Arch Linux Installation

This is a set of scripts installing Arch Linux and running post-installation tasks, e.g. installing a desktop environment, packages, and config files. They are intended for Cinnamon, GNOME, and KDE.

Requirements:

1. curl
2. findutils
3. fzf
4. git
5. grep
6. sed

Install

The install script will install Arch Linux on a user-prompted block device. Supports installations on hardware using UEFI or legacy BIOS and will set a GPT partition table and ext4 filesystem. Other features, such as bootloader or encryption, are set when prompted.

The OS can be configured for LVM-on-LUKS full-disk encryption or not. Using GRUB will also encrypt the /boot directory and write a decryption key into the initial ramdisk so that the password prompt only appears once. For alternate bootloaders, the boot directory will remain unencrypted.

There is also the optional provision for creating a separate, unencrypted partition of arbitrary size. Useful for creating shared filesystems readable on Windows / MacOS for USB drive installations.

The rough partition scheme is:

1. BIOS compatibility partition, empty if GRUB not used (1 MiB)
2. EFI partition (512 MiB)
3. Share partition (optional)
4. Arch Linux system (Plain / LVM / LUKS-encrypted partitions or volumes)
   - swap
   - root
   - home (optional)

Note: The script uses sgdisk for partitioning, which uses binary (base 2) units for specifying partition sizes. For example, 500M corresponds to 500 mebibytes, not 500 megabytes.

To run, (need to be root):

sudo ./install

Options

Installation options will be queries as the script runs.

Partitioning

1) Back
2) LVM on LUKS
3) LVM
4) Plain

2. Installs on LUKS-encrypted partition. Partitions (e.g. root and home) are kept as logical volumes on the LUKS partition.
3. Installs on unencrypted LVM partition.
4. Installs everything on primary partitions.

Boot system

1) Back
2) GRUB
3) systemd-boot
4) EFISTUB

2. Installs GRUB, BIOS version if no EFI firmware is detected. Otherwise, the EFI version is installed.
3. systemd-boot (previously gummiboot) installs kernels in /boot and copies them over to /efi. SystemD path hooks are also installed to update kernel images and microcode in /efi after updates.
4. Not supported yet...

Etc.

The script will also prompt for:

1. Host name
2. User name
3. User password
4. (Optional) LUKS password
5. Locale (e.g. en_US.UTF-8)
6. Time zone (e.g. America/Toronto)

The script will then mount the partitions, set up chroot, download and install all the base and base-devel packages via pacstrap, set up the specified user account, lock the root account, and unmount everything.

Post-install

Once the base system is installed, use the ./postinstall script (as the user account, not root), to install the remaining packages, themes, etc.

Simply run:

./postinstall

The script will check if the dependencies are installed and if the network connection is active. The rest should be self explanatory.

Options

1) Quit                 4) Miscellaneous        7) Applications
2) Autopilot            5) Desktop environment  8) Themes
3) Base                 6) Network tools        9) Personalization

2) Autopilot

Automatically install (without prompting) packages and configs.

3) Base

1) Back                   5) Firmware              9) Pacman styling
2) All                    6) Updates              10) Pacman parallel
3) Base packages          7) Enable multilib      11) Disable system beep
4) Mirrorlist             8) Sudo insults

3. Installs base.list.

4. Use reflector to select the fastest https mirrors.

5. Install firmware and CPU microcode.

6. Updates system packages.

7. Enable multilib in /etc/pacman.conf.

8. Enable sudo insults for incorrect login attempts via /etc/sudoers. Pipes to visudo via tee, so it's safe.

9. Enable Color and ILoveCandy in /etc/pacman.conf.

10. Enable ParallelDownloads in /etc/pacman.conf.

11. Blacklist pcskpr and snd_pcsp kernel modules.

4) Miscellaneous

1) Back                     5) Linux RT kernel         9) Laptop tools
2) All                      6) Linux RT LTS kernel    10) Plymouth
3) Linux hardened kernel    7) Linux zen kernel       10) zsh
4) Linux LTS kernel         8) Linux utilities

3. Install the linux-hardened kernel (with headers).

4. Install the linux-lts kernel (plus headers).

5. Install the linux-rt kernel (plus headers).

6. Install the linux-rt-lts kernel (plus headers).

7. Install the linux-zen kernel (plus headers).

8. Install general command line utilities in utils.list.

9. Install tlp for power management and xorg-xbacklight for screen brightness.

10. Install Plymouth splash screen.

11. Install zsh, fish-like plugins, nerd fonts, and powerlevel10k theme.

5) Desktop environment

1) Back
2) All
3) GNOME
4) Cinnamon
5) KDE

3. Install GNOME desktop environment (with GDM for login).

4. Install Cinnamon desktop environment and Gammastep (with LightDM for login).

5. Install KDE desktop environment (with SDDM for login).

6) Network tools

1) Back                    4) Local discovery         7) Tunnel pacman over tor
2) All                     5) Firewall
3) Networking              6) Install tor

3. Install Network Manager and OpenSSH. Sets NetworkManager to use random MAC addresses for network interfaces.

4. Install Avahi and Samba and enable tools for local network hosting and discovery.

5. Install UFW for network firewall and set up basic rules.

6. Install tor and torsocks (no Tor Browser).

7. EXPERIMENTAL Tunnel all package updates through Tor.

7) Applications

 1) Back                            16) KVM (host)
 2) All                             17) KVM (guest)
 3) 3D acceleration                 18) Messaging
 4) Android tools                   19) MinGW
 5) General applications            20) Music
 6) General applications (AUR)      21) Printing
 7) General KDE applications        22) PipeWire
 8) General KDE applications (AUR)  23) TeX Live
 9) Codecs                          24) Tor browser
10) Containers                      25) Vim
11) Development                     26) Neovim
12) Development (AUR)               27) LazyVim (Neovim)
13) Extra applications              28) VirtualBox (host)
14) Extra KDE applications          29) VirtualBox (guest)
15) Emulators                       30) Wine

3. Install 3D video acceleration packages in 3d-accel.list.

4. Install packages in android.list for accessing storage on Android devices.

5. Install general GTK applications from apps.list.

6. Install general GTK AUR applications from apps-aur.list.

7. Install general KDE (Qt) applications from apps-kde.list.

8. Install general KDE (Qt) AUR applications from apps-kde-aur.list.

9. Install GStreamer plugins for handing various media codecs.

10. Install container packages (conatinerd, LXC, Nomad, Podman).

11. Install packages for programming and software development.

12. Install AUR packages for programming and software development.

13. Install extra GTK applications from extra.list.

14. Install extra KDE (Qt) applications from extra-kde.list.

15. Install game system emulators.

16. Install Virt-Manager and tools for using KVM virtualization.

17. Install packages for Linux guests to enable host-to-guest sharing and adjustable display resolution.

18. Install IRC, email, and other messaging clients.

19. Install MinGW for Windows/Linux cross-platform compilation.

20. Install applications for playing music (mpd, ncmcpp, strawberry), computing replaygain (ffmpeg), tagging metadata (beets), and using Pandora (pianobar).

21. Install CUPS, drivers, and applications for handling printers.

22. Install PipeWire for A/V handling (replaces PulseAudio, ALSA, etc.).

23. Install TeX libraries and Font Awesome icons.

24. Download and install the Tor browser. Edits the application launcher icon to look for "browser-tor".

25. Install vim and vim-plugins and then set the user vimrc.

26. Install neovim and neovim-plugins and then set the user init.vim.

27. Install LazyVim for Neovim and its dependencies.

28. Install VirtualBox and kernel modules (dkms) for running it (host).

29. Install kernel modules (dkms) and tools for VirtualBox guests.

30. Install Wine not-emulator, along with the Mono and browser and some audio libraries.

8) Themes

1) Back                           8) Materia (KDE)
2) All                            9) Fonts
3) Arc (GTK)                     10) Papirus (icons)
4) Arc (KDE)                     11) Colorific themes
5) Adapta (GTK)                  12) Nightfox themes
6) Plata (GTK)                   13) Timed backgrounds
7) Materia (GTK)                 14) Dynamic wallpapers (Plasma)

3. Download, compile, and install a fork of the Arc GTK theme.

4. Download, compile, and install a fork of the Arc Kvantum theme.

5. Download, compile, and install a fork of the Adapta GTK theme.

6. Download, compile, and install a fork of the Plata GTK theme.

7. Download, compile, and install a fork of the Materia GTK theme.

8. Download, compile, and install a fork of the Materia Kvantum theme.

9. Install Noto, Cantarell, Ubuntu, Dejavu, and Roboto fonts.

10. Install tweaked version of Papirus icon theme.

11. Install colorific themes for alacritty, gitk, kitty, Neovim, tmux, and Vim.

12. Install Nightfox themes for alacritty, kitty, Neovim, and tmux.

13. Install timed backgrounds where transitions from day to night match sunrise/sunset times.

14. Install timed backgrounds for Plasma where transitions from day to night match sunrise/sunset times.

9) Personalization

 1) Back                            12) Hide Avahi programs
 2) All                             13) Import KDE settings
 3) Select system fonts             14) Import application dconf
 4) Select icon theme               15) Import GNOME terminal profiles
 5) Select GTK theme                16) Enable autologin
 6) Select Plasma theme             17) Invert brightness (i915)
 7) Select Plymouth theme           18) Enable IOMMU (Intel)
 8) Set dark GTK                    19) Disable PulseAudio suspend
 9) Select login shell              20) Disable 802.11n
10) Import Cinnamon dconf           21) Add scripts
11) Import GNOME dconf              22) Select default kernel

3. Select the system font. (Noto or Roboto)

4. Select the system icon theme.

5. Select the system desktop theme (GTK).

6. Select the system desktop theme (Plasma).

7. Select the Plymouth splash screen theme.

8. Set GTK applications to prefer the dark theme.

9. Select default login shell (Bash or Zsh).

10. Import pre-defined dconf settings for Cinnamon.

11. Import pre-defined dconf settings for GNOME.

12. Hide the Avahi desktop applications in the application list.

13. Configure default desktop and application settings for Plasma.

14. Import pre-defined dconf settings for applications.

15. Import GNOME-terminal profiles (Light/Dark) via dconf.

16. Enable autologin for the current user.

17. Invert brightness via kernel command line options in the GRUB prompt.

18. Enable Intel IOMMU for the i915 graphics driver. Helps fix blank displays for Haswell CPUs running kernels >=5.7.

19. Disable PulseAudio suspend (suspend can sometimes cause weird buzzing).

20. Disable 802.11n networking in iwlwifi. May help speed up poor 802.11ac connections.

21. Download and install general utility scripts.

22. Select the default boot kernel from the currently installed ones.