Installing Arch Linux with UEFI 2024 on a ThinkPad T470p

Post Date: February 25, 2024

This is a more recent article I put together on how to install Arch linux with EUFI on a Lenovo ThinkPad T470p with secure boot disabled. This article assumes you are using a US keyboard layout. You should also read the official Arch installation guide https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide.

My ThinkPad uses a NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) storage interface drive. I call this out because you will see my notes referencing /dev/nvme0n1 in the notes below.

Verify boot mode:
- This is an important set when working with a UEFI system. Run the below command and if the directory does not exist, the system may not be booted in UEFI mode.
- ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars (If the directory exist your computer supports EFI)
Ping some site on the internet to verify connection:
- Use ip link to verify your network devices
- If necessary, use iwctl to setup your wireless
- Run ping to check to see if you already have an internet connection
- ping archlinux.org -c 5
Update system clock:
- View the current status of your clock by running timedatectl status
- Run the following command to ensure your system clock is correct timedatectl set-ntp true
- This will set your date and time to update remotely using network time protocol
Go to https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist and find the closest mirror that supports HTTPS:
- Add the mirrors on top of the /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist file.
- Server = https://mirror.arizona.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch (United States)
Run fdisk -l to show you disks
cfdisk -z /dev/the_disk_to_be_partitioned in my case it would be cfdisk -z /dev/nvme0n1
Select gpt

Create EFI partition:
- New
- 1G
- Type
- EFI System
- Write
Create root partition:
- Select free space
- New
- Use rest of the space
- Linux root (x86-64) filesystem
- Write
Create the filesystems and encryption:
- fdisk -l to view the partitions for the next step
- mkfs.vfat -F32 -n EFI /dev/nvme0n1p1
- cryptsetup --use-random luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p2 (you will be prompted to type a passphrase)
- cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p2 luks
Create logical partitions
- pvcreate /dev/mapper/luks
- vgcreate vol_grp /dev/mapper/luks
- lvcreate --size 8G vol_grp --name swap
- lvcreate -l +100%FREE vol_grp --name root

Format the root and swap partitions
- mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/mapper/vol_grp-root
- mkswap /dev/mapper/vol_grp-swap

Mount the filesystems.
- mount /dev/mapper/vol_grp-root /mnt
- swapon /dev/mapper/vol_grp-swap
- mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
Install Arch linux base packages:
- Use the following if you want to include VIM:
- pacstrap -K /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware sudo lvm2 efibootmgr intel-ucode xf86-video-intel vi vim
Generate the /etc/fstab file:
- genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Chroot into installed system:
- arch-chroot /mnt
Set the timezone:
- ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
Update the Hardware clock:
- hwclock --systohc
Set locale:
- sed -i 's/#en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen (uncomment en_US.UTF-8)
- or vim /etc/locale.gen and manually uncomment en_US.UTF-8
- locale-gen
Set your hostname and configure hosts
- echo myhostname > /etc/hostname
- Update /etc/hosts with the following:
```
127.0.0.1	localhost
::1		localhost
127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname
```
Set the root password
- passwd
Let’s enable the network
- If you don’t do this before your reboot you won’t have internet connection
- pacman -S networkmanager
- systemctl enable NetworkManager

Create the initial ramdisk environment

vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Update mkinitcpio.conf to the values below:

MODULES=(ext4)
BINARIES=()
FILES=()
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block encrypt lvm2 resume filesystems keyboard fsck)

- `mkinitcpio -p linux`
- `bootctl --path=/boot install`

Boot loader settings
- echo default archlinux >> /boot/loader/loader.conf
- echo timeout 4 >> /boot/loader/loader.conf

Find the UUID of encrypted partition using blkid

blkid

vim /boot/loader/entries/archlinux.conf

Then enter the following information:

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options cryptdevice=UUID="YOUR-UUID-HERE":vol_grp root=/dev/mapper/vol_grp-root resume=/dev/mapper/vol_grp-swap rw intel_pstate=no_hwp

Exit, unount and reboot:
- exit
- umount -R /mnt
- reboot
Install throttled which is a workaround for Intel throttling issues. Read more about it here.
- pacman -S throttled
- sudo systemctl enable --now throttled.service

Thanks for visiting!