Arch Installer

Just another guided/automated Arch Linux installer with a twist. The installer also doubles as a python library to install Arch Linux and manage services, packages, and other things inside the installed system (Usually from a live medium).

archinstall discord server
archinstall matrix.org channel
archinstall #archinstall@irc.libera.chat
archinstall documentation

Installation & Usage

sudo pacman -S archinstall

Alternative ways to install are git clone the repository or pip install --upgrade archinstall.

Running the guided installer

Assuming you are on an Arch Linux live-ISO or installed via pip:

archinstall

Running the guided installer using `git`

    # cd archinstall-git
    # python -m archinstall

Advanced

Some additional options that most users do not need are hidden behind the --advanced flag.

Running from a declarative configuration file or URL

archinstall can be run with a JSON configuration file. There are 2 different configuration files to consider, the user_configuration.json contains all general installation configuration, whereas the user_credentials.json contains the sensitive user configuration such as user password, root password, and encryption password.

An example of the user configuration file can be found here configuration file and an example of the credentials configuration here credentials file.

HINT: The configuration files can be auto-generated by starting archinstall, configuring all desired menu points and then going to Save configuration.

To load the configuration file into archinstall run the following command

archinstall --config <path to user config file or URL> --creds <path to user credentials config file or URL>

Help or Issues

If you come across any issues, kindly submit your issue here on Github or post your query in the discord help channel.

When submitting an issue, please:

Provide the stacktrace of the output if applicable
Attach the /var/log/archinstall/install.log to the issue ticket. This helps us help you!
- To extract the log from the ISO image, one way is to use
```
curl -F'file=@/var/log/archinstall/install.log' https://0x0.st
```

Available Languages

Archinstall is available in different languages which have been contributed and are maintained by the community. The language can be switched inside the installer (first menu entry). Bear in mind that not all languages provide full translations as we rely on contributors to do the translations. Each language has an indicator that shows how much has been translated.

Any contributions to the translations are more than welcome, to get started please follow the guide

Fonts

The ISO does not ship with all fonts needed for different languages. Fonts that use a different character set than Latin will not be displayed correctly. If those languages want to be selected then a proper font has to be set manually in the console.

All available console fonts can be found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts and set with setfont LatGrkCyr-8x16.

Scripting your own installation

Scripting interactive installation

There are some examples in the examples/ directory that should serve as a starting point.

The following is a small example of how to script your own interactive installation:

from pathlib import Path

from archinstall import Installer, ProfileConfiguration, profile_handler, User
from archinstall.default_profiles.minimal import MinimalProfile
from archinstall.lib.disk.device_model import FilesystemType
from archinstall.lib.disk.encryption_menu import DiskEncryptionMenu
from archinstall.lib.disk.filesystem import FilesystemHandler
from archinstall.lib.interactions.disk_conf import select_disk_config

fs_type = FilesystemType('ext4')

# Select a device to use for the installation
disk_config = select_disk_config()

# Optional: ask for disk encryption configuration
data_store = {}
disk_encryption = DiskEncryptionMenu(disk_config.device_modifications, data_store).run()

# initiate file handler with the disk config and the optional disk encryption config
fs_handler = FilesystemHandler(disk_config, disk_encryption)

# perform all file operations
# WARNING: this will potentially format the filesystem and delete all data
fs_handler.perform_filesystem_operations()

mountpoint = Path('/tmp')

with Installer(
        mountpoint,
        disk_config,
        disk_encryption=disk_encryption,
        kernels=['linux']
) as installation:
    installation.mount_ordered_layout()
    installation.minimal_installation(hostname='minimal-arch')
    installation.add_additional_packages(['nano', 'wget', 'git'])

    # Optionally, install a profile of choice.
    # In this case, we install a minimal profile that is empty
    profile_config = ProfileConfiguration(MinimalProfile())
    profile_handler.install_profile_config(installation, profile_config)

    user = User('archinstall', 'password', True)
    installation.create_users(user)

This installer will perform the following actions:

Prompt the user to configure the disk partitioning
Prompt the user to setup disk encryption
Create a file handler instance for the configured disk and the optional disk encryption
Perform the disk operations (WARNING: this will potentially format the disks and erase all data)
Install a basic instance of Arch Linux (base base-devel linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs efibootmgr)
Install and configures a bootloader to partition 0 on UEFI. On BIOS, it sets the root to partition 0.
Install additional packages (nano, wget, git)
Create a new user

To create your own ISO with this script in it: Follow ArchISO's guide on creating your own ISO.

Script non-interactive automated installation

For an example of a fully scripted, automated installation please refer to the example full_automated_installation.py

Unattended installation based on MAC address

Archinstall comes with an unattended example which will look for a matching profile for the machine it is being run on, based on any local MAC address. For instance, if the machine the code is executed on has the MAC address 52:54:00:12:34:56 it will look for a profile called 52-54-00-12-34-56.py. If it's found, the unattended installation will begin and source that profile as its installation procedure.

Profiles

archinstall comes with a set of pre-configured profiles available for selection during the installation process.

The profiles' definitions and the packages they will install can be directly viewed in the menu, or default profiles

Testing

Using a Live ISO Image

If you want to test a commit, branch, or bleeding edge release from the repository using the standard Arch Linux Live ISO image, replace the archinstall version with a newer one and execute the subsequent steps defined below.

*Note: When booting from a live USB, the space on the ramdisk is limited and may not be sufficient to allow running a re-installation or upgrade of the installer. In case one runs into this issue, any of the following can be used

Resize the root partition https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Archiso#Adjusting_the_size_of_the_root_file_system
The boot parameter copytoram=y (https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/mkinitcpio/mkinitcpio-archiso/-/blob/master/docs/README.bootparams#L26) can be specified which will copy the root filesystem to tmpfs.*

You need a working network connection
Install the build requirements with pacman -Sy; pacman -S git python-pip gcc pkgconf (note that this may or may not work depending on your RAM and current state of the squashfs maximum filesystem free space)
Uninstall the previous version of archinstall with pip uninstall --break-system-packages archinstall
Now clone the latest repository with git clone https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall
Enter the repository with cd archinstall At this stage, you can choose to check out a feature branch for instance with git checkout v2.3.1-rc1
To run the source code, there are 2 different options:
- Run a specific branch version from source directly using python -m archinstall, in most cases this will work just fine, the rare case it will not work is if the source has introduced any new dependencies that are not installed yet
- Installing the branch version with pip install --break-system-packages . and archinstall

Without a Live ISO Image

To test this without a live ISO, the simplest approach is to use a local image and create a loop device.
This can be done by installing pacman -S arch-install-scripts util-linux locally and doing the following:

# truncate -s 20G testimage.img
# losetup --partscan --show --find ./testimage.img
# pip install --upgrade archinstall
# python -m archinstall --script guided
# qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -machine q35,accel=kvm -device intel-iommu -cpu host -m 4096 -boot order=d -drive file=./testimage.img,format=raw -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly,file=/usr/share/ovmf/x64/OVMF_CODE.fd -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly,file=/usr/share/ovmf/x64/OVMF_VARS.fd

This will create a 20 GB testimage.img and create a loop device which we can use to format and install to.
archinstall is installed and executed in guided mode. Once the installation is complete, ~~you can use qemu/kvm to boot the test media.~~
(You'd actually need to do some EFI magic in order to point the EFI vars to the partition 0 in the test medium, so this won't work entirely out of the box, but that gives you a general idea of what we're going for here)

There's also a Building and Testing guide.
It will go through everything from packaging, building and running (with qemu) the installer against a dev branch.

FAQ

How to dual boot with Windows

To install Arch Linux alongside an existing Windows installation using archinstall, follow these steps:

Ensure some unallocated space is available for the Linux installation after the Windows installation.
Boot into the ISO and run archinstall.
Choose Disk configuration -> Manual partitioning.
Select the disk on which Windows resides.
Select Create a new partition.
Choose a filesystem type.
Determine the start and end sectors for the new partition location (values can be suffixed with various units).
Assign the mountpoint / to the new partition.
Assign the Boot/ESP partition the mountpoint /boot from the partitioning menu.
Confirm your settings and exit to the main menu by choosing Confirm and exit.
Modify any additional settings for your installation as necessary.
Start the installation upon completion of setup.

Mission Statement

Archinstall promises to ship a guided installer that follows the Arch Linux Principles as well as a library to manage services, packages, and other Arch Linux aspects.

The guided installer ensures a user-friendly experience, offering optional selections throughout the process. Emphasizing its flexible nature, these options are never obligatory. In addition, the decision to use the guided installer remains entirely with the user, reflecting the Linux philosophy of providing full freedom and flexibility.

Archinstall primarily functions as a flexible library for managing services, packages, and other elements within an Arch Linux system. This core library is the backbone for the guided installer that Archinstall provides. It is also designed to be used by those who wish to script their own custom installations.

Therefore, Archinstall will try its best to not introduce any breaking changes except for major releases which may break backward compatibility after notifying about such changes.