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Arch Linux Installation + Customization
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arch_installation.md

Introduction

This guide aids with the ArchLinux installation using VMWare

This is based on the official Arch Linux installation guide, my own experience and some videos I found on Youtube.

Installation

First of all change the keyboard layout to the desired language with loadkeys, in my case to spanish

loadkeys es

Verify internet connection:

ping -c 1 google.com

Create partitions with cfdisk

cfdisk
  • Select dos
  • Create one partition with 512M
  • Create the second partition with the total amount of space less 4.5G
  • Create last partition for swap with the rest of the free space (Change type to Linux swap)
  • Press "Write" to apply partitions changes and press "Quit"

Format first partition (512M) with mkfs.vfat:

mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sda1

Format second partition (the biggest one):

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

Create swap and apply changes:

mkswap /dev/sda3
swapon

Create and mount partitions:

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

Now the first and most important part of the installation is done, lets continue by installing some packages:

pacstrap /mnt linux linux-firmware grub networkmanager wpa_supplicant base base-devel

Once it has finished, create the partitions file with genfstab:

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

At this point, we can say that the system is ready to use it... but it's empty! To "jump" into the real system let's use arch-chroot:

arch-chroot /mnt

Let's change root's password:

passwd

Create a new user and change its password:

useradd -m d3ext
passwd d3ext

Before we continue further I recommend you to install some useful packages:

pacman -S sudo nano vim

If you want the user to have high privileges, add it to wheel group:

usermod -aG wheel d3ext

Edit sudoers file and uncomment this line "%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL"

nano /etc/sudoers

Change the system hostname:

echo 'archlinux' > /etc/hostname

Edit the /etc/hosts config file:

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 arch arch.localhost arch

Configure keyboard layout so every time the system boots, it uses correct layout:

Uncomment "en_us" and "es_es" (in my case spanish)

nano /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen

Install the Grub:

grub-install /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

To verify that the Grub has been installed successfully let's reboot the system:

reboot now

Once the system has booted as expected let's enable some services:

systemctl enable wpa_supplicant
systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl start wpa_supplicant
systemctl start NetworkManager

Install aur and more packages to have more "power":

pacman -S git curl wget kitty firefox

Execute as non-privileged user (d3ext)

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

If you want to use ArchLinux for pentesting purposes, install the BlackArch repo:

curl -O https://blackarch.org/strap.sh
chmod +x strap.sh
./strap.sh

Install a basic graphical interface (we will change it later, this operation may take some time):

pacman -S xorg xorg-server gnome gtkmm
systemctl enable gdm
systemctl start gdm

Once you have entered the graphical interface go to "Settings" --> "Keyboard" and add your language and remove english

Now install vmware tools to set the correct screen display and more:

pacman -S open-vm-tools xf86-video-vmware xf86-input-vmmouse
systemctl enable vmtoolsd

Restart system again to verify that the screen size is correct:

reboot now

Install some fonts:

wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v2.2.2/Hack.zip
wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v2.2.2/Iosevka.zip
wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v2.2.2/JetBrainsMono.zip

# Move fonts files

fc-cache -v -f

* Next steps are only to configure the system as I like:

pacman -S bspwm sxhkd polybar dunst rofi alacritty kitty feh zsh fish brightnessctl ranger pulseaudio bat thunar neofetch picom discord neovim i3lock bc flameshot inetutils lsd zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting

Change default shell

chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh d3ext

Download some showcase scripts:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stark/Color-Scripts/master/color-scripts/panes
chmod +x panes
mv panes /usr/bin/panes

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dylanaraps/pfetch/master/pfetch
chmod +x pfetch
mv pfetch /usr/bin/pfetch

Optimization

  • Run VMWare as Administrator

  • Enable USB 3.1 compatibility option

  • Enable Virtualize IOMMU

  • Disable Accelerate 3D graphics

  • Edit VM configuration file and add: usb.generic.keepStreamsEnabled = "TRUE" and usb.restrictions.defaultAllow = "TRUE"

  • Ensure to have installed VMWare packages:

sudo pacman -S open-vm-tools
systemctl enable vmtoolsd
  • Install drivers:
pacman -S mesa libva-mesa-driver libva-intel-driver libva-utils nvidia-utils intel-media-driver
  • Disable wireplumber and pipewire:
systemctl --user disable pipewire
systemctl --global disable wireplumber
  • Check if hardware acceleration is enabled:
glxinfo | grep -i "direct rendering"
  • Update keyboard speed:
kbdrate

Customization Resources

Window Managers

Terminals

Shells

Bars

Lockscreen

Wallpapers

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