ArchLinux Notes
[TOC]
Notes from installing ArchLinux on VirtualBox to use as a development machine at work.
Installation
parted /dev/sda
# Make a GPT partition table
mklabel msdos
# Create 2GiB swap
mkpart primary linux-swap 1MiB 2GiB
# Use the rest for root
mkpart primary ext4 2GiB 100%
# Make root bootable
set 2 boot on
# Ctrl+D to quit
# Create swap
mkswap /dev/sda1
swapon /dev/sda1
# Create filesystem
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
# Mount
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
# Boostrap
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
# Generate fstab
genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
# Switch to the new filesystem!
arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
Then do everything else the wiki asks you to do
Configuration
Time and Date
timedatectl set-timezone America/Chicago
Hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname nikhil.io
Add a normal user
Who will be able to sudo and do things and set a password
useradd -m -g wheel user
passwd user
Can always change the name of this user later with usermod. Then use visudo to enable the wheel group. You’ll see a lot of artifacts if you don’t set EDITOR first
EDITOR=vim visudo
Yoghurt
Edit /etc/pacman.conf and add this
[archlinuxfr]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch
Then,
pacman -Sy yaourt
Verbose Boot
Modify GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub
Framebuffer Resolution
Edit /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x32
Then run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg and reboot
Firewall
Adapted an old project
and things work as expected. Don’t forget to enable the service
systemctl enable iptables.service
Network
The pacman update will break networking due a
bug that may have been fixed in
systemd v228 (as of this writing). Oh well.
For the interface you see in ip link (will start with “en”)
systemctl enable dhcpcd@ens4.network
Then enable the appropriate service and restart the node
systemctl enable systemd-networkd
reboot
SSH
pacman -S openssh
Change default port in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and disable root login. Then
enable the “spawn on demand” ssh.socket service
and change the port to whatever you had earlier
# systemctl edit sshd.socket
[Socket]
ListenStream=12345
Enable the service and reboot to test if you can SSH
systemctl enable sshd.socket
reboot
VirtualBox Notes
VirtualBox Guest Additions
pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils \
virtualbox-guest-modules \
virtualbox-guest-dkms \
linux-headers
This is without an LTS kernel since I couldn’t be bothered. After installation, enable the service
systemctl enable vboxservice.service
Edit /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf to add these
vboxguest
vboxsf
vboxvideo
“virtualbox kernel service is not running”
Here’s the issue. Happened after a system update. Fixed with
sudo pacman -Su linux-headers
Cannot Initialize Multiple Displays
Made sure that I had the latest versions of virtualbox-guest-* packages
[root@orc home]# pacman -Q | grep virtual
virtualbox-guest-modules-arch 5.1.16-1
virtualbox-guest-utils 5.1.16-1
Then made sure that I could see my display in the output of xrandr. Then realized that I had to go “View” → “Virtual Screen 2” → “Enable” in the VirtualBox menu and felt a tad silly :flushed:
Resizing
Can only do this with VDIs and not VMDKs. To convert a VMDK (on Windows)
cd C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
VBoxManage.exe clonehd <path to VMDK> <path to VDI> --format vdi
Then can resize
VBoxManage.exe modifyhd <path to VDI> --resize 25600
That’s 25,000 megabytes (25 x 1,024). Now resize all snapshots with that same size!
VBoxManage.exe modifyhd <path to snapshot> --resize 25600
Then boot up VM. parted above version 2.4 doesn’t allow you to resize although its man page lists it as an option :/ I used GParted instead to fill the rest of the partition and was a happy person. fdisk works too.
X11
Installation
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xfce4 xfce4-goodies
At this point, running startxfce4 should show you a desktop. Reboot.
Starting
cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
echo -e "exec startxfce4" >> ~/.xinitrc
Modify ~/.xinitrc to remove all the xterm, xclock and exec lines and add this
exec startxfce4
Now, startx should work!
Install some extras
yaourt -S google-chrome numix-themes numix-circle-icon-theme-git ristretto evince2-light squeeze-git --noconfirm
Compiz (Maybe)
For Compiz,
yaourt -S compiz
To run compiz,
compiz --replace ccp
To get the Numix theme,
gsettings set org.gnome.metacity theme theme-name
Add that to “Session and Startup”. I had to kill it, not save the session, and log out. The default window manager is xfwm4.
The Trash Can
sudo pacman -S gvfs gamin
Sound
pacman -S alsa-firmware alsa-utils
alsactl init
Dock
Lots of options, but I like Docky and Plank. Went with Plank. To see preferences,
plank --preferences
Configuration is kept in ~/.config/plank.
NetworkManager
A bit ‘heavy’ compared to netctl but I was tired of fighting with the corporate network.
pacman -S networkmanager network-manager-applet xfce4-notifyd
Enable the service (else you’ll get D-Bus errors when you run nm-applet)
systemctl enable NetworkManager.service
systemctl start NetworkManager.service
Reboot and log back in. You’ll find the network manager in Applications -> Settings -> Network Connections
“AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0”
Add iomem=relaxed to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub. Then generate a new grub config and initramfs with
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Windows Fonts
From a Windows 7 system. Get them and rename so you can remove later if you’d like (for f in *; do mv $f "Win7-"$f; done)
@ECHO OFF
CLS
SET MYSHARE=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\TTFONTS-ttf-win7-fonts
MKDIR "%MYSHARE%"
ECHO 1
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\arial.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\arial.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\arialbd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\arialbd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\ariali.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\ariali.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\arialbi.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\arialbi.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\comic.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\comic.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\comicbd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\comicbd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\cour.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\cour.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\courbd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\courbd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\couri.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\couri.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\courbi.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\courbi.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\gabriola.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\gabriola.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\georgia.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\georgia.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\georgiab.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\georgiab.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\georgiai.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\georgiai.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\georgiaz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\georgiaz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\impact.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\impact.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\times.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\times.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\timesbd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\timesbd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\timesi.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\timesi.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\timesbi.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\timesbi.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\trebuc.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\trebuc.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\trebucbd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\trebucbd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\trebucit.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\trebucit.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\trebucbi.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\trebucbi.ttf"
ECHO 25
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\verdana.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\verdana.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\verdanab.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\verdanab.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\verdanai.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\verdanai.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\verdanaz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\verdanaz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\webdings.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\webdings.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\wingding.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\wingding.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\sylfaen.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\sylfaen.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\symbol.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\symbol.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\calibri.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\calibri.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\calibril.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\calibril.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\calibrib.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\calibrib.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\calibrii.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\calibrii.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\calibrili.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\calibrili.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\calibriz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\calibriz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\cambria.ttc" "%MYSHARE%\cambria.ttc"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\cambriab.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\cambriab.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\cambriai.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\cambriai.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\cambriaz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\cambriaz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\candara.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\candara.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\candarab.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\candarab.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\candarai.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\candarai.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\candaraz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\candaraz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\consola.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\consola.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\consolab.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\consolab.ttf"
ECHO 49
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\consolai.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\consolai.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\consolaz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\consolaz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\constan.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\constan.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\constanb.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\constanb.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\constani.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\constani.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\constanz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\constanz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\corbel.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\corbel.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\corbelb.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\corbelb.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\corbeli.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\corbeli.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\corbelz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\corbelz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\lucon.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\lucon.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\ariblk.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\ariblk.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\l_10646.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\l_10646.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\micross.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\micross.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\pala.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\pala.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\palab.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\palab.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\palai.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\palai.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\palabi.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\palabi.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\tahoma.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\tahoma.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\tahomabd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\tahomabd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\framd.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\framd.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\framdit.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\framdit.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoepr.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoepr.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoeprb.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoeprb.ttf"
ECHO 73
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoesc.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoesc.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoescb.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoescb.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoeui.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoeui.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoeuib.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoeuib.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoeuii.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoeuii.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoeuil.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoeuil.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\segoeuiz.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\segoeuiz.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\seguisb.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\seguisb.ttf"
COPY "%WINDIR%\FONTS\seguisym.ttf" "%MYSHARE%\seguisym.ttf"
PAUSE
Other Stuff
Compacting VDI Images
You’ll need zerofree. It works on ext4 filesystems as well. Install it on the VM, then reboot with an Arch LiveCD. Mount the system some place (e.g. /mnt/vm) as read-only and zerofree it
mount -o ro /dev/sda2 /mnt/vm
zerofree /dev/sda2
Now shutdown the VM (and remove the LiveCD). On the VirtualBox host (mine was Windows)
cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox"
VBoxManage.exe modifyhd c:\path\to\thedisk.vdi --compact
Dropbox
Install both the dropbox and dropbox-cli packages with yaourt. Some useful commands
# Get to your folder
cd ~/Dropbox
# See the overall sync status
dropbox-cli status
# See file status
dropbox-cli filestatus
# Set a proxy
dropbox-cli proxy manual http jhproxy1.phibred.com 8080
CA Certificates
Copy certificates in PEM format and ending with a .pem extension to /etc/ssl/certs. Then, as root, run update-ca-trust.
Google Chrome didn’t seem to depend on the system store.
Emoji
Either install ttf-symbola or emojione-color-font
Adding Mirrors
reflector will fetch the latest mirrors based on some criteria you provide
it (e.g. I want HTTPS and IPv6 only.) You can do this
online as well.
/tmp size
This is set to a small, fixed size which is a good
thing. To install stuff, read the docs about
some way to set the temporary folder. For example, pyenv allows you to
export $TMPDIR before installation. I use /var/tmp
TMPDIR=/var/tmp pyenv install 3.5.1
However, this can be a little annoying. systemd is the one that creates this
mount (since I couldn’t find it in /etc/fstab… since I created it myself
with genfstab!) with this
/usr/lib/systemd/system/tmp.mount
One option would be to rename. A better one would be to simply mask it
systemctl mask tmp.mount
Setting /tmp to a fixed size is still good. But it seems to use half the
RAM; with my VPS box, this is untenable. Since I get tons of storage (and very
little memory), I resorted to creating a 5-10GiB partition just for /tmp.
Pacman and GPG Proxies
Corporate proxy blocked port 11371 (the default) that Pacman used to get
its keys. Had to modify /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/gpg.conf and modify the
keyserver to hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net:443
Key could not be looked up remotely
sudo mv -v /etc/pacman.d/gnupg{,.bak}
sudo mv -v /root/.gnupg{,.bak}
sudo gpg --refresh-keys
sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys