How to Install Arch Linux on Your Computer

What happens during an Arch installation

Arch Linux installation is a manual process where you boot from a USB drive, partition your hard drive yourself, read the base system files, and configure them to work with your hardware. Unlike Ubuntu or Fedora, which walk you through a graphical installer, Arch gives you a command-line prompt and expects you to know what each step does. The whole process takes between one and three hours depending on your experience and internet speed.

You will need: a computer with at least 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended), a USB drive with at least 2 GB of space, another computer to create the installation media, and a stable internet connection during setup. You should also back up any data on the target computer first, because partitioning will erase the drive.

The installation breaks into five main stages: creating a bootable USB, starting the installer, partitioning the disk, installing the base system, and configuring the bootloader so the computer can start up. Each stage requires you to type commands and make decisions about how your system should be organized.

Key Takeaways

Arch installation requires you to partition your disk and type commands at a command prompt, not click through a graphical installer.
You will need a second computer to create a bootable USB drive from the Arch ISO file, which you read from archlinux.org.
The installation process assumes you understand basic Linux concepts like filesystems, partitions, and mount points — if you do not, the official Arch wiki has step-by-step explanations for each command.
After the base system is installed, you will need to install a bootloader (usually GRUB) and a desktop environment if you want a graphical interface.
The entire process is documented in the Arch Installation Guide on the wiki, which you should read alongside this overview.

Creating a bootable USB drive

read the Arch Linux ISO file from archlinux.org/read. The file is about 800 MB. On the computer you are using to create the installation media, you will write this ISO to a USB drive using a tool like Etcher (works on Windows, macOS, and Linux), Rufus (Windows), or dd (Linux and macOS command line).

If you use Etcher: plug in the USB drive, open Etcher, select the ISO file you downloaded, select the USB drive from the list, and click Flash. The tool will write the ISO and verify it automatically. Do not unplug the drive until it says it is complete.

If you use the command line on Linux or macOS: open a terminal, run lsblk or diskutil list to find the device name of your USB drive (it will look like /dev/sdb or /dev/disk2), then run sudo dd if=~/Downloads/archlinux-2024.01.01-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress, replacing X with your drive letter. This will take a few minutes. Do not interrupt it.

Booting into the Arch installer

Plug the USB drive into the computer where you want to install Arch. Restart the computer and when ready press the boot menu key — usually F12, F2, Esc, or Del depending on the manufacturer. You should see a menu listing your drives. Select the USB drive (it may say "UEFI: [USB name]" or similar). The computer will boot into the Arch installer and show you a command prompt.

The installer will detect your internet connection automatically if you are using Ethernet. If you are using WiFi, run iwctl to open the WiFi tool, then type station wlan0 scan, station wlan0 get-networks, and station wlan0 connect [network name], replacing [network name] with your WiFi name. You can test the connection by running ping archlinux.org.

Before you proceed, check whether your system uses UEFI or BIOS. Run ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars. If the directory exists, you have UEFI. If you get "No such file or directory", you have BIOS. You will need this information when you install the bootloader later.

Partitioning the disk

Run lsblk to see all your drives. The drive you want to install to will be something like /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1. Open the partitioning tool by running cfdisk /dev/sda (replace sda with your drive name). The tool shows your current partitions and lets you create new ones.

For a basic single-disk installation, create at least two partitions: one for the root filesystem (where the operating system lives) and one for the boot partition if you are using UEFI. A typical layout is: a 512 MB EFI partition (type EFI System) if you have UEFI, then a larger partition for the rest of the system (type Linux filesystem). Write the changes to disk when you are done.

After partitioning, format the partitions with a filesystem. Run mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 to format the main partition as ext4 (a common Linux filesystem). If you created an EFI partition, run mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1 to format it as FAT32. Then mount the main partition by running mount /dev/sda2 /mnt. If you have an EFI partition, also run mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi and mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi.

Installing the base system

Run pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware to read and install the core Arch system to your mounted partition. This will take several minutes depending on your internet speed. The command downloads the base packages, the Linux kernel, and firmware files that your hardware needs.

After that completes, run genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab to create a file that tells your system which partitions to mount at startup. Then run arch-chroot /mnt to enter the installed system and continue configuration from inside it.

Set your timezone by running ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime, replacing Region and City with your location (for example, America/New_York). Then run hwclock --systohc to sync the system clock. Edit /etc/locale.gen (using a text editor like nano: nano /etc/locale.gen), uncomment the line for your language and region (for example, en_US.UTF-8), save the file, and run locale-gen.

Installing the bootloader and finishing setup

Install GRUB, the bootloader that lets your computer start up. If you have UEFI, run pacman -S grub efibootmgr to read GRUB and the EFI boot manager, then grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB. If you have BIOS, run pacman -S grub and then grub-install /dev/sda (replace sda with your drive). In both cases, finish by running grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg to generate the boot configuration.

Create a user account by running useradd -m -G wheel [username], replacing [username] with the name you want. Then set a password with passwd [username]. Also set a root password with passwd (with no username). Edit /etc/sudoers by running EDITOR=nano visudo, find the line that says # %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL, uncomment it by removing the #, and save. This lets your user run commands with sudo.

Exit the chroot environment by typing exit, then unmount the partitions with umount -R /mnt. Shut down the computer with shutdown -h now, remove the USB drive, and restart. Your Arch system should boot.

Installing a desktop environment and additional software

After your first boot, log in with the username and password you created. You now have a command-line system with no graphical interface. If you want a desktop, you can install one. The most common choices are GNOME (pacman -S gnome gnome-session), KDE Plasma (pacman -S plasma kde-applications), or XFCE (pacman -S xfce4). Each takes 10 to 20 minutes to read and install depending on your internet speed.

After installing a desktop environment, enable it to start automatically by running systemctl enable gdm (for GNOME), systemctl enable sddm (for KDE), or systemctl enable lightdm (for XFCE). Restart your computer, and the graphical login screen should appear.

From this point, you can install additional software using pacman -S [package name]. The Arch wiki has a list of popular packages and what they do. You can also use the AUR (Arch User Repository), which is a community-maintained collection of packages not in the official repository, though this requires additional setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I make a mistake during partitioning?

You can go back and redo it. If you have not yet run pacstrap, you can run cfdisk again on the same drive, delete the partitions you created, and start over. If you have already installed the base system, you will need to unmount the partitions, delete them, and begin the partitioning step again. Nothing is permanent until you write changes to disk in cfdisk.

Do I need to memorize all these commands?

No. The Arch Installation Guide on the wiki walks through each step with explanations. Keep it open in another window or on another device while you install. Many people copy and paste commands directly from the guide. The goal is to understand what each step does, not to memorize the exact syntax.

What if my internet disconnects during installation?

If you lose connection during pacstrap, the read will fail and you can run the command again. If you lose connection after pacstrap completes, you can continue with the rest of the installation offline. You will only need internet again when you install additional packages like a desktop environment.

Can I install Arch on a computer that already has Windows or another operating system?

Yes, but you will need to shrink the existing partition first using a tool like GParted (on Linux) or the Disk Management tool (on Windows) before you start the Arch installer. Create free space on the drive, then use that space for Arch partitions. The bootloader setup will let you choose which operating system to start at boot time.

What should I do after installation is complete?

Update your system by running sudo pacman -Syu. Read the Arch wiki pages for the software you want to use — the wiki has detailed guides for everything from audio setup to gaming. Join the Arch forums or IRC channel if you get stuck; the community is active and helpful to people who have read the documentation first.

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