# Preparations

<p class="callout info"><strong>INFO:</strong> This is a shortened version of the <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide">Arch Wiki installation guide</a>.</p>

Download an ISO from the [Arch Linux download](https://archlinux.org/download/) page, either via Torrent or HTTP from a [mirror nearest](https://archlinux.org/download/#download-mirrors) to you.

## Preparing install media

After you downloaded the image you need to flash it to physical media to boot your machine from it, i.e. a USB flash drive.

<p class="callout danger"><strong>WARNING:</strong> All data on the USB flash drive will be lost!</p>

### Windows

On Windows you can use Balena etcher to flash ISOs to USB. Connect your USB to your computer, load the ISO you just downloaded in etcher, select the USB as target and start the flashing process. A pop-up might appear asking you to confirm to overwrite the USB flash drive.

### macOS

Connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch `Terminal.app` and determine the path of the USB flash drive:

~~~bash
diskutil list
~~~

This will list all drives connected to your Mac:

~~~
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         1.0 TB     disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1.0 TB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Daten    697.5 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 1.8 GB     disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.1 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      5.4 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            8.8 GB     disk1s5
   6:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 8.8 GB     disk1s5s1

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.4 GB    disk2
   1:                       0xEF                         10.4 MB    disk2s2
~~~

Look for the device with the line `external`. In this example it's `/dev/disk2 (external, physical)` with a capacity of ~16 GB.

macOS might auto-mount the drive when you connect it. Make sure to unmount it before flashing:

~~~bash
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
~~~

Use `dd` to flash the ISO image directly to your USB flash drive (adjust according to the output of `diskutil list`):

<p class="callout info"><strong>HINT:</strong> Note the 'r' before 'disk', which uses the raw device, which makes the transfer much faster.</p>

<p class="callout warning"><strong>ATTENTION:</strong> This command will run silently.</p>

<p class="callout danger"><strong>WARNING:</strong> This will delete all data on the device. Make sure to supply the correct target or severe data loss may occur!</p>

~~~bash
sudo dd if=path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m 
~~~

After flashing is done, macOS might complain it can't read the drive. This is expected, the drive will still be bootable.

### Linux

Connect your USB flash drive to your computer.

#### GNOME Disk Utility

If you're on GNOME you can open the ISO image by right-clicking it and opening it with GNOME Disk Utility. Then select the inserted USB flash drive as target and click *Restore.*

#### Command line

Determine your USB flash drive's device path with `lsblk`:

~~~
NAME   FSTYPE   LABEL       UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 vfat                 C4DA-2C4D                            /boot
├─sda2 swap                 5b1564b2-2e2c-452c-bcfa-d1f572ae99f2 [SWAP]
└─sda3 ext4                 56adc99b-a61e-46af-aab7-a6d07e504652 /
sdb
└─sdb1 vfat     USB         2C4D-C4DA                            /run/user/1000/usb
~~~

Flash the ISO image to the USB flash drive with `dd`:

~~~bash
sudo dd if=path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress
~~~