This page explains how to install Artix on a USB flash drive. The end result is
a persistent installation identical to that on a normal hard drive along with
several optimizations aimed at running Linux on removable flash media. It is
compatible with both BIOS and UEFI booting modes.


# Install Base System

Plug in the drive and determine the device name

```shell
dmesg | tail
# usb-storage 2-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
# scsi host2: usb-storage 2-2:1.0
# sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 965246976 512-byte logical blocks: (494 GB/460 GiB)
# sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
# sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
# sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
#  sdb:
# sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
export TARGET=/dev/sdb
```

### wipe (optional)

Use dd to write the USB with all zeros, permanently erasing all data:
```shell
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX status=progress && sync
```
Expect this to take a relatively long time (hour+) depending on the size.


## partition

Create a 10M BIOS partition, an EFI partition, and a Linux partition with the
remaining space (`sgdisk` is in the gptfdisk package):

```shell
sgdisk -o -n 1:0:+10M -t 1:EF02 -n 2:0:+1024M -t 2:EF00 -n 3:0:0 -t 3:8304 $TARGET
```

## format

Do not format the `/dev/sdX1` block. This is the BIOS/MBR parition.

```shell
# Format the EFI system partition with a FAT32 filesystem:
mkfs.fat -F32 ${TARGET}2
# Format the Linux partition with an ext4 filesystem:
mkfs.ext4 ${TARGET}3
```

## mount

```shell
# Mount the ext4 formatted partition as the root filesystem:
export MNT=/mnt/usb
mkdir -p $MNT
mount ${TARGET}3 $MNT
mount ${TARGET}2 ${MNT}/boot
```

## base system

By default, dinit will installed (alphabetical), adjust if desired as seen in:
https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Installation#Install_base_system

```shell
basestrap $MNT base inetutils base-devel vim htop mc less
basestrap $MNT linux linux-firmware
# Generate a new /etc/fstab using UUIDs as source identifiers:
fstabgen -U $MNT > ${MNT}/etc/fstab
```

## configure

Unless otherwise noted, all configuration is done within a chroot. Chroot into
the new system:
```shell
artix-chroot $MNT
export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"
```

### locale

Use tab-completion to discover the appropriate entries for _region_ and _city_:
```shell
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/region/city /etc/localtime
# substitute en_US.UTF-8 for your desired locale
sed -i '/en_US.UTF-8/s/^#*//' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf
```

### hostname

```shell
export HOSTNAME="ghost"
cat  << EOF > /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1        localhost
::1              localhost
127.0.1.1        ${HOSTNAME}.localdomain ${HOSTNAME}
EOF
echo ${HOSTNAME} > /etc/hostname
```

### root password

```shell
passwd
```

### bootloader

```shell
# Install grub and efibootmgr
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
# Install GRUB for both BIOS and UEFI booting modes
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck $TARGET
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory /boot --recheck --removable
# Generate a GRUB configuration
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
```

### network

```shell
pacman -S networkmanager-dinit
ln -s /etc/dinit.d/NetworkManager /etc/dinit.d/boot.d/
```

### user

```shell
export USER=user
useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash $USER
passwd $USER
# sudo
sed -i '/%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL/s/^# //' /etc/sudoers
visudo -c # check if it parses
```

### noatime (optional)

```shell
sed -i -s 's/relatime/noatime/' /etc/fstab
```