Encryptid: Created page with "This is an expanded version of This Script which is better for advanced users =Setup= Unfortunately installing Arch Linux isn't as easy as Raspbian or Kali. We need a linux environment and start by partitioning the Micro SD card fdisk /dev/sdX * First Partition +150M type 'c' for W95 FAT32 (LBA) * Second Partition the rest and defaults are fine * Write to disk with 'w' Next we need to format the drives mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx1 mkfs.ext4..."

2025-08-06T19:04:40Z

Created page with "This is an expanded version of This Script which is better for advanced users =Setup= Unfortunately installing Arch Linux isn't as easy as Raspbian or Kali. We need a linux environment and start by partitioning the Micro SD card fdisk /dev/sdX * First Partition +150M type 'c' for W95 FAT32 (LBA) * Second Partition the rest and defaults are fine * Write to disk with 'w' Next we need to format the drives mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx1 mkfs.ext4..."

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This is an expanded version of [[Script/RPi-ArchInstall|This Script]] which is better for advanced users

=Setup=
Unfortunately installing Arch Linux isn't as easy as Raspbian or Kali. We need a linux environment and start by partitioning the Micro SD card
fdisk /dev/sdX
* First Partition +150M type 'c' for W95 FAT32 (LBA)
* Second Partition the rest and defaults are fine
* Write to disk with 'w'
Next we need to format the drives
mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2
Let's move to our working dir and mount the partitions
cd /mnt/
mkdir boot/
mkdir root/
mount /dev/sdx1 boot/
mount /dev/sdx2 root/
Depending upon which version of Raspberry Pi your target system is, you'll need to make a choice:
<pre>
# Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 Aarch64 (64bit)
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-aarch64-latest.tar.gz

# Raspberry Pi 4 - ARMv7 (32bit)
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-4-latest.tar.gz

# Raspberry Pi 3 and 2 - ARMv7 (32bit)
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-2-latest.tar.gz

# Raspberry Pi 1 and 0 - ARMv6
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-latest.tar.gz
</pre>
Now to unpack onto the SD Card
bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-rpi-$version-latest.tar.gz -C root
sync
Just one last thing here, this is also the best time to make edits to config.txt
mv root/boot/* boot
nano boot/config.txt
unmount boot root

=First Boot=
Default User Info:
<pre>
alarm - alarm
root - root</pre>

If you have ethernet connected, you are good to go out of the box practically. For Wireless connectivity, it's pretty simple. Find and connect to your wireless and make a simple name for it in wifi-menu
wifi-menu
netctl enable wlan0-home
Let's initialize pacman and get up to date. SSH is usually started, so once connected you can manage from there.
sed -i 's/#Color/Color/' /etc/pacman.conf
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
pacman -Syu sudo
Localization and hostname
rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime
echo 'newhostname' > /etc/hostname
Modify sudoers and create a new user and cleanup the old one.
nano /etc/sudoers
# Uncomment %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash newuser
passwd newuser
passwd
userdel alarm #May need to reboot and login with newuser first if a process is being used

=Stuff We Need=
Now that we're up and running, it's time to get the important stuff
==Yay==
The latest and greatest, now that Yaourt is on the outs
pacman -S git base-devel go
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si
==Graphical Environment==
===Xorg===
You need all this, I assure you, then choose '''XFCE''' or '''LXDE'''
pacman -S xorg xf86-video-fbturbo xf86-video-fbturbo-git xorg-xinit

===XFCE===
XFCE is my usual go-to, it's light and configurable and gets the job done.
pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies
===LXDE===
LXDE is one I'm intrigued on trying out
pacman -S lxde
===SDDM/LDDE===
SDDM is the best login manager, basically
pacman -S sddm #or lxde
systemctl enable sddm
Let's create a default config and modify it
sudo sh -c "sddm --example-config > /etc/sddm.conf"
sudo nano /etc/sddm.conf
We'll modify autologin for our user and desktop. Available session types are in /usr/share/xsessions/
<pre>[autologin]

Session=xfce.desktop

User=user</pre>
And finally, let's ensure stuff starts appropriately
echo 'exec startlxde' > ~/.xinitrc
echo 'exec startxfce' > ~/.xinitrc

=Bugs and Fixes=
Pacman has been finicky on AArch64 for some reason, traced it down to
systemctl stop systemctl-resolved.service

=Manjaro=
And just in case you want all of the Arch and none of the pain, there's [https://blog.manjaro.org/download/arm8-raspberry-pi-4-xfce/ Manjaro Pi4 XFCE]

=References=
* Arch Linux ARM [https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-pi-4 RPi4], [https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-pi-3 RPi 3], [https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/broadcom/raspberry-pi-2 RPi 2], [https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi RPi 1]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi Wikipedia]
* [https://github.com/phortx/Raspberry-Pi-Setup-Guide Helpful guide from github]
* [http://ca.us.mirror.archlinuxarm.org/ ArchlinuxArm Repo (mirror)]

[[Category:Archlinux]][[Category:RaspberryPi]]

Installing Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi - Revision history