archsetup

My personal script for creating a minimal base Arch Linux system as quickly and unattended as possible.

This script makes the following assumptions:

Any disk(s) to be used have already been partitioned
Any formatted partitions will use Ext4
The system uses UEFI
It's running on the Arch install media with internet connection

How to use

After booting with the Arch install media, run the following:

bash <(curl -s https://arch.ptmlab.co.uk/install.sh)

What it does

Enable parallel downloads and run reflector to prioritise UK based mirrors when running pacstrap
Sets up the partitions to use (see Partitioning)
Asks for credentials to set up an initial user
Runs pacstrap
Mounts any other partitions before running genfstab
Chroot into the new system and configures as appropriate

Partitioning

The script will ask which partitions to use for EFI, root and the following optional partitions:

Home (/home)
Pacman Cache (/var/cache/pacman/pkg)
Game Installs (/games)

The script will offer to format the EFI and optional partitions if needed. The root partition is automatically wiped.

If a pacman cache already exists and isn't set to be formatted, pacstrap will use it and only download newer versions of packages to save some time. The cache will be remounted to the new system afterwards.

Features

The finished install will include the following:

Vanilla Linux kernel
mkinitcpio for initramfs generation
iptables-nft for the firewall
GRUB for the bootloader
Locale and timezone set for UK
- US locale set as a fallback option
Nano installed and set as the default terminal editor
Parallel downloading, the "ILoveCandy" flag and the multilib repository enabled for Pacman
UFW, ClamAV and hblock installed and configured
Login as root disabled (initial user will have sudo privileges)