Arch Linux Installation ARM - LeandroTheDev/arch_linux GitHub Wiki

Raspberry PI 4

This example is using sd card, feel free to change mmcblk to whatever partition you are using

  • wget "http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-aarch64-latest.tar.gz"
  • fdisk /dev/mmcblk1

  • With GPT label

  • Creates one partition 512MB (W95 FAST32) -> (Do not confuse with the Hidden one, that will not work personal experience...)

  • Creates another with ext4 (Linux Partition)

  • mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk1p1
  • mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk1p2
  • mkdir /mnt
  • mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /mnt
  • mkdir /mnt/boot
  • mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/boot
  • bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-rpi-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt
  • sync (truly necessary, if your pen-drive or sd card is slow, my brother this will take some time)
  • genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

If you created your boot partition as MBR, you need to change /mnt/boot/boot.txt file, you can get the UUID with the command blkid /dev/sdxy MBR

...root=PARTUUID=${uuid}

->

...root=UUID=...

Now compile the boot cd /mnt/boot ./mkscr

  • Check if there is extra partition created by default: cat /mnt/etc/fstab

  • If you want to add some packages or change configurations before booting you can use arch-chroot /mnt

  • Pacman Init
# Execute this inside the sd card (chroot)
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
pacman -Sy
  • umount /mnt/boot
  • umount /mnt
  • Now add the sd card into device and start it

Utils

  • Change hostname: hostnamectl set-hostname my-device-beautiful-name
  • Use rapsberry-pi commands: sudo pacman -S raspberrypi-utils
  • Update system datetime: ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Country/City /etc/localtime && timedatectl set-ntp true

Wifi Connect

  • pacman -S iwd
  • systemctl enable --now iwd
  • iwctl
  • station wlan0 scan
  • station wlan0 get-networks
  • station wlan0 coinnect "Wifi Name"
  • exit
  • vim /etc/iwd/main.conf
[General]
EnableNetworkConfiguration=true
  • systemctl restart iwd

Make users with wheel do "su" without password

  • vim /etc/pam.d/su
  • Uncomment
#auth            sufficient      pam_wheel.so trust use_uid

Weekly update

  • vim /usr/local/bin/update_and_reboot.sh
  • Put everthing from update_and_reboot.sh inside it
  • vim /etc/systemd/system/update_and_reboot.service
[Unit]
Description=Update Arch Linux and Reboot

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/update_and_reboot.sh
  • vim /etc/systemd/system/update_and_reboot.timer
[Unit]
Description=Timer for weekly Arch Linux update and reboot

[Timer]
OnCalendar=Tue 20:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
  • sudo systemctl enable --now update_and_reboot.timer
  • Now you device will update on Tuesday 8 pm

Prevent Corrupted Files

The best way to prevent corrupted file is just... not write anything, check some useful tips:

Journactl only in RAM

  • sudo vim /etc/systemd/journald.conf
Storage=volatile
RuntimeMaxUse=100M
RuntimeKeepFree=50M
RuntimeMaxFileSize=20M

HTTP Server? make the dist from the server inside the ram:

  • mkdir -p /path/to/dist

  • Create the folder that you will store your dist in ram

  • sudo vim /etc/fstab
# This will mount the folder on boot
# 2G,1G,128MB, you choose depends on the size of your dist
tmpfs   /path/to/dist   tmpfs   rw,noatime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,size=2G   0  0
  • sudo mount -a

  • Mount the folder now, everthing inside that will be on RAM

  • Now copy your dist files inside /path/to/dist, will be lost on reboot so make a script to copy when opening the http server
#!/bin/sh
# Ultra simple script to copy
cp -r /path/to/dist_disk/* /path/to/dist

Don't use cp anymore, this is more disk consuming than anything, use rsync instead, lets create a alias for it

  • sudo vim /etc/profile.d/rsync-alias.sh
#!/bin/sh
alias cpr='rsync -av --progress --partial --inplace'
alias cprr='rsync -av --progress --partial --inplace --ignore-errors'
  • Edit .bashrc vim ~/.bashrc
  • Put a new line: source /etc/profile.d/rsync-alias.sh
  • Now you can use cpr for copying files and cprr if you wan't to copy even with error

Corrupted Files

If you have a bad micro sd card, some files can be corrupted sometimes, especially if you turned off the device while a file still writing or due to power outages.

Removing corrupted files

  • use a recovery boot pen-drive (or just insert the sd card in your home device)
  • do not mount it
  • execute this command to check remove and clean corrupted files: fsck.ext4 -f /dev/sde2

  • Accept everything, and pray for important files to not be deleted (probably was just tmp files or logs)

  • now you can insert it again on your raspberry pi and test if everthing is working again

Reinstalling all packages

  • sudo pacman -Qqn | sudo pacman -S --overwrite='*' -
  • sync
  • reboot

System Backup

Generally you want to make a backup of your system to prevent corruptions

Home backup

  • tar -cvpzf /path/to/backup/home-backup-$(date +%F).tar.gz /home

MariaDB backup

If you are trying to make a backup from a different drive, take a look at External Backup From a USB Drive

  • mariadb-dump -u root -p --all-databases --single-transaction --routines --triggers --events > "/path/to/backup/mariadb-backup-$(date +%F).sql"

System Resintallation

  • sudo pacman -Syy
  • sudo pacman -Qqn | sudo pacman -S --overwrite='*' -