Arch Direct Installer

ADI is a shell script for installing Arch Linux. It requires minimal initial configuration and can be completely unattended.

Disk layout

LVM

+----------------+----------------------+----------------------+---------------------------------------+
|                |                      |                      |                                       |
| Boot           | Logical volume 1     | Logical volume 2     | Logical volume 3                      |
|                | (optional)           |                      | (optional)                            |
|                |                      |                      |                                       |
| /dev/sda1      | /dev/$LVM_GROUP/swap | /dev/$LVM_GROUP/root | /dev/$LVM_GROUP/home                  |
|                |                      |                      |                                       |
| $BOOT_SIZE     | $SWAP_SIZE           | $ROOT_SIZE           |                                       |
|                |                      |                      |                                       |
| /boot          |                      | /                    | /home                                 |
|                |                      |                      |                                       |
| BIOS: $FS      |                      | $FS                  | $FS                                   |
|                |                      |                      |                                       |
| UEFI: FAT32    +----------------------+----------------------+---------------------------------------+
|                |                                                                                     |
|                |                        LUKS encrypted partition                                     |
|                |                              (optional)                                             |
|                |                       /dev/mapper/$LUKS_DEV_NAME                                    |
|                |                                                                                     |
+----------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                |                                                                                     |
| /dev/${DRIVE}1 |                             /dev/${DRIVE}2                                          |
|                |                                                                                     |
+----------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                                                      |
|                               /dev/$DRIVE : msdos (BIOS) or gpt (UEFI)                               |
|                                                                                                      |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Standard partitions

+----------------+--------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|  Boot          |  Swap              |  Root                      |  Home                             |
|  (optional)    |  (optional)        |                            |  (optional)                       |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|  $BOOT_SIZE    |  $SWAP_SIZE        |  $ROOT_SIZE                |                                   |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|  /boot         |                    |  /                         |  /home                            |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|  BIOS: $FS     |                    |  $FS                       |  $FS                              |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|  UEFI: FAT32   |                    |                            |                                   |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|                |                    +----------------------------+                                   |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
|                |                    |  LUKS encrypted partition  |                                   |
|                |                    |        (optional)          |                                   |
|                |                    | /dev/mapper/$LUKS_DEV_NAME |                                   |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
+----------------+--------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
| /dev/${DRIVE}1 | /dev/${DRIVE}[1,2] |    /dev/${DRIVE}[1,2,3]    |       /dev/${DRIVE}[2,3,4]        |
|                |                    |                            |                                   |
+----------------+--------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|                                                                                                      |
|                               /dev/$DRIVE : msdos (BIOS) or gpt (UEFI)                               |
|                                                                                                      |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Prerequisites:

• Backup!
• The disk where Arch Linux will be installed should not contain any partitions

Features

• Completely unattended Arch Linux installation
• Install on a legacy BIOS and UEFI systems
• Install on LVM or standard partitions
• Install on a mdadm software RAID device but you have to create it first
• LUKS with LVM: Encrypt the second partition on top of which the LVM Physical Volume is created
• LUKS with partitions: Encrypt the root but not the home partition
• No storage device other than $DRIVE will be altered
• Different disk layouts depending on the configuration
• User defined size for boot, swap, root and home
• User defined file system for boot, root and home: xfs/ext4/reiserfs
• User defined lists of packages separated in different categories

Limitations

• Cannot preserve any data on $DRIVE
• Cannot install on a drive with existing partitions
• Cannot perform sophisticated setup configuration with custom disk layout
• Cannot encrypt the /home partition

Installation instructions

1. Boot from the Arch Linux iso
2. Configure Internet connection
3. pacman -Sy --noconfirm git
4. git clone https://github.com/pnedkov/adi.git
5. cd adi/
6. cp sample.adi.conf adi.conf
7. vim adi.conf
8. ./adi.sh