Dual Booting Windows and Arch Linux on MBR/BIOS

Keymap

list keymap using:

localectl list-keymaps

and set key using

loadkeys us

internet

• WiFi-authenticate to the wireless network using iwctl
• time:

  timedatectl set-ntp true
  

Mirrors

We should have the fastest mirror.

• Synchronizing packages:

  pacman -Syyy
  pacman -S reflector
  

• I am in China, so:

  reflector -c China -a 6 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
  

• Once again

  pacman -Syyy
  

Partitioning

lsblk to see the partitions on drive

Use cfdisk to partition the disk you want, my case is /dev/sda , so using the command

cfdisk /dev/sda

We need a swap partition and a root partition.

the swap partition should be two times of the computer memory. The remaining is root partition.

• swap : Primary partition; Type is Linux swap / Soaris or number is 82;
• root : Primary partition; Type is Linux or number is 83.

and then write the changes and quit. type again lsblk to see the disk partitions.

Formatting

• swap

  mkswap /dev/sda3
  swapon /dev/sda3
  

• root

  mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4
  

Mounting

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt

And then mount the windows partition.

mkdir /mnt/windows
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows

Base Install

Install essential packages:

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware vim intel-ucode

Fstab

generate the file system table:

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot

Change root into the new system:

arch-chroot /mnt

Locales

Timezones:

timedatectl list-timezones
timedatectl list-timezones | grep Shanghai
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Edit locale.gen file.

vim /etc/locale.gen

uncomment the language you want to use. My case is en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8.

Then generate the locale, and edit locale.conf, and vconsole.conf

locale-gen
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/locale.conf
echo "KEYMAP=us" >> /etc/vconsole.conf

Hostname

vim /etc/hostname

set the name of your computer(hostname), my case if piyazon.

Then

vim /etc/hosts

put these code to that file:

127.0.0.1       localhost
::1             localhost
127.0.1.1       piyazon.localdomain     piyazon

Replace piyazon with your hostname that you set in the previous step

save and exit.

Password

give a passwd to root user:

passwd

Grub

pacman -S grub ntfs-3g networkmanager network-manager-applet wireless_tools wpa_supplicant os-prober mtools dosfstools base-devel linux-headers bluez bluez-utils pulseaudio-bluetooth cups reflector xdg-utils xdg-user-dirs

installing grub:

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda

generate grub configuration file:

before preceed, make sure you uncomment the line GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false inside /etc/default/grub

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Enable Services

systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl enable bluetooth
systemctl enable cups

New user

useradd -mG wheel pi
passwd pi
EDITOR=vim visudo

uncomment the line %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL, save and exit.

Install iwd (optional)

pacman -S iwd
systemctl enable iwd.service
systemctl start iwd.service
systemctl enable systemd-resolved.service
systemctl start systemd-resolved.service

edit a file:

vim /etc/iwd/main.conf

and put this in here.

[General]
EnableNetworkConfiguration=true

[Network]
NameResolvingService=systemd

Reboot

exit the installation,

exit
umount -a
reboot

Internet

After reboot, connect the internet using nmtui command(if you want to use WiFi), or you can use iwd if you have installed in the previous step.

Graphics Driver(optional, depends on you cpu)

sudo pacman -S  xf86-video-intel

Display Server

sudo pacman -S xorg

Display Manager

sudo pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings
sudo systemctl enable lightdm

Desktop

sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies safari

Yay(optional, you can install later when you needed)

pacman -S --needed git base-devel
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si

Done

Reboot the system and it will enter xfce4 Desktop automatically.