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Artix Linux install guide Guide to installing Artix Linux with OpenRC and full disk encryption for UEFI and BIOS systems 2025-01-07

Introduction

The goal of this guide is to set up a minimal installation of Artix Linux with OpenRC as an init system and full disk encryption on an UEFI or BIOS system. This guide is meant to be read alongside the Artix and Arch wiki respectively. It does not cover implementing Secure Boot

Acquire an installation image

  1. Go to the downloads page https://artixlinux.org/download.php
  2. Scroll down to the Official ISO images section.
  3. Under the base section, download the file starting with artix-base-openrc and ending with .iso

Prepare an installation medium

Linux

  1. Insert a USB flash drive into your PC with at least 2 GB of space available on it.
  2. Find the corresponding block device for the flash drive in /dev folder. Usually it is /dev/sdb1
  3. Write the image to the flash drive (assuming your flash drive is /dev/sdb1).

Warning

This command will wipe the /dev/sdb1 partition

doas dd bs=4M if=~/Downloads/artix-base-openrc-*-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb1 conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

Windows

Use Rufus

Boot the live environment

[!info] Artix Linux installation images do not support Secure Boot. You will need to disable Secure Boot in your BIOS to boot the installation medium.

  1. Power off your PC.
  2. Insert the flash drive into the computer on which you are installing Artix Linux.
  3. Power on your PC and press your boot menu key.
  4. Boot the installation medium.

Enter the live environment

Login with the default credentials.

  • Username: root
  • Password: artix

Connect to the internet

Via Ethernet

Connect the computer via an Ethernet cable

Via WiFi

rfkill unblock wifi
ip link set wlan0 up
connmanctl

agent on
scan wifi
services

Tip

Network names can be tab-completed.

[!example] connect wifi_dc85de_383039_managed_psk

connect {your WiFi name}
quit

Verify internet connectivity

ping artixlinux.org

Update the system clock

Activate the NTP daemon to synchronize the computer's real-time clock

rc-service ntpd start

Partition the disk

  1. Install and run gdisk
pacman -Sy gdisk
gdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Note

nvme0n1 will be used as the target install drive throughout this guide, adapt it to your drive name.

  1. Delete any existing partitions. Repeat until none are left.
Command (m for help): d
  1. Create a boot partition
Command (m for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):
First sector (...):
Last sector (...): +512M
Hex code or GUID (...): ef00
  1. Create a root partition
Command (m for help): n
Partition number (2-128, default 1):
First sector (...):
Last sector (...):
Hex code or GUID (...): 8300
  1. Write the changes
Command (m for help): w
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
  1. Verify partitioning
lsblk

Note

It should look something like this

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE
nvme0n1     259:0    0 465,8G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   512M  0 part
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0 465,3G  0 part

Encrypt root partition

  1. Encrypt your root partition

Tip

Make sure to enter a secure passphrase and to write it down

cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p2
Are you sure (Type `yes` in capital letters): YES
  1. Open the encrypted partition
cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p2 root

Create file systems

  1. Create the boot file system
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
  1. Create the root file system
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/root

Mount file systems

  1. Mount the root file system
mount /dev/mapper/root /mnt
  1. Mount the boot file system
mount -m /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
  1. Verify mounting
lsblk

Note

It should look something like this

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1     259:0    0 465,8G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   512M  0 part  /mnt/boot
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0 465,3G  0 part  
  └─root    254:0    0 465,2G  0 crypt /mnt

Install essentials

Install the base system, kernel, init system and other essential packages.

basestrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware openrc elogind-openrc cryptsetup cryptsetup-openrc efibootmgr doas nano

Note

Install AMD or Intel microcode, depending on your system's CPU

AMD CPU

Install AMD CPU microcode updates

basestrap /mnt amd-ucode

Intel CPU

Install Intel CPU microcode updates

basestrap /mnt intel-ucode

Generate file system table

fstabgen -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Switch to new Installation

artix-chroot /mnt bash

Network stack

pacman -S wpa_supplicant networkmanager networkmanager-openrc iwd iwd-openrc
rc-update add NetworkManager
rc-update add iwd

<!-- /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi_backend.conf -->
+[device]
+wifi.backend=iwd

MAC randomization

[!info] MAC randomization can be used for increased privacy by not disclosing your real MAC address to the WiFi network.

<!-- /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/00-macrandomize.conf -->
+[device-mac-randomization]
+wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=yes

+[connection-mac-randomization]
+ethernet.cloned-mac-address=random
+wifi.cloned-mac-address=random

Localization

Set the locale

Tip

Feel free to change en_DK.UTF-8 to your preferred locale such as en_US.UTF-8 or en_GB.UTF-8

  1. Uncomment en_DK.UTF-8
<!-- /etc/locale.gen -->
#en_CA.UTF-8 UTF-8  
#en_CA ISO-8859-1  
en_DK.UTF-8 UTF-8  
#en_DK ISO-8859-1  
#en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8  
#en_GB ISO-8859-1
  1. Generate locales
echo 'LANG=en_DK.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
locale-gen

Set the time zone

[!example] ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Dubai /etc/localtime

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

Set hardware clock from system clock

hwclock --systohc

Hostname

Set your preffered hostname, in this case I will be using artix

echo 'artix' > /etc/hostname

<!-- /etc/conf.d/hostname -->
# Use fallback hostname if /etc/hostname doesn't exist
-hostname="localhost"
+hostname="artix"

<!-- /etc/hosts -->
# Static table lookup for hostnames.
# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1     localhost
::1           localhost
127.0.1.1     artix.localdomain        artix

Initramfs

In the HOOKS array, add encrypt between block and filesystems

<!-- /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -->
HOOKS=(... block encrypt filesystems ...)

Generate initramfs images

mkinitcpio -P

Add a user

  1. Set the root password.
passwd
  1. Create a user and set his password.

Tip

Change artix to your desired username

useradd -m artix
passwd artix

Configure doas

  1. Create the config file and set the appropriate permissions
touch /etc/doas.conf
chown -c root:root /etc/doas.conf
chmod -c 0400 /etc/doas.conf
  1. Add the following
<!-- /etc/doas.conf -->
+permit artix as root
+permit nopass artix as root cmd pacman

Boot loader

Check for UEFI support

Tip

If you see a bunch of files listed when executing the following command, use EFISTUB. If you do not see a bunch of files listed, your system does not support UEFI and you should use GRUB.

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

EFISTUB

  1. Get the UUID of your root partition
blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/nvme0n1p2
  1. Create a boot entry

Tip

Replace xxxx with the UUID that you just obtained Replace intel-ucode.img with amd-ucode.img if you have an AMD CPU

efibootmgr -c -d /dev/nvme0n1 -p 1 -l /vmlinuz-linux -L "Artix" -u "cryptdevice=UUID=xxxx:root root=/dev/mapper/root rw initrd=\intel-ucode.img initrd=\initramfs-linux.img loglevel=3 quiet"

GRUB

  1. Install grub on your boot partition
pacman -S grub
grub-install /dev/nvme0n1
  1. Get the UUID of your root partition
blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/nvme0n1p2
  1. Edit the GRUB config file

Note

It should look something like this with xxxx being the UUID that you just obtained

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=UUID=550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000:root root=/dev/mapper/root"
GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y

<!-- /etc/default/grub -->
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="cryptdevice=UUID=xxxx:root root=/dev/mapper/root"
#GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y
  1. Generate the config file
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Reboot

  1. You can now reboot and enter into your new installation

Note

Unplug your flash drive after the screen turns black

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot now

Post install

You will now be greeted with a similar screen as when you first booted from the flash drive. Login using the credentials that you set, if you followed the example your username would be artix.

Add arch repositories and sort for fastest mirrors

Add arch extra repository

  1. Install packages and fetch mirrorlist
doas pacman -Syu artix-archlinux-support curl
doas pacman-key --populate archlinux
doas sh -c "curl https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/all -o /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch"
  1. Activate Arch mirrors
<!-- /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch -->
#Server = https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/$repo/os/$arch
#Server = https://ftpmirror.infania.net/mirror/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
#Server = http://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
#Server = https://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
  1. Edit the pacman config file
<!-- /etc/pacman.conf -->
+##Arch
+[extra]
+Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch

+##[multilib]
+##Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch

Sort for fastest mirrors

doas pacman -Syu reflector pacman-contrib
doas reflector --verbose -p https -l 30 -f 5 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-arch
doas sh -c "curl https://gitea.artixlinux.org/packages/artix-mirrorlist/raw/branch/master/mirrorlist -o /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak"
doas sh -c "rankmirrors -v -n 5 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist"

AUR

Add Chaotic-AUR

doas pacman-key --recv-key 3056513887B78AEB --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com
doas pacman-key --lsign-key 3056513887B78AEB
doas pacman -U 'https://cdn-mirror.chaotic.cx/chaotic-aur/chaotic-keyring.pkg.tar.zst'
doas pacman -U 'https://cdn-mirror.chaotic.cx/chaotic-aur/chaotic-mirrorlist.pkg.tar.zst'

<!-- /etc/pacman.conf -->
+[chaotic-aur]
+Include = /etc/pacman.d/chaotic-mirrorlist

Install paru

doas pacman -Syu
doas pacman -S paru

Replace sudo with doas

doas pacman -Rdd sudo
doas ln -s /usr/bin/doas /usr/bin/sudo

Laptop power profiles

Install and enable the powerprofiles daemon

doas pacman -S power-profiles-daemon power-profiles-daemon-openrc
doas rc-update add power-profiles-daemon
doas rc-service power-profiles-daemon start

Add swap

doas fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
doas chmod 600 /swapfile
doas mkswap /swapfile
doas swapon /swapfile
doas cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | doas tee -a /etc/fstab

Auto-mount an external LUKS encrypted drive

doas pacman -S cryptsetup-openrc fdisk
doas fdisk /dev/sdb
>g, n, w

doas cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sdb1
doas cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb1 hdd1
doas mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/hdd1
doas mkdir /mnt/hdd1
doas mount /dev/mapper/hdd1 /mnt/hdd1
doas chown artix:artix /mnt/hdd1
doas dd if=/dev/urandom of=/root/keyfile_hdd1 bs=512 count=4
doas chmod 0400 /root/keyfile_hdd1
doas cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/sdb1 /root/keyfile_hdd1
UUID=$(doas blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sdb1)

<!-- /etc/conf.d/dmcrypt -->
+target=hdd1
+source=UUID='$UUID'
+key=/root/keyfile_hdd1
+wait=2

doas rc-update add dmcrypt boot
doas reboot