1. This page explains how to install Artix on a USB flash drive. The end result is
2. a persistent installation identical to that on a normal hard drive along with
3. several optimizations aimed at running Linux on removable flash media. It is
4. compatible with both BIOS and UEFI booting modes.
5.  
6.  
7. # Install Base System
8.  
9. Plug in the drive and determine the device name
10.  
11. ```shell
12. dmesg | tail
13. # usb-storage 2-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
14. # scsi host2: usb-storage 2-2:1.0
15. # sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 965246976 512-byte logical blocks: (494 GB/460 GiB)
16. # sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
17. # sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
18. # sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
19. #  sdb:
20. # sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
21. export TARGET=/dev/sdb
22. ```
23.  
24. ### wipe (optional)
25.  
26. Use dd to write the USB with all zeros, permanently erasing all data:
27. ```shell
28. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX status=progress && sync
29. ```
30. Expect this to take a relatively long time (hour+) depending on the size.
31.  
32.  
33. ## partition
34.  
35. Create a 10M BIOS partition, an EFI partition, and a Linux partition with the
36. remaining space (`sgdisk` is in the gptfdisk package):
37.  
38. ```shell
39. sgdisk -o -n 1:0:+10M -t 1:EF02 -n 2:0:+1024M -t 2:EF00 -n 3:0:0 -t 3:8304 $TARGET
40. ```
41.  
42. ## format
43.  
44. Do not format the `/dev/sdX1` block. This is the BIOS/MBR parition.
45.  
46. ```shell
47. # Format the EFI system partition with a FAT32 filesystem:
48. mkfs.fat -F32 ${TARGET}2
49. # Format the Linux partition with an ext4 filesystem:
50. mkfs.ext4 ${TARGET}3
51. ```
52.  
53. ## mount
54.  
55. ```shell
56. # Mount the ext4 formatted partition as the root filesystem:
57. export MNT=/mnt/usb
58. mkdir -p $MNT
59. mount ${TARGET}3 $MNT
60. mount ${TARGET}2 ${MNT}/boot
61. ```
62.  
63. ## base system
64.  
65. By default, dinit will installed (alphabetical), adjust if desired as seen in:
66. https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Installation#Install_base_system
67.  
68. ```shell
69. basestrap $MNT base inetutils base-devel vim htop mc less
70. basestrap $MNT linux linux-firmware
71. # Generate a new /etc/fstab using UUIDs as source identifiers:
72. fstabgen -U $MNT > ${MNT}/etc/fstab
73. ```
74.  
75. ## configure
76.  
77. Unless otherwise noted, all configuration is done within a chroot. Chroot into
78. the new system:
79. ```shell
80. artix-chroot $MNT
81. export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"
82. ```
83.  
84. ### locale
85.  
86. Use tab-completion to discover the appropriate entries for _region_ and _city_:
87. ```shell
88. ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/region/city /etc/localtime
89. # substitute en_US.UTF-8 for your desired locale
90. sed -i '/en_US.UTF-8/s/^#*//' /etc/locale.gen
91. locale-gen
92. echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
93. ```
94.  
95. ### hostname
96.  
97. ```shell
98. export HOSTNAME="ghost"
99. cat  << EOF > /etc/hosts
100. 127.0.0.1        localhost
101. ::1              localhost
102. 127.0.1.1        ${HOSTNAME}.localdomain ${HOSTNAME}
103. EOF
104. echo ${HOSTNAME} > /etc/hostname
105. ```
106.  
107. ### root password
108.  
109. ```shell
110. passwd
111. ```
112.  
113. ### bootloader
114.  
115. ```shell
116. # Install grub and efibootmgr
117. pacman -S grub efibootmgr
118. # Install GRUB for both BIOS and UEFI booting modes
119. grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck $TARGET
120. grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory /boot --recheck --removable
121. # Generate a GRUB configuration
122. grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
123. ```
124.  
125. ### network
126.  
127. ```shell
128. pacman -S networkmanager-dinit
129. ln -s /etc/dinit.d/NetworkManager /etc/dinit.d/boot.d/
130. ```
131.  
132. ### user
133.  
134. ```shell
135. export USER=user
136. useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash $USER
137. passwd $USER
138. # sudo
139. sed -i '/%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL/s/^# //' /etc/sudoers
140. visudo -c # check if it parses
141. ```
142.  
143. ### noatime (optional)
144.  
145. ```shell
146. sed -i -s 's/relatime/noatime/' /etc/fstab
147. ```
148.