Installing Arch Linux with Btrfs and systemd-boot
A while ago I described an installation of Arch Linux with Btrfs, systemd-boot and LUKS. Normally, I use an encrypted system for laptops only. For desktop computers I have a simpler setup without LUKS but with a swap partition. This post describes how to install such a system.
It’s almost the same installation that is described in this video1 (German).
Using SSH
Again, I recommend to do the installation as far as possible from a second computer via SSH as described here since that’s much more convenient.
Partitioning
For the rest of this post, we assume that we install Arch Linux on /dev/sda. Adjust the steps for your setup if necessary.
# gdisk /dev/sda
Create new partition table:
Command (? for help): o
Create an EFI partition (choose size 550M and hex code EF00):
Command (? for help): n
Create a root partition (adopt the default values for partition number, first sector and partition type - enter a relative size for the last sector making sure to leave sufficient space for the swap partition):
Command (? for help): n
Create a swap partition (adopt the default values for partition number, first sector and last sector - enter 8200 as partition type):
Command (? for help): n
Check the partitions:
Command (? for help): p
Write the new partitions to disk if everything’s OK:
Command (? for help): w
File System Creation
Format the EFI partition with FAT32 and give it the label EFI - you can choose any other label name:
# mkfs.vfat -F32 -n EFI /dev/sda1
Format the root partition with Btrfs and give it the label ROOT - you can choose any other label name:
# mkfs.btrfs -L ROOT /dev/sda2
Format the swap partition and give it the label SWAP - you can choose any other label name:
# mkswap -L SWAP /dev/sda3
Activate swap:
# swapon /dev/sda3
Create and Mount Subvolumes
Create subvolumes for root, home, the package cache, snapshots and the entire Btrfs file system:
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
# btrfs sub create /mnt/@
# btrfs sub create /mnt/@home
# btrfs sub create /mnt/@pkg
# btrfs sub create /mnt/@snapshots
# umount /mnt
Mount the subvolumes:
# mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache,ssd,subvol=@ /dev/sda2 /mnt
# mkdir -p /mnt/{boot,home,var/cache/pacman/pkg,.snapshots,btrfs}
# mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache,ssd,subvol=@home /dev/sda2 /mnt/home
# mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache,ssd,subvol=@pkg /dev/sda2 /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg
# mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache,ssd,subvol=@snapshots /dev/sda2 /mnt/.snapshots
# mount -o noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd,space_cache,ssd,subvolid=5 /dev/sda2 /mnt/btrfs
Mount the EFI partition
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
Base System and /etc/fstab
Install Arch Linux (adjust this list to your needs - in this example the long term support kernel will be installed, if you prefer the “normal” kernel, just remove the -lts from the subsequent commands):
# pacstrap /mnt linux-lts base base-devel btrfs-progs intel-ucode nano
Generate /etc/fstab:
# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
System Configuration
Since I want a German system the following steps are according to that. Adjust them to your needs.
chroot into the new system:
# arch-chroot /mnt/
Set host name:
# echo <YOUR-HOSTNAME> > /etc/hostname
Set locale:
# echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
Uncomment the following rows of /etc/locale.gen:
#de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8
#de_DE ISO-8859-1
#de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15
Generate locale:
# locale-gen
Set keyboard layout and font:
# echo KEYMAP=de-latin1 > /etc/vconsole.conf
# echo FONT=lat9w-16 >> /etc/vconsole.conf
Set time zone:
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime
Define hosts in /etc/hosts:
#<ip-address> <hostname.domain.org> <hostname>
127.0.0.1 <YOUR-HOSTNAME>.localdomain <YOUR-HOSTNAME>
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost
Set root password:
# passwd
Initramfs
Recreate initramfs:
# mkinitcpio -p linux-lts
Boot Manager
Install systemd-boot:
# bootctl --path=/boot install
Create file /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf and fill it with:
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux-lts
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux-lts.img
options root=LABEL=ROOT rootflags=subvol=@ rw
Edit file /boot/loader/loader.conf and fill it with:
default arch.conf
timeout 4
console-mode max
editor no
Final Steps
Exit chroot, unmount partitions and reboot:
# exit
# umount -R /mnt
# reboot
Have fun with your system!