Installing Arch Linux 0.1 with X11

arch-0.1.md

Installing Arch Linux 0.1 with X11

Created by Andrew Lee (andrew@alee14.me)

This tutorial has been tested on Virtualbox.

Guide in GitHub: https://gist.github.com/Alee14/e32a44e53d910a4cf5802e0c59d78061

Guide in Rentry: https://rentry.co/arch-2002

Video tutorial: https://youtu.be/ieSpJkeDtPY

Arch 0.1 Guide (A lot of stuff is missing): https://web.archive.org/web/20020605064538/http://www.archlinux.org/install.php

Changelog

Rev 1 (Dec 5th, 2021): It is no longer needed to create new directories/files. The filesystem package is needed in order for the install to include these extra files.

Rev 2 (Dec 6th, 2021): Now using pacman instead of installworld for installing filesystem.

Rev 3 (Dec 6th, 2021): Added links to the other guides.

VM settings

Chipset: ICH9
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse

Set the hard drive to IDE instead of SATA to detect the hard drive.

Grabbing the ISO

Mirror 1: https://archive.archlinux.org/iso/0.1/arch-0.1-full-i686.iso

Mirror 2: http://archlinux.arkena.net/archive/iso/0.1/arch-0.1-full-i686.iso

Mirror 3: http://mirrors.powernet.com.ru/archlinux/archive/iso/arch-0.1-full-i686.iso

Partitioning the disk

Once you boot into the system, you can partition the disk by doing fdisk [disk] or cfdisk [disk]

The VM disk is on /dev/discs/disc0/disc

Make sure to set the partition to have the boot flag by making it bootable.

Formating the disk

# Swap is optional
mkswap /dev/discs/disc0/partY
# This is the system disk
mkreiserfs /dev/discs/disc0/partX

Reboot after that

Mounting the disk and activating swap (optional)

swapon /dev/discs/disc0/partY
mount /dev/discs/disc0/partX /mnt

Initalize the pacman database

mkdir -p /mnt/var/lib/pacman
touch /mnt/var/lib/pacman/pacman.db

Install Base Package

cd /arch
./installworld /mnt # Think of this as pacstrap
pacman -A -r /mnt /arch/pkg/filesystem-0.1.2.pkg.tar.gz

Extract the Linux kernel to the install

mkdir -p /mnt/usr/src
cd /mnt/usr/src
tar zxvf /arch/linux-2.4.18.tar.gz

Mount /dev and /proc then chroot

mount -t devfs none /mnt/dev
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Compiling and installing the kernel

cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig

Enable the following options

Code maturity level options --> Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
File systems --> Reiserfs support
File systems --> /dev file system support (EXPERIMENTAL)
File systems --> /dev file system support (EXPERIMENTAL) --> Automatically mount at boot

Build the kernel then copy it to /boot

make dep
make bzImage && make modules
make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz
cp System.map /boot

Install the bootloader

Edit the bootloader config to where the system boots

(This is optional if you have a partition for /boot)

vi /etc/lilo.conf

Change root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2 to root=/dev/discs/disc0/part1

Run lilo

Edit fstab

Add these lines to your fstab config

/dev/discs/disc0/part1       /        reiserfs  defaults  0  0
none                         /dev     devfs     defaults  0  0

Change root password

passwd root

Exit and reboot

exit
reboot

Make sure to unmount the iso so you won't boot into the iso again.

Installing X11

Once you login, mount the iso once again to install XFree86

mount /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt
pacman -A /mnt/arch/pkg/xfree86-4.2.0-1.pkg.tar.gz

Creating library links to /lib for XFree86

Configure /etc/ld.so.conf using vim

Add /usr/X11R6/lib then execute ldconfig

Configuring X11

(This part will need some revision) Run xf86config then press enter

Select "PS/2 Mouse" then type `n`.
Use `/dev/input/mice` or `/dev/psaux` as the mouse driver
Type 1 for the keyboard type then press enter, after type 1 again (for U.S English) then press enter
Press enter
Type n and press enter
Press enter
Select Standard VGA and press enter
Select 50-70 and press enter
Press enter
Type n and press enter
Select 1024K and press enter
Type in `* Generic VESA compatible`
Type 5 and press enter
Edit `/etc/X11/XF86Config`
Go to line 371
Replace `vga` with `vesa`

Now type in startx and you are running X11 with TWM (You can install other Window Managers like WindowMaker)

Thank you for the guide! The CD Drive must also be IDE so that the live-iso kernel can mount it, to use IDE disks the VM must be created with BIOS firmware and i440FX chipset(As far as I've seen in Arch Linux as of QEMU 10.1.2)