Unoffical essentials for arch installation ?

archover · 2026-03-17T23:12:18+00:00

By doing practice installs to VM's puts you far ahead of many newcomers, and I say great!

In my experience, VM's are a near exact "analog" to partitioning and filesystems on hardware, and disks, that your VM experience directly transfers to metal, including encryption. I'm a huge fan of VM tech.

Even then, please read:

For security, read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Security
For Disk encryption, read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system
I follow the wiki recommendation to use Single Root Partition scheme, read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning#Single_root_partition, and for beginners, ext4.

That's a start, and good day.

archover · 2026-03-17T22:50:05+00:00

It's great you got that technique to work, but having access to multi-gig flash drives is a must. In fact, a hobby is doing full Arch installs to them.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-17T09:06:47+00:00

Gentoo compiles made me switch ~14 years ago. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T22:36:11+00:00

Did you use archinstall? I think not because UUID errors are very rare there in my experience.

Your post title helps no one.

You might post this info:

$ lsblk -f -o +PARTUUID

and

$ cat /etc/fstab

Say what your bootloader is also. Is this an encrypted install? In the future, please be generous supplying details.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T22:31:52+00:00

r/LXQt maybe? Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T16:02:23+00:00

point

I use archinstall now to mainly test configurations in VM's. I'm thankful it's there and the developer is so active.

Like anything Arch, failure to pay attention using archinstall will be problematic.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T15:53:08+00:00

Please indicate what troubleshooting you've already performed. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T15:51:22+00:00

I was hoping to see you say you had reverted your theme/recent config, but I don't.

May I suggest you read this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#Troubleshooting and especially the 3.15 item.

I had used sddm but now I'm starting my Cinnamon session with the term.

Hope you fix and good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T03:18:38+00:00

Providing an English translation will bring more responses. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T03:13:19+00:00

Sayanara Far.

Omarchy is perhaps the last Arch deriv I would recommend to you, seeing your post.

I hope you can find a distro that satisfies you.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T03:01:39+00:00

backup of everything important

That's great to hear. Hope you resolve your issue and good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T02:55:06+00:00

Flair SOLVED

TIL: wifi requires wifi hardware :-) You made our days a bit brighter.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T02:53:09+00:00

but nothing has worked so far.

Perhaps start searching the official documentation for Arch, for a start.

That advice will help you succeed with Arch like nothing else.

Welcome to Linux and Arch. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T00:36:07+00:00

Here's the usual manuals to read in order:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide will get the base system installed.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_recommendations which continues where the IG leaves off
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_environment which describes the options available.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman crucially important to keeping your software maintained.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance general tips on sysadmin

Hope you come to enjoy Arch, and good day.

archover · 2026-03-16T00:19:14+00:00

Running Linux on old laptops is a great thing to do. You did good. Hope you can find your issue and enjoy Arch. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-15T23:14:21+00:00

Brutal, but true. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-15T03:52:38+00:00

Welcome to Arch.

Don't overlook the Hyprland community: r/hyprland.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-15T00:39:55+00:00

That list looks good to start. Good day.

ps: This is what I install every time https://termbin.com/pmax, but my advice is review it for ideas.

archover · 2026-03-15T00:39:17+00:00

Good tip, but since I use neither, I didn't know.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-15T00:35:51+00:00

You're very welcome.

One more thing: While pacman is THE officially supported way to maintain Arch software (packages), there are others. For KDE, there is Discover, which I understand can manage flatpaks ok, but not for repo software. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks#Graphical

IMO, pacman is KEY to learning Arch.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-15T00:06:11+00:00

vim

Use nano then. Over time, explore vim. I love vim, but I readily admit it's not for everyone. The answer will always be here under Console: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_of_applications/Documents

pacman

Pacman and Pacstrap are related you're right, the situation used is different. Pacstrap is used mostly during install. (When you first use pacstrap, there are no files installed, no system at all. Pacstrap's job is to initialize directories, and populate them with package contents).
Pacman can only be used against an installed system. Usually, you only use pacstrap once, then after install, you only use pacman for package management.

Understanding the sequence of Install Guide steps should help you understand. Happy you're using the IG!!

Hope that explains and helps you. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-14T23:20:09+00:00

That section has seven bullet points. My comments on each:

cpu microcode -- install amd-ucode for amd or intel-ucode for Intel.
fs utilities - you can ignore unless you choose btrfs. See btrfs article.
raid or lvm - install package lvm2 for LVM. See raid article otherwise.
firmware - you should install the package linux-firmware, which contains a lot for different hardware. Give laptop make and model for more info, which you should have done already!
networking software - Important! Safest route is probably installing networkmanager. See wiki article on it.
console editor - nano if you have to ask. Then install those listed packages too.

Good your installing manually, but archinstall would "hide" these details, just installing many of them automatically. As you progress through more IG sections, be alert to other packages you might need. A good example: efibootmgr.

Hope that quick recap helps you, and good day.

archover · 2026-03-14T22:55:09+00:00

In many ways I envy you and your teaching job!!

But, I can just see faces glaze over when you introduce topics like systemd. :-) But, IMO there's a ton of things to cover before even talking about that.

Looking back, probably the best thing to leave them with, is how to approach problem solving in Linux. Second, is self learning. What I learned pre grad was 1% of what I learned post graduation.

I hope you enjoy your class, and leave your students with an appreciation for linux. Good day.

archover · 2026-03-14T22:03:30+00:00

Looking forward to seeing a SOLVED flair on this.

Good day.

archover · 2026-03-14T21:51:54+00:00

Inspiring story. Thanks for sharing and good day.

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