You Won’t Believe How Easy It Is To Install Arch Linux On Raspberry Pi - Our Step-By-Step Guide!
For those looking to install Arch Linux on their Raspberry Pi, you may find the process daunting at first. But rest assured, with our step-by-step guide, you’ll find that installing Arch Linux on your Raspberry Pi is actually quite easy.
Before we begin, let’s cover some basics.
What is Arch Linux?
Arch Linux is a lightweight, flexible, and simple operating system that is known for its user-centric model. It is designed for experienced users who want to customize their system to their liking. Unlike other Linux distributions, Arch Linux does not come with a pre-installed graphical user interface, and allows the user to choose their own setup.
What is Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi is a small single-board computer that can be used for a variety of projects. It’s compact, affordable, and has a i>strong> vibrant community of developers and enthusiasts behind it.
Prerequisites
Before you start, ensure that you have the following:
- Raspberry Pi (any model should work)
- A MicroSD card with at least 4GB of storage
- A computer with a card reader
- An internet connection
- (Optional) A monitor, keyboard, and mouse to connect to Raspberry Pi
Step 1: Download and flash the Arch Linux image
The first step in installing Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi is to download the Arch Linux image. You can find the latest version of the Arch Linux ARM image from the official Arch Linux website.
Once you have the image, you need to flash it onto your microSD card. You can use a tool like Etcher or Rufus to do this.
Step 2: Insert the microSD card and boot the Raspberry Pi
After flashing the Arch Linux image onto the microSD card, insert it into the Raspberry Pi. Then connect the power cable to the Raspberry Pi and boot it up.
Step 3: Connect to your Raspberry Pi via SSH
Once your Raspberry Pi is up and running, you’ll need to connect to it via SSH. You can do this by using a tool like Putty, or by using the terminal on your computer.
To connect via SSH, you’ll need to know the IP address of your Raspberry Pi. You can find this out by running the command:
ip addr
Once you have the IP address, connect to the Raspberry Pi using the following command:
ssh [email protected]<ip_address>
Step 4: Update and install software
Once you’ve connected to your Raspberry Pi via SSH, the first thing you should do is update it. Run the following commands:
sudo pacman -Syu
Once your Raspberry Pi is up to date, you can install software using the pacman package manager. For example, to install the Xfce desktop environment, run the command:
sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies
Step 5: Customize your setup
Now that you have Arch Linux up and running on your Raspberry Pi, you can customize your setup to your liking. This is where Arch Linux really shines, as it allows you to create a setup that is tailored to your needs.
You can install and configure software, customize your desktop environment, and more. The possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
As you can see, installing Arch Linux on your Raspberry Pi is not as difficult as you may have thought. With our step-by-step guide, you can have a fully functional Arch Linux system up and running in no time.
So what are you waiting for? Give it a try and see the power of Arch Linux on your Raspberry Pi!
The Raspberry Pi is a versatile credit card-sized computer that can be used for a variety of electronics projects. The great thing about the Raspberry Pi is that you have the option of installing different operating systems and aren’t limited to Raspberry Pi OS. This includes Arch Linux, which is revered for its simplicity. Luckily, there is a version of Arch Linux designed to work with ARM processors. Let’s take a look at how you can install Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi.
Requirements
Before we get started, you will need to have the following things:
- Raspberry Pi8GB (or more) micro SDArch Linux ARM (Scroll down the list to find the link for the Raspberry Pi image.)Stable Internet connectionComputer system that can read the SD card. (We will be using Linux for this tutorial.)
Prepare SD Card
First, you will need to make a list of the storage devices attached to your machine in order to identify which one is your SD card. Do this with the following command:
The SD card that I’m using is “/dev/sdc.”
We need to format the SD card. To do this, run the following command, bearing in mind that you will need to replace “/dev/sdc” with the name of your SD card:
You will need to clear any partitions that exist on the drive. To do this, type o and hit Enter in your terminal.
Enter p into your terminal to check to see if any partitions remain.
If no partitions remain, then go ahead and create the boot partition by typing n, then p, followed by 1 into your terminal. p stands for primary, and 1 stands for the first partition on the drive. You’ll need to press the Enter button after this sequence to continue.
When prompted about the last sector, type +100M and hit Enter.
Enter t into the command prompt followed by c to set the first partition as type “W95 FAT32 (LBA).”
Type n, followed by p (for primary), then 2 in order to create the root partition.
Hit Enter twice in order to accept the default settings for the first and last sectors.
Write the partition table and exit fdisk by entering w.
We need to mount the FAT & ext4 filesystems. To list the partitions, type the following:
Your SD card will show up, and you’ll be able to see the partitions. In my case the partitions are “/dev/sdb1” and “/dev/sdb2.”
Copy Arch Linux Files to SD Card
The boot and root partitions need to be mounted next. Do this with the following series of commands. Remember to replace the partition names in these commands with your partition names.
Now, place the Arch Linux file that you downloaded into your home folder and extract it to the root folder of your SD card with the following command:
The boot files will need to be moved to the boot partition of your SD card with:
You can umount the two partitions with:
Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi.
Initial Setup on Raspberry Pi
After inserting the SD card into your Raspberry Pi, go ahead and fire it up. You will need to either connect to the Internet via an ethernet cable or a Wi-Fi network. To connect via Wi-Fi, first log in with the default root account. The username for this account is “root,” and the password is “root.” Now, run the following command:
A menu will load, and you will be able to select your Wi-Fi network and log in. Now, finalize the installation process by initializing the pacman keyring and populating the Arch Linux ARM package signing keys with:
YOu can go ahead and update the system packages with:
You should change the default username. Do this with the following command:
Also, change the password with:
You’ll be asked to enter a new password and then confirm it. To change the name of the home folder to reflect the new username, run the following command:
You should also change the password of the root account. Do this with:
In order to give sudo privileges to your user account, you’ll have to run the following to install the sudo package:
You will have to edit the configuration file for sudo. Do this with:
Add newusername ALL=(ALL) ALL under the line that reads root ALL=(ALL) ALL
Close and save the file, and you’re all set.
Now that you have installed Arch Linux on the Raspberry Pi, there are plenty of things you can do, including installing and playing Minecraft and turning it into a NAS or Plex server. Your imagination is the limit.
William has been fiddling with tech for as long as he remembers. This naturally transitioned into helping friends with their tech problems and then into tech blogging.
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