How to install Arch Linux with MBR without swap

gistfile1.md

#How to install Arch Linux with MBR without swap

This tutorial assumes you're installing arch to /dev/sda. You can replace /dev/sda with the device name you want to install arch to.

##Partitioning

Make a single partition on an MBR partition scheme to install arch to.

We'll call this "/dev/sda1". Edit this if it's some other device file.

##Formatting

Formatting is simple

mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda1   # root

#Mounting

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/home

#Installing

Any other packages you might want to have immidiately after installation can be appended to the pacstrap command

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel grub btrfs-progs vim

#Configuring

genfstab -L -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Go into a chroot shell

arch-chroot /mnt

In this shell, do the following.

First, set the hostname

echo -n "my-awesome-puter" >> /etc/hostname

Edit the file /etc/locale.gen

vim /etc/locale.gen
nano /etc/locale.gen
emacs /etc/locale.gen

# Note, the following is highly recommended over using emacs
pacman -S microsoft-word-2014
microsoft-word-2014 /etc/locale.gen

Remove the # before the locales you need.

locale-gen

Set the default locale

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Set the default timezone. You can use Tab to complete the name of the timezone you need.

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Denver /etc/localtime

If you want to use UTC time on the hardware clock

hwclock --systohc --utc

systemctl enable dhcpcd.service
mkinitcpio -p linux
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Exit the chroot with CTRL+D

Unmount the partitions and reboot

umount -R /mnt
reboot

Arch Linux should now be installed

Make sure you run

pacman -Syyu

As soon as possible after installation, and read these archwiki articles:

• General Recommendations
• FAQ