How to Install Arch Linux?

To install Arch Linux, you need to follow several steps:

Preparation:

• Backup your data.
• Ensure your computer's hardware is compatible with Arch Linux.
• Download the latest Arch Linux ISO from the official website.

Installation Steps:

1. Create a Bootable USB Drive:

   • Use a tool like Rufus or Etcher to write the ISO to a USB drive.

2. Boot from USB Drive:

   • Insert the USB drive into your computer and restart it.
   • Enter the BIOS/UEFI settings to change the boot order, setting the USB drive as the first boot device.

3. Start the Installation:

   • Follow the on-screen instructions to start the Arch Linux installation script.
   • Partition your hard drive. You can use tools like cfdisk or gdisk.
   • Format the partitions. For example, you might format /dev/sda1 as ext4 for the root directory.

4. Mount Partitions:

   • Mount the root partition (e.g., /dev/sda1) to /mnt.
   • Create and mount other necessary directories like /mnt/boot if you are using a separate boot partition.

5. Install the Base System:

   • Run pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware. This command installs the essential packages.

6. Generate the fstab File:

   • Use genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab to create the fstab file which contains information about file systems to mount.

7. Chroot into the New System:

   • Run arch-chroot /mnt to change the root directory to the newly installed system.

8. Configure the System:

   • Set the timezone with timedatectl set-timezone Your/Timezone.
   • Set the locale with localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8.
   • Configure the network. You might use nmcli for this purpose.

9. Install a Bootloader:

   • Install GRUB with grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=ArchLinux.
   • Generate the GRUB configuration file with grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

10. Exit Chroot and Reboot:

    • Type exit to leave the chroot environment.
    • Unmount all partitions with umount -R /mnt.
    • Reboot your computer with reboot.

Example:
For instance, when partitioning, you might create a root partition (/dev/sda1) and a boot partition (/dev/sda2). You would format /dev/sda1 as ext4 and mount it to /mnt, then proceed with the installation steps.

For more advanced users, Arch Linux offers a rolling release model, meaning you can always get the latest software versions. However, this also requires more manual configuration compared to other distributions.

If you need a more managed and less hands-on experience, consider services like Tencent Cloud's Cloud Virtual Machine, which provides pre-configured environments.