------------
```
pacstrap /mnt base
```
Configure the system
-------------
```
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
```
Chroot into the new filesystem
----------------
```
arch-chroot /mnt
```
Setting the timezone
--------------
```
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST5EDT /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
```
Localization
------------
```
sed 's/#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
```
Hostname
----------
```
echo arch > /etc/hostname
cat <<EOF >/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.1.1 arch.localdomain arch
EOF
```
Set root passwd
----------
```
passwd
```
Install GRUB
---------
```
pacman -Sy grub os-prober
```
**When I was installing via virtual machine, I just needed to:**
```
grub-install /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
```
**When I was installing on my hard drive I did:**
```
grub-install /dev/nvmen1p3
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
```
**DO NOT forget to copy over a network profile for `netctl` and install `netctl` and `network-manager`
so you still have internet access when you reboot into the real system**
Adding a new user
---------------------
```
mkdir /home/john
useradd john
passwd john
```
Getting Internet
----------------
When I was on a virtual machine, I needed to run these commands to get an IP address.
```
dhcpcd
dhcpcd -4
```
Installing Sudo
----------------
```
pacman -Sy sudo
```
Installing Audio Drivers
--------------------
```
sudo pacman -Sy pulseaudio pavucontrol
```
I needed to restart my computer after running these commands for the sound to start.
(There was probably a service, but I couldn't find it...)
Getting yay and AUR Support
----------
First get ready to work with PKGBUILD files:
```
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel
```
Then get `yay`:
```
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si
```
Correcting .bashrc
------------------
I copy and pasted the default Ubuntu bashrc from here:
* [https://gist.github.com/indrakaw/1fdbc51639081216f04a025b1add2506](https://gist.github.com/indrakaw/1fdbc51639081216f04a025b1add2506)
Installing tmux
---------------
```
pacman -Sy tmux
echo 'source "$HOME/.bashrc"' > ~/.bashrc
```
Installing xrandr
----------------
```
pacman -S xorg-xrandr
```
Setting proper monitor size
--------------------------
```
xrandr --output DP-3 --scale 2x2 --mode 2560x1080
```
Getting monokai in vim
----------------------
First I downloaded vim-plug. [https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug)
```
curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim
```
Then, I could modify my `~/.vimrc` file to what it is now.
Then I would run `:PlugInstall` from within vim and it would install the module for me.
Tmux would act strange though -- I would need to be sure to remove all of the tmux
sessions before I could see the vim changes take effect.
```bash
tmux ls # to see the running sessions
tmux kill-session -t 2 # to kill the other sessions
```
Installing OBS-Studio
--------------
```
yay -S obs-studio
```
Installing FontAwesome
-----------------------
```
yay -S ttf-font-awesome
```
> This is incomplete. I need to keep working on this (1109 September 30th 2019)