Arch Linux is easily one of the most popular distros out there, and for good reason. The AUR is insanely convenient, the wiki reads like a full-blown manual for life, and pretty much every tweak you’ll ever need is documented somewhere.

I’ve hopped distro to distro—Mint, LXDE spins, XFCE, you name it—but I keep coming back to Arch Linux. The only thing that used to slow me down was the classic manual install. It’s powerful, sure, but wow it eats up time when all you want is a working system.

Then I met the archinstall script. It’s the “I’m still cool, but also busy” way to install Arch. No shame, no gatekeeping—just a guided flow that still lets you shape the system exactly how you like.

Archinstall ships with the official ISO and provides a structured UI for picking disks, packages, and the rest of the setup. It doesn’t remove control; it just cuts out repetitive typing.

Before launching archinstall

  • First, prep the disk you’re going to wipe. This walkthrough assumes a fresh install, so back up anything important—archinstall will happily format the target disk.
  • Second, grab the latest Arch ISO, flash it to a USB (Rufus, Ventoy, whatever works), boot into it, and get online. Wi-Fi via iwctl or just plug in Ethernet—doesn’t matter, as long as you can pull packages during install.

Once you’re in the live environment and connected, fire up the guided installer by typing archinstall.

    Set/Modify the below options

    > Archinstall language               set: English (100%)
    Keyboard layout                    set: us
    Mirror region                      set: []
    Locale language                    set: en_US
    Locale encoding                    set: utf-8
    Drive(s)
    Bootloader                         set: systemd-bootctl
    Swap                               set: True
    Hostname                           set: archlinux
    Root password                      set: None
    User account
    Profile                            set: None
    Audio                              set: None
    Kernels                            set: ['linux']
    Additional packages                set: []
    Network configuration              set: Not configured, unavailable unless setup manually
    Timezone                           set: UTC
    Automatic time sync (NTP)          set: True
    Optional repositories              set: []

    Save configuration
    Install (2 config(s) missing)
    Abort
    (Press "/" to search)

My go-to configuration

  • Archinstall language: English (100%)
  • Keyboard layout: us
  • Mirror region: leave empty or pick mirrors near you
  • Locale language: en_US
  • Locale encoding: utf-8
  • Drive(s): choose the target disk
  • Disk layout: Wipe all (yes, this erases everything on that disk)
  • Bootloader: systemd-bootctl or GRUB (I lean systemd-bootctl)
  • Hostname: whatever name makes you happy—mine is often just arch
  • Root password: I skip it and rely on sudo
  • User account: Select “Add a user”, type a username (mine’s ripa), set a password, answer “yes” when it asks if the user should be a sudoer, then Confirm and exit
  • Profile: pick what you need—desktop -> kde if you want Plasma, and match the graphics driver to your hardware
  • Audio: I go with pipewire
  • Kernel: stock linux is fine unless you have a reason to change
  • Additional packages: toss in extras like chromium if you want them right away
  • Network configuration: Use NetworkManager
  • Timezone: Asia/Jakarta
  • Automatic time sync: True
  • Optional repositories: usually just ['multilib'] so I can install Steam later

When everything looks good, select Install, grab a drink while it copies files, then reboot into your fresh Arch setup. No ancient ritual required. 😄