Arch install with full disk encryption

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Arch is a great Linux Operating System. It’s powerful, full of customization, and installing it is a perfect way to understand all those pieces that together become a Linux distribution.

Arch has a installation manual with simplified instructions, but misses details on WiFi connection and disk partition. This article will tackle those shortcomings.

Download and burn the ISO or create a USB stick

$ sudo umount /dev/sdb*

$ sudo dd bs=4M if=arch_linux.ISO of=/dev/sdb status=progress

Insert CD or plug stick and reboot.

You should get the Arch Linux console, so let’s get started.

1. Set the keyboard layout

List available keyboard layouts and load the yours (I’ll use ‘pt-latin9' in this article):

# ls /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/**/*.map.gz

# loadkeys pt-latin9

2. Verify boot mode

If you’re not sure whether your computer uses BIOS or UEFI run the following command. If the ouput show the directory without error it uses UEFI, else uses BIOS:

# ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars