Arch Linux is a lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that provides users with extensive opportunities for customizing and optimizing their systems. It includes a minimal amount of preinstalled software and offers a console-based interface. In most cases, it is used by experienced users: professional developers, system administrators, or hackers. This is due to the complexity of its installation and subsequent configuration, which involves adding the required packages and components to the system. However, these difficulties are justified, because in the end the user gets exactly the system and services they need.
In this article, we will explain how to install Arch Linux on your cloud server and perform its basic configuration.
It is worth noting that Arch Linux is ideally suited as an OS for a cloud server due to its low resource requirements. This distribution also has several other advantages:
System Updates
Arch Linux updates automatically when a new OS version is released.
Software Installation
Packages can be downloaded both over the network and from a local disk. In addition, the installed software does not need to be specifically compatible with Arch Linux.
Rich Repositories
Arch Linux offers a wide variety of packages. Today, there are over 12,000 packages in the official repositories alone. In the community repository, there are even more — over 83,000.
Up-to-date Documentation
The official Arch Linux documentation is actively updated to reflect the latest changes and innovations. This ensures accurate and relevant system information.
Active Community
This distribution has an active user community ready to help and share their experience. There are many forums, wikis, and repositories where you can find detailed instructions and guides for installation, configuration, and troubleshooting.
To follow this guide and install Arch Linux, you will need:
Step 1. To install Arch Linux on the server, you must first upload its installation image from an official source in .iso
format. For example:
wget https://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/iso/2025.06.01/archlinux-2025.06.01-x86_64.iso
Step 2. Next, add a new disk where the installation image will be stored. It will appear in the system as /dev/sdb
. You can specify the minimum disk size.
Step 3. Write the installation image to the new disk:
dd if=archlinux-2025.06.01-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb
The writing process will take some time. When finished, verify it with the following command:
fdisk -l
In the output, you will see that the installation image has been written to the new disk, creating two necessary partitions.
Step 4. After writing the installation image, proceed to boot from it. To do this, go to the Access tab and boot the server from the recovery disk. Open the console in the control panel.
Step 5. In the console window, go to the Boot existing OS menu item and press Tab on your keyboard. This will allow you to edit the text at the bottom of the screen. Here, you need to manually replace hd0
with hd1
, as shown in the figure below.
After that, press Enter to launch the installation program.
Step 6. In the system bootloader that appears, select the first option.
Now we can partition the main disk (sda
). In our case, there will be 3 partitions: a 300 MB UEFI partition (type EFI), a 700 MB swap partition (type Linux swap), and a main filesystem partition taking up all remaining space (type Linux). In your own installation, the number and size of partitions may differ depending on your requirements.
Make sure there are no important files on the server’s disk, because it will be formatted later. You may also wish to back it up to preserve important data.
Step 1. First, check whether there are any files on the disk you need to save:
lsblk
The screenshot below shows the list. For creating the described partitions, we will use a 25 GB disk — sda
. It currently has Debian 11 installed, which does not contain important files.
Step 2. To partition the disk, enter the following command:
cfdisk /dev/sda
Step 3. In the window that opens, you need to delete all existing partitions. To do this, select a partition and use the Delete button in the lower menu.
Step 4. Next, select the New button in the lower menu to create a new partition.
Step 5. Then specify the size of the partition to be created. In our case, this is 300 MB for UEFI.
Step 6. In the next window, choose Primary.
Step 7. The partition is now created, and you need to specify its type. Go to the Type menu and select EFI.
Step 8. Now move to the Free space and create 2 more partitions, repeating steps 4 through 7. Partition details were listed at the beginning of this chapter.
Step 9. Once all partitions have been created, go to the Write button and select it. To confirm, type yes in the field that appears.
Step 10. Partitioning is now complete. To exit the tool, select the Quit button in the lower menu.
Step 11. You can verify your work using the lsblk
command again.
Check in the output that all changes have been successfully applied.
At this stage, the created partitions will be formatted and mounted. Remember, all data will be erased in this process!
Step 1. For the first partition, format it using the following command:
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
This command will create a FAT32 filesystem, which is the recommended format for the UEFI partition.
Step 2. Next, assign it a mount point:
mkdir /mnt/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/efi
Step 3. For the second partition, perform special formatting:
mkswap /dev/sda2
Step 4. Then activate the swap partition:
swapon /dev/sda2
Step 5. Finally, format the system’s root partition:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
Step 6. After formatting, create its mount point:
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
After completing the formatting and mounting, your partitions will be ready for installing and configuring Arch Linux and its main components.
Step 1. First, let’s install the OS and its core components:
pacstrap /mnt base linux grub openssh nano dhcpcd
Step 2. Once the installation finishes, you need to generate the fstab
file:
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Generating the fstab
file makes partition mounting management easier and ensures automatic and consistent mounting at system startup.
Step 1. To configure Arch Linux after installation, you need to chroot into the OS without rebooting:
arch-chroot /mnt
Step 2. First, install the nano text editor:
pacman -S nano
Step 3. Uncomment the encoding for English in the relevant file (you would edit locale.gen
):
nano /etc/locale.gen
Uncomment the line for en_US.UTF-8
.
After this, save the changes and exit nano, then generate the locales:
locale-gen
To enable the English language, execute:
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
Step 4. At this step, set up the system clock. For example:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Nicosia /etc/localtime
The region is set. Now synchronize the hardware clock:
hwclock --systohc
Step 5. Next, set the hostname for your system:
echo "hostname" > /etc/hostname
Step 6. As the second-to-last step, set the root
password. Run:
passwd
You will be prompted to enter and confirm the password.
Step 7. Lastly, set up the previously installed GRUB bootloader to boot the server:
grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
Then create the GRUB configuration file:
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
This command will automatically configure GRUB.
Step 8. Arch Linux is now successfully installed. Exit the chroot:
exit
Then go to the Access tab in your control panel and switch the server to standard boot mode. After that, click Save and Reboot.
You can remove the additional disk after this step.
Step 9. The system will boot, but it is not ready for use yet. First, connect to the server and enable the DHCP client daemon:
systemctl enable dhcpcd
Then start it:
systemctl start dhcpcd
Make sure the service shows the status active (running)
.
Step 10. Next, configure the SSH connection. First, create a backup of the sshd
configuration:
cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/backup.sshdconf
Then set PermitRootLogin
to Yes
in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config
file:
nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Finally, enable the SSH daemon:
systemctl enable sshd
And start it:
systemctl start sshd
When checking with systemctl status sshd
, the service should show active (running)
status.
Don’t forget to add and configure SSH keys before connecting to the server.
The installation is complete, but you can also perform additional system configuration by reviewing the official Arch Linux setup documentation.
To install packages, use the command:
pacman -S package_name
To update the system, use:
pacman -Suy
In this guide, we reviewed the process of installing Arch Linux on your cloud server and performed its basic configuration. We used a temporary Debian 11 OS and an additional disk for the installation image. By following these steps, you can create a powerful and flexible virtual environment for developing, testing, and running applications based on Arch Linux.