Thinkpad P53s

Arch Linux: 2019.10.01

Checklist:

UEFI Motherboard
64 bit x86 CPU
GPT Partition: 512 fat32 with boot and esp flag set. For GRUB2.
GRUB 2
Wired connection
BIOS Secure Boot disabled
archlinux.iso on USB

Installing Arch Linux

1. Show the storage medias.

Find the sdX name of the storage media that was partitioned with GPT.

In this guide: X = a

fdisk -l

format partitions

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_system_partition

mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/nvme0n1p1

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ext4

mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2

2. Mount the partitions.

First the main storage partition then the boot partition referred as the $esp.

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

The simplest option is to mount it at /boot, since this allows pacman to directly update the kernel that the EFI firmware will read.

If the ESP is other than /boot then you need to set up a copy hook when pacman updates the kernel in the future. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFISTUB

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot will install on the location /boot/EFI

3. Check that there is an internet connection.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Iwd#iwctl

iwctl

[iwd]# device list

[iwd]# device wlan0 show

[iwd]# device wlan0 set-property Powered on

[iwd]# adapter list

[iwd]# adapter phy0 show

[iwd]# adapter phy0 set-property Powered on

[iwd]# station wlan0 scan

You can then list all available networks:

[iwd]# station wlan0 get-networks

Finally, to connect to a network:

[iwd]# station wlan0 connect SSID

iwctl --passphrase <password> <station> wlan0 connect <SSID>

ping -c 3 www.google.com

4. Dowload the base installation on the storage partition.

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux linux-firmware

pacstrap -G /mnt grub efibootmgr curl dhcpcd iwd vim

https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/iso/latest/arch/pkglist.x86_64.txt

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/any/base/

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/linux/

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/any/linux-firmware/

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/grub/

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/efibootmgr/

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/curl/

https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/dhcpcd/

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/iwd/

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/vim/

5. Create a file system table.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fstab

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

6. SSD

Then add the discard option to /mnt/etc/fstab

vim /mnt/etc/fstab

https://mvysny.github.io/ssd-discard/

/dev/nvme0n1  /       ext4   defaults,relatime,discard   0  1

The last column defines if the fsck should check the system. By default, fsck checks a filesystem every 30 boots (counted individually for each partition). 0 = Do not check 1 = The first partition to check, the root partition should be set to this. 2 = Check this partition, this is not the root partition.

7.A Change to arch on the storage partition as root user.

arch-chroot /mnt

7.B Install grub packages

pacman -S grub efibootmgr dhcpcd ntp xf86-video-intel

GRUB is the bootloader while efibootmgr creates bootable .efi stub entries used by the GRUB installation script.

8. Create the initcpio file, which is the initial RAM disk filesystem.

mkinitcpio -p linux

9. Install GRUB 2 boot loader

mount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB --recheck --debug

10. Make a grub config file.

The settings for the configuration file is defined in: /etc/default/grub

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

11. Create a EFI fallback .efi file (as defined in the EFI standard.)

mkdir -p /boot/EFI/BOOT
cp /boot/EFI/GRUB/grubx64.efi /boot/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi

UEFI and GRUB

Lenovo T480 is tied in with Microsoft and will only boot to Windows EFI file or default EFI fallback file.

Verified on firmware version 1.14.

When GRUB is used, it is needed to rename the GRUB .efi to one of these specific file names. Please remember to repeat these steps (or use a pacman hook) when the GRUB package was updated.

mount /dev/sdXY /mnt

The Windows .efi file

mkdir -p /mnt/EFI/Microsoft/Boot
cp /mnt/EFI/grub/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

EFI fallback .efi file (as defined in the EFI standard.)

mkdir -p /mnt/EFI/BOOT
cp /mnt/EFI/grub/grub64.efi /mnt/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi

Source: http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/installation.html#alternative-naming

12. Set a password for the root.

passwd

13. Install Wired Connection and other tools.

pacmam -S dhcpcd ntp sudo vim neovim networkmanager nmap rsync git openssh

systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

14. Create a new user with sudo rights.

pacmam -S sudo

To add a new user, use the useradd command. useradd -m -g [initial_group] -G [additional_groups] -s [login_shell] [username]

useradd -m -s /bin/bash USER_NAME

passwd USER_NAME

visudo

USER_NAME ALL=(ALL) ALL

15. Exit the arch-root user.

exit

16. Unmount the storage media.

umount -R /mnt/boot /mnt

17. Reboot the computer with the systemd command.

systemctl reboot

18. Install mesa graphics driver.

pacman -S mesa

Check available video cards.

lspci | grep VGA

Show a list of available drivers.

pacman -Ss xf86-video | less

pacman -S xf86-video-intel

pacman -S nvidia nvidia-settings

19. Install Gnome desktop environment.

pacman -S gdm gnome-shell gnome-control-center gnome-tweak-tool

pacmam -S nautilus chromium

systemctl enable gdm.service

systemctl start gdm.service

20. Configure Arch Linux

Set the hostname

The name of the computer in this example it is set to box.

hostnamectl set-hostname box

Find the right timezone

This lists available zones and each have subzones.

cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
ls -al

Set the timezone

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Stockholm

Set the locale

The info about the language and keyboardlayout to be used.

vim /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment the lines corresponding to the encoding and the language that can be used on the system.

locale-gen
localectl set-locale LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

Appendix Installation Media

Make a Arch Linux USB drive

lsusb
dmesg
sudo fdisk -l

Do not append a partition number, so do not use something like /dev/sdb1

umount before!

dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync

Make a GParted Live USB drive

sudo dd if=/path-to-gparted-live.x.y.z-w.iso of=/dev/sde bs=4M; sync

Check if the motherboard supports UEFI.

efivar -l

If efivar lists the UEFI variables properly, then you have booted in UEFI mode.

Boot Partition for GRUB

Boot loaders reside as ordinary files on a FAT partition known as the EFI System Partition - ESP

GParted and parted identify the ESP as having its "boot flag" set, (although that terminology means something completely different on MBR disks.)

An ESP can exist on either a GPT disk or an MBR disk, but the former is much more common on EFI-based computers.

The EFI approach is much safer and much more flexible than the BIOS approach, since it doesn't tuck raw code away in weird places.

With ESP the boot loaders reside in files, just like OS-level programs. This makes them easier to identify and manipulate.

Appendix Use GNUParted Live CD or USB

In advanced settings choose GPT and make the storage use GPT.
Manage the partition scheme.

#Note: This is a basic partition scheme:

sdX1 @ FAT32 partition - 512 MB ==== - Make 1 MB of spare space for security reasons sdX2 @ Ext4 - Can be the rest of the space ==== - Make 1 MB of spare space for security reasons

#Note: More advanced partitions using swap partitions and other filesystems like btrfs can be set up.
Do the partitioning.
Set the FAT32 to have the flag "boot"

Appendix Network

Find available internet interfaces

This can be shown like eth0, enp2s0 or something else. This changes if there is another PCI express card added or removed.

ls /sys/class/net

Start the wired connection.

In this example the internet interface was named enp2s0.

dhcpcd enp2s0

ping -c 3 www.google.com

Make the wired connection start at boot with systemd.