LMAE

Create your own Linux Mint Arch Edition.

How to create your own "LMAE" - Linux Mint Arch Edition

Step 1 - Installing Arch Linux:

1.1 - Download a Arch ISO

You can download the ISO from the offical ArchLinux-website: https://archlinux.org/download/

1.2 - Flash the ISO with the flash tool of your choice

• balenaEtcher
• Win32 Disk Imager
• Rufus

1.3 - Boot your Computer with your flashed USB/CD

1.4 - Set up your keyboard layout

You can list available keymaps with:
ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz
Apply the keymap of your choice with:
loadkeys de-latin1 | Example for the german keymap

1.5 - Check if your internet connection is working

Ensure your network interface is listed and enabled. You can check this with:
ip link

Check, if you can establish a connection:
ping 1.1.1.1

1.6 - Update the system clock

Ensure the system clock is accurate:
timedatectl set-ntp true

1.7 - Verify the boot mode

ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
If the result is "No such file or directory", that means you need to install Arch in BIOS mode. If you get a list of the efivars, you should install Arch in UEFI mode.

1.8 - Set up your disks

1.8.1 - Locate your disk

List your disks and find the disk on which you want to install LMAE:
fdisk -l
What we need, is the path of the disk, which you want to use.
The path should look like /dev/sda, /dev/nvme0n1 or /dev/mmcblk0

1.8.2 - Partition your disk

When partitioning I use the GPT partition table. If you want to use another one you have to know the partitioning yourself

Example layouts:

UEFI / GPT

Mount point	Partition type	Suggested size
/mnt/boot	EFI System	500MB or more
-	Linux swap	More than 512 MiB
/mnt	Linux filesystem	the rest of the disk space

BIOS / GPT

Mount point	Partition type	Suggested size
-	BIOS boot	500MB or more
-	Linux swap	More than 512 MiB
/mnt	Linux filesystem	the rest of the disk space

Now open the disk you want to use in "cfdisk". This should look like this: cfdisk /dev/sda
Now choose "gpt" and press "Enter".
Then create the partitions depending on whether you have UEFI or BIOS. After that choose the partition type, write the changes and quit "cfdisk".

1.8.3 - Format your disk

Now the created partitions have to be formatted. Here we again differentiate between UEFI and BIOS.

Example for UEFI:

• mkswap /dev/sda2 | Format as "Linux swap (swap)"
• mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 | Format as "Linux filesystem (ext4)"
• mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1 | Format as "FAT32"

Example for BIOS:

• mkswap /dev/sda2 | Format as "Linux swap (swap)"
• mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 | Format as "Linux filesystem (ext4)"

1.8.4 - Mount your disk

First we need to mount our "Linux filesystem" to "/mnt":
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt

Second we need to mount the "Linux swap":
swapon /dev/sda2

If you are using UEFI, we need to create the mount point "/mnt/boot" now and then mount our "EFI System" partition:

• mkdir /mnt/boot
• mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

1.9 - Installation of the base system

Now we need to install all the necessary packages to get our system up and running:
pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware networkmanager grub vim

1.10 - Configure the system

1.10.1 - Generate an fstab

We need to generate an fstab file, which mounts our disks automatically when booting:
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

1.10.2 - Change the root to the new system

After that we should change our root to "/mnt":
arch-chroot /mnt

1.10.3 - Set up the system time

To change the timezone, you need to change "Region", with the region and "City" with the of your timezone:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Region/City /etc/localtime

After that we need to sync the system time with the hardware clock hwclock --systohc

1.10.4 - Create the localization

• Edit "/etc/locale.gen" with your favourite editor and uncomment the locals which you want to use. You should also uncomment "en_US.UTF-8".
• To generate the locales simply run locale-gen
• Create the file "/etc/locale.conf" and define your preferred locale in the file. Example: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
• The last step is to create the file "/etc/vconsole.conf". In this file we need to set our keyboard layout. We do this by adding the line: KEYMAP=de-latin1 instead of "de-latin1" you have to insert your preferred keyboard layout.

1.10.5 - Network configuration

• Create and edit the file "/etc/hostname". Choose a computer name and insert it.

• Now create the file "/etc/hosts" and insert the following:
  "computername" should be the name you set before in the "/etc/hostname" file

  127.0.0.1      localhost
  ::1            localhost
  127.0.1.1      computername
  

1.10.6 - Set the root password

To change the root password, you simply type:
passwd
Now just set a new password.

1.11 - Configuring the GRUB boot loader

Again, if you want to install a different bootloader, you have to do this yourself, as I will only explain GRUB.

1.11.1 - Set up GRUB with BIOS

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

1.11.2 - Set up GRUB with UEFI

• grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp --bootloader-id=GRUB

1.11.3 - Enable microcode updates

Intel-CPU: pacman -S intel-ucode
AMD-CPU: pacman -S amd-ucode

1.11.4 - Generate the grub configuraton

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

1.12 - Loading the new System

• Exit the chroot environment by typing: exit
• Unmount the partitions: umount -R /mnt
• Boot into the new installed System: reboot now
  Make sure your installation medium is disconnected before booting.
• Log in to the new system using username "root" and your password.

1.13 - Important changes to the new system

• Enable "NetworkManager":

  systemctl enable NetworkManager
  systemctl start NetworkManager
  

Step 2 - Setting up the desktop environment:

2.1 - Adding a system user

We need to create a system user for cinnamon. You can create one and set his password by executing the following:
useradd -m username | Replace "username" with the name you want to use.
passwd username | Replace "username" with the name you used before.

2.2 - Installing the desktop environment

• First, we need to download the necessary packages:
  pacman -S xorg lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter cinnamon gnome-terminal

• Second, we need start "lightdm", to open our desktop:

  systemctl enable lightdm
  systemctl start lightdm
  

• The last step is to login to our desktop using the password of the user we created before.

2.3 - Changing the keyboard layout

• Navigate to "cinnamon menu -> keyboard -> layouts"
• Set the keyboard layout of your choice by adding it at the bottem left (+) and delete the default (-)

2.4 - Set up sudo

• Install sudo using: pacman -S sudo

• Open the Terminal and login as root using: su

• Type EDITOR=vim visudo, to open the "sudoers"-file.

• Under "User privilege specification" we should add our user. This should look like:

  ##
  ## User privilege specification
  ##
  root ALL=(ALL) ALL
  username ALL=(ALL) ALL
  

• Save and close the file.

• Now change back to the user account with: su username

• Sudo is now set up and ready to use.

2.5 - Activating the AUR

To use the AUR, we need to install yay:

• sudo pacman -S git base-devel | Install necessary packages.
• cd ~ | Change directory to the users home.
• git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git | Download yay.
• cd yay | Change directory to the folder we have downloaded.
• makepkg -si | Build package and install yay.
• cd ..| Go back to the home directory.
• rm -rf ./yay/ | Delete the yay-folder.
• yay -Syy | Make sure yay is working and sync the package database.

2.6 - Making cinnamon look like on Linux Mint

2.6.1 - Installing the Fonts

• yay -S noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji
• Navigate to "cinnamon menu -> Font Selection" and change it to the following:

	Font	Size
Default font	Ubuntu Regular	10
Desktop font	Ubuntu Regular	10
Document font	Sans Regular	10
Monospace font	Monospace Regular	10
Window title font	Ubuntu Medium	10

2.6.2 - Installing the Mint-Themes and icons

• yay -S mint-themes mint-y-icons mint-x-icons
• Navigate to "cinnamon mennu -> Themes" and choose the mint themes, which you want to use."
• If you want to use the "Linux Mint backgrounds", you can install them by executing: yay -S mint-backgrounds
  Then just choose your favourite at "cinnamon menu -> Backgrounds"

2.7 - Adding printer support

• yay -S cups system-config-printer
• sudo systemctl enable cups
• sudo systemctl start cups

2.8 - Installing the default Linux Mint programs

2.8.1 - Installing programs from category "Accessories"

• yay -S file-roller yelp warpinator mintstick xed gnome-screenshot redshift seahorse onboard sticky xviewer gnome-font-viewer bulky xreader gnome-disk-utility gucharmap gnome-calculator

2.8.1 - Installing programs from category "Graphics"

• yay -S simple-scan pix drawing

2.8.2 - Installing programs from category "Internet"

• yay -S firefox webapp-manager hexchat thunderbird transmission-gtk

2.8.3 - Installing programs from category "Office"

• yay -S gnome-calendar libreoffice-fresh

2.8.4 - Installing programs from category "Programming"

• yay -S python

2.8.5 - Installing programs from category "Sound & Video"

• yay -S celluloid hypnotix rhythmbox

2.8.6 - Installing programs from category "Administration"

• yay -S baobab gnome-logs timeshift

2.8.7 - Installing programs from category "Preferences"

• yay -S gufw blueberry mintlocale