Talk:Installation guide

Notice for editors

systemd tools such as hostnamectl, timedatectl and localectl do not work in the installation chroot environment, so please do not propose to use them in the guide unless you can prove that they have been made to work also in that case. See [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5] for some past discussions about this issue.
Due to the wide variety of available boot loaders, the installation guide refers to Arch boot process#Boot loader instead of making a specific recommendation for the installed system. See [6], [7], [8], [9], [10] for some past discussions on this topic.
While Category:Installation process lists additional installation methods (e.g. archinstall or systemd-firstboot), the installation guide does not reference them due to their specific nature. Install Arch Linux with accessibility options is an exception. See [11] for a past discussion on this topic.

-- The ArchWiki Administrators 22:17, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Add fmask/dmask for mounting EFI/boot partition

Latest comment: 23 August2 comments2 people in discussion

When following the instructions, systemd-boot later gives an warning because non-root users can see and edit the boot partition. I.e. going from:

# mount --mkdir /dev/efi_system_partition /mnt/boot

to

# mount --mkdir /dev/efi_system_partition -o rw,fmask=0077,dmask=0077 /mnt/boot

with a note giving the reasons. Or the latter can be added as an optional note. Mwwaters (talk) 20:04, 23 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

See Talk:EFI system partition#Mountpoint umask — andreymal (talk) 20:25, 23 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

Change recommended size for /boot to 2 GiB (from 1 GiB)

Latest comment: 26 September6 comments3 people in discussion

Based on the change done by Fedora: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/2GbootPartition

"Firmware is getting bigger, initramfs are getting bigger, and boot volume size is not getting bigger. The last time it was changed from 500 MB to 1 GB was 2016."

Relevant articles/parts to edit:

What do you all think? TheSleuth (talk) 20:12, 24 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

FWIW it's been discussed much later on our side, and I don't think there's been major changes in the initramfs sizes since 2024 that would warrant us mirroring the Fedora change.

I'm not strictly opposed to it if there's a consensus for a bigger size, and the linked articles would definitely need to be synced if we change this in the installation guide.

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 20:51, 24 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Personally, I very much dislike when Arch makes changes to follow Fedora. Their changes don't always have good and clear reasoning. Since this is Arch (i.e. the best), if we were to increase the /boot partition size, then we should aim bigger, like 4 GiB (which is the suggested size "when in doubt"), but I don't really see a need for that. -- nl6720 (talk) 06:25, 25 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

4 GiB seems a bit too much for me. I would guess the average user doesn't use more than one kernel (and possibly one fallback). Doubling it for 2 GiB would be enough for most people, and 4 GiB only if you need extra firmware or something related. TheSleuth (talk) 23:34, 25 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Last time (see the link @Erus Iluvatar posted) we discussed /boot partition and ESP size, we gave it quite a bit more space than actually needed. You haven't given a convincing reason to increase it again. In any case, I'm against aligning with Fedora. If we increase it, it should be bigger than theirs. -- nl6720 (talk) 05:32, 26 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Additionally, I do like to follow changes Fedora makes, but of course we analyze them individually on a per-case basis and not just blindly follow them because "Fedora good" or something. There are a lot of things they deviate from upstream's default (for example, ptrace scope variable from the kernel) and such things I disagree following. TheSleuth (talk) 23:36, 25 September 2026 (UTC)Reply