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ZionS1_1

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Installing Arch Linux in 2026 (step-by-step)

#bash #archlinux #linux #tutorial

There won’t be a more important soft skill to learn in 2026 than Bash.
An excellent way to evolve your skills is to download and install Arch Linux, which is the best option in terms of optimization, customization, and compatibility.
With the commands below, you will be able to install Arch Linux without using the archinstall command.

Download the Arch Linux ISO

| Brazilian servers to download the .iso:

Basic commands used during mounting

Command Function
ls Lists files and directories in the current directory
cd Changes the current directory
lsblk Lists block devices (disks, SSDs, partitions) and mount points
mount Mounts a filesystem to a directory
rm -rf Forcefully and recursively removes files and directories
mkdir Creates directories
cat Displays the contents of text files or concatenates files
systemctl Manages systemd services (start, stop, enable at boot)
echo Prints text to the terminal or writes text to files with redirection
shutdown Shuts down or restarts the system
exit Ends the current shell session

Increase terminal font size 

setfont ter-132b
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Set the keyboard to ABNT-2 

loadkeys br-abnt2
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Result:

loadkeys

Testing internet connection (wired) 

ping -c 3 archlinux.org
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Ping

If you are using Wi-Fi, look up additional instructions.

Check if the system booted in EFI mode 

ls /sys/firmware/efi
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efi path

If the directory does not exist, the system was booted incorrectly.

Listing all HDDs/SSDs on the machine 

lsblk
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Result:

Terminal result

Select the device where Arch Linux will be installed 

cfdisk /dev/sda
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When asked to choose the partition table type, select gpt.

label type

  • First partition: 256m
  • Second partition: 10g
  • Third partition: 15g
  • Fourth partition: use the remaining space

sda

Megabytes are represented by m and gigabytes by g.

After that, just select Write, type yes, and then choose Quit.

Partitions

There will be 4 partitions:

  • 1st: 256m, type EFI System
  • 2nd: 20g, type Linux filesystem
  • 3rd: 25g, type Linux filesystem
  • 4th: remaining space, type Linux swap

Then select Write, type yes, and click Quit.

lsblk
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Result:

lsblk result

This command displays a clear, hierarchical (tree-like) view of your storage devices, such as:

  • Hard drives (HDDs/SSDs)
  • Partitions
  • Logical volumes (LVM)
  • CD/DVD devices (ROMs)
  • USB drives and other removable media

📂 Formatting partitions 

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
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Result:

mkfs.fat sda1

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
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Result:

mkfs.ext4 sda2

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
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Result:

mkfs.ext4 sda3

mkswap /dev/sda4
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Result:

mkswap sda4

📌 Mounting partitions 

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
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mkdir /mnt/home
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mkdir /mnt/boot
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mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
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ls /mnt
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Result:

ls mnt

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home
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mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
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swapon /dev/sda4
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🚀 Base system installation 

lsblk
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Result:

lsblk mount

pacman -Sy
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pacman -S reflector
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reflector --country Brazil --latest 20 --sort rate --verbose --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
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Result:

reflector

nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
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Result:

pacman list

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-headers linux-firmware nano vim
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🧾 Generate fstab 

genfstab /mnt
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Result:

genfstab mnt

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
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cat /mnt/etc/fstab
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Result:

cat fstab

Make sure this information was written correctly.

ls /mnt
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Result:

ls mnt

🔐 Enter the installed system 

arch-chroot /mnt
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Result:

arch chroot

nano /etc/pacman.conf
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pacman conf

Remove the comments from Color, increase ParallelDownloads from 5 to 10,
and inside [multilib] remove the comment from Include. Save and exit.

Result:

multilib

🕒 Timezone 

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo /etc/localtime
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hwclock --systohc
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timedatectl set-ntp true
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date
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Result:

date

🌍 Language 

nano /etc/locale.gen
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Result:

locale gen

Select the language you want for your system. I chose pt_BR.UTF-8 UTF-8.

locale-gen
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Result:

locale gen

echo "LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8" >> /etc/locale.conf
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Verify:

nano /etc/locale.conf
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Result:

locale.conf

⌨️ Keyboard 

echo "KEYMAP=br-abnt2" >> /etc/vconsole.conf
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Verify:

nano /etc/vconsole.conf
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Result:

vconsole

🖥️ Hostname 

echo "archlinux" >> /etc/hostname
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Verify:

nano /etc/hostname
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Result:

hostname

nano /etc/hosts
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Result:

hosts

🔑 Users and permissions 

passwd
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Result:

passwd

Be very careful when editing this file, as it can break the entire system 

nano /etc/sudoers
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Result:

sudoers

Remove the comment only from %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL.

Choosing a username 

useradd -mG wheel (choose a username)
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Creating the user password 

passwd (username)
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Result:

passwd user

🧰 Bootloader and network

Package Description
dosfstools Tools to create and check FAT filesystems (FAT16/FAT32), mainly for EFI
mtools Tools to access and manipulate FAT filesystems without mounting them
os-prober Detects other operating systems to add them automatically to GRUB
networkmanager Manages network connections (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, VPN)
grub GRand Unified Bootloader, responsible for booting the OS
efibootmgr Tool to manage UEFI boot entries directly from firmware 
pacman -S dosfstools mtools os-prober networkmanager grub efibootmgr
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Pay close attention when typing these commands. Any error may require reinstalling everything.

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=archlinux --recheck
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Result:

grub install

If you are doing a dual boot with Windows 

nano /etc/default/grub
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Result:

grub disable

Uncomment the line GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false.

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

grub mkconfig

systemctl enable NetworkManager
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Result:

systemctl NetworkManager

🔄 Final steps 

exit
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Result:

exit terminal

shutdown -r now
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🎉 Arch Linux installed successfully!
Now you have a clean, fast system that is fully under your control.
However, you still need to follow another guide to install a window manager or desktop environment such as KDE Plasma or Hyprland.

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