_          _    _    _                _   _ ___ ___
  /_\  _ _ __| |_ | |  (_)_ _ _  ___ __ | | | / __| _ )
 / _ \| '_/ _| ' \| |__| | ' \ || \ \ / | |_| \__ \ _ \
/_/ \_\_| \__|_||_|____|_|_||_\_,_/_\_\  \___/|___/___/

Boot Live ISO

Insert you USB or CD installation medium in the computer and boot it up. Use the computer's boot menu (usually invoked with [F12] on a PC or the [option] key on a Mac) to select the inserted boot media. When presented with the boot device selection menu, select the entry for either BIOS or UEFI as explained above.

A bootloader menu will appear with several options. Select the Boot Arch Linux (x86_64) or (i686) option as explained above. After a minimal amount of necessary drivers are loaded to RAM, you will be presented with a root Z shell prompt.

keymap/language

The default console keymap and language in the live shell are, respectively, US and US English UTF-8. To change the language or keymap of the live shell, the following steps may be taken.

If a different keyboard mapping is required, view the available keymaps:

# ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz | less

Load the required keymap. Here, mapname is the filename of the required map without path or file extension:

# loadkeys mapname

To change the language of the live root environment, edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment the line containing your desired language:

# vim /etc/locale.gen
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Generate the locale information:

# locale-gen

Ensure the LANG variable in /etc/locale.conf is set (localeline is first part of the uncommented line in /etc/locale.gen):

# echo LANG=localeline > /etc/locale.conf

Connect to the Internet

If there is an active networking cable plugged into the machine, the live shell will bring up the computer's network interface card and automatically attempt to lease an IP address from the network during bootup. To check the network connection, ping some website:

# ping -c1 google.com

wired

Wired networking should work out-of-the-box on the installation ISO via networkd. If you have an active networking cable plugged into the machine and you are unable to connect to the internet, you can begin troubleshooting by taking the following steps.

View the interface names and statuses:

# ip link

The name of the wired device is most likely eth0 or eno0.

Ensure the network device is powered on:

# ip link set eth0 up

Attempt to manually lease a DHCP IP address:

# dhcpcd eth0

View all the instances of dhcpcd:

# systemctl list-units | grep dhcpcd

View detailed information to identify any hardware issues:

# systemctl status dhcpcd@eth0.service

If you still can't connect to the internet, see the ArchWiki for further help.

wireless

If a wired connection is unavailable or you prefer to use wifi, most wireless interfaces are supported by the drivers on the installation ISO. Launch iwctl to control any wifi interfaces from the command line:

# iwctl

List all detected wifi devices:

[iwd]# device list

The wireless device is most likely named wlan0.

Scan for networks:

[iwd]# station wlan0 scan

List available networks:

[iwd]# station wlan0 get-networks

Connect to a network:

[iwd]# station wlan0 connect SSID

Exit iwctl:

[iwd]# exit

If you are unable to obtain a wireless network connection, see if any kernel drivers have been loaded for the wireless interface:

# lspci -k | grep -A3 'Network controller'

If no device is present or no drivers have been loaded, you are mostly out of luck; although it may be possible to import the proper drivers via another removable memory device, such a procedure is beyond the scope of this guide. If you want to keep pursuing this route, checkout the official Linux wireless wiki and the ArchWiki wireless page to get started.

system time

Once connected to the internet, turn on the network time protocol to synchronize system time:

# timedatectl set-ntp true