Arch Linux Installation with Windows Dual-Boot

Prerequisite

• USB Drive (at least 1.2GB) with archiso
  • From Windows: Use rufus to flash ISO to drive
  • From Linux:
    • Using rpi-imager (AUR) via custom image
    • MultiWriter gnome-multi-writer

Network Configuration

• Using wired connection is preferable
• archiso has iwctl built-in. It can connect to regular IEEE 802.11x wifi, i.e., Wifi with SSID and passphrase.

Booting & Partition

• Update system clock

timedatectl set-ntp true

• Using fdisk for partitioning

fdisk -l # list all partitions
fdisk /dev/device # e.g.: /dev/sda, /dev/nvme0n1

• Now you're inside fdisk CLI: m for help menu 0. If fresh install, or disk not GPT, do g to create new empty GPT table

  1. n: new partition

     • Partition number: go by default or your preferred order
     • First sector: rcm go by default
     • Last sector: use +SIZE to set partition size (e.g.: +500MiB, +2G)

  2. t: change partition type

     • Partition number: remember from previously determined
     • L for option menu, Q to quit menu
     • Recommend GPT table:

     Partition	#	Type (t option)	Size
     EFI System	1	EFI (1)	+600MiB
     Swap (optional)	2	Linux swap (19)	+4GiB
     Root	3	Linux root (23)	+50GiB
     Home	4	Linux home (42)	the rest

Partition a swap if the PC has low RAM (swap's size should be 2x RAM)

3. `w`: write table to disk and exit
4. `q`: quit without saving changes

• Format partitions

mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/EFI_Partition
mkswap /dev/SWAP_Partition
mkfs.ext4 /dev/ROOT_and_HOME

• Mounting & activate partitions

swapon /dev/SWAP_Partition
mount /dev/ROOT /mnt
mount /dev/HOME /mnt/home
mount --mkdir /dev/EFI /mnt/boot 	// for the EFI file system

• Edit /etc/pacman.conf and enable ParallelDownloads = ... for faster download
• Install essential packages (see CorePackages.md for more). pacstrap also have flags like -K to initialize empty pacman keyring

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware base base-devel # ...

• Generate file system table fstab

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

• Now, arch-chroot to /mnt and go to next steps!

arch-chroot and root configuration

I highly recommend install fish shell of out-of-the-box suggestions.

pacman -S fish
chsh root
# New shell: /usr/bin/fish

• Set timezone

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/REGION/CITY /etc/localtime

• Set system clock to hardware (or vice versa, do man hwclock)

hwclock --systohc

• Get text editor of choice: nano, vim, neovim, etc.

• Localization: uncomment locale in /etc/locale.gen

  • e.g.: en_CA.UTF-8, fr_CA.UTF-8

locale-gen

• Create locale.conf to set up LANG

LANG=en_CA.UTF-8

• Network Configuration

  • In /etc/hostname:

  myHostName
  

  • In /etc/hosts:

  127.0.0.1        localhost
  ::1                localhost
  127.0.1.1        myHostName
  

• mkinitcpio

mkinitcpio -P # using all presets, see `man mkinitcpio` for more

• Root password using passwd
• Add non-root user

useradd -m myUser # `-m` create a folder in /home/myUser
passwd myUser # to set password

• Add user to access/privilege groups:

usermod -aG wheel,audio,video,optical,storage myUser

later on, groups like docker for Docker dev, or uucp for embedded (Arduino) are also required

• Install sudo and edit visudo.

pacman -S sudo
EDITOR=nvim visudo # visudo uses vi by default, but you can specify your preferred text editor

• Here, root user can determine how users should have access to sudo. It's good to have password whenever sudo is called, but users can opt-out

%wheel ALL = (ALL) ALL
# %wheel ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

• Install GRUB and Dual-boot stuffs

pacman -S efitbootmgr os-prober grub

• Install grub to EFI menu (boot menu) && Generate GRUB config:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB –recheck
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

• Exit, unmount everything, and you're done!

exit # Ctrl + D
umount -a /mnt # unmount all

Source

• Arch Wiki Guide
• DistroTube Guide
• Dual boot with Windows - ArchWiki
• Partitioning - ArchWiki
• EFI system partition - ArchWiki