Creating a Bootable USB

Overview

the sections in this page cover:

1. acquiring the Arch Linux ISO
2. creating a bootable Arch Linux USB (with the ISO)
3. verifying the bootable Arch Linux USB setup

Acquiring the Arch Linux ISO

grab the BitTorrent for the Arch Linux ISO from the official Arch Linux wiki download page!

i use qbitorrent to download BitTorrent downloads:

Creating a Bootable Arch Linux USB

Rufus is used in this tutorial to create the bootable USB media:

1. prepare and mount an empty USB with a capacity of at last 8GB to the computer (I’m not sure what the minimum is).
2. download and start Rufus (the version I acquired is a stand-alone executable.)
3. configure Rufus with the settings below:
   • Device: your empty USB.
   • Partition scheme and target system type: GPT partition scheme for UEFI
   • File system: FAT32 (Default)
   • Cluster size: 8192 bytes (Default)
   • New volume label: anything you like
   • Under Format Options:
     1. from the drop-down menu next to the Create a bootable disk using item, select ISO Image
     2. select the Click to select an image… button and select the Arch Linux ISO we downloaded earlier.

   

4. begin formatting the USB with Rufus; press Start to begin formatting the USB!

   

5. you can exit Rufus once it’s done formatting the USB.

   

Verify the Bootable Arch Linux USB Setup

verify that the bootable Arch Linux USB has been set up properly:

1. boot into the bootable Arch Linux USB on the host machine. this may require you to disable secure boot.

2. once Arch Linux has booted up, run the command:

    # ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
   

   below is an image of running the command on my machine.

   

   if you get a similar result indicating that the directory exists and the command succeeded, you’re good to go! proceed to the next page when ready.