ISSUE: NO INTERNET AFTER INSTALLATION AND REBOOT

Symptom:

  • the interface is DOWN
  • no name resolve after manually bring the interface UP
  • systemd-networkd and systemd-resolved services are not started

Enable temporary (lost after reboot) internet access:

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ip link <interface> up
dhcpcd

The persistent fix is to use and configure a network manager. Choices are here. My experience are:

  1. systemd-networkd and systemd-resolved is arch/systemd built-in, so requires no additional download. However, it is not "smart engouth" to support zero-configuration. So you'll have to write a network config.
  2. NetworkManager is used by anarchy-linux installer. It is zero-configuration (only requires install and enable). However, it's an additional 100+ MB download (maybe due to its tie to Gnome).

Below describes how to configure systemd-networkd|resolved.

First, configure systemd-networkd. Find the interface name (e.g., enp0s3), then create file /etc/systemd/network/200-enp0s3.network:

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[Match]
Name=enp0s3

[Network]
DHCP=yes

Finally, enable the services and reboot:

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systemctl enable --now systemd-networkd.service systemd-resolved.service
reboot

You should have internet connection now.

References:

INSTALLERS AND ARCH-BASED DISTROS

To simplify installation, one can choose to use a installer program (once booted into Arch live CD), or choose a Arch-based distro.

This article lists the arch-based distros. Manjaro seems to be the most popular. However I tried Manjaro Architect, the installer seems to be too low level - it's basically waling through Arch's installation guide, so one might just go through the guide.

Among the installers:

  • Anarchy is most polished. Installer experience is close to what I imagine.
  • archfi feels rough edged. Disk partitioning (and others) is very limiting. Not so useful
  • alis is not interactive, but config based.

I pick Anarchy - note it's an ISO bundled with Arch image. So it's a blury line between installers and distro.

Note on internet connection: it looks like if choosing anarchy-desktop, then NetworkManager is configured as the network manager, and internet is enabled. If choosing anarchy-server, then no network manager is installed, and no internet.

ABS & MAKEPKG

makepkg verifies GPG signature for each package. But that needs to be explicitly trusted by user:

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# makepkg complains can't verify gpg key xxxxxx
gpg --recv-keys xxxxxx