Arch Linux One Of The Easiest Distros To Install 

When I started with Linux I was told to take the time and install arch Linux from scratch. I took a whole Sunday for me not knowing anything. But you learn so much doing this that I still advice colleagues of mine to do it this way, if they want to learn more about Linux.

I recently moved from Win11 to Arch after a very long break from linux (last time I used it, I was running gentoo in like 2008 as desktop, then centos in 2011 for a home server). I used archinstall because I just wanted something up and running fast and already know the linux guts so I wouldn't have been learning much doing it manually. Archinstall is great.

I’m still new to Linux and tried introducing myself to it by installing Linux mint, but trying to configure my hardware was a nightmare. After I heard about arch’s rolling release, I switched over to see how bad it could be, ran arch-install and everything’s been running fine since. I’ve learned more about Linux and have actually been running it through arch, it just works

I used this video to install Arch early this morning and learned about iwctl in the process. Thanks DT really like your content.

I don't think installing arch the old way was such a big deal (it's mostly just reading along and following isntructions, if you can build an ikea table then you can install arch). But it was very time consuming, so this is a great change. Overall I think the main problem people run into with arch is after the install. Since it's so open to new things and lets you do whatever you want, if you don't know what you're doing and you just update all the time and install random aur packages you might end up "breaking it". I prefer to run fedora or debian based stuff because they tend to have a safety net for my own stupidity, haha.

Mr. DT: Love your "strong and complicated" every time in all your vids!

I had to install on my media center yesterday. I've already installed using the guide on different machines but yesterday I really didn't fell like going through it again. The install script worked perfect and it made my day.

I like how arch is getting better for new users to linux for us. keep upo the good videos :)

DT Great video! Two thumbs up! The Archlinux script install has been out for a while and makes installing easy. I made exactly the same mistakes you did (if you didn't do it on purpose to make a point) with the partitioning and formatting the disk or disks. But I still like using my method of installing via ssh since I have several computers. Boot a Archlinux install thumb drive on the target machine to be installed, start sshd, then create passwd and copy the IP address. Then login from a second host machine into the target machine, use your text notes to copy and paste into a terminal once login for your custom install. One or more installs can be done this way. :)

The mirror selection menu allows you to only select American mirrors instead of foreign ones which IMO is highly recommended if you want faster downloads. Also, the bootloader selection only defaults to GRUB on systems that don’t have UEFI; it defaults to systemd-boot on systems that do.

Archinstall is a good option if you installed the manual way 100times or just have to quickly install some machines. The problem with Arch now easier and widely available is, that beginners should be aware how you update Arch in a safe way and debug if the system breaks. There were installer even with GUI before archinstall that is not the problem. If the user is not afraid of keeping his system running Arch in my opinion is the best Linux for everyone.

I think for beginners it will still be daunting because they don't really know what each step is doing or what the choices are or why one would choose something.

I have installed it and that was easy like a piece og cake . amazing video DT :)

I love Arch and your contents.

Wow, that was an incredibly easy way to install Linux. I wish all the distributions had this way of installing. The only thing that screwed me up was forgetting about the iso file still selected as the boot device in virtualbox. After shutting down and removing it, all was well. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be installed though. Simple stuff like zip and unzip are missing and a lot of scripts depend on these utilities being there. I had to do a lot of research into configuring Alacritty and installing fonts. The newer version has a TOML config file and I just went straight to the documentation on it and learned how to configure everything but the default configuration for fonts was not to my liking so that was a must. I never had to mess with fonts in other distributions as the defaults were all great to work with. Now just to fill you in on the downside, I tried to do another install at work from memory because I thought it was so easy and neglected to select multilib and my Alacritty terminal had no visible characters in it, so the terminal was unusable! Had to Ctrl-Alt-F3 to do anything that required terminal. I didn't know how to enable the multilib from the command line, so I just did another re-install selecting mulitlib this time and then I couldn't log in! This turned out to be due to me selecting the "graphics acceleration" setting in the Virtualbox settings before booting up. My Intel video card did not like that setting and locked up the login screen when attempting to enter a password. After turning off that setting, everything started to work just like the installation that went well on my home setup.

I have to say that I was very impressed by the install script, and it saved me (a bad typist) more than an hour.

I've tried this method half a year ago and I can confim, that it's way quicker and more user friendly than old, manual approach. With old way I was always forgetting something and was need to chroot again with the usb stick.

It has gotten better. I honestly love using it.

I use arch linux as main distro, installed with archinstall. Works flawlessly. I used the archinstall script many times, to test various desktop environments or wm in archlinux and it's so easy

Have done the normal installation in the past but used the install script for my more recent build. it is a handy time saver. nice to have the choice for the time poor.

I can understand that there might be practical reasons why going through the "full" Arch installation process might be better, but Linux becoming easier to use is a good thing. This comes across like Arch people being mad that the process is being democratized for people who don't want to bother with the entire installation process.

Got into serious trouble with my current install so I have to re-install Arch again ... But seeing this I'm kind of looking forward to it XD

completely agree. i have installed arch thousands of times on different computers due to it's easiness. before archinstall it was a good distro, now it's the only distro that matters

When I wanted to try Arch I used the install script but it failed and I'm happy it did. I learned so much from just going through the install manually a couple of times. In the end it made me feel much more comfortable with Linux as a whole.

This is awesome. Yes, I think manually installing Linux is a good learning experience, but 15 years later I don't care about that, I just want to get the OS installed. We have the technology. I think this eliminates the need for endeavorOS for me. I could still see it useful for people who prefer a GUI to live boot from, but this is the installer I've been wanting for the longest time.

Agreed. However, if the default look and feel of the DE/WM is not what you like, you might need to spend quite a lot of time and energy to understand and modify it.

I love this both for its convenience, and as a concept. I can show people who are interested in Linux how to install Arch this way, then they can get to learning Linux by using linux, and install it manually later if they so choose. It's convenient because I can have an Arch system with a full featured desktop environment like KDE up and running in less than 3 mintues, and I can do it on multiple computers back to back very quickly. Manual installation is good to know, but when you arleady know it, it's nice to have a way of doing it more efficiently when needed.

partially agree, still the btrfs partioning the way i wanted it, required a lot of trial error

Good stuff, thanks dude, :)

Thank you for this!

Hey DT, hope to see an OpenSuse Tumbleweed review soon. The last one you did was 6 years ago 🤯

I really like the arch install command because it lets me just install a super minimal install with all the basics already set up and then I just build my system from that. For me it only saves time from what I would have done anyways, and then I just add only what I want and not what is preinstalled with the more bloated profiles.

Well DT you inspired me to install Arch

Very useful. Thanks

I should have watched your video yesterday before installing Arch OMG ... I did it with the installation guide and such, took me about an hour or two doing so, with the bad being unable to get my network working properly (it's odd that network works fine in terminal, but it doesn't replicate onto the install)

Hey DT, what we're you thinking in your mind when you took photo for the thumbnail in your video? Might have been hilarious!

I'm glad Opensuse Tumbleweed Slow-roll was made for a laptops users and desktops that have limited bandwidth per month. I hope Arch Linux would do the same in the future. I have no cap for internet but once you start traveling other countries, you might not get good internet and so rolling release might not be a good option for some. My only wish is a slow rolling release of Arch would be great.

I use Solus Budgie as a daily driver. I don't recall you demonstrating Budgie, but I could be wrong. I'd like to see your 2024 opinion of Budgie. SuSe and others have it, too.

I love Arch Linux and the install script is not too hard to use. But you missed a few important points: 1. The install script doesn't automatically connect to WiFi. So you need to run iwctl and connect your WiFi before you start. This s not at all obvious and the script probably ought to run it for you. 2. You need to partition your disk. Most newbies won't know how to do this properly, although I do think that there are defaults. 3. If you're trying to create a dual-boot system with an existing Windows partition, than archinstall won't recognize it and configure grub properly. A more sophisticated installer like Endeavor has will do this for you. None of these are killers and Arch is still my distro of choice for various reasons. But I don't recommend it to new users who aren't prepared to get their hands dirty. Even with the install script there's a lot that you need to know.

Easy! Well... every distro out there do a standard installation. But can you do an easy full disk encryption install?

I drink the salty tears of the fanboys who complain it's not easy enough - they just want a distro that proves they know something, and now Arch no longer gives them that XDDD. This is absolutely a win for linux and people should be happy for it.

This video is interesting and informative. Thank you.

DT, as a person who recently installed Arch using the terminal and a series of commands, I must say the problem doesn't really lie in typing in the terminal. It's about unexpected errors, thrown at you, that you can't resolve by yourself or the Arch guide, because you're stuck at a specific step - going back means scraping all your progress, while going forward is impossible.

while this DOES store passwords in plain text, that is only for the install portion just set a placeholder password and then change it once you have the os installed

Option 2 if you like Arch is to consider Garuda as it's point and click easy to get going. It works well for Steam Emulation - running 98% of the games, including some other titles with some fiddling like World of Warships and until the latest changes, League of Legends. My only gripe is that the person in charge is busy and very very slow on updating programs in the repository and I can see it very easily becoming a dead version at any time as there is no large team of devs behind it. So it's good.. but... I'd not use it for school or work or anything that is productivity based. That said, moving back from Windows to Linux ( 21 operating systems so far in my life, Windows being only 6 of those ) was literally ripping off the band-aid on that old wound and getting the pain over with. Windows 10 bricked itself three times in a year. The data was fine but the thing was unable to finish loading due to drivers or something. Recovery did nothing. I was looking at being forced into upgrading to Windows 11 and that would require a whole new motherboard and CPU as mine didn't support their latest DRM and anti-copying technology ( simplifying it a lot) Basically $600 and a new copy for $150 as sorry, too much would be changed to keep my old license as valid... to stay current as Windows 10 was constantly dying on me. So one day in a fit of anger at the third crash and no hope of recovery, after trying to recover the machine for three days ( thank god I had my Macbook as a spare ), I went out, spent $25 on the cheapest name-brand SSD I could and dropped Linux on it. Simple, works, and run modern games on my old hardware just as fast. Yes,k a bit of a learning curve, but no worse than moving Windows versions or hopping onto any new phone or something like a Chromebook where the OS is not the same as before. It crashes maybe once a month versus every 2-3 days. Huge win and aside from League and some specific games like Genshin, it all works. My take-away is that Linux is not what it was even two years ago and with installers like this, it is really never easier to cut that umbilical cord to the evil empire and gain your freedom. And save your pocketbook at the same time.

It's good that using Linux has become easier. It still has it's difficult moments. Now it's usable by users with a medium level of skill. People always talk about installing it, when talking about Arch, which is pretty stupid IMHO. The more interesting part of using Linux is what we do and create with it. I completed my MBA in Russia on Linux. I recorded an Indy Rock album with friends on Linux. Man team penguin needs to make some strides with music production software. Using VSTs in Linux is a nightmare and doing the one man band thing with some guitars, a bass and a drum machine program is kinda difficult. I'm impressed with the strides in gaming thanks to Valve and Proton.

I love Arch, it's easy to use and the UI is like windows, runs windows apps easily via wine or proton runs 100% faster than windows, my only gripe is games with anticheat are still not running right.

4:36 what is the difference in Minimal and Xorg? I just want to have minimum required for graphics + a window manager and have it automatically log me into the 'desktop' . No desktop environment. which should I choose ?

Arch used to be the faster version of a souce linux install versus slow and tedious Gentoo or lfs install. But it still had the low level install cred from the source community. Especially if you compliled your own custom kernal. Now im not sure if Arch gets this cred if this becomes default. This install reminds me of an open suse install from 1996.

Thank you

One thing DT with the graphic drivers there was a special setup in there for virtual machines too, just a FYI.

Arch install is very nice, easy ,but also gives you a choice to manually change staff.

You should do qtile next time you show archinstall on a video! :)

Before having watched the video: nothing is stopping you from doing it the hard way

I wish I installed arch many years ago.

What Virtual Machine did you use for this, and is it available for Windows?

The only thing I would have to make sure I do correctly is only install Arch on the correct hard drive. Mine is a duel boot and I have 3 hard drives :)

The most difficult part of installing Arch is partitioning the disk and setting up file systems etc., especially if you're going to do something like LVM with volume groups and logical volumes or btrfs with multiple subvolumes. It doesn't seem like this really helps with that? Once you've go the disk partitioned, this seems like it would be pretty sweet though, would save you from the tedium of typing the other 10 or so commands.

That install script is pretty cool

here cuz of that thumbnail xD

The problem i always have, i put my Root partition and home partition on two separate drives. I can't ever figure out how to mount and configure those properly in the Arch setup. Setting the proper flags and mount options between both drives.

This is the EZ way for a standard install but if you want to use an LVM and/or encrypt your drive, it quickly gets a lot more involved with quite a few more steps and the archinstall script won't give you those options

it's not much that arch linux is hard to install anymore, it's just that the packages you install are often not configured, or optimized by default for your workflow. You're gonna have to figure out a few things on your own, like sysctl properties, kernel parameters for your gpu, fonts for non latin characters, icons, UTF icons in your terminal, configuring GTK and QT, desktop themes, configuring pipewire, battery and power saving scripts (maybe comes with some DEs), setting up flatpak with the correct permissions, setting up network shares with SMB, getting wayland to work at all on your nvidia GPU, notifications and polkit, etc. In a normal distro, most of these would already be configured in a sensible way (even some arch-based distros like endeavour and, god forbid, manjaro).

People say it's hard to install because there's no mention of the archinstall command after booting the iso, I didn't realize it existed before watching this video.

Might be worth pinning: if you’re just going to wing it remember to at least label your disk with fdisk, cfdisk, etc. otherwise the installer might run its script almost the whole way and error out

How user-friendly is Arch Linux when installed using the archinstall script compared to other distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, or Manjaro? While installations of those distributions may come preloaded with many essential tools, some might find them bloated. So, my question is, does archinstall provide everything a user needs during installation, or is additional setup required afterward? So basicallt, how minimal or bloated is the Arch Linux installation using archinstall?

I thought Arch used to have TUI "installation script" decades ago before they stopped supporting and eventually removed it, leaving a completely manual CLI installation method. This installation script obviously has similarities to how the way the old one worked, but it still seems quite different. I don't use Arch so I haven't given this a try yet, but it does look like a step in the right direction. I thought it was dumb to give up and just get rid of the installation script to begin with, instead of improving it and working out the bugs and problems it did have.

I cannot express how much pain this video saved me from

I've no idea what I'm doing in the terminal, but it makes me feel like a decker, so let me pretend and feel the excitement!

Install Arch the original way is like a test of will. If you made it, booted into desktop, you're ready for Arch, you are a willing one. I won't judge so people who use the install script to install Arch for the first time are just as willing as those who went the long way, but I can only speculate they will have to learn Arch a bit harder.

One thing is clearly stated in the FAQ: „Why would I not want to use Arch? You may not want to use Arch, if: - you do not have the ability/time/desire for a 'do-it-yourself' GNU/Linux distribution. - you require support for an architecture other than x86_64 - you take a strong stance on using a distribution which only provides free software as defined by GNU. - you believe an operating system should configure itself, run out of the box, and include a complete default set of software and desktop environment on the installation media. - you do not want a rolling release GNU/Linux distribution. - you are happy with your current OS.“ If more users would follow that advise there would be much less friction with Arch in the forums and overall discussions in my opinion.

I have a hard time letting go of my old manual install of Arch. I did archinstall one time and something went wrong and it wouldn’t boot. I didn’t spend any time troubleshooting, and just went back to the manual method. Is the manual install unnecessary these days, sure. But I just find comfort in it.

Would there be any real advantage in installing Linux from Scratch? Since I have a particular AMD system with X cores, might there be some optimizations I could apply to improve performance?

have they made it secure? it had problems with security bc paswd was in txt file that can be recovered

I think the script has bug when setting a manually partitioned LV as root in the disk configuration. Tried many times but the grub couldn't load the installation. I think it's fixed in some branch but never tried it.

Arch now includes time zones US/... it has US/Central US/Eastern etc. I prefer using actual time zone names them rather than using the city names.

If the goal is to delve into Linux internals and learn how it all works. Then, I would recommend Arch to anyone wishing to learn Linux at a lower level. Don't use the archinstall installation script. Do it the hard way because that is how you learn. Nobody learns anything without significant struggles. What doesn't terminate you makes you stronger. Install, rinse repeat ad nauseam. Someday you will thank yourself when you solve a really difficult Linux problem, merely because you gained insight into the way things work under the hood. Also advise a learner start with a virtual machine and later on physical hardware. VM snapshots can help you revert to a known good state. But hey, if you just want a really quick and easy Linux install, perhaps consider a non-rolling release distribution such as Linux Mint / Ubuntu / Pop_OS, etc. Especially if it's your first foray into Linux. Arch is more for the bleeding edge. Rolling releases tend to break frequently so you need to pay attention to the Arch wiki announcements and watch out for breaking changes that require manual intervention. You'll struggle far more with Arch.

Rewatching this and trying to use archinstall after not using it for a while. I noticed the user and root password is stored in plaintext. there is currently an issue about that on the github as well.

i wanted to install archlinux but the only thing im afraid of is not finding the required drivers and not finding the programs i'd need in uni 💀 i only got 25gb free on ssd out of 128 and would probably need to format it before installing archlinux as i want to shift completely and only use windows in vm when i'll need to use it once in a while 🚶‍♂i want to manually install the stuff but that being said i am afraid of messing up on my only laptop and then getting fckd up by projects

I tried the automatic installer but it broke certain behaviors for some reason. Reinstalled it manually from scratch and everything works as it should.

Did the new install replace the old one?

9:49 could you do a video on saving the install to config file and using that file to install?

Back in the day when I used Arch linux, pretty much when it launched back in 2002-ish there was an installer and then they removed it. But I still don't like not intuitive "pacman -S" compared to "apt install" and Debian just works

wth😂, I just learned and understood how to install arch thru wiki 3 weeks ago. and learned the fastest way last sat, thru your video from 2020. now there's an easy mode 🤣🤣🤣

I just use EndeavorOS at this point. Its got a GUI installer.

now do hyprland on arch virtualbox good vid btw

Installed arch via archinstall recently and it bugged on me by creating ~16Gb of empty space betveen sda1 and sda2 and around 5Gb of empty space after last partition. Fixing was annoying but other than that worked great

I will never understand why anyone would continue to buy nvidia after switching to Linux. But archinstall is great. Just keep in mind that things like Bluetooth, TRIM support for SSDs, and printing (and Avahi/mdns for wireless printers) still need to be set up after installation, since Arch just ships everything as-is with nothing enabled by default. Which is a good thing, but it might trip new users up.

I know very well what the commands do. I started using FreeBSD, then SuSe, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian and some fumbling around with Antergos and Arch. It's not that I don't respect Arch. I love it. Running Endeavour OS as a daily driver. But I think a powerful installer is underestimated. I don't use Arch because I don't want to learn a specific order of commands just install an operating system. I'm a user that wants an operating system to install and work. Of course I want to understand what I'm doing. But often you need a RU-vid video or guide to do all kinds of stuff in a specific order, just installing an operating system. It's just not that interesting to me.

I always said if you want to really learn Linux go trough entire Linux code and after a thorough study install LFS for better experience...

I've been trying for several days to get Arch installed and none of the various methods work. Gets humgup or flat out fails with keyring -sync. Even after doing pacman-key --init. I'll get a bunch of errors the so-and-so (names of people) authorizations failed and is correct, no packages installed.

I just can't imagine taking a photo of yourself for the thumbnail looking like this and not dying a little bit inside.

I'm pretty sure that your partition scheme doesn't look like the as you set it in archinstall. I would love to see how you create a complicated partition scheme because on this step archinstall most of the time fails.

awsome

Does the archinstall script set up wifi these days, or does the user still have to manually connect with the command line?

The problem is arch server is with "no package found error".

honestly, even for a n00b it isn't that bad... once you have done a few times, it becomes second nature! EVEN WITHOUT THE NEW INSTALLER!

It's easier to install, but the problem with Arch is, once you're finished installing it, its still not installed, you still have a lot of work to do in order to get everything to work properly. I made the tour once, I had it working correctly, I have better things to do than being the elected maintainer of a desktop environment for only one person...

the arch manual installation was needed because it gatekept idiots out of arch, now with the script people who don't know a damn about arch linux or how to maintain their system or ask for help on the forums or have common sense when it comes to doing anything on their system that isn't shown in the gui. arch is a DO IT YOURSELF distribution so when you're using the archinstall script and having everything done for you then you won't understand anything when you finish installing

Artix has an archinstall script nowdays built in?