Talk:Installation guide

Update arch-chroot step

The last release of arch-install-scripts has introduced a cleaner way to handle mounts in the arch-chroot step. Since the installation medium provides the right version of systemd, I think there's no downsides to switch to using the -S flag in the guide?

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 11:51, 1 November 2025 (UTC)

👍 -- nl6720 (talk) 05:47, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

I'll wait until the next release to be extra cautious, there's an edge case that we should not hit as the guide does not show it being used with relative paths, but I'd rather be safe. Erus Iluvatar (talk) 18:12, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

May we close this topic? At least, I can't find anything related… — Andrei Korshikov (talk) 19:29, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

I'd like to keep this open until there is a new release cut for arch-install-scripts.

--Erus Iluvatar (talk) 09:45, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Add a note at § 1.10 to mention Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system#Preparing_non-boot_partitions.

Dm-crypt/Encrypting an entire system#Preparing non-boot partitions already mentions our page's 1.10, but if we could mention at our 1.10 that "if you would like to encrypt the root partition at this stage, see this page" etc etc. » Like an autumn leaf, her fading golden grace as the tree withered. « — NinetailedTori (talk) 18:06, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

To me, the mention in Installation guide#Partition the disks feels sufficient, but I'll let others chime in.

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 08:01, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

I do agree with @Erus Iluvatar. To my understanding, encryption (i.e. in case of LUKS—addition of another layer of virtual block devices) does not relate to formatting at all: filesystem creation is just… filesystem creation, it does not know about underlying complexity. Block device ("real device"), "virtual" block device (e.g. encrypted partition, or file, or whatever you might imagine)—formatting should not care.

I've mentioned Installation guide#Partition the disks in Dm-crypt/Encrypting an entire system#Preparing the disk with Special:Diff/872907.

— Andrei Korshikov (talk) 17:59, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

At § 3.4 mention LANGUAGE= in locale.conf

I am not sure whether this is the best solution, but I spent some time debugging a crash of a QT application, and it turned out that, it seems QLocale().uiLanguages() returns an empty list when LANGUAGE= environment variable is not set, in turn a poorly written QT app (Sigrok's PulseView) does not handle this and crashes. Would it be reasonable to add it to installation guide, sice I only found people complaining about this crash on Arch's forums, presumably that means other distros set this envirnoment variable. --Stefanmisik (talk) 09:37, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Please disregard this comment, I noticed, that I kept default LANG="C.UTF-8", which is correctly reported by QT, but the application does not handle this value well, so it is solely a bug in that specific application. Stefanmisik (talk) 11:01, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Boot the live environment Note grammar

Current state: "You will need to disable Secure Boot to boot the installation medium."

Proposed state: "You have to disable Secure Boot to boot the installation medium."

"need to" — kind of personal necessity

"have to" — external obligation (there is no choice) Aaaand… there is no choice indeed.

Well, English is not my native language: I'm not sure about "will have to" vs just "have to", but "need to" vs "have to" is quite obvious for me.

— Andrei Korshikov (talk) 18:21, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Introductory section—linkify "official installation image"

Current state: This document is a guide for installing Arch Linux using the live system booted from an installation medium made from an official installation image.

Proposal: This document is a guide for installing Arch Linux using the live system booted from an installation medium made from an official installation image.

(edit) I'm not sure how to express it right. I tried to point to Installation guide#Acquire an installation image.

— Andrei Korshikov (talk) 18:37, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

I'd prefer to keep it without link down, so the reader is not invited to skip next paragraphs, incl ".. you are advised to follow the instructions in the presented order per section.". --Indigo (talk) 18:57, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Hmm… I see your point. What about link to https://archlinux.org/download/ ? — Andrei Korshikov (talk) 19:11, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Better, but doubling up the link. Would adding "Visit the download page for official images, and ..." in Installation guide#Acquire an installation image help your concern? --Indigo (talk) 19:43, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

It is very sensible for me, I do agree with it. — Andrei Korshikov (talk) 19:57, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Ok, I was just thinking it is a good case not to pipe i.e. change to

"Visit https://archlinux.org/download for official images, and, depending on how you want to boot, acquire the ISO file or a netboot image, and the respective PGP signature."

It matches how 1.2 links to https://archlinux.org/download/#checksums.

So that's the proposal for this now. --Indigo (talk) 19:07, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

👍 — Andrei Korshikov (talk) 17:41, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

"installation medium" vs "installation image"

Inspired by Special:Diff/872738 by @Nl6720.

(1) / Introductory section / "The installation medium provides accessibility features"… — IMO, installation image does.

(2) Installation guide#Boot the live environment: "See pkglist.x86_64.txt for a list of the packages included in the installation medium."

Packages are included in the installation image, medium is just a flash drive (or so). At least, to my understanding.

— Andrei Korshikov (talk) 18:59, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

The installation medium is a medium to which the installation image has been written. In these sentences, IMO, "installation medium" is fine. Since there's also the netboot image, "installation image" wouldn't be entirely correct either for 2., since there are no packages in it. "Live environment" would be more correct there.

Special:Diff/872738 is a special case, because you can write the ISO in different ways and the tip doesn't apply to all of them.

-- nl6720 (talk) 07:57, 4 May 2026 (UTC)