Arch Linux

Jul 21, 2025

Arch Linux is a distribution renowned for its robustness, performance and adaptability, particularly for development purposes. It offers excellent stability and an environment conducive to customization, supported by an extremely fast and reliable package manager. Its philosophy is based on the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle: to offer a light, simple, fast and uncluttered distribution, while leaving a great deal of freedom to the user.

Why choose Arch Linux?

Free and open source: Like most Linux distributions, Arch Linux is totally free. There are no license fees, making it an excellent choice for students, freelancers or enthusiasts.
KISS philosophy: Arch is designed to be simple, light and efficient. It provides only the essentials, allowing you to build your environment à la carte.
Pacman package manager: Pacman is a fast, reliable and well-designed package manager. It enables efficient installation and updating of software, and manages dependencies with precision.
Comprehensive documentation and an active community: the Arch Wiki is probably one of the best technical documentations in the Linux world. It's a gold mine for understanding what you're doing. The community, mostly made up of experienced profiles, is very active and can help you if you get stuck, provided you've done a bit of research beforehand.

Installation and configuration

Prerequisites

Materials required:

A USB key of at least 8 GB
2 GB RAM minimum
A computer with at least 20 GB of free disk space

Download

Since 2017, Arch Linux no longer supports 32-bit architectures. Only 64-bit versions are available.

Visit the official website to download the latest official version of the ISO image.

Create a bootable key

To create a bootable USB flash drive, you can use a tool like Balena Etcher:

Download Balena Etcher from the official website.
Launch the software, select the Arch Linux ISO image.
Choose your USB key as target device.
Click on Flash to start creating the bootable key.

Installing Arch Linux

Booting on USB key

Switch off your computer completely
Plug in the bootable USB key
Reboot and enter BIOS/UEFI by pressing F1, Escape, F9, etc. (depending on your model)
In the boot menu, choose the USB key as the boot device. If everything is set up correctly, you'll be taken to the Arch Linux Interface boot screen.

Launching the installation

On the boot screen, choose the first option to launch the installation. Note that Arch Linux does not offer a graphical installer. Once launched, you'll be taken to a terminal in root mode.

Keyboard configuration

You can display the available layouts with:

localectl list-keymaps

Then load a layout with:

loadkeys nom-disposition

By default, the keyboard is in English (qwerty), but you can switch to azerty with loadkeys fr.

Setting date and time

Arch Linux uses the timedatectl tool to manage the system clock.

Set your time zone with:

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Paris

Check that automatic synchronization is enabled with:

timedatectl status

Activate it if necessary:

timedatectl set-ntp true

This activates NTP, the protocol for automatic synchronization with time servers. This step is important to avoid date errors when installing packages or configuring SSL certificates later on.

Disk partitioning

Check if your system boots in UEFI or BIOS with:

ls /sys/firmware/efi

If the file exists, you are in UEFI. Otherwise, you are in BIOS (Legacy).

List the available disks:

lsblk

Start Partition Manager:

cfdisk /dev/nom-du-disque

Choose GPT if you are in UEFI, DOS if you are in BIOS.

Scores to create

In UEFI mode

Mount point on the installed system	Partition	Partition type	Suggested size
/boot1	/dev/efi_system_partition	EFI System Partition	1 GB
[SWAP]	/dev/swap_partition	Swap space (swap)	At least 4 GB
/	/dev/root_partition	Linux x86-64 root (/)	Remainder of disk

In BIOS

Mount point on the installed system	Partition	Partition type	Suggested size
[SWAP]	/dev/swap_partition	Swap space (swap)	At least 4 GB
/	/dev/root_partition	Linux	Remainder of disk

Select Write, type yes, then Quit.

Formatting partitions

UEFI:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

BIOS:

mkswap /dev/sda1
swapon /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

Basic system installation

Mount the root partition:

On the BIOS:

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

on UEFI:

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

Then install the essential packages:

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware

Generate the fstab file, which enables the operating system to automatically manage partition mounting at each boot, without manual intervention:

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

Enter the Chroot environment:

arch-chroot /mnt

System configuration

Install a text editor to edit:

pacman -S vim

Set the language:

Edit /etc/locale.gen then uncomment the line en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Set the machine name:

echo nom_machine > /etc/hostname

Set root password:

passwd

Installing GRUB

Install the:

pacman -S grub

Once downloaded, you need to install it according to the disk partition format.

For BIOS:

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For UEFI:

pacman -S efibootmgr
mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Finalization

Exit the chroot environment:

exit

Remove the partitions:

umount -R /mnt

Restart:

reboot

On startup, log in with your root login and password.

Network connection after reboot

It may happen that no network connection is active on reboot. You can list the interfaces with:

ip link

Then configure the Interface network by entering the following text in the terminal

cat <<EOF > /etc/systemd/network/20-wired.network
[Match]
Name=nom_de_l_interface

[Network]
DHCP=yes
EOF

Interface graphics (GNOME)

By default, Arch Linux contains no graphical Interface. To add one:

Update the system:

pacman -Syu

Install Xorg with the following command and press enter each time to keep the default choices:

pacman -S xorg

Install GNOME with the following command and enter each time to keep the default choices:

pacman -S gnome gnome-extra

Activate the session manager:

systemctl enable gdm
systemctl start gdm

The system reboots automatically and you get the Interface graphical login. Log in with the root user name and password.

Creating a user

Once in Interface GNOME, you'll need to create a new user for greater security and safer, risk-free use. Enter applications and choose the "console" option to launch the terminal.

Add a user:

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

Install sudo:

pacman -S sudo

Activate sudo rights:

EDITOR=nano visudo

Then uncomment the line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Restart the system and log in with your user name.

Installing software

Since Arch Linux is minimalist, a lot of software is not installed by default. To add what you need, type the following command:

pacman -S nom_du_paquet_a_installe

For example, to install the nano text editor, you can type:

pacman -S nano

To install a lightweight web browser such as firefox, use:

pacman -S firefox

Finally, if you want to add essential network tools such as net-tools, the command would be:

pacman -S net-tools

Don't forget that you can install several packages in a single command by listing them separately:

pacman -S vim firefox net-tools

Arch Linux stands out for its remarkable stability, minimalist philosophy and robustness, making it an ideal choice for development environments. By providing only the essentials, it offers a lightweight, high-performance foundation that's easy to customize to your specific needs. This minimalist approach also favors greater control over the system, reinforcing security by limiting the attack surface. Thanks to its active community and exhaustive documentation, Arch Linux can help you create a secure, flexible environment optimized for professional development.

If you've enjoyed getting started with Arch Linux, you'll love our tutorial on Fedora OS, a modular, secure and robust operating system that adapts to your needs and uses.

FedoraThe Linux distribution that provides you with a free, complete and secure workspace.

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