Arch Workstation

Setup an Arch Linux development environment

• Requirements
• Role Variables
• Dependencies
• Example Playbook
• License
• Notes
  • Initial installation
  • Parted
  • LVM
  • Formatting
  • Mounting
  • WiFi
  • Arch Install
  • Ansible
  • Vagrant lab

Requirements

This role is intended for setting a development environment on fresh install of Arch Linux. It is a collection of roles that install things like sway, nvim, and zsh.

Role Variables

time_zone: US/Pacific
locale: en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

# base packages
base:
  - git
  - sudo

# ZSH Configs
theme: robbyrussell
# Set default $EDITOR
editor: nvim
# Set default $BROWSER
browser: chromium
lang: en_US.UTF-8
# Set your default $TERM
term: alacritty
# Include things to your $PATH
path:
  - ~/bin
# zsh plugins
plugins:
  - sudo
  - git

# sway configs
sway:
  bar: waybar

# Python/Ansible color output
python_force_color: 1
ansible_force_color: 1

Dependencies

• jahrik.alacritty
• jahrik.nvim
• jahrik.sway
• jahrik.vim
• jahrik.yay
• jahrik.zsh

Example Playbook

- hosts: localhost
  roles:
     - { role: jahrik.workstation, install: true }

License

GPLv2

Notes

This repository is the first thing I clone any time I reinstall Arch on a new laptop to get it back up and running with i3-gaps, vim, zsh, and a few other tools I use every time. Arch has some of the best documentation around and their installation guide has everything needed to get a new machine up and running. I won't go into too much detail about the basic installation process other than some handy notes for myself later.

Initial installation

Installation Guide

Parted

parted -s /dev/sda mklabel msdos
# /boot
parted -s -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 0% 1G
# swap
parted -s -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 1G 9G
# /
parted -s -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 9G 100%

LVM

# create volume group
pvcreate /dev/sdaX
vgcreate vg /dev/sdaX

# create logical volumes
lvcreate -L 8G vg -n swap
lvcreate -L 100G vg -n root
lvcreate -L 100G vg -n var
lvcreate -l 100%FREE vg -n home

Formatting

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdaX
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-root
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-var
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg-home
mkswap /dev/mapper/vg-swap

Mounting

mount /dev/mapper/vg-root /mnt
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/mapper/vg-home /mnt/home
mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/mapper/vg-var /mnt/var
swapon /dev/mapper/vg-swap
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

WiFi

iwctl
station list
station wlan0 scan
statoin wlan0 get-networks
station wlan0 connect <NETWORK>

Arch Install

Once you've got the basics down, like connecting to WiFi, handling any disk formatting, and having everything mounted to /mnt, you have a couple options. Use the archinstall script, or keep following the installation guide linked above.

archinstall

Ansible

Install Git and Ansible

pacman -S git ansible

Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/jahrik/ansible-arch-workstation.git

Install dependencies from Ansible Galaxy

ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

Run Ansible against localhost

ansible-playbook -l local playbook.yml

Vagrant lab

Use vagrant to spin up a virtual machine for testing things like i3 and GUI stuff.

Install Vagrant and it's dependencies

pacman -S vagrant virtualbox

Bring up an arch box

vagrant up

Check the status of vagrant

vagrant status

rurrent machine states:

arch-vm              running (virtualbox)

SSH into the box

vagrant ssh arch-vm.dev

Run the playbook against the vm

ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml -l vagrant playbook.yml -K