A simple guide to bootstrap Arch Linux on an XPS 15 9570

Expect this to take at approximately 2 hours. Go slow, be patient, have fun.

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_15_9560 for additional info as needed.

Prework

0. Download the Arch installer and write the ISO to a USB/external disk using Etcher: https://etcher.io/.
1. Boot into Windows and install any BIOS updates that might exist.
2. Dual boot prework - skip this step if you plan to single boot Linux (or install Windows later).
   1. Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI: https://triplescomputers.com/blog/uncategorized/solution-switch-windows-10-from-raidide-to-ahci-operation/
   2. Resize your Windows partition: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-open-disk-management-2626080
3. Boot into the UEFI/BIOS (e.g. hit F-12 during POST).
   1. Change the SATA Mode from "RAID" to "AHCI" (unless you already did so in 2.1).
   2. Disable Secure Boot.

Start the installer

4. Boot up the computer and hit F-12 during POST. Select the external disk/USB that has the Arch installer. Wait for the installer to boot.
5. Once started, run wifi-menu and connect to WiFi.

Wipe, Partition, and Format the disk

6. Figure out the name and current partition structure of your disk.

   1. fdisk -l
   2. Take note of the name of your disk. For NVMe drives this is often /dev/nvme0n1, so we'll be using that for this guide.
   3. Take note of any existing partitions. This is especially important if dual-booting.

7. Wipe the disk. If dual booting Windows skip this step.

   1. gdisk /dev/nvme0n1
   2. Hit x (for advanced options), then z (wipe the disk), then y and y (or whatever confirmation is required).

8. Partition the disk.

   1. cfdisk /dev/nvme0n1
   2. Select gpt
   3. Create the EFI partition. If dual booting Windows skip this step.
      1. Select New.
      2. Make the partition size 300M.
      3. Select Type - EFI System.
   4. Create the Swap partition.
      1. Select New.
      2. Make the partition size 16G (or 32G depending on preference).
      3. Select Type - Linux swap.
   5. Create the Root partition.
      1. Select New.
      2. Hit Enter to make the partition size equal to the rest of the disk.
   6. Select Write and confirm with yes.
   7. Select Quit.

9. Encrypt, Format, and Mount the Root partition.

   1. fdisk -l
   2. Take note of the new partition structure. Make sure you know the ids of the EFI, Swap, and Root partitions (e.g. /dev/nvme0n1p1 for the EFI partition). You'll need the Root partition (e.g. /dev/nvme0n1p3 for the next step).
   3. cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/nvme0n1p3 (assuming your Root partition is at /dev/nvme0n1p3).
   4. Input a password.
   5. cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p3 cryptroot
   6. Input your password.
   7. mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/cryptroot - this formats the partition.
   8. mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt - this mounts the partition to prepare for installation.

10. Format and Mount the Swap partition.

    1. mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p2 (assuming your Swap partition is at /dev/nvme0n1p2).
    2. swapon /dev/nvme0n1p2

11. Format and Mount the EFI partition.

    1. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1 (assuming your EFI partition is at /dev/nvme0n1p1). If dual booting Windows skip this step.
    2. mkdir /mnt/boot
    3. mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

Bootstrap the Arch installation

12. Ensure system clock is accurate

    1. timedatectl set-ntp true

13. Install the base system

    1. pacstrap /mnt base base-devel refind-efi zsh vim git efibootmgr dialog wpa_supplicant intel-ucode sudo

14. Generate the fstab - this automounts your partitions on boot.

    1. genfstab -pU /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
    2. Make minor changes to fstab via vim /mnt/etc/fstab or similar.
       1. Change relatime for /dev/mapper/cryptroot to noatime (this supposedly reduces wear on your SSD).
       2. (OPTIONAL) Make /tmp a ramdisk by adding the following line to /mnt/etc/fstab. This ensures /tmp erases on reboot.
          1. tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

Finish bootstrapping

15. Enter the new system.

    1. arch-chroot /mnt

16. Setup the system clock.

    1. ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime
    2. hwclock --systohc

17. Set the hostname.

    1. hostnamectl set-hostname <myhostname> (the hostname should be all lower case).

18. Update the locale.

    1. vim /etc/locale.gen
    2. Find en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and uncomment (remove the #).
    3. locale-gen
    4. echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 >> /etc/locale.conf
    5. echo LANGUAGE=en_US >> /etc/locale.conf
    6. echo LC_ALL=C >> /etc/locale.conf

19. Set password for root.

    1. passwd

20. Add a real user. Remove -s /bin/zsh if you don't want to use zsh (but maybe you should).

    1. useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/zsh MYUSERNAME (assuming your username is MYUSERNAME).
    2. passwd MYUSERNAME

21. Add the wheel group to Sudoers.

    1. visudo
    2. Uncomment %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

22. Configure mkinitcpio with modules needed for the initrd image.

    1. vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
    2. Add ext4 to MODULES.
    3. Add encrypt to HOOKS before filesystems.
    4. mkinitcpio -p linux to regenerate the image.

23. Set up the refind bootloader.

    1. refind-install
    2. Figure out the uuid of the encrypted partition
       1. ls -la /dev/disk/by-uuid - note the uuid linked to /dev/nvme0n1p3.
       2. vim /boot/refind_linux.conf
       3. Delete all lines beginning with archisobasedir.
       4. Edit Boot with minimal options to be:
          1. cryptdevice=UUID=<device-UUID>:cryptroot root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot where <device-UUID is the UUID you found in 23.2.1.
       5. Add Boot to single user mode:
          1. cryptdevice=UUID=<device-UUID>:cryptroot root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot single where <device-UUID is the UUID you found in 23.2.1.

24. exit and go into the installer shell

25. Unmount the partitions.

    1. umount -R /mnt
    2. swapoff -a

26. Ensure the EFI boot entry was written.

    1. efibootmgr -v
    2. Verify you see an entry for rEFInd.
    3. Verify BootOrder has that entry's number first (e.g. 0001,0002... where 0001 is rEFInd).

27. reboot

If the system does not boot into the rEFInd bootloader

see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#Launching_UEFI_Shell

28. Manually add the EFI boot entry.
    1. Boot back into the Arch USB, before the installer starts select EFI manager v2 or similar.
    2. map - take note of the device entry for your disk (e.g. whatever one says GPT somewhere).
    3. bcfg boot add 3 FS0:\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi "rEFInd" (assuming FS0 is the device id found in 28.2).
    4. Exit and reboot.

Rejoice

You now have a bootable Arch installation, but this is where the real fun begins.

29. Install the NVIDIA drivers. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA#Installation, but this is probably as simple as sudo pacman -S nvidia.

30. nvidia-smi - do you see your card? If so, be happy this worked the first time...

31. Install Bumblebee. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/bumblebee. Do not install bbswitch - it is currently broken. Check https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=238389 for potential fixes.

32. Install everything else you need to have a usable computer. See pacman_list.txt for suggestions. I highly suggest you begin with LightDM (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LightDM). GDM seems to be unstable on this system at this time. You can then proceed to installing a Desktop Environment (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/desktop_environment) or i3 (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/i3).

Remember this is supposed to be fun - but also a little overwhelming. Go slow, think about your choices, and understand getting a usable daily system will likely be a long and evolving process. Be patient.