Disk Partitioning

This part of the guide is divided into two steps:

  • UEFI system
  • BIOS system

Note: For this guide we assume that the disk you're installing on is named /dev/sda.

Delete partitions

  1. List disks: fdisk -l
  2. Find the disk you want to install Arch Linux onto
  3. Use fdisk on disk: fdisk /dev/sda
  4. Wipe all partitions on disk: d
    • Repeat this step for all partitions

Creating partitions

UEFI Systems

If you have an UEFI system you need a ROOT and a BOOT partition.

BOOT partition

  1. Create the EFI/BOOT partition: n
  2. Partition number: Enter
  3. First sector: Enter
  4. Last sector: +512M
  5. Change partition type to EFI: t
  6. Press the number corresponding to EFI
    • list all types with L

ROOT partition

  1. Partition number: Enter
  2. First sector: Enter
  3. Last sector: Enter
  4. Write changes to disk: w

Make file systems

  1. Make BOOT file system: mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 && fatlabel /dev/sda1 BOOT
  2. Make ROOT file system: mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/sda2

BIOS Systems

If you have a BIOS system you only need a ROOT partition.

ROOT partition

  1. Create the ROOT partition: n
  2. Partition number: Enter
  3. First sector: Enter
  4. Last sector: Enter
  5. Write changes to disk: w

Make file system

  1. Make ROOT file system: mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/sda1