Arch Automatic Installation Commands

(Still somewhat personal)

• Main Arch Linux on top of LVM on top of LUKS. Bare minimum desktop with XMonad+xmobar.
• Secondary minimal Arch Linux as a rescue alternative.
• refind boot manager.

• UEFI system.
• Secure Boot disabled from UEFI.
• GPT disk.
• Existing EFI partition (only tested with the one created by Windows 10 in a Lenovo Thinkpad)
• Free un-partitioned disk space ready to be asigned according to instructions. See comments inside run_archaic.
• Live Arch Installation ISO (only tested with a USB stick on March 2018).
• Internet conection.

IMPORTANT: There are many more requirements and constraints that you will only understand reading run_archaic and _inside_arch_chroot.

• Put a copy of this repo inside your running Live Arch Installation ISO.
• Open run_archaic in a text editor, read it, check it, double-check it and edit the required variables. Left $debug= commented, so you can do a dry-run.
• Run run_archaic | tee /tmp/archaic.log script. It should be in debug mode so you can check that all text replacements went fine.
• Re-open run_archaic and uncomment the debug= line.
• Edit xorg_pkgs to reflect your video driver.
• Run run_archaic | tee /tmp/archaic.log script and wait for input prompts.
• Do not relax too much.

If you need to modify the code, remember: shellcheck is your friend (but ignore SC2086 recommendation for $PKGS).

To restart the process, remember to:

• delete /boot/EFI/refind/
• delete all kernels and initramfs in /boot/

Full restart from initial conditions is recommended, but if time needs to be saved, careful commenting of sections can be made in scripts (can be very challenging).

• https://shirotech.com/linux/how-to-automate-arch-linux-installation

• Better diagnose of errors.
• Smarter pacman repository to avoid redownloading packages.
• Remove lot of duplicate and ugly bash code.
• Ease testing with virtualization.
• Suspend to RAM vs. crypt. What to do?
• Many steps should be optional: backups, secondary_arch, etc.
• Many hardcoded options: keyboard layout, timedate locale, etc.