About

archibold.io is a zero hassle Arch Linux installer and a Bash based utility belt.

Previously a one-shot GNOME on Arch Linux automatic installation procedure, archibold has evolved into a fully GitHub hosted Open Source service based on curl requests.

Using Utilities

Inspired by CommonJS, it is possible to require archibold utilities in a similar fashion.

# archibold.io/require to access utilities
source <(curl -s https://archibold.io/require)

# at this point, all utilities and install
# will be available via require
require echomd
require server

# utilities are instantly available
echomd '*Browse* this project via *http://localhost:8000/*'
server

Installing Software

Configuring software can be tedious and verbose. Here archibold can help as well.

# install Chromium, Widevine and Pepperflash
bash <(curl -s https://archibold.io/install/chromium)

# install pakku (or pamac, or yay, or yaourt)
bash <(curl -s https://archibold.io/install/pakku)

Installing AUR Packages

There is a little helper that performs the most basic AUR operations to install a package.

# install the utility
bash <(curl -s https://archibold.io/install/aur)

# or use it as one-off
source <(curl -s https://archibold.io/utils/aur)

# install pakku (or pamac, or yay, or yaourt)
aur pakku

Installing basic Arch Linux from scratch

I strongly suggest to consider EndeavourOS installer, which is far more user friendly than anything archibold will ever be.


Finally, the original achievement of archibold has been improved all over.

It is now possible to simply type the following:

# install from scratch Arch Linux
bash <(curl -s https://archibold.io/get)

After you've booted Arch Linux through its image, the command will start installing Arch Linux from the scratch in such machine or, in case you are already running Arch Linux, into an SD card or USB one.

Remember, a fresh install will format and erase the target disk: choose the right one.

Read the How To to know even more.

There is an Helper too

You can read a quick How To at any time through the helper.

# read the helper
bash <(curl -Ls https://archibold.io/help)

Please note the -Ls curl's flags, needed to follow redirects.

How To Install From Scratch

As very first step, we need a bootable version of ArchLinux iso through USB stick or DVD.
We can learn how to burn it in the dedicated page.
Following the Linux/Mac summary where /dev/sdX is the USB path.

# just bs=4M in Linux, older OSX has no M option
dd if=~/Downloads/archlinux-2015.02.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4194304

Please note it might take 5 minutes or more to complete above operation, be patient.

Once dd has finished, we can use the USB stick from any USB port of the target machine.
Some target might require some extra step and it depends on the bios.
Usually keeping pressed Esc, F2, F10, or F12 during boot should help reaching the boot menu.

The boot option we are interested about is the UEFI ArchLinux one.
If everything goes OK, we should bootstrap into a terminal/console.

As extra requirement the target machine will need to be connected to the Internet.
The preferred connection type is via network cable, but we could use WiFi too.
However, WiFi initial configuration is a bit more advanced, I can give a hint thought:

Recent ArchLinux installer does not offer wifi-menu but iwctl instead.

# verify wifi path
iw dev # or ip addr

# wifi path will look similar to wlp2s0
# use such name after wifi-menu
wifi-menu wlp2s0

# choose your WiFi network and enter password

# verify you are connected
ping 8.8.8.8

# PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
# 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=8.15 ms
# 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=9.36 ms
# 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=7.92 ms
# ...
# press Ctrl+C to stop the ping

# if not, try to start the service manually
#> netctl start wlp2s0-YourWiFi-NAME

Once we have a usable network, we can use the installer.

bash <(curl -s https://archibold.io/get)

Follow instructions and you'll be ready in 10 minutes.

Problem Solving & Setup

Following a list of known gotchas that could make archibold journey not so nice.

Legacy Installer: Syslinux boot failure

If after an update your system doesn't boot anymore, try switching to systemd-boot instead, like latest archibold does too. Simply start your PC through an ArchLinux ISO and type the following to fix your boot.

bash <(curl -s archibold.io/install/bootfix)