Preparaiton and Installation

Obtain the Arch Linux ISO image from the official download page and create a new virtual machine in VMware Workstation.

Verify Network Connectivity

Check the network connection from the live environment.

ping -c 5 archlinux.org

Disk Partitioning and Formatting

First, list the available block devices to identify the target disk.

lsblk

Partition the primary disk (e.g., /dev/sda) using cfdisk.

cfdisk /dev/sda

Create the following partitions:

• /dev/sda1: 20G, for the root filesystem.
• /dev/sda2: 1G, for the EFI system partition (ESP).
• /dev/sda3: 4G, for swap space.
• /dev/sda4: 35G, for the /home directory.

Format the partitions and enable swap.

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda2
mkswap /dev/sda3
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda4

Mount the filesystems and activate swap.

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/sda3
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home

Configure Package Mirrors

Edit the mirror list to prioritize servers geographically close to you.

vim /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Update the package database.

pacman -Syy

Install Base System

Install essential packages to the mounted root filesystem.

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware dhcpcd

Generate Fstab File

Create the filesystem table to define mount points at boot.

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

Verify the generated file.

cat /mnt/etc/fstab

Chroot into the New System

Change root into the newly installed system to perform configuration.

arch-chroot /mnt

Set Timezone and Locale

Set the system timezone.

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc

Uncomment the desired locales in /etc/locale.gen and generate them.

vim /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen

Set the system language by creating /etc/locale.conf.

echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf

Configure Hostname and Hosts File

Set the hostname.

echo 'archvm' > /etc/hostname

Edit the hosts file.

vim /etc/hosts

Add the following lines, replacing archvm with your chosen hostname.

127.0.0.1    localhost
::1          localhost
127.0.1.1    archvm.localdomain    archvm

Set Root Password

passwd

Install and Configure the Bootloader

Install the GRUB bootloader for a BIOS system.

pacman -S grub
grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Enable Network Service

Enable the DHCP client service to start at boot.

systemctl enable dhcpcd.service

Exit, Unmount, and Reboot

Exit the chroot environment, unmount all partitions, and reboot.

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Post-Installation Configuration

Log in as the root user after the reboot.

Create a Standard User

Create a new user with sudo privileges by adding them to the wheel group.

useradd -m -G wheel alice
passwd alice

Configure Sudo

Instal the sudo package.

pacman -S sudo

Edit the sudoers file using visudo and uncomment the line for the wheel group.

EDITOR=vim visudo

Locate and uncommment the following line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Reboot and log in with the new user account.

reboot

Install a Graphical Environment

Install Xorg

Install the X Window System.

sudo pacman -S xorg

Install a Desktop Environment

For the XFCE desktop:

sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies

For the KDE Plasma desktop:

sudo pacman -S plasma kde-applications

Install and Enable a Display Manager

Install SDDM and enable it to start automatically.

sudo pacman -S sddm
sudo systemctl enable sddm.service

Configure Network Management

Install and enable NetworkManager for easier network configuration.

sudo pacman -S networkmanager network-manager-applet
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

Install VMware Tools

Mount the VMware Tools ISO from the virtual machine's CD/DVD drive.

sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt

Extract the installer to a temporary location.

mkdir /tmp/vmware
sudo tar -xzf /mnt/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz -C /tmp/vmware

Run the installation script. Accept the default prompts unless a specific configuration is required.

cd /tmp/vmware/vmware-tools-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

sudo reboot

Support for Chinese Language

Install Chinese fonts.

sudo pacman -S wqy-zenhei ttf-fireflysung

Set the system locale to Chinese in /etc/locale.conf.

echo 'LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8' | sudo tee /etc/locale.conf

Generate the new locale.

sudo locale-gen

Install Chinese Input Method

Install the Fcitx input method framework and the Google Pinyin engine.

sudo pacman -S fcitx5 fcitx5-chinese-addons fcitx5-gtk fcitx5-qt

Configure the environment variables for input methods by creating or editing ~/.pam_environment.

GTK_IM_MODULE DEFAULT=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE  DEFAULT=fcitx
XMODIFIERS    DEFAULT=@im=fcitx

Log out and back in for the input method settings to apply.