Updated the Arch installation guide slightly (small changes mostly relating to Plasma installation and Secure Boot) and added a Secure Boot on Arch setup guide.

Author: EJSnow

images/twilight-secure-booted.jpg

@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ This laptop has been in my family for a long time, and from 2022-2024 it was the
 
 In October 2024 this laptop was retired after I built the Redstone Computer. However, it's still used as a Minecraft server, and it works surprisingly well for that, despite how slow it was as a PC. I guess it's because I'm running Linux on it (Windows is unacceptable for servers), and there's no desktop environment either (being a server, management is done through web dashboards or the terminal).
 
-I mean the Minecraft server kinda died though so it's been shut down for a while. I don't want this to be a server forever so any server needs will probably be handled by either what's left of the Redstone Computer after I upgrade/replace it or a cheap mini PC, and then I'll turn this laptop into a Windows 7 nostalgia machine and hopefully give it back its original HDD.
+I mean the Mi![alt text](image.png)necraft server kinda died though so it's been shut down for a while. I don't want this to be a server forever so any server needs will probably be handled by either what's left of the Redstone Computer after I upgrade/replace it or a cheap mini PC, and then I'll turn this laptop into a Windows 7 nostalgia machine and hopefully give it back its original HDD.
 
 Specs:
 
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ Cool stuff I've made. Check my <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/ejsno
 
 # Resources
 
-Documents I have here for future reference. Mainly guides for setting up Linux currently.
+Documents I have here for future reference. Mainly guides for setting up Linux currently. Just for the record this is for my own personal reference mostly and they're on here just because this is a convenient way of accessing them from anywhere. These mostly aren't general purpose guides; check official documentation (like the [ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org)) or other locations of good repute for those. ;)
 
 ## Linux stuff
 
@@ -140,9 +140,18 @@ Documents I have here for future reference. Mainly guides for setting up Linux c
 
 ### Arch Linux Installation
 
-**Last updated Jan 26, 2026**
+**Last updated Feb 25, 2026**
 <p style="margin-top: 0.5em">A guide to installing Arch Linux on a PC, but personalized. Based on the official installation guide and combining information from several other ArchWiki pages. Currently entirely complete. NOT a generic Arch install guide.</p>
 <p style="text-align: right"><a href="resources/archlinux-installation">View</a></p>
 </div>
+<div class="grid-item">
+
+### Using Secure Boot on Linux
+
+**Last updated Feb 25, 2026**
+<p style="margin-top: 0.5em">I recently set up Secure Boot on Twilight (my laptop) and the ArchWiki's documentation was a little confusing (partly because of having to support multiple bootloaders) so here's a more concise guide that only deals with GRUB.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><a href="resources/using-secure-boot-on-arch">View</a></p>
 </div>
+</div>
+
 </article>

index.md

@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
 layout: page.html
 title: Arch Linux Installation
 created: Jan 31, 2026
-lastUpdated: Feb 1, 2026
+lastUpdated: Feb 25, 2026
 toc: true
 ---
 
-**Important:** This is my own personalized installation guide for personal use. I do not recommend following this if you aren't me. Usually, you'll want to follow the [official installation](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide) guide instead. Note that instructions here may be out of date and/or I might have made a little mistake (it happens lol). Best to reference the ArchWiki. (Realistically I'm probably not going to use this that much but it's a good idea to fully document my installation anyway.)
+**Important:** This is my own personalized installation guide for personal use. I do not recommend following this if you aren't me. Usually, you'll want to follow the [official installation](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide) guide instead. Note that instructions here may be out of date and/or I might have made a little mistake (it happens lol). Best to reference the ArchWiki. (Realistically I'm probably not going to use this that much but it's a good idea to fully document my installation procedures anyway.)
 
 ## Warming up
 
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ There are various GUI utilities that can do this as well. On Windows, [Rufus](ht
 
 <div class="info">
 
-**Note:** The Arch Linux ISO doesn't support Secure Boot so make sure it's disabled before booting it. You *can* set up your full installation to support Secure Boot but it's painful and annoying.
+**Note:** The Arch Linux ISO doesn't support Secure Boot so make sure it's disabled before booting it. You *can* set up your full installation to support Secure Boot however.
 
 </div>
 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Plug the thumb drive containing your Arch ISO to your computer, then boot from i
 
 ### Setting the console font
 
-If necessary, change the console font to a larger one. The kernel will try to detect HiDPI screens and set a larger terminal font as needed, but often this doesn't happen so you'll have to set a font manually like so:
+If necessary, change the console font to a larger one. The kernel will try to detect HiDPI screens and set a larger terminal font as needed, but sometimes you'll need to set a larger font manually:
 
 ```sh
 # setfont *ter-124n*
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ The ESP has to be formatted as FAT32:
 # mkfs.fat -F 32 -n "*label*" /dev/*esp*
 ```
 
-FAT32 has notable limitations on the label; it can only be 16 alphanumeric characters, and letters must be capitalized. My usual label is "ARCHEFI".
+FAT32 has notable limitations on the label; it can only be 16 alphanumeric characters, and letters must be capitalized. My usual label is "ARCHEFI" or just "EFI".
 
 <div class="warning">
 
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ This is the only configuration data that will be copied to your new installation
 
 Anyways time to install some packages. Some notes:
 
-* If you want to install AUR packages (you probably do), you should install `base-devel`. It also includes sudo for the sole reason that makepkg uses it to resolve dependencies.
+* If you want to install AUR packages (you probably do), you should install `base-devel`. It also includes sudo for the sole reason that makepkg uses it to run pacman when resolving dependencies.
 * Some laptops may require specific firmware packages (i.e. beyond the default firmware set) for sound and Wi-Fi to work correctly.
 * You'll probably want CPU microcode updates when installing on real hardware. They include mitigations for CPU-based vulnerabilities, bugfixes, and other goodies. Install `intel-ucode` for Intel CPUs or `amd-ucode` for AMD CPUs.
 * To modify and create filesystems, you'll need the userspace utilities for them. I think `btrfs-progs`, `dosfstools`, `e2fsprogs`, `exfatprogs`, and `ntfs-3g` will be all you'll need currently. You can always install additional utilities for other filesystems if you need them.
@@ -333,6 +333,8 @@ To install these essentials, use `pacstrap`:
 # pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel *cpu-ucode* linux linux-firmware btrfs-progs dosfstools e2fsprogs exfatprogs ntfs-3g networkmanager wpa_supplicant man-db man-pages texinfo nano fastfetch
 ```
 
+Couple other things of note: If you're installing in an LXC, you don't need a kernel as the LXC can use your host's linux kernel. Also linux-firmware isn't needed for VM installs. And finally the absolute minimum needed for the most barebones of installs are `base`, `linux`, and `linux-firmware` (keeping in mind the previous notes, technically you only need `base` lol).
+
 ## Configuration
 
 It's now time to perform initial configuration of your installation.
@@ -353,9 +355,11 @@ Most of our configuration will be done chrooted into the new installation. Let's
 # arch-chroot /mnt
 ```
 
-If you're using [swap on zram](#swap-on-zram), you can set this up now.
+Btw if you're using [swap on zram](#swap-on-zram), you can set this up now.
+
+#### Time... (we never have enough of it)
 
-#### Set the time zone
+Set the time zone first of all:
 
 ```sh
 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/*US*/*Eastern* /etc/localtime
@@ -394,15 +398,15 @@ KEYMAP=*keymap*
 FONT=*ter-124n*
 ```
 
-Note that `terminus-font` is not installed by default, you will need to install it.
+Note that `terminus-font` (which provides the font in the example above) is not installed by default, you will need to install it.
 
 #### Hostname
 
 Set the hostname by creating `/etc/hostname` and put your desired hostname in it.
 
 <div class="info">
 
-**Note:** The hostname should be a unique, recognizable name. It must be no longer than 63 characters, and can only use alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-). It can't start with a hyphen.
+**Note:** The hostname should be a unique, recognizable name. It must be no longer than 63 characters, and can only use alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-). It can't start with a hyphen though.
 
 </div>
 
@@ -430,7 +434,7 @@ First, ensure sudo is installed (if you installed base-devel before, sudo will a
 
 <div class="warning">
 
-**WARNING:** Do NOT use a text editor on the sudoers file directly! *Always* use visudo to edit it! If the edited file has syntax errors, sudo will be **unusable**.
+**WARNING:** Do NOT use a text editor on the sudoers file directly! *Always* use visudo to edit it! Sudo really really hates your syntax errors so visudo is provided to check your edits for syntax errors.
 
 </div>
 
@@ -458,7 +462,7 @@ Finally, we can disable the root account:
 
 <div class="warning">
 
-**WARNING:** You may be locked out of the system if you forget your password. Additionally, booting into recovery mode will not work since it tries to log into the root account.
+**WARNING:** You may be locked out of the system if you forget your password.
 
 </div>
 
@@ -493,7 +497,7 @@ HOOKS=(... plymouth)
 
 <div class="info">
 
-**Note:** On KDE Plasma, the `plymouth-kcm` package allows you to easily change the Plymouth theme from System Settings. You can also download and apply new themes.
+**Note:** On KDE Plasma, the `plymouth-kcm` package allows you to easily change the Plymouth theme from System Settings. You can also download and apply new themes from there.
 
 </div>
 
@@ -504,10 +508,10 @@ I currently use KDE Plasma because it's epic. Other supported DEs can be found o
 To install a fully featured KDE Plasma session with my preferred KDE apps + Firefox as the web browser, run the following command:
 
 ```sh
-# pacman -S plasma-meta kde-system-meta plymouth-kcm baloo-widgets breeze5 dolphin-plugins ffmpegthumbs kdeconnect kdegraphics-thumbnailers kdenetwork-filesharing kimageformats kio-admin kio-extras kio-fuse kio-gdrive kwalletmanager phonon-qt6-vlc plasma5-integration qqc2-desktop-style icoutils iio-sensor-proxy libappindicator noto-fonts-emoji power-profiles-daemon qt6-imageformats thermald xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xsettingsd ark dragon elisa filelight gwenview k3b kamoso kate kcalc kcharselect kdenlive kdialog kfind konsole kphotoalbum krita kup kwalletmanager markdownpart okular svgpart firefox
+# pacman -S plasma-meta kde-system-meta plymouth-kcm baloo-widgets breeze5 dolphin-plugins ffmpegthumbs kdeconnect kdegraphics-thumbnailers kdenetwork-filesharing kimageformats kio-admin kio-extras kio-fuse kwalletmanager phonon-qt6-vlc plasma5-integration qqc2-desktop-style icoutils iio-sensor-proxy libappindicator noto-fonts-emoji power-profiles-daemon qt6-imageformats thermald xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xsettingsd ark digikam dragon elisa filelight gwenview k3b kamoso kate kcalc kcharselect kdenlive kdialog kfind konsole krita kup kwalletmanager markdownpart okular svgpart firefox
 ```
 
-You'll need the appropriate graphics drivers as well. See the table below for the needed packages in addition to `mesa`.
+You'll need the appropriate graphics drivers as well. See the table below for the needed packages in addition to `mesa` (which is a dependency of KWin and the Qt libraries so gets installed with Plasma).
 
 |GPU brand:|Required packages for Vulkan and hardware video acceleration:|
 |---|---|
@@ -530,7 +534,7 @@ Up until now, the system is unbootable. Let's fix that. I use [GRUB](https://wik
 
 <div class="info">
 
-**Note:** Linux support for Secure Boot is still fairly weak and setting up your installation for Secure Boot will be annoying so I recommend not doing that unless you like pain.
+**Note:** You can use Secure Boot with Linux however it takes some careful setup. Go to my [Secure Boot guide](/resources/using-secure-boot-on-arch/) and follow those instructions instead of this section.
 
 </div>
 
@@ -620,3 +624,5 @@ This document references MANY ArchWiki pages and a few manpages. Most of them we
 * [Intel graphics](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_graphics)
 * [Hardware video acceleration](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Hardware_video_acceleration)
 * [Installing AUR packages](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository#Installing_and_upgrading_packages)
+
+congratulations on installing arch lol! You have just accomplished something most people will never ever do and you should be proud of that!