Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi

On this tutorial I will be showing you how I would install Arch Linux on my raspberry Pi. Since there are many different approaches to what could be configured there is no right or wrong way to install this. Thanks

Step 1: Prepare the SD Card and Install Arch Linux

on linux PC:

lsblk 

sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

clear partitions on the drive (o)

create first partition (n, p, 1, enter, +100M, t, c)

create second partition (n, p, 2, enter, enter), then write and exit (w)

sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1 

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX2 

make folder to mount partitions

mkdir /mnt/boot/ 

mkdir /mnt/root/ 

sudo mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt/boot/ 

sudo mount /dev/sdx2 /mnt/root/ 

download and install arch

wget  http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-2-latest.tar.gz

sudo su

tar zxvf /location/of/file/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-2-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt/root 

mv /mnt/root/boot/* /mnt/boot 

sync

Step 2: Init

On Raspberry Pi:

login: root

password: root

setting up wifi with wpa_supplicant

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/home_wifi

add following and edit ssid and psk with your old network info

network={
ssid=”neworkname”
psk=”password”
}

initiating pacman, upgrading arch and install sudo

pacman-key –init

pacman -Syu

pacman -S sudo screen

nano /etc/sudoers.d/myOverrides

add following

alarm ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

switch to user alarm:

su alarm

Step 3: Installing Desktop

install packer for additional software down the road

sudo pacman -S packer

now lets install the desktop

sudo pacman -S xorg-server xf86-video-fbdev xorg-xrefresh

leave everything as default

XFCE4:

sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies

now we need desktop manager:

sudo pacman -S sddm

we are going to load default configs with this command

sudo sh -c “sddm –example-config > /etc/sddm.conf”

autologin:

sudo nano /etc/sddm.conf

search and modify:

[autologin]
Session=xfce.desktop
User=alarm

custom theme i’m using

packer -S arc-gtk-theme

custom fonts

packer -S ttf-roboto

SDDM autostart:

sudo systemctl enable sddm

sudo systemctl start sddm

Step 4: Network Manager

lets install a network manager so you can control your wifi or ethernet via gui

sudo pacman -Syu networkmanager network-manager-applet

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager

sudo systemctl start NetworkManager

reboot

Step 5: Bluetooth

lets install the tools we need to compile bluetooth

sudo pacman -S make gcc git-core automake autoconf pkg-config libtool patch

packer -S yaourt blueman

yaourt -S pi-bluetooth

sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service

sudo systemctl enable brcm43438.service

sudo pacman -Syu pulseaudio-alsa pulseaudio-bluetooth pavucontrol bluez bluez-libs bluez-utils bluez-firmware

Comments

[hondaafricantwin]

After this i got stuck,

we are going to load default configs with this command

sudo sh -c “sddm –example-config > /etc/sddm.conf”

I see a empty sddm.conf" in /etc/  directory 

For a noob this is very annoying 

[Torxed]

It's `sddm --example-config | sudo tee /etc/sddm.conf` and not `-example-config`, but it's better to get users used to tee instead of rogue sh lines :)

[trevorbrookes]

is it me or ? but I'm a complet noob, so sorry if I'm wrong

mv /mnt/root/boot/* /mnt/boot
This gives me an error and am stuck here

also I had to sudo to get these two to work
mkdir /mnt/boot/
mkdir /mnt/root/

[Semtioc]

The problem here is that ARCH Linux | ARM and Archlinux now recommends a partition size of +200M not +100.

If you're not willing to update this tutorial I suggest you delete it.
https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-pi-4

[freefox]

Actually a nice guide and it would be even nicer if systemD would never come to existence.
Yeah thats one thing the the double -- dashes did not get properly registered on the side and when you copy them back to the terminal they become single - and break things but man the amount of trouble systemD gave me just made me chose another distro.

So here is what happens after install:

1, wireless will not connect out of the box even after you set the supplicant you will need to run wpa_supplicant ...

2, Even after you connect you will not get an IP you will need to run dhclient wlan0

Now this is where potterD gonna mess with you: you will notice that the DNS is not working hmmm why? it is because systemd does not care about /etc/resolv.conf it has hardcoded DNS servers such as 1.1.1.1 which is some DNS server from australia... anyway still the DNS servers are online so they should work so what is going on?

What is going on is that DNS sec is enabled by default and it relies on computer time but your time is way off thanks to systemd and NTP is not installed.

This was the point where I got fed up.

[andyc2302]

im not able to boot to GUI

[andyc2302]

Hi Can anyone advise me, i setup the arch linux arm for raspberry pi 4 but somehow it does not goes to the GUI screen or how shall i go about it dun seems to work for me

[viroxon]

This step broke the installation. Going by your instructions.

[viroxon]

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate

Notice the extra step necessary and that you put a single - instead of --

This would have stopped anyone else right there as soon as they tried. And without populating the keys you'd never be able to update.

[tobyas987]

It did not for me using an usb stick. Maybe gottta try the sd card they delivered with it.
For me it booted but didn't load shit, so it got me into a emergency shell of no return
.

[hendergassler]

Here is a typo, i guess it should be
custom theme
pacmac -S arc-gtk-theme

custom fonts

pacman -S ttf-roboto