- Arch Install Notes
- Booting into the Base Install
- Post Install Config
- Create a regular user
- Setup power saving
- Get X11 Working
- Neovim and Shell Setup
- Setup my dot files, includes x11, nvim and zsh configs
- Start LightDM
- Make Pacman faster
- Setup the Linux Console
- Configure the Trackpad
- Hibernate on Low Battery
- Time Sync
- Setup lightdm and slick-greeter
- Make Sound Work
- Make the Volume and Screen Brighness Buttons Work
- Install a Decent Theme for refind
- Clipbard Manager
- Other Packages
- TODO
Installing Arch on the Huawei MateBook Pro X with Disk Encryption.
This was done with a new Huawei MateBook Pro X Intel Core i7-8550U 1.8GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Delivered on 2018/10/08.
I've run through this install twice now, and updated/reorganized this document a bit on the second pass.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated and can be provided with a PR or a by creating a new Issue.
I booted into Windows 10 once, and let it go through it's whole setup only so I could update the BIOS.
Mine shipped with BIOS version 1.17, and I noticed 1.18 was available on the Huawei Download Page so I installed that from Windows 10, before booting from the Arch ISO.
Download the Arch ISO
I burned it to a UBS Key on macOS like this:
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
$ sudo dd if=archlinux-2018.10.01-x86_64.iso of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m
To access the Boot menu, first disable Secure Boot in the BIOS. I've read that not everyone had to do this, but I couldn't get the boot menu to show up until I did this.
Hold down F2 while booting to enter the BIOS.
Security Setting -> Secure Boot
Set to Disable
EXIT
Save and Exit.
Hold down F12 at boot to enter the boot menu
Chose EFI USB Device
Make the console font larger so it's readable, we'll set a permanent font later:
# setfont latarcyrheb-sun32
Most of this next part is from the Arch Install Guide
To get WiFi working chose the wireless network. We'll change how this is configured later, but this works for now.
# wifi-menu
Check that it works, it may take a few seconds for networking to come up.
# ping archlinux.org
Update the system clock
# timedatectl set-ntp true
First we wipe the drive, this will destroy any existing data and partitions, overwriting all data with randomness.
This install will use full disk encryption, with the exception of the EFI boot partition.
Wipe the drive following the dm-crypt Drive Wipe instructions
# cryptsetup open --type plain -d /dev/urandom /dev/nvme0n1 to_be_wiped
Verify that the new device exists:
$ lsblk
Now wipe it with zeros, which should be turned into apparent randomness on disk since this is an encrypted drive.
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/to_be_wiped bs=1M status=progress
This took about 20 minutes to run.
Close the temporary container
# cryptsetup close to_be_wiped
Partition and create a 512MB fat32 partition of type 'EFI System'. I used cfdisk to create the parition. I made a 220GB partition with type 'Linux filesystem' for Arch. The rest will be reserved for future OS installs.
Format the EFI/boot volume:
# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1
I chose the realtively simple LVM on LUKS setup combining instructions from: Encrypting_an_entire_system and found a few more hints at this Gist.
There will be a single LUKS2 volume with LVM on top. LVM will then divide that volume into root, home and swap.
Setup and open the LUKS2 volume
# cryptsetup luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/nvme0n1p2
# cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p2 cryptlvm
Setup LVM, with swap at least as large as RAM to support hibernate
# pvcreate /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
# vgcreate archvg /dev/mapper/cryptlvm
# lvcreate -L 16G archvg -n swap
# lvcreate -L 64G archvg -n root
# lvcreate -l 100%FREE archvg -n home
Format the filesystems
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/archvg/root
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/archvg/home
# mkswap /dev/archvg/swap
Mount the partitions
# mount /dev/archvg/root /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount /dev/archvg/home /mnt/home
# swapon /dev/archvg/swap
Mount the boot/ESP volume
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
Install the base system
# pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
Generate the fstab
# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
This is mostly straight from the Arch Wiki Installation Guide
Chroot to the new arch install
# arch-chroot /mnt
Set the timezone and hwclock
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime
# hwclock --systohc
Setup Locales, uncomment any needed in /etc/locale.gen and generate them
# locale-gen
# echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
Set a hostname
# echo archbook >> /etc/hostname
Install Intel Microcode Updates, this will install an initrd image that we add to our boot loader config.
# pacman -S intel-ucode
Next setup rEFInd, it's themable and looks much nicer than grub or systemd-boot
# pacman -S refind-efi parted sbsigntools imagemagick
# refind-install
Get the encrypted volume UUID for use in the rEFInd config.
# blkid /dev/nvme0n1p2
Add a menu entry for Arch, while not strictly necessary, it makes some nice icons show up and gives us some submenus.
Plase this into /boot/EFI/refind/refind.conf
use_graphics_for linux
...
showtools shell, memtest, gdisk, mok_tool, about, shutdown, reboot, firmware, fwupdate
...
scanfor manual
...
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
icon /EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png
volume "Arch Linux"
loader /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options "cryptdevice=UUID=<YOUR-PARTITION-UUID>:lvm:allow-discards resume=/dev/mapper/archvg-swap root=/dev/mapper/archvg-root initrd=/intel-ucode.img rw quiet splash"
submenuentry "Boot using fallback initramfs" {
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
}
submenuentry "Boot to terminal" {
add_options "systemd.unit=multi-user.target"
}
}
Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add encrypt, lvm2, and resume support, the
postion in the HOOKS line matters:
MODULES=(ext4)
...
...
...
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block encrypt lvm2 resume filesystems keyboard fsck)
Regnerate initramfs
# mkinitcpio -p linux
Install some packages so wifi-menu works after reboot.
# pacman -S dialog wpa_supplicant
Set the root password
# passwd
Reboot
# exit
# reboot
Get wifi back online after first boot. We'll change how this is configured later.
# wifi-menu
Install and setup etckeeper
# pacman -S etckeeper
# cd /etc
# etckeeper init
# etckeeper commit
# useradd -G wheel -m kelp
# passwd kelp
Then log out and switch to that user.
Enable TLP for powersaving
# pacman -S tlp tlp-rdw
# systemctl enable tlp.service
# systemctl enable tlp-sleep.service
# systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service
# systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.socket
# systemctl enable NetworkManager-dispatcher.service
Install ethtool, lsb-release and smartmontools at the suggestion of tlp-stat
# pacman -S ethtool lsb-release smartmontools
Get networking to come up automatically
# systemctl start NetworkManager.service
$ nmcli device wifi connect '<Network>' password <password>
Install ssh so I can update this README from the MateBook. (git is also required, but etckeeper pulled that in)
# pacman -S openssh
Install X11, i3wm, lightdm, and a few other nice things
# pacman -S i3 nvidia xorg-server xorg-font-util xorg-fonts-75dpi
# pacman -S xorg-fonts-100dpi xorg-mkfontdir xorg-mkfontscale xorg-xdpyinfo
# pacman -S xorg-xrandr xorg-xset bumblebee bbswitch
# pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter termite
# pacman -S firefox mesa xf86-video-intel
# pacman -S network-manager-applet
# pacman -S xbindkeys xorg-xmodmap xorg-xrdb
Enable Bumblebee with bbswitch for Nvidia / Intel switching
# systemctl enable bumblebeed.service
# gpasswd -a $USER bumblebee
# pacman -S neovim zsh python3 python-neovim
Install my homshick setup github.com/kelp/dotfiles
Install YaY to build packages from Arch AUR
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
$ cd yay
$ makepkg -si
Install things needed for my custom i3 setup. For bumblebee-status I use the git version because it has a bug fix I sent upstream.
$ yay bumblebee-status
# pacman -S dmenu feh pacman-contrib python-dbus
A few more things to make X happy.
# pacman -S xss-lock compton redshift
Redshift configs come from github.com/kelp/redshift
Install Nerd Fonts Complete, these are used by my terminal, required for my nvim and shell config
$ yay nerd-fonts-complete
Screen locking with Google's
$ yay xsecurelock
Depends on my .xprofile, which I swiched to use xsecurelock
Install xscreensaver
# pacman -S xscreensaver
At this point X11 should work, and we can use it, though we'll still be tweaking a bunch of things.
# systemctl start lightdm
Now login to X11!
Sort the pacman mirrors by speed Arch Wiki Sorting Mirrors
Install gnome-keyring to manage ssh keys
# pacman -S gnome-keyring
Set it up with the PAM method for console. LightDM should handle it for X11 Arch Wiki Gnome Keyring
Set a readable console font:
# pacman -S terminus-font
Create /etc/vconsole.conf with contents:
FONT=ter-132n
Then add 'i915' to MODULES and 'consolefont' to the HOOKS section of /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:
MODULES=(i915 ext4)
...
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect consolefont modconf block lvm2 resume filesystems keyboard fsck)
And run:
# mkinitcpio -p linux
If i915 isn't added here, when you reboot, you'll see the new conole font briefly and then it will reset to the tiny ones.
At this point I rebooted again to test all this out.
Info from: Linux with a Macbook Touchpad Feel, Pt 2 I'm using Synamptics based on the recommendations from the above link. I was finding the trackpad behavior pretty annoying, given I spent most of my days on a Mac and have been using Macs for over a decade. In spite of Synaptics limited support going forward, it seems to work better so far.
Here is how I configured it.
# pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics
Then I created /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-synaptics.conf with these contents:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# Enabling tap-to-click is a perilous choice that begets needing to set up palm detection/ignoring. Since I am fine clicking my touchpad, I sidestep the issue by disabling tapping.
Option "TapButton1" "0"
Option "TapButton2" "0"
Option "TapButton3" "0"
# Using negative values for ScrollDelta implements natural scroll, a la Macbook default.
Option "VertScrollDelta" "-80"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "-80"
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics has a very buried note about this option
# tl;dr this defines right button to be rightmost 7% and bottommost 5%
Option "SoftButtonAreas" "93% 0 95% 0 0 0 0 0"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
EndSection
From: Arch Wiki Touchpad Hibernate on low battery to '/etc/udev/rules.d/99-lowbat.rules'
SUBSYSTEM=="power_supply", ATTR{status}=="Discharging", ATTR{capacity}=="[0-5]", RUN+="/usr/bin/systemctl hibernate"
Setup time sync
Arch Wiki Systemd-timesyncd
Edit /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf uncomment these lines:
NTP=0.arch.pool.ntp.org 1.arch.pool.ntp.org 2.arch.pool.ntp.org 3.arch.pool.ntp.org
FallbackNTP=0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org 0.us.pool.ntp.org
Then start it:
# timedatectl set-ntp true
Install lightdm-slick-greeter and lightdm-settings
$ yay lightdm-slick-greeter
$ yay lightdm-settings
LightDM config /etc/lighdm/lightdm.conf:
[Seat:*]
greeter-session=lightdm-slick-greeter
Slick Greeter Config /etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf:
[Greeter]
background = /usr/share/slick-greeter/arch-2560x1600.png
show-hostname = true
show-power = true
show-click = true
show-quit = true
show-a11y = false
draw-grid = false
show-keyboard= false
draw-user-backgrounds = false
Make the 'Dynamic User' stop showing up on the login screen, by updating
/etc/lightdm/users.conf to exclude users with /sbin/nologin as their shell
hidden-shells=/bin/false /usr/bin/nologin /sbin/nologin
Setup Plymouth Following instructions from Arch Wiki Plymouth
$ yay plymouth
$ yay plymouth-theme-arch-breeze-git
Set the theme in /etc/plymouth/plymouthd.conf
[Daemon]
Theme=arch-breeze
ShowDelay=5
DeviceTimeout=5
Disable lightdm systemd unit and enable the lightdm-plymouth unit.
# systemctl disable lightdm.service
# systemctl enable lightdm-plymouth.service
Install ttf-dejavu fonts, Plymouth needs this, mkinitcpio will fail without it
$ pacman -S ttf-dejavu
Add Plymouth requirements to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. The plymouth-encrypt
is required when running disk encryption. I couldn't boot the first time through
because I missed that.
HOOKS=(base udev plymouth consolefont autodetect modconf block plymouth-encrypt lvm2 resume filesystems keyboard fsck)
Run mkinitcpio
# mkinitcpio -p linux
This took some experimenting. At first all the speakers didn't work and it sounded horrible.
First I installed these packages
# pacman -S alsa-utils pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa alsa-tools pavucontrol pulsemixer
Then followed instructions at the bottom of Ayman Bagabas Blog
I also referenced this imgur and this Reddit Thread
I ended up having to run hdajackretask as root from a terminal to get it
to apply the configs properly. It creates hda-jack-retask.conf
and /usr/lib/firmware/hda-jack-retask.fw. I also had to set 'Connectivity'
to 'Internal' for both pins. Once I did that, and rebooted, I was able
to run pavucontrol and chose 'Analog Surround 4.0 Output' from the
Configuration tab. And then on the Output Devices tab, I could unlock
channels and verify that all 4 speakers were working, and control volume
for each.
Instructions generally came from Arch Wiki Xbindkeys
To set the backlight we need xbacklight
# pacman -S xorg-xbacklight
We'll need xbindkeys
# pacman -S xbindkeys
$ xbindkeys -d > ~/.xbindkeysrc
This is pulled in from my homeshick x11 castle, but documenting it here for others.
Add these to $HOME/.xbindkeysrc:
# Increase volume
"pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +1000"
XF86AudioRaiseVolume
# Decrease volume
"pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ -1000"
XF86AudioLowerVolume
# Mute volume
"pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ toggle"
XF86AudioMute
# Increase backlight
"xbacklight -inc 10"
XF86MonBrightnessUp
# Decrease backlight
"xbacklight -dec 10"
XF86MonBrightnessDown
Make backlight changes work, create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
with contents:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
EndSection
And then restart X or reboot.
$ yay refind-theme-regular
I also decided I didn't like the bright white background of that theme, so I
edited the theme config /boot/EFI/refind/refind-theme-regular/theme.conf
and swapped in an all black 32x32 pixel png for the background. I got the
image from dummyimage
Add the theme config to the bottom of /boot/EFI/refind/refind.conf
include refind-theme-regular/theme.conf
Get the pacman hook setup to install rEFInd on the EFI partition on upgrade follow the Arch Wiki reFIND Pacman Hook
# pacman -S autocutsel
And I added the following to my .xprofile
autocutsel -fork &
autocutsel -selection PRIMARY -fork &
Other packages I install:
# pacman -S bc unzip mlocate perl-anyevent-i3
And that's it! (aside from a few TODOs I met get to below)
- https://bentley.link/secureboot/
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Secure_Boot
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI
- Make plymouth and slickgreeter have the same background for a consistent boot experience
- Setup Dunst or similar to show notifcations on volume and brightness change https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dunst
- Switch 'make pacman faster' section over to using 'reflector'
- Document process of making my new laser printer work
- Fish configs
- gpg agent forwarding
- change autocutsel documentation, I don't use it anymore.