I have a generic i386 legacy tablet. Getting Arch linux to install was painful because Grub wanted default install for EFI, when I really needed it to install compatible with legacy BIOS. All the instructions appear to be written for UEFI.
So I did some research and came up with this line:
# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda # grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
This worked. I plan on adding more details here if I come accross any more hardships.
$ iwctl
The interactive prompt is then displayed with a prefix of [iwd]#
.
Tip:
- In the
iwctl
prompt you can auto-complete commands and device names by hittingTab
. - To exit the interactive prompt, send EOF by pressing
Ctrl+d
. - You can use all commands as command line arguments without entering an interactive prompt. For example:
iwctl device wlan0 show
.
To list all available commands:
[iwd]# help
Connect to a network
First, if you do not know your wireless device name, list all Wi-Fi devices:
[iwd]# device list
Then, to initiate a scan for networks (note that this command will not output anything):
[iwd]# station device scan
You can then list all available networks:
[iwd]# station device get-networks
Finally, to connect to a network:
[iwd]# station device connect SSID
Use timedatectl(1) to ensure the system clock is accurate:
# timedatectl status
When recognized by the live system, disks are assigned to a block device such as /dev/sda
, /dev/nvme0n1
or /dev/mmcblk0
. To identify these devices, use lsblk or fdisk.
# fdisk -l
Results ending in rom
, loop
or airoot
may be ignored.
The following partitions are required for a chosen device:
- One partition for the root directory
/
. - For booting in UEFI mode: an EFI system partition.
If you want to create any stacked block devices for LVM, system encryption or RAID, do it now.
Use fdisk or parted to modify partition tables. For example:
# fdisk /dev/the_disk_to_be_partitioned
Once the partitions have been created, each newly created partition must be formatted with an appropriate file system. See File systems#Create a file system for details.
For example, to create an Ext4 file system on /dev/
root_partition
, run:
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/root_partition
If you created a partition for swap, initialize it with mkswap(8):
# mkswap /dev/swap_partition
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/root_partition
# mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/efi_system_partition
Mount the file systems
Mount the root volume to /mnt
. For example, if the root volume is /dev/root_partition
:
# mount /dev/root_partition /mnt
Install essential packages
Use the pacstrap(8) script to install the base package, Linux kernel and firmware for common hardware:
# pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware
Generate an fstab file (use -U
or -L
to define by UUID or labels, respectively):
# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Check the resulting /mnt/etc/fstab
file, and edit it in case of errors.
Chroot
Change root into the new system:
# arch-chroot /mnt
Set the time zone:
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/usa/chicago /etc/localtime
Run hwclock(8) to generate /etc/adjtime
:
# hwclock --systohc
network manager will give a text based wlan0
pacman -S networkmanager
next we prepare the GUI activate the video card
lspci -v | grep -A1 -e VGA -e 3D
pacman -Ss xf86-video
pacman -Syyu
install nvidia drivers
sudo -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings
pacman -S xorg xterm xorg-xinit
go ahead and fireup the gui and make sure it working
startx
install Gnome windows manager
pacman -S gdm
systemctl enable gdm
systemctl start gdm
pacman -S sddm
install chromium so you have something to browse with
pacman -S chromium
pacman -S firefox
pacman -S gnome-settings-daemon
pacman -S gnome-control-center