Arch-FAI

A Fully-Automated Installer for ArchLinux systems.

What does it do?

Arch-FAI builds an ArchLinux system with nearly no human interaction.

The target system will use logical volume management under per-container encryption.

After installation, user defined configuration occurs on first login (again, unattended after initial configuration).

What do you need to do to use it?

A series of files must be edited to make the FAI useful:

• Configuration Files
• Filesystem Schema

Command-line parameters can be found in the usage message:

Usage: arch-fai [ <Optional Arguments> ] [ <Overridable Arguments> ] <Required Arguments>
   -h                Display this help message and exit.

Optional Arguments:
   -s                Is the raw device a solid state drive? (default false)
   -r                Randomize raw device contents using /dev/random.
   -u                Randomize raw device contents using /dev/urandom.

Overridable Arguments:
   -b                System uses BIOS. (default EFI)
   -a <architecture> Hardware architecture. (default to result of `uname -m`)
   -L <device>       Logical volume group name. (default 'LvGroup')
   -M <mount point>  Installation mount point. (default '/mnt/archbox')
   -C <config dir>   Configuration file directory. (default './configure')

Required Arguments:
   -D <device>       Raw device (disk) path. Must be a block device.

Configuration Files

The configure directory contains files with my personal minimal configuration. You can either modify the provided files or specify a different configuration directory.

Filename	Importance	Description
passphrase	Required	Root volume passphrase.
password	Required	Root user password.
hostname	Required	Valid single-word hostname. (ex: archbox)
locale	Required	Valid locale. (ex: en_US.UTF8)
timezone	Required	Valid timezone (ex: America/Los_Angeles)
modules	Optional	Whitespace-delimited list of kernel modules.
hooks	Optional	Whitespace-delimited list of boot hooks.
packages	Optional	Whitespace-delimited list of packages. Must be recognized by pacman.
groups	Optional	Whitespace-delimited list of groups.
users	Optional	Properly formated, newline-delimited list of users. name=$name shell=$shell gid=$gid [ groups=$group1,$group2,... ]
files	Optional	A directory of files that will be copied over the existing root filesystem.
units	Optional	Whitespace-delimited list of systemd units to enable on boot.

Filesystem Schema

Additionally, the filesystem schema can be modified in scripts/variables. This is not recommended, and can lead to some subtle problems in your new system.

If you feel the need to make changes here, follow these rules:

• root and swap must be present in LOGICAL_VOLUMES.
• All other logical volumes must be present in both LOGICAL_VOLUMES AND LUKS_CONTAINERS.
• All elements in LOGICAL_VOLUMES must have a corresponding LOGICAL_VOLUME_* definition.
  • name, size, fs_type, and mount must be present in every definition.
• All elements in TMPFS_DIRECTORIES must have a corresponding TMPFS_DIRECTORY_* definition.
  • size and mount must be present in every definition.
• Do not edit anything else!