How to Install Arch Linux on Virtualbox Guest with rEFInd Bootloader

1.1. Create the VM

• Launch Virtualbox
• Click 'New'
• Complete 'Name and operating system' form

Name:	Arch
Type:	Linux
Version:	Arch Linux (64-bit)

• Complete 'Memory size' form

Set memory slider:

4096 Mb

• Complete 'Hard disk' form

Check radio button:

Create a virtual hard disk now

• Complete 'Hard disk file type' form

Check radio button:

VDI (Virtualbox Disk Image)

• Complete 'Storage on physical hard disk' form

Check radio button:

Dynamically allocated

• Complete 'File location and size' form

Folder name:	Arch
Set disk size slider:	30 Gb

A new VM should be now created in Virtualbox

1.2. Configure the VM

• Select the new Arch VM
• Click 'Settings'
• Click on tab 'System'; set the following settings

Check box:

Enable EFI (Special OSes only)

• Click on tab 'Display'; set the following settings

Set video memory slider:	128 Mb
Check box:	Enable 3D acceleration

• Click on tab 'Storage'; set the following settings

Controller: IDE:

mount Arch Linux iso

The VM is now ready to boot the live media

• Select Arch VM and click 'Start'
• Select 'Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI USB'

Screen will blank out for a couple of minutes followed by a series of startup events. Eventually, the system will boot into console with the prompt root@archiso ~ #

• Verify that Arch booted in UEFI mode

# ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars


*If the directory is populated, Arch is in UEFI mode
• Verify that the internet connection is working

# ping archlinux.org -c 4

• Update the system clock

# timedatectl set-ntp true
# timedatectl status


*Should get a line in return message:
System clock synchronized: yes

• Identify the device (the virtual hard disk) to install Arch into

# fdisk -l


*Should be /dev/sda
• Use gdisk to create partitions

# gdisk /dev/sda

• Create the boot partition using the following settings at each prompt

Command (? for help):	n	*new partition
Partition number:	hit 'Enter'	*default; start from next available number
First sector:	hit 'Enter'	*default; start from end of previous partition
Last sector:	+200M	*make partition 200Mb in size
Hex code or GUID:	ef00	*EFI system

• Create the root partition using the following settings at each prompt

Command (? for help):	n
Partition number:	hit 'Enter'
First sector:	hit 'Enter'
Last sector:	+20G	*make partition 20Gb in size
Hex code or GUID:	hit 'Enter'	*default; 8300=Linux File System

• Create the home partition using the following settings at each prompt

Command (? for help):	n
Partition number:	hit 'Enter'
First sector:	hit 'Enter'
Last sector:	hit 'Enter'	*default; use the rest of the disk
Hex code or GUID:	hit 'Enter'

• Verify partition scheme

Command (? for help):

p

*Output should look something like this:

• Write partition scheme to disk

Command (? for help):	w
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N):	y

*This step will wipe all data on the disk

Gdisk will write partition table and quit; returns to console prompt root@archiso ~ #

• Verify partitions have been created as specified

# fdisk -l


*Output should look something like this:

5.1. Format the partitions

• Format the boot partition as FAT32 file system

# mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sda1

• Format root and home partitions as ext4 file system

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

5.2. Mount the partitions

• Mount the root partition to /mnt

# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

• Create mount points for the boot and home partitions

# mkdir /mnt/boot /mnt/home

• Mount the partitions to their respective mount points

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home

• Verify partitions have been properly mounted

# findmnt


*Output should have the following at the bottom of the list:

• Install reflector

# pacman -Sy reflector


*Enter 'y' to confirm when prompted
• Backup the current mirror list

# cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.bak

• Sort mirror list using reflector

# reflector -l 100 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist


*This selects the 100 most recently synchronised mirrors and sorts them by download speed

The system is now ready to install Arch Linux proper

• Install base and base-devel packages

# pacstrap /mnt base base-devel


* Grab some coffee while you wait

8.1. Generate the fstab file

• Generate fstab

# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

• Verify the contents of fstab

# cat /mnt/etc/fstab | less


*Output should look something like this:

8.2. Change root to /mnt

# arch-chroot /mnt

Console prompt will change to [root@archiso /]

8.3. Configure system time

• Set time zone

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Singapore /etc/localtime

• Set the hardware clock

# hwclock --systohc

8.4. Configure the locale

• Identify (un-comment) needed locales

# nano /etc/locale.gen


*Delete '#' from '#en_SG.UTF-8 UTF-8' and '#en_SG ISO-8859-1'

• Generate locales

# locale-gen


*Note the dash; 'locale-gen' and NOT 'locale.gen'

• Set LANG variable

# echo LANG=en_SG.UTF-8 >> /etc/locale.conf

8.5. Configure the network

• Enable network service on system startup

# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

8.6. Set root password

# passwd

9.1. Setup rEFInd

• Install rEFInd

# pacman -S refind-efi

• Install the rEFInd boot manager

# refind-install --usedefault /dev/sda1


*Virtualbox requires the use of --usedefault option
*/dev/sda1 is the boot partition created earlier
• Configure rEFInd to pass kernel parameters

# mkrlconf

According to the rEFInd page on ArchWiki, when refind-install is run in chroot (step 8.2.), refind_linux.conf will be populated with kernel options from the live system. Hence, refind_linux.conf needs to be edited.

• Find UUID of root partition (/dev/sda2)

# blkid


*UUID of /dev/sda2 is the string as shown below:

• Edit refind_linux.conf

# nano /boot/refind_linux.conf


*The first two lines of refind_linux.conf will be garbage (kernel options from live system). Edit the file using the UUID indentified earlier so that the contents look like this:

9.2. Enable microcode updates

• Install the intel ucode package

# pacman -S intel-ucode

• Update refind_linux.conf

# nano /boot/refind_linux.conf


*Append initrd=/intel-ucode.img and initrd=/initramfs-linux.img so that the contents look like this:

• Exit chroot

# exit

• Unmount all partitions

# umount -R /mnt

• Shutdown

# poweroff

• Unmount Arch Linux iso from virtual optical drive

*In Virtualbox, click 'Settings' > 'Storage' > 'Controller: IDE' > 'Remove Disk from Virtual Drive'

Installation complete!