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How to install Arch Linux with cryptoLuks and KDE Plasma

How to install Arch Linux with cryptoLuks and KDE Plasma

Published on December 2023

A complete guide to installing Arch Linux with encryption, /, /boot and /home partitions, the KDE Plasma environment, and additional configuration

Step 1: Preparing the bootable USB drive

  1. Download the Arch Linux ISO:

  2. Create the bootable USB drive:

    • Use dd (Linux/MacOS): 
      sudo dd if=archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync
      Where /dev/sdX is your USB drive.

Step 2: Configuring the laptop’s BIOS/UEFI

  1. Power on the laptop and enter BIOS/UEFI (usually F2 or Del on startup).

  2. Check and configure:

    • Boot Mode: enable UEFI.
    • Secure Boot: disable.
    • Fast Boot: disable.
    • Enable AHCI for the disk (if available).

  3. Make sure the USB drive is first in the boot order.

Step 3: Booting from the USB drive

  1. Boot from the USB drive by selecting it through the Boot Menu (F12 or a similar key).
  2. In the startup menu select Arch Linux (x86_64).

Step 4: Network configuration

  1. Connecting to the network via Wi-Fi:

    • For interfaces with iwctl: 
      iwctl
device list  # Find your Wi-Fi interface
station wlan0 scan
station wlan0 connect "SSID"
exit

  2. Make sure the network is working:

    ping archlinux.org

Step 5: Configuring mirrors (optional)

Update the mirror list:

pacman -S reflector
reflector --latest 10 --country='RU' --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Step 6: Disk partitioning and encryption

  1. Partitioning the disk with fdisk:

    fdisk /dev/sda
    • Press n to create a new partition:
      • EFI partition: size 512M, type EFI System (code 1 in the t menu).
      • Swap partition: size 8G, type Linux Swap (code 19 in the t menu)
      • Main partition: remaining space for encryption, type Linux filesystem.
    • Press w to write the changes.

  2. Formatting the EFI partition:

    mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1

  3. Formatting and enabling Swap:

    mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2

  4. Setting up LUKS encryption:

    cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda3
cryptsetup open /dev/sda3 Disk

  5. Creating LVM inside LUKS:

    pvcreate /dev/mapper/Disk
vgcreate VG0 /dev/mapper/Disk
lvcreate -n ROOT -L 100G VG0
lvcreate -n HOME -l 100%FREE VG0

  6. Formatting the partitions:

    mkfs.ext4 /dev/VG0/ROOT
mkfs.ext4 /dev/VG0/HOME

  7. Mounting the partitions:

    mount /dev/VG0/ROOT /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/VG0/HOME /mnt/home

Step 7: Installing the base system

  1. Install the base packages:

    pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux-lts linux-lts-headers linux-firmware bash-completion net-tools dnsutils dialog rsync wget os-prober mtools dosfstools nfs-utils ntfs-3g vim mlocate usbutils gvfs git iwd dhclient lvm2

  2. Create the fstab file:

    genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Step 8: System configuration

  1. Enter the installed system:

    arch-chroot /mnt
    Set the root password:
    passwd

  2. Configure the timezone:

    ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Moscow /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

  3. Configure localization:

    • In /etc/locale.gen uncomment: 
      ru_RU.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
    • Generate the locales: 
      locale-gen
echo "LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

  4. Set the hostname:

    echo "myhostname" > /etc/hostname

  5. Configure the network:

    systemctl enable NetworkManager

Step 9: Bootloader configuration

  1. Create the bootloader and a minimal kernel image (skip this and come back to it later if something doesn’t go according to plan)

    pacman -S linux-firmware efibootmgr

  2. Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf like this:

    MODULES=(ext4)
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect plymouth microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap encrypt lvm2 consolefont block filesystems fsck)
#resume if you have SWAP, otherwise it will complain

  3. A nice splash screen on login:

    pacman -S extra/plymouth
    plymouth-set-default-theme -l   # list themes
plymouth-set-default-theme bgrt  # or spinner

  4. Rebuild the minimal kernel image:

    mkinitcpio -P

  5. Install systemd-boot:

    bootctl install
    pacman -S amd-ucode

  6. Create the bootloader entry file:

    vim /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

    Contents:

    title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux-lts
initrd  /amd-ucode.img
initrd  /initramfs-linux-lts.img
options cryptdevice=UUID=270f815e-a9ad-468d-883f-b7151ee5e3d2:crypt root=/dev/mapper/VG0-ROOT rw quiet splash loglevel=3 nowatchdog amd_pstate=active amdgpu.dc=1 amdgpu.noretry=0

  7. Find the UUID for the LUKS partition:

    blkid

    Replace <disk-UUID> in the bootloader configuration. Take the UUID of /dev/nvme0n1p3 - the partition with the whole encrypted Crypto_LUKS system, not boot and not Swap

  8. Edit loader.conf:

    echo "default arch.conf" > /boot/loader/loader.conf

Step 10: Installing drivers

  1. Install the paru package manager:

    git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
sudo makepkg -si

  2. Installing Intel graphics drivers (for AMD replace all ‘Intel’ with ‘amd’, for nvidia - search for your nvidia version)

    Intel graphics use the xf86-video-intel and mesa drivers. Install them with the following command:

    sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-intel lib32-vulkan-intel
sudo pacman -S alsa-utils pulseaudio

    xf86-video-intel — 2D graphics driver. mesa — provides 3D graphics and OpenGL support. lib32-mesa — 32-bit version of Mesa for compatibility with 32-bit applications. vulkan-intel — Vulkan support for Intel. lib32-vulkan-intel — 32-bit version of Vulkan for Intel.

    AMD:

    pacman -S lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader

    NVIDIA:

    pacman -S nvidia-utils lib32-nvidia-utils nvidia-settings nvidia-dkms

Step 11: Installing the desktop environment

  1. Install the graphical environment (KDE Plasma)

    pacman -S plasma plasma-meta kde-applications-meta sddm

  2. Enable the display manager:

    systemctl enable sddm

  3. Install additional packages:

    pacman -S konsole dolphin ark

Step 12: Creating a user and granting permissions

  1. Create a user:

    useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash username
passwd username

  2. Configure sudo:

    pacman -S sudo
EDITOR=vim visudo

    Uncomment the line:

    %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

  3. Reboot:

    exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Step 13: Extras

  1. Rebuilding the minimal kernel image:

    mkinitcpio -P

  2. Console styling:

    paru -Ss alsi

  3. System update:

    paru -Syyuu

  1. Pacman configuration:

    Uncomment in the /etc/pacman.conf file

    [multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d.mirrorlist
    Color
ParallelDownloads = 10
ILoveCandy

  2. Automatic package cache cleanup:

    sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib
sudo systemctl enable paccache.timer

  3. It makes sense to disable building debug packages by turning off !debug and !strip:

    sudo sed -i.bak '/^OPTIONS=/s/strip/!strip/; /^OPTIONS=/s/debug/!debug/' /etc/makepkg.conf