archinstaller

Automated installation script for arch linux written in bash. It works similar to preseeding the debian installer d-i.

Prerequisites

You are booted into an arch linux environment like archiso
The internet connection has been set up
The configuration found in ari.conf is valid
The script is run as 'root' user

packages

The required utilities can be installed with the following packages:

arch-install-scripts
gptfdisk
For UEFI support: dosfstools
For btrfs filesystems: btrfs-progs
For nilfs filesystems: nilfs-utils

All utilities are included on archiso, which can be downloaded at https://www.archlinux.org/download/ .

Instructions

Boot into the ArchISO USB
Connect to a wifi network with wifi-menu
Sync your pacman with `pacman -Syy
Install the git package pacman -S git
Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/drewboardman/archinstaller.git

cd archinstaller
Run the script with ./archinstaller
You will be prompted once within the first few seconds, select yes

Download

With git

clone the repository: git clone git://github.com/vitamins/archinstaller

Without git

download the tarball: curl -L https://github.com/vitamins/archinstaller/tarball/master | tar xz

Usage

Edit the configuration file: nano ari.conf
Run the script: ./archinstaller

Features

Configured in a single file
Can run completely automated
Supported bootloaders: GRUB or gummiboot for UEFI, GRUB or syslinux for BIOS
Configure basic system settings like language, timezone, keymap and hostname
Optionally create separate partitions for swap and home
Choose how much space to allocate for swap, root and home partition
Select filesystems for root and home partition
Supports encrypting the home partition with LUKS and dm-crypt
Allows you to download packages from the preferred mirror
Allows you to set passwords for root and standard user
Allows you to create an additional user
Allows you to configure the network with dhcpcd, netctl or ifplugd
Allows you to install Xorg and a desktop environment
Optionally install additional packages

Other

Partitioning

A simple partitioning tool that creates partitions as well as filesystems is included in the script. It is controlled by variables in the configuration file. If you want to create more advanced partition layouts, see paragraph "Manual Partitioning". The partition sizes are set via variables "swap_size", "root_size", and "home_size". The size is in the format of number + letter. K stands for Kib, M for Mib, G for Gib and T for Tib.

The Master Boot Record (MBR) is erased.
A new empty GUID Partition Table (GPT) is created.
For BIOS booting, a separate boot partition with ext2 filesystem is created, and mounted at /boot.
For BIOS booting and GRUB, a BIOS boot partition is created.
For UEFI booting a EFI System partition (ESP) with FAT32 filesystem is created, and mounted at /boot.

The order of the partitions is from first to last ESP/BIOS boot, boot, swap, root, home.

Examples

A list of possible partition layouts that can be created by archinstaller. For simplification ESP, BIOS boot and boot partition have been left out of the examples.

0. example:
   Single root partition spanning the whole disk.
	---------- 0
	| /
	---------- End
   => options: swap='no'; home='no'; root_size='0';

1. example:
   Root partition of size X GiB, with free space left.
	---------- 0
	| /
	---------- X GiB
	| free
	---------- End
   => options: swap='no'; home='no'; root_size='XG';

2. example:
   Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition spanning the remaining space.
	---------- 0
	| [swap]
	---------- Y GiB
	| /
	---------- End
  => options: swap='yes'; home='no'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='0';

3. example:
   Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition of size X GiB.
	---------- 0
	| [swap]
	---------- Y GiB
	| /
	---------- Y+X GiB
	| free
	---------- End
  => options: swap='yes'; home='no'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='XG';

4. example:
   Root partition of size X GiB, home partition spanning the remaining space.
	---------- 0
	| /
	---------- X GiB
	| /home
	---------- End
  => options: swap='no'; home='yes'; root_size='XG'; home_size='0';

5. example:
   Root partition of size X GiB, home partition of size Z GiB.
	---------- 0
	| /
	---------- X GiB
	| /home
	---------- X+Z GiB
	| free
	---------- End
   => options: swap='no'; home='yes'; root_size='XG'; home_size='ZG';

6. example:
   Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition of size X GiB, home partition
   spanning the remaining space.
	---------- 0
	| [swap]
	---------- Y GiB
	| /
	---------- Y+X GiB
	| /home
	---------- End
   => options: swap='yes'; home='yes'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='XG';
               home_size='0';

7. example:
   Swap partition of size Y GiB, root partition of size X GiB, home partition
   of size Z GiB.
	---------- 0
	| [swap]
	---------- Y GiB
	| /
	---------- Y+X GiB
	| /home
	---------- Y+X+Z GiB
	| free
	---------- End
   => options: swap='yes'; home='yes'; swap_size='YG'; root_size='XG';
               home_size='ZG';

Manual Partitioning

If you want to create the partitions and filesystems on your own, set "manual_part" to 'yes'. The various partitioning options (like "dest_disk") can be left unset. Then the following assumptions are made by the script:

The root partition is mounted to /mnt.
If using UEFI, the ESP is mounted to /mnt/boot.
Any other separate partition like /usr or /var is mounted below the /mnt/ directory.
The kernel commandline is configured using the variable "cmdline".

When using BIOS booting and GRUB, the bootloader is installed to the MBR of "dest_disk", that means in this special case you also need to configure "dest_disk".

Choose manual partitioning for more complex setups, such as lvm, RAID, btrfs subvolumes, full disk encryption, etc.

mirrors

The mirror used for downloading packages can be configured with variable "mirror".

For the format see https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/.
Do not leave out the last slash.
To use the mirrorlist from the install host, set mirror to 'keep'.
This setting overwrites the mirrorlist on the host and on the installed system.

configuration files

Important configuration files should be checked after they have been generated. This is done by opening them in the editor, which is 'nano' by default. The editor can be changed with the "EDITOR" environment variable or in ari.conf. If you want to skip this step, set the configuration option edit_conf='no'. The following files are opened in the editor, when necessary: /etc/mdadm.conf, /etc/crypttab, /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, /etc/default/grub, /boot/loader/entries.arch.conf, /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

Language

The language setting in "locale" is not verified by the script, but english (en_US) is generated as fallback setting.

Kernel Modules

For kernel modules to load during boot, add the module's name to the "k_modules" array in the configuration file. example: k_modules=( 'dm_mod' kvm coretemp ) All needed modules are automatically loaded by udev, so you will rarely need to add something here. Only add modules that you know are missing.

netctl

Configure netctl profiles of your choice by setting network='netctl'. For example, you can use this option to configure static ip addresses or wireless connections. The netctl profile has to be copied from /etc/netctl/examples to the working directory of the script and edited to reflect your setup. It is necessary to set netctl_profile='filename' to the profile's name in ari.conf, so the script can find it. The network interface names are set to eth0 and wlan0 by the script.

Additional Packages

There are two possibilities to make the script install additional packages. You can add them to the packages array in the configuration file. Alternatively you can write the packages to pkglist.txt, one on each line. To generate a list of explicitly installed packages on an existing installation, use this command: pacman -Qqent > pkglist.txt You can also use both options at the same time, duplicated entries are eliminated by pacman. Should one of the packages not be found in the repositories, e.g. if you have misspelled it, no packages are installed. Leave the "packages" array empty to skip this step.

Passwords

If you want to set up passwords for the root account and user account, use set_passwords='yes'. You can set the passwords directly from the configuration file using variables "root_password" and "user_password". If left empty, you will be prompted for the passwords during installation. When using encryption, think about a strong passphrase before starting the installation.

Encryption

To encrypt the home partition with LUKS and dm-crypt set "encrypt_home" to 'yes'. Details like the cipher used can be configured in ari.conf with the variable "cryptsetup_options". Run cryptsetup benchmark for a list of available options and their performance.