monix

This repository documents workflows to reproduce a minimal Arch Linux build called monix. While this repository sets up root-level configurations for the OS, the dotfiles repository is used to set up user-level configurations. These are kept separate for modularity, but are designed to be used together. All setup workflows have been tested on both virtual machines and hardware.

For automatically formatting the development log in this repository, initialize a local pre-commit hook:

$ make init

Note: This repository focuses on approximate reproducibility oriented towards functionality. This implies that final builds may not be bit-for-bit identical.

Installation

Live medium

For this first step, follow the instructions from the Arch Linux installation guide.

Important: During the pacstrap phase where basic packages are installed before chroot, use the command below instead. This ensures a text editor and an active internet connection will be available after chroot and the first reboot.

# pacman-key --init
# pacman-key --populate
# pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux-lts linux-firmware vim git networkmanager

Note: Additional details:

1. For system encryption, depending on how you encrypt Arch Linux, you may need to install additional packages such as lvm2. Take note of special instructions in this Arch Wiki page, especially for partitioning, mkinitcpio and grub.

2. For dual booting, follow this Arch Wiki page closely and enable os-prober in grub for discovering additional OS's.

3. nvidia may not boot for Linux kernels 5.18 or greater, see issue here and here. In this case, set the ibt=off kernel parameter in the boot loader.

Post reboot

1. Log in to the freshly installed Arch Linux system as root

2. Execute EDITOR=vim visudo to edit the /etc/sudoers file. Uncomment the following line to allow users from the wheel group to execute root-level commands with sudo:

   %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
   

3. Create a new user and add this user to the wheel group:

   # useradd -m -G wheel <username>
   

4. Set a password for this user:

   # passwd <username>
   

5. Execute logout and log in using your new user's details

6. Start NetworkManager.service to ease the internet connection setup:

   $ sudo systemctl start NetworkManager.service
   

7. Configure your internet connection using nmtui, which should work for most connection types. Verify that your internet connection works by executing ping www.example.com and checking for successful packet transmission and receipt.

   Note: nmtui could require root permissions at this point in time

8. Clone this repository in your $HOME directory and install:

   $ git -C $HOME clone https://github.com/atreyasha/monix.git
   $ cd $HOME/monix
   $ make init
   $ make install
   

9. Clone the dotfiles repository in your $HOME directory and install:

   $ git -C $HOME clone https://github.com/atreyasha/dotfiles.git
   $ cd $HOME/dotfiles
   $ make init
   $ make install
   

10. If you have any private dotfiles and data, deploy them now. In order to benefit from all the features of the dotfiles repository, rename your private dotfiles repository as privates and place it in your $HOME directory. This privates repository should contain a Makefile with a test target

11. Reboot and enjoy!

Note: Some common troubleshooting:

1. Decrease GRUB resolution in case it is hard to read or laggy.
2. Manually add timeservers such as time.google.com in case the default timeservers do not work.

Test

bats-core is a dependency for unit testing. To run tests, execute:

$ make test

Development

Check out our development log for details on upcoming developments.