Table of Contents
I install Arch Linux for french people in this guide. Also, Arch Linux is really popular, but you should checkout alternatives like Artix Linux. You should avoid systemd
Setup optional things
Keymap
loadkeys fr-latin1
Wi-Fi
iwctl --passphrase passphrase station name connect SSID
Timedatectl
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Paris
Setup your disk
The commands in this section will destroy all your data
Make partitions
I make a 1G partition for the EFI system and give the rest to the Linux Filesystem. You can use cfdisk instead of fdisk.
You must replace nvme0n1 with the disk you are installing Arch on. You can list them with lsblk.
(
echo g
echo n
echo 1
echo
echo +1G
echo t
echo 1
echo 1
echo n
echo 2
echo
echo
echo w
) | fdisk "/dev/nvme0n1" > /dev/null
Format your partitions
mkfs.fat -F 32 -n ESP /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/nvme0n1p2
Mount your partitions
It is really important to mount the ROOT partition first and then the ESP partition.
mount /dev/disk/by-label/ROOT /mnt
mount --mkdir /dev/disk/by-label/ESP /mnt/boot
Package installation
Mirrors
It’s best to spend some time setting up your mirrorlist located in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. You can use reflector to get a list of mirrors like so :
reflector --country France --age 10 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Pacstrap
I like to install these packages.
pacstap -K /mnt linux linux-firmware sof-firmware base base-devel grub efibootmgr networkmanager terminus-font helix pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber git
Fstab
Generate the fstab to tell to your system how to mount the disk when your computer boots. If you don’t see your two partitions in the content of the file, you are doomed.
Fstab copy the order in which you mounted your partitions earlier.
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Arch Chrooting
You can now chroot into your future system.
arch-chroot /mnt
Basic french config
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
echo 'fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8' >> /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo 'LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
echo -e 'KEYMAP=fr-latin1\nXKBLAYOUT=fr\nXKBMODEL=pc105\nXKBOPTIONS=terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp\nFONT=ter-132b' > /etc/vconsole.conf
Setup user and hostname
echo hostname > /etc/hostname
passwd
useradd -m -G wheel user
passwd user
Install GRUB
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Reboot
exit
reboot
Post reboot
Sudo rights
First of all, log in as root and uncomment the line starting with %wheel :
EDITOR=helix visudo
Then, save exit and log in again as your user.
Network Manager
You should enable Wi-Fi again :
sudo systemctl enable --now NetworkManager
nmcli device wifi connect SSID --ask
~~~
You’re done and good to go :)