Manual Arch install (without archinstall)

An alternative to step 3 if you want control over every command. Same result: a minimal system, ready for install.sh.

The examples use /dev/nvme0n1. Yours may be named differently (sda, vda) — check lsblk.

1. Network and time

iwctl                              # station wlan0 connect "NetworkName", exit
ping -c 3 archlinux.org
timedatectl set-ntp true
pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring

2. Partitioning (UEFI / GPT)

cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1

Partition	Size	Type
nvme0n1p1	1 GB	EFI System
nvme0n1p2	50–100 GB	Linux filesystem (/)
nvme0n1p3	the rest	Linux filesystem (/home)

No swap partition needed — we'll enable zram below.

3. Format and mount

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p3            # skip if you're keeping your old /home

mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt/home

4. Base system

pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware linux-headers \
    networkmanager zram-generator grub efibootmgr os-prober git vim sudo
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
arch-chroot /mnt

5. System configuration

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Moscow /etc/localtime   # or your timezone
hwclock --systohc

sed -i 's/^#en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf

echo "arch" > /etc/hostname

# zram instead of a swap partition
printf '[zram0]\nzram-size = ram / 2\n' > /etc/systemd/zram-generator.conf

systemctl enable NetworkManager

6. User

passwd                                   # root password
useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash zilero
passwd zilero
echo '%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/wheel

7. Bootloader

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

install.sh adds Windows to the GRUB menu (the boot module).

8. Reboot

exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

After logging in: nmtui → connect to a network → run install.sh.