Arch Linux Installation Guide - Page 2

1. Introduction

Arch is a linux distribution which seems to be more difficult to setup even than Debian. But if you continue reading this tutorial you will quickly find out that things are not always as they seem to be. In this guide you will find the whole procedure from downloading the Arch Linux ISO, to installing it and properly configuring it.  So let's go!

2. Background Knowledge

The reader of this article is not required to have a former knowledge or experience from UNIX based operating systems, even though that would be rather helpful.
However, it will be good to know some info about the hardware of the computer Arch is going to be setup to. Specifically, it will be helpful if we know which chipset - not only its name, but the specific chipset that is used by the below parts of the computer:

• The CPU, and not only its model but its core as well, because it may support additional capabilities and instructions (e.g  Intel Pentium-III Coppermine, AMD K7 Barton, AMD K8 Toledo). Moreover, we should know both if we have more than one CPUs and their total amount and if they are multi-cores and if so, how many cores has each, so as to calculate the total number of cores of our system. Finally we should know if our CPUs support the AMD46 architecture instruction set - such are both all the AMD K8 and the compatible ones of Intel (EM64T).
• Our motherboard plus which version of the chipset we have (Intel 440BX, VIA KT-133A, nVidia nForce2 ultra 400, nVidia nForce4 single, ultra or SLI etc.). Furthermore we should know if our motherboard supports NUMA.
• The possible extra disk controllers we have, either on board or on PCI format (Promise PDC20265R or Silicon Image SI-3114 etc.)
• The network Ethernet controllers we have, either on board or on PCI format ( 3COM 3C-905-TX or Realtek 8169etc.)
• Our VGA card. What is required to know is not its brand or manufacture name but what type of class it is. (e.g. nVidia or ATI 9700  Pro). What's more we should know if our VGA card supports AGP or PCI-express bus.
• Our soundcard, either it is on board or on PCI format. (e.g. Aureal AU8830, Envy24 (ICE1712) ). A priceless source of information for the chipset of every soundcard and how well is being supported by Linux, is the below one and we will also need it later:
  ALSA Soundcard Matrix
• To know what communication protocoll is used by the optical drives (e.g. IDE or SCSI).
• If our monitor is CRT or TFT which is NOT connected to DVI, to know the limits of the horizontal and vertical frequency range the monitor is  capable to work in.  Those are always in the manual of our monitor.
• Finally it would be good for all the above to know the name of the corresponding kernel modules

3. Needed Hardware

The computer in which we will install Arch should at least meet the following hardware requirements.

• Either AMD 64 (such as AMD K8 or the equivalent Intel (EM64T), or i686
  Which cpus are i686:
  ----> all Intel Pentium-II (as well as the equivalent Celeron)
  ----> all Intel Pentium-III (as well as the equivalent Celeron)
  ----> all Intel Pentium-4 (as well as the equivalent Celeron, apart from those which suport)
  ----> all AMD K7 Athlon (as well as the equivalent Duron)
  Which x86 cpus are NOT i686:
  ----> Intel Pentium
  ----> Intel Pentium MMX
  ----> Intel Pentium-Pro (not ΜΜΧ compatible)
  ----> AMD K6
  ----> AMD K6-II
  ----> AMD K6-III
• RAM 256MB
• Motherboard with the latest BIOS, in order to be able to recognize our full had disk drives capacity and to have AGP or PCI- express support. Moreover to support on memory type and not to (e.g. DDR and DDR-2)
• IDE or SATA hard disks with a capacity of 16GB at least. There should be no RAID unless it is real hardware RAID.
• An Ethernet card  10 or 100 Mbps (or gigabit)
• A graphics card, either AGP or PCI-express, either nVidia (series 4xxx and newer), or ATi (Radeon or newer)
• Sound card which is Linux compatible
• IDE (or SCSI) DVD (or CD) reader with boot support
• PS/2 keyboard 105 buttons
• PS/2 or USB mouse 2+1 buttons (1 -> wheel), Microsoft IntelliMouse compatible.

These are our computers requirements.

We take for granted that there is a fast Internet connection through an aDSL modem-router with SPI firewall.

Be sure that in your Ethernet aDSL modem-router you have disabled anything that has to do with DHCP, Universal Plug-And-Play (UPnP) and Wireless.