Jan 03 2020

Back to Arch Linux

Why

It was October 2019. New job, new laptop.

I tried to tell myself to stay with the LTS that was given to me from the Canonical and Dell overlords. To be honest, I did not remove Ubuntu from the get-go was because I was unsure if I can run Nvidia’s CUDA toolkit on an unlisted OS. In my old laptop (2011-2014) on which I had a Nvidia GPU and which ran Manjaro, I would frequently total my installation every time I ran pacman -Syu. The X.org display server would just stop functioning and I would be left with a terminal to figure out how to get back.

I thought I could just weed out the bloatware (Google Chrome, Amazon etc.) and be content with what I have. Trust the Ubuntu and Dell repositories.

Fast-forward to January 2020. Turns out, the project which I am on right now may not get started with CUDA development soon. Therefore, a good OS and GCC compiler toolchain is all that I need. I have a mutant Ubuntu LTS already with all the hacks under the sun to stay up-to-date:

• pyenv to have the latest Python
• flatpak to install some applications which are ancient in the official Ubuntu repos (Okular, Signal, KeepassXC, Zeal, Zotero etc.)
• appimage when flatpak’s sandbox is too restrictive (Neovim)
• PPA / unofficial .deb packages from GitHub when the start-up overhead of flatpak or appimage is way too high (Neovim, again 😅) or similar reasons as above (Nextcloud client, VSCodium etc.)

This is not good at all, I hear you. And I have to wait a good 4 more months for the next LTS release! The final blow came when I saw Vim 8.2 was released last month with popup support, and I do not have it yet! There is no practical way (apart from yet another PPA) to get the latest Vim, without compiling it from source. Either ways, it is also unacceptable to run a desktop environment (GNOME) which is lagging behind (version 3.28.2) the latest stable release (version 3.34) for so long!

How

There is a nice guide which demonstrates how to setup Arch Linux from an existing Linux OS. I started off by downloading the bootstrap image along with the GPG signature and verifying it:

$ gpg --keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve --verify archlinux-2020.01.01-x86_64.iso.sig
gpg: assuming signed data in 'archlinux-2020.01.01-x86_64.iso'
gpg: Signature made Wed 01 Jan 2020 06:21:41 AM CET
gpg:                using RSA key 4AA4767BBC9C4B1D18AE28B77F2D434B9741E8AC
gpg: Good signature from "Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 4AA4 767B BC9C 4B1D 18AE  28B7 7F2D 434B 9741 E8AC

The key fingerprint was cross-checked to be doubly sure. Then I extracted the bootstrap image:

$ sudo su
# tar xzf archlinux-bootstrap-2020.01.01-x86_64.tar.gz -C /tmp

When I skipped a few steps and went into the chroot, I got this:

# /tmp/root.x86_64/bin/arch-chroot /tmp/root.x86_64/
==> WARNING: /mnt/archlinux/root.x86_64/ is not a mountpoint. This may have undesirable side effects.

I understood that the chroot should be a mount point:

# mount --bind /tmp/root.x86_64 /tmp/root.x86_64
# /tmp/root.x86_64/bin/arch-chroot /tmp/root.x86_64/

And the chroot worked without any warnings. To clarify the shell I am running I will prefix the commands with [chroot] # from here on:

[chroot] # pacman-key --init
[chroot] # pacman-key --populate archlinux

After editing the mirror list outside of the chroot:

$ sudoedit /tmp/root.x86_64/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

I updated the bootstrap:

[chroot] # pacman -Syyu

And mounted the partitions to be bootstrapped:

[chroot] # mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt
[chroot] # mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/home
[chroot] # genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
[chroot] # umount /mnt/home

and installed some essentials:

[chroot] # pacman -S base base-devel
:: There are 24 members in group base-devel:
:: Repository core
   1) autoconf  2) automake  3) binutils  4) bison  5) fakeroot  6) file
   7) findutils  8) flex  9) gawk  10) gcc  11) gettext  12) grep  13) groff
   14) gzip  15) libtool  16) m4 17) make  18) pacman  19) patch  20) pkgconf
   21) sed  22) sudo  23) texinfo  24) which
...

Did the same for the target Arch Linux partition mounted at /mnt:

[chroot] # pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
[chroot] # pacstrap /mnt linux-lts linux-firmware intel-ucode lsb-release

Thereafter I followed the official installation guide:

[chroot] # arch-chroot /mnt

Cleaning up and dual booting

Exit the chroot and unmount everything:

[chroot in a chroot] # exit
[chroot] # exit
# umount -R /tmp/root.x86_64

The Ubuntu installation came with a GRUB boot loader and os-loader package which should detect the new Arch Linux installation (since we installed the lsb-release package). To make it happen, reboot? from Ubuntu run:

# sudo update-grub

That did not work! Turns out /etc/default/grub had two offending lines:

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

which when commented out, it started working. Follow this by update-grub or grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg and it is good to go.

Epilogue: some personal choices

What follows below are not necessary but I note it down for future reference. Here are the packages I chose to install:

neovim vim code  # editors
plasma kdegraphics-thumbnailers # KDE desktop meta package
konsole
acpi
inetutils  # many network commands, including hostname
openssh
parted  # partitioning tool
xonsh zsh # alternatives to bash
tlp  # CPU and FAN governor
man-db  # man pages
arch-wiki-docs  # provides wiki-search
arch-wiki-lite  # and wiki-search-html commands
ttf-joypixels ttf-roboto adobe-source-sans-pro-fonts adobe-source-serif-pro-fonts ttf-arphic-uming terminus-font  # extra fonts
libreoffice-fresh  # writer, calc, impress...
gcc-fortran gcc-go rust  # compilers
pacman-contrib reflector  # pacman utilities
firefox thunderbird zeal okular ark nextcloud-client mplayer  # ... and more applications
flatpak  # for sandboxing non-free applications

An AUR helper:

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
$ cd yay && makepkg -s
# pacman -U /home/avmo/.cache/makepkg/yay-*

Check and activate periodic TRIM for long-term performance:

$ lsblk --discard
NAME        DISC-ALN DISC-GRAN DISC-MAX DISC-ZERO
nvme0n1            0      512B       2T         0
|-nvme0n1p1        0      512B       2T         0
|-nvme0n1p2        0      512B       2T         0
|-nvme0n1p3        0      512B       2T         0
|-nvme0n1p4        0      512B       2T         0
|-nvme0n1p5        0      512B       2T         0
`-nvme0n1p6        0      512B       2T         0

# systemctl enable fstrim.timer
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/fstrim.timer → /usr/lib/systemd/system/fstrim.timer.

Format a swap partition in the empty space available and mount it with TRIM (discard) support:

# parted /dev/nvme0n1
GNU Parted 3.3
Using /dev/nvme0n1
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
Model: KXG60ZNV512G NVMe TOSHIBA 512GB (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  819MB   818MB   fat32        EFI system partition  boot, esp
 2      819MB   6188MB  5369MB  fat32        Basic data partition  msftres
 3      6188MB  140GB   134GB   ext4
 4      194GB   301GB   107GB   btrfs
 5      405GB   512GB   107GB   ext4

(parted) mkpart primary linux-swap 140GB 194GB
(parted) print
Model: KXG60ZNV512G NVMe TOSHIBA 512GB (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  819MB   818MB   fat32           EFI system partition  boot, esp
 2      819MB   6188MB  5369MB  fat32           Basic data partition  msftres
 3      6188MB  140GB   134GB   ext4
 6      140GB   194GB   53.7GB  linux-swap(v1)  primary
 4      194GB   301GB   107GB   btrfs
 5      405GB   512GB   107GB   ext4

(parted) quit
# mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p6
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 50 GiB (53687087104 bytes)
no label, UUID=6ce1daf4-6a66-44a8-a14b-bd4ea3eb9c40
# swapon --discard
# echo "UUID=6ce1daf4-6a66-44a8-a14b-bd4ea3eb9c40 none swap defaults,discard 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

Installed an alternative shell (as listed in /etc/shells) and added myself as a user:

# useradd --no-create-home --uid 1001 --user-group avmo --shell /usr/bin/xonsh
# passwd avmo

Then to make the desktop and essential components appear:

# systemctl enable sddm NetworkManager tlp

Configure sensors from lm_sensors:

# sensors-detect
# sensors
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +45.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +45.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +44.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:        +44.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:        +47.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 4:        +42.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 5:        +42.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

dell_smm-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
fan1:        2288 RPM
fan2:        2317 RPM

pch_cannonlake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +55.0°C

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1:        +25.0°C  (crit = +107.0°C)

iwlwifi-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +48.0°C

BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          12.80 V
curr1:       1000.00 uA

Nvidia

The riskiest part, IMHO, although it is well documented. The driver package depends on the GPU model and the kernel. Thankfully no kernel panic occurred by installing:

# pacman -S nvidia xorg-xrandr

# nvidia-xconfig

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

# pacman -S nvidia-prime

$ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x48 cap: 0xf, Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload crtcs: 3 outputs: 6 associated providers: 0 name:modesetting
Provider 1: id: 0x2a3 cap: 0x0 crtcs: 0 outputs: 0 associated providers: 0 name:NVIDIA-G0

# pacman -S mesa-demos
$ prime-run glxinfo | grep OpenGL

Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"

CUDA

Installation:

# pacman -S cuda

Testing:

$ cp -r /opt/cuda/samples/ .
$ cd samples/1_Utilities/deviceQuery
$ make
$ ./deviceQuery
./deviceQuery Starting...

 CUDA Device Query (Runtime API) version (CUDART static linking)

Detected 1 CUDA Capable device(s)

Device 0: "Quadro RTX 3000"
  CUDA Driver Version / Runtime Version          10.2 / 10.2
  CUDA Capability Major/Minor version number:    7.5
  Total amount of global memory:                 5935 MBytes (6222839808 bytes)
  (30) Multiprocessors, ( 64) CUDA Cores/MP:     1920 CUDA Cores
  GPU Max Clock rate:                            1380 MHz (1.38 GHz)
  Memory Clock rate:                             7001 Mhz
  Memory Bus Width:                              192-bit
  L2 Cache Size:                                 3145728 bytes
  Maximum Texture Dimension Size (x,y,z)         1D=(131072), 2D=(131072, 65536), 3D=(16384, 16384, 16384)
  Maximum Layered 1D Texture Size, (num) layers  1D=(32768), 2048 layers
  Maximum Layered 2D Texture Size, (num) layers  2D=(32768, 32768), 2048 layers
  Total amount of constant memory:               65536 bytes
  Total amount of shared memory per block:       49152 bytes
  Total number of registers available per block: 65536
  Warp size:                                     32
  Maximum number of threads per multiprocessor:  1024
  Maximum number of threads per block:           1024
  Max dimension size of a thread block (x,y,z): (1024, 1024, 64)
  Max dimension size of a grid size    (x,y,z): (2147483647, 65535, 65535)
  Maximum memory pitch:                          2147483647 bytes
  Texture alignment:                             512 bytes
  Concurrent copy and kernel execution:          Yes with 3 copy engine(s)
  Run time limit on kernels:                     Yes
  Integrated GPU sharing Host Memory:            No
  Support host page-locked memory mapping:       Yes
  Alignment requirement for Surfaces:            Yes
  Device has ECC support:                        Disabled
  Device supports Unified Addressing (UVA):      Yes
  Device supports Compute Preemption:            Yes
  Supports Cooperative Kernel Launch:            Yes
  Supports MultiDevice Co-op Kernel Launch:      Yes
  Device PCI Domain ID / Bus ID / location ID:   0 / 1 / 0
  Compute Mode:
     < Default (multiple host threads can use ::cudaSetDevice() with device simultaneously) >

deviceQuery, CUDA Driver = CUDART, CUDA Driver Version = 10.2, CUDA Runtime Version = 10.2, NumDevs = 1
Result = PASS

Docker

Installing docker is straightforward, but I wanted to avoid adding my default login into the docker group which is root equivalent. So I created a special user to do this:

# pacman -S docker
# systemctl start docker
# useradd --no-create-home -g docker docker
# passwd
$ su - docker