How to Dual Boot Arch Linux With Windows

Debiprasad Das — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 18:07:07 +0000

First Step:

Create an empty unallocated Empty partition in windows then boot into archiso via a USB drive after flashing it via balenaEtcher,

after entering in TTY change the font if you want a bigger font.

setfont ter-132n

Setup WIFI connection on TTY:

check your internet connection using

ping archlinux.org

if you don't have internet connection then connnect it using iwctl

First get your WIFI interface name

iwctl
# Get WIFI interface name:
device list
# Scan WIFI networks:
station <interface_name> scan
station <interface_name> get-networks
# Finally, to connect to a network:
station <interface_name> connect <SSID>

to learn more about iwctl

Partition Disk:

cfdisk

NOTE : If it's does not show correct partition
then select your drive. you can get drive list by typing lsblk

# example
cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Then select gpt, after entering in GUI.
Select "Free space" and select "New" then press Enter.
and then Enter the storage space you want to give it to your root and press Enter.
and you will see a partition is being created and make sure this partition type is "Linux filesystem".
Next select the remaining "Free space" and press Enter, we will give this space to swap partition.
Do same as before and then select the swap partition and select "Type" press enter to see all the types available.
Select "Linux swap" from them.
We don't need to create boot partition as we already has boot efi partition running windows,
we just need to mount linux boot partition along side of windows, will do it later.
Then select "Write" and confirm it.
You will see "parition table has been altered" blue color text.
Then select "Quit"
type lsblk to see your partitions name.

Format Created Partitions:

Format root partition:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/<root_partition>

# for example my root partition name is dev/sda1
# I will do "mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1"

Format swap partition:

mkswap /dev/<swap_partition>

# for example my swap partition name is dev/sda2
# I will do "mkfs.swap /dev/sda2"

Mount Partitions:

Mount root partition:

mount /dev/<root_partition> /mnt

# for example my root partition name is dev/sda1
# I will do mount "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt"

Mount swap partition:

swapon /dev/<swap_partition>

# for example my swap partition name is dev/sda2
# I will do mount "swapon /dev/sda2"

Now type lsblk and see that both partition has given proper MOUNTPOINTS

Setup Fastest Mirrors:

cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak

Verify that mirrorlist.bak file is created by

ls /etc/pacman.d/

Setup fastest mirrors from your contry

reflector --verbose --country '<YourCountry>' -l 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Install essential packages:

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware sof-firmware base-devel grub efibootmgr neovim vim networkmanager dhcpcd

Fstab:

Generate Fstab file and copy it to "etc" folder of arch linux system

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

check if it's correctly copied by typing

cat /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot:

Let's Chroot into linux system

arch-chroot /mnt

Check your parititions again by typing lsblk.

Root password:

Enter your root password by typing

passwd

Standard User:

Create Standard User

useradd -m <username>

Create user password

passwd <username>

Setup user privilages

usermod -aG wheel,storage,power <username>

Edit Sudoers file

EDITOR=nvim visudo

then remove "#" in this line(Uncomment this line in programming words)

# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Localization:

nvim /etc/locale.gen

then remove "#" in this line(Uncomment this line in programming words)

# en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Generate locale

locale-gen

Create locale config file

echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf

Export system language

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Hostname:

Create hostname

echo <hostname> > /etc/hostname

Update Hosts file

nvim /etc/hosts

put this in the file

127.0.0.1    localhost
::1          localhost
127.0.0.1    <hostname>.localdomain    localhost

Time:

Setup time

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/<Region>/<City> /etc/localtime
# You can use <tab> key to provide you region and city suggestions

then type this to sync current time

hwclock --systohc

Grub/Bootloader:

First Deletermine your EFI partition using lsblk, mostly it will be first one in your primary drive

mkdir /boot/efi

Mount EFI partition to your grub boot partition

mount /dev/<efi_partition> /boot/efi/

Install os-prober

pacman -S os-prober

Do this so grub can detect windows

nvim /etc/default/grub

then remove "#" in this line(Uncomment this line in programming words)

#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Finally install grub

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=grub-uefi --recheck

Generate grub config

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

NOTE: It should detect Windows Boot Manager
If it's does not shows "Found Windows Boot Manager" follow this

Network Services:

Obtain IP addresss of wifi network

systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

This is strictly necessary for autostart wifi on boot and connect to wifi

systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

Wrapping up:

Exit from Chroot.

exit

Then do this to unmount all of the partitions.

umount -lR /mnt

NOW REBOOT AND REMOVE THE USB DRIVE WHEN SCREEN TURNS BLACK.

DEV Community: Debiprasad Das

How to Dual Boot Arch Linux With Windows

First Step:

Setup WIFI connection on TTY:

Partition Disk:

Format Created Partitions:

Mount Partitions:

Setup Fastest Mirrors:

Install essential packages:

Fstab:

Chroot:

Root password:

Standard User:

Localization:

Hostname:

Time:

Grub/Bootloader:

Network Services:

Wrapping up: