Installing Arch Linux was always seen as an impossible step to take especially by newbie users, since you had to setup everything by yourself, as there was no installer included in the official system.
However, Arch Linux has added now an installer that everyone can use and Install Arch Linux just like any other linux distro. This is the first time I installed Arch Linux using the new installer, and I have to say not only it was very easy to install it, but it also was very quick comparing to the old way of installing it.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Arch Linux.
Boot into Arch Linux
Once you enter in the boot menu of Arch Linux, select the first option "Arch Linux install medium(x86_64, BIOS) to Install Arch
Next, you need to run the archinstall command as shown in the image below. This command starts the Arch Linux installer
And you should see the installer menu
Arch Linux Installer language uses english by default, if you wan to set another language for the Installer, you can do so by selecting "Archinstall language" option and choosing your language.
After selecting the installer language, you need to select keyboard layout
Now, you need to choose a mirror for your system. This is the mirror that Arch Linux will download packages from, so make sure you select a mirror that is close to you. For example, if you are in the EU, then select a country located in EU, Germany for example.
Next, select the hard drive where you want to install Arch, press spacebar or TAB to select it , then press enter
Now you need to setup the partition layout, you will see the two options as shown in the image below. Select "Wipe all selected drives and use a best-effort default partition layout", and press enter
Choose "btrfs"
Continue by selecting "yes" on "Would you like to use BTRFS subvolumes with a default structure" prompt
Choose "yes" again, and press enter
Setup swap. If you want to use swap for your system, then select yes.
Next, you need to setup a hostname for your system. Type your hostname, and press enter to continue
After setting a hostname for your system, let's now create a user account. To create a user account on Arch Linux installer, is easy, and all you have to do is set a username and a password, and Arch Linux installer will create a user based on your credentials you set.
First, select "Add a user"
After entering the username of your account, you'll be asked to choose a password. Set the password and press enter.
If you want your account to be a superuser on your system, meaning your account having sudo access, then select "Yes" on this prompt.
By default your account won't have sudo permissions.
Now, your user account has been created. To save and confirm, you need to select "Confirm and exit" option
Profiles let's you choose what type of installation you want to do. For example, in this tutorial we are installing Arch Linux desktop version, so we need to go with "Desktop" profile on this step.
After selecting Desktop as profile, you need to choose the desktop environment that you'll be using. Select a DE from the list, and press enter.
Next, you need to install the graphics drivers. Select the graphic drivers that your GPU needs, and press enter.
Now you need setup the audio server. Select "Pipewire" and press enter
Choose which kernel version you want to install. If you want to use the default option, then leave this option as is, and don't select any other kernel.
For example, the configuration below is the default configuration
Arch Linux installer let's you also install additional packages during the installation. All you need to do on this step is, type the package name that you want installed on your system and press enter. Let's say you want to install firefox, then you must type firefox as a package name.
Next, you need to setup networking. You can go with any option you want, since we are installing the desktop version, then we'll be choosing "Use NetworkManager" option
Next, set your timezone
Now, you should be good to go and Install Arch Linux, run Arch Linux installer by selecting the "Install" option
Next, confirm the installation by pressing enter as shown in the image below
And, the installation of Arch Linux will begin
Once the installation has been completed, you will see the following prompt " Would you like to chroot into the newly created installation and perform post-install"
This prompt allows you to choose whether you want to run a command, or install a package on your system before starting your system.
Now you can reboot your system, to do this simply type reboot and press enter
That's it! You should be able to login and start using Arch Linux
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you learned how to install Arch Linux using the new Installer Archinstall.
