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Install Base System

    The

    absolute minimum set of packages required to install Arch Linux onto a machine is as follows: 
    pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware

    InstallHowever, this selection lacks the tooling required for file systems, RAID, LVM, special firmware for devices not included with linux-firmware, networking software, a text editor or packages necessary to access documentation. It also lacks CPU microcode packages with stability and security updates.

    The following table contains additional packages you most likely want to append to the above pacstrap command:

    Package Description base Absolute essentials (required) linux Vanilla Linux kernel and modules, with a few patches applied (required) linux-hardened A security-focused Linux kernel applying a set of hardening patches to mitigate kernel and userspace exploits linux-lts Long-term support (LTS) Linux kernel and modules linux-zen Result of a collaborative effort of kernel hackers to provide the best Linux kernel possible for everyday systems linux-firmware Device firmware files, e.g. WiFi (required) intel-ucode Intel CPU microcode amd-ucode AMD CPU microcode btrfs-progs Userspace tools to manage btrfs filesystems dosfstools Userspace tools to manage FAT filesystems exfatprogs Userspace tools to manage exFAT filesystems f2fs-tools Userspace tools to manage F2FS filesystems e2fsprogs Userspace tools to manage ext2/3/4 filesystems jfsutils Userspace tools to manage JFS filesystems nilfs-utils Userspace tools to manage NILFS2 filesystems ntfs-3g Userspace tools to manage NTFS filesystems reiserfsprogs Userspace tools to manage ReiserFS filesystems udftools Userspace tools to manage UDF filesystems xfsprogs Userspace tools to manage XFS filesystems lvm2 Userspace tools for Logical Volume Management cryptsetup Userspace tools for encrypting storage devices (LUKS) networkmanager Comprehensive network management and configuration suite nano Console text editor man Read documentation (manuals)

    A desireable selection of packages for a useful base system could therefore look like this:

    CAUTION: Be sure to replace amd-ucode with intel-ucode if you're on Intel!

    ATTENTION: If you've chosen to use LUKS disk encryption make sure to include the cryptsetup package!

    TIP: To speed up package installation, edit /etc/pacman.conf and set the option ParallelDownloads to a higher value. To further increase transfer speeds consider using reflector to select mirrors geographically nearest to you, e.g.

    reflector --country Germany --age 12 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware amd-ucode btrfs-progs dosfstools lvm2 nano networkmanager

    Generate the fstab containing information about which storage devices should be mounted at boot:

    # Generate fstab referencing UUIDs of devices/partitions
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

    Switch

    into

    the newly installed system with arch-chroot intoand installationcontinue setting it up:

    arch-chroot /mnt
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