Archiso

An archiso profile contains configuration that defines the resulting ISO image. The profile structure is documented in /usr/share/doc/archiso/README.profile.rst.

Edit packages.x86_64 to select which packages are to be installed on the live system image, listing packages line by line.

To add packages not located in standard Arch repositories (e.g. custom packages or packages from AUR/ABS), set up a custom local repository and add your custom packages to it. Then add your repository to pacman.conf as follows:

To install packages from the multilib repository, simply uncomment that repository in pacman.conf.

The airootfs directory is used as the starting point for the root directory () of the live system on the image. All its contents will be copied over to the working directory before packages are installed.

Place any custom files and/or directories in the desired location under . For example, if you have a set of iptables scripts on your current system you want to be used on you live image, copy them over as such:

$ cp -r /etc/iptables archlive/airootfs/etc

Similarly, some care is required for special configuration files that reside somewhere down the hierarchy. Missing parts of the directory structure can be simply created with mkdir(1).

By default, permissions will be for files and 755 for directories. All of them will be owned by the root user. To set different permissions or ownership for specific files and/or folders, use the associative array in . See README.profile.rst for details.

Although both archiso's included profiles only have , ISOs can be made to include other or even multiple kernels.

First, edit packages.x86_64 to include kernel package names that you want. When mkarchiso runs, it will include all and files in the ISO (and additionally in the FAT image used for UEFI booting).

mkinitcpio presets by default will build fallback initramfs images. For an ISO, the main initramfs image would not typically include the autodetect hook, thus making an additional fallback image unnecessary. To prevent the creation of an fallback initramfs image, so that it does not take up space or slow down the build process, place a custom preset in . For example, for :

Finally create boot loader configuration to allow booting the kernel(s).

Archiso supports syslinux for BIOS booting and systemd-boot for UEFI booting. Refer to the articles of the boot loaders for information on their configuration syntax.

mkarchiso expects that systemd-boot configuration is in the efiboot directory, and syslinux configuration in and directories.

If you want to make your Archiso bootable on a UEFI Secure Boot enabled environment, you must use a signed boot loader. You can follow the instructions on Secure Boot#Booting an installation medium.

To enable systemd services/sockets/timers for the live environment, you need to manually create the symbolic links just as does it.

For example, to enable , which contains , run:

$ mkdir -p archlive/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants
$ ln -s /usr/lib/systemd/system/gpm.service archlive/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/

The required symlinks can be found out by reading the systemd unit, or if you have the service installed, by enabling it and observing the systemctl output.

Starting X at boot is done by enabling your login manager's systemd service. If you do not know which .service enable, you can easily find out in case you are using the same program on the system you build your ISO on. Just use:

$ ls -l /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service

Now create the same symlink in archlive/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/. For LXDM:

$ ln -s /usr/lib/systemd/system/lxdm.service archlive/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service

This will enable LXDM at system start on your live system.

The configuration for getty's automatic login is located under .

You can modify this file to change the auto login user:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin username --noclear %I 38400 linux

Or remove it altogether to disable auto login.

To create a user which will be available in the live environment, you must manually edit , , and .

For example, to add a user . Add them to following the passwd(5) syntax:

Generate a password hash with and add it to following the syntax of . For example:

''archlive''/airootfs/etc/shadow

root::14871::::::
archie:$6$randomsalt$cij4/pJREFQV/NgAgh9YyBIoCRRNq2jp5l8lbnE5aLggJnzIRmNVlogAg8N6hEEecLwXHtMQIl2NX2HlDqhCU1:14871::::::

Add the user's group and the groups which they will part of to according to . For example:

Create the appropriate according to :

Make sure and /etc/gshadow have the correct permissions:

After package installation, mkarchiso will create all specified home directories for users listed in and copy to them. The copied files will have proper user and group ownership.

The temporary files are copied into work directory. After successfully building the ISO , the work directory and its contents can be deleted. E.g.:

# rm -rf /path/to/work_dir

To install Arch Linux via SSH without any interaction with the system, an SSH public key must be placed in .

Adding the SSH key can either be done manually (explained here), or by cloud-init.

To add the key manually, first copy Archiso's releng profile to a writable directory. The following example uses .

$ cp -r /usr/share/archiso/configs/profile/ archlive

Create a directory in the home directory of the user which will be used to log in. The following example will be using the root user.

$ mkdir archlive/airootfs/root/.ssh

Add the SSH public key(s), which will be used to log in, to :

$ cat ~/.ssh/key1.pub >> archlive/airootfs/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
$ cat ~/.ssh/key2.pub >> archlive/airootfs/root/.ssh/authorized_keys

Set correct permissions and ownership for the directory and the file:

archlive/profiledef.sh

...
file_permissions=(
  ...
  ["/root"]="0:0:0750"
  ["/root/.ssh"]="0:0:0700"
  ["/root/.ssh/authorized_keys"]="0:0:0600"
)

Finally build the ISO. Upon booting the ISO, OpenSSH will start and it will be possible to log in using the corresponding SSH private key(s).

Create inside the profile's directory and set the correct permissions:

$ mkdir -p archlive/airootfs/var/lib/iwd

Follow the instructions in iwd#Network configuration and to create a network configuration file for your Wi-Fi network.

Save the configuration file inside .

If you get the following error message when downloading files or installing packages in the booted ISO environment, you may need to shutdown and adjust the size of the root partition while booting the Archiso again.

error: partition / too full: 63256 blocks needed, 61450 blocks free
error: not enough free disk space
error: failed to commit transaction (not enough free disk space) 
Errors occurred: no packages were upgraded.

To adjust the size of the root partition on the live Arch Linux system, press the key to edit the kernel parameters. Append at the end to get 2G size for the root partition. Press to continue booting into the live system. You can check the size of the filesystems by running:

$ df -h

You can also adjust the root partition size on the fly by running this command:

# mount -o remount,size=2G /run/archiso/cowspace

See more boot parameters here

To generate an encrypted image, you can use the archiso-encryption^AUR package.

To build the included profile, you have to setup a custom repository containing the package.

If you have troubles finding the root device at runtime, tune the hook from the above package.

If you want to use a window manager in the Live CD then you must add the necessary and correct video drivers, or the WM may freeze on loading.