This is a guide for setting up a new arch linux machine (specifically, a chromebook/crostini setup). If you run into any issues, please refer to the following guide:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chrome_OS_devices/Crostini
Setup VM and base lxc arch container
Delete current VM (and recreate)
vmc destroy termina
vmc start termina
exit VM shell (back to crosh)
exit
Create arch container (by using image from linuxcontainers.org)
vmc container termina arch https://us.lxd.images.canonical.com/ archlinux/current
The following error will be shown after completion:
ERROR vsh: [vsh.cc(171)] Failed to launch vshd for termina:arch: requested container does not exist: arch
Confirm lxc "arch" container is running
Connect into termina (and list containers)
vsh termina
lxc list
From inisde vsh (inside termina)
lxc exec arch -- bash
Update system
pacman -Syu --noconfirm
Install base-devel (which includes "sudo" and "makepkg")
pacman -S --noconfirm base-devel
Allow sudo for all users
visudo
... by allowing "wheel" group to run all cmds (via sudo)
## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
let's figure out your current username
grep 1000:1000 /etc/passwd|cut -d':' -f1
all subsequent references to username refer to username returned from above
... then add user to the wheel group
usermod -aG wheel *username*
Change password
And next, change password for user (so in future, we login as user and not root)
passwd *username*
Set up locale
Arch's default language is C (from the image chosen above), so let's fix that using guidance from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/locale
First,confirm what language is set
locale -a
Return might look like:
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_COLLATE to default locale: No such file or directory
C
POSIX
Ignore any warnings or labels, they will be fixed shortly
If the language you desire is not listed (e.g. en_US.UTF-8), then edit /etc/locale.gen
vi /etc/locale.gen
and uncomment the following the line
...
#en_SG ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
#en_US ISO-8859-1
...
Save the file :wq and generate locale
locale-gen
Now, run the following
localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8
this writes LANG=en_US.UTF-8 env variable to /etc/locale.conf
Let's apply the language right away (it should also work to shut down VM and start it again)
unset LANG
source /etc/profile.d/locale.sh
Verify locale/language
locale
which should return
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
Run container as user / verify network
Now, let's exit, and log back in using the newly configured user (who now has sudo access)
exit
lxc console arch
You must hit enter to get a prompt to login (use username and password chosen above)
Verify networking is all set and you now have a working arch machine!!
ip -4 a show dev eth0
if you don't see IP address(es), then something went wrong, refer to guide at beginning
Set up git and yay Set up git (needed for downloading Crostini container tools)
sudo pacman -Sy git --noconfirm
Install yay (to allow for quick installs of AUR packages)
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
Change into yay directory, make (i.e. build), get deps (-s) and install (-i)
cd yay
makepkg -si
Delete yay source code/build items)
cd ..
rm -rf yay
Run yay to confirm it is working (same as yay -Syu, which does system/pacman pkgs + AUR packages!)
yay
Assuming, you installed yay (from above steps) we can use that for setting up Crostini Tools
yay cros-container-guest-tools-git
If asked which packages to install, enter 1
When asked 1) gvim or 2) vim, enter 2 (we prefer terminal :))
No need to view differences (when asked, enter N)
As you probably figured out by now, enter Y (for each time you are asked to proceed with install)
Install Wayland and XOrg-Wayland (using pacman, but yay could probably be used too)
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm wayland
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm xorg-xwayland
Now, we need to start/enable the following services
systemctl --user enable --now sommelier@0 sommelier-x@0 sommelier@1 sommelier-x@1
You should see a bunch of symlinks created (4 to be exact)
We can verify at least 1 service
systemctl --user status sommelier@1
You should see output similiar to the following:
* [email protected] - Parent sommelier listening on socket wayland-1
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/[email protected]; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/[email protected]
`-cros-sommelier-low-density-override.conf
/usr/lib/systemd/user/[email protected]
`-cros-sommelier-override.conf
Active: active (running) since Tue 2021-08-03 15:45:50 UTC; 6s ago
Then exit (hit q to stop viewing output), and detach
exit
[Ctrl+a q]
The lxc container that you wish to integrate with Crostini (i.e. ChromeOS) must be named "penguin"
Stop Container, and confirm it's stopped
lxc stop arch
lxc list
You can use lxc stop --force arch, but it should stop without issue, assuming you exited
Rename container, start it (and confirm)
lxc rename arch penguin
lxc start penguin
lxc list
Exit vsh (therefore, exiting the VM)
exit
Stop VM (and confirm)
vmc stop termina
vmc list
At this point, we could probably just start the termina VM vmc start termina but I like to know it is all going to work when I power down and start up again, so..
1. POWER OFF CHROMEBOOK
2. POWER ON CHROMEBOOK
3. CLICK ON TERMINAL (in launcher)
After launching terminal, you should see "start VM", "starting container", etc... Once started...
yay
This updates everything for your linux subsystem
exit
ChromeOS -> Settings -> Developers -> Linux -> Backup & Restore -> Backup
Helpful hint: Name backup based on what is inside (e.g. arch-base) Sample Name: arch-base-2021-07-31.tini
If you add a bunch of stuff you can later do another backup based again on what it is used for: arch-development-2021-08-01.tini
Now, that you have a fully functional arch system running on your chromebook (or if you have arch setup on a different machine), you can use the following script to complete your setup with the necessary tools.
sh <(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ChadCapra/dotfiles/main/setup.sh)
The script above will install the base software needed for elixir development (e.g. base-devel, yay, git, neovim, elixir, etc) *Many of the items have been installed already, but this allows us to re-use the same script on a brand new arch box (non-crostini)
Additional Steps after setup.sh
After running setup.sh which calls linkdots.sh, all your dotfiles will be linked to the correct paths. However, please note, that if you add/rename/delete a dotfile, you will need to run ./linkdots.sh script again so that dotfiles managed via git are linked correctly again.
Also, after starting nvim for the first time, you will likely encounter an error and that is because, although packer was installed via init.lua, the rest of your packages (via packer) are not installed.
To complete neovim setup:
nvim .
:PackerCompile
:PackerInstall
You can then in the future run
:PackerSync
This will clean up unused packages, and install new ones
:q
Lastly, you will need to install language servers for languages desired (e.g. lua, typescript, elixir)
nvim .
:LspInstall lua
:LspInstall typescript
:LspInstall elixir
Quit and restart nvim
:q
nvim .
If using wayland (and gnome), we need to install pipewire and xdg-desktop-portal (choose gnome/gtp extra from prompt)
yay -S pipewire
yay -S xdg-desktop-portal