Install arch linux with zfs root

  1. Obtain latest ISO from archlinux.org and burn it to an ISO
  2. Boot up and change / size \
    1. mount a swap partition
    2. mount -o remount,size=16G /run/archiso/cowspace
  3. Add zfs support
    1. curl -s https://archzfs.leibelt.de/media/setup/init | bash
    2. zgenhostid -f 0x00bab10c
  4. Partition Disk(s)
    1. Create EFI partition
      sgdisk -n "1:1m:+512m" -t "1:ef00" /dev/sda
    2. I suggest a swap partition large enough to hold RAM (my system has 16g) contents if you intend to use hibernate
      sgdisk -n "2:0:+16g" -t "2:8200" /dev/sda
    3. Allocate the remainder to the ZFS pool
      sgdisk -n "3:0:-10m" -t "3:bf00" /dev/sda
  5. Create the ZFS pool
    1. I suggest using the partition UUID for the device name.
      root@archiso ~ # ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid|grep sda3 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 10:21 1aea6cc8-8333-4d5c-a9e6-e0a51296391d -> ../../sda3
    2. We will be using zfsbootmenu which is currently using OpenZFS 2.3
      zpool create -f -o ashift=12 \
 -O compression=lz4 \
 -O acltype=posixacl \
 -O xattr=sa \
 -O relatime=on \
 -o autotrim=on \
 -o compatibility=openzfs-2.3-linux \
 -m none zroot /dev/disk/by-partuuid/1aea6cc8-8333-4d5c-a9e6-e0a51296391d
  6. Export / Import the ZFS pool
    zpool export zroot && zpool import -NR /mnt zroot
  7. Create the ZFS file systems including the home directory for the normal user account.
    zfs create -o mountpoint=none zroot/ROOT
zfs create -o mountpoint=/ -o canmount=noauto zroot/ROOT/arch
zfs mount zroot/ROOT/arch

zfs mount
zroot/ROOT/arch                 /mnt
  8. Set up EFI and swap partitions
    mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2
  9. Install the system
    pacstrap /mnt linux linux-headers linux-firmware base vim amd-ucode networkmanager sudo openssh rsync
  10. Populate the fstab
    echo "$(blkid /dev/sda1|cut -d\  -f2) /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2" >> /mnt/etc/fstab
echo "$(blkid /dev/sda2|cut -d\  -f2) none swap defaults 0 0" >> /mnt/etc/fstab
  11. Move into the install
    1. arch-chroot /mnt
  12. Set up arch system
    1. Time
      ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
    2. locale
      sed -i 's/#\(en_US\.UTF-8\)/\1/' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
    3. vconsole
      echo -e "KEYMAP=us\n#FONT=latarcyrheb-sun32" > /etc/vconsole.conf
    4. hostname/hosts
      echo tas > /etc/hostname
    5. set root password
      passwd root
  13. Create a normal user and add to sudoers/wheel group
    useradd -G wheel some_user
passwd some_user
mkdir -p ~some_user && chown some_user ~some_user
    1. edit sudoers with visudo to uncomment one of the wheel stanzas
      EDITOR=vim visudo
    2. create home for some_user
      mkdir -p ~some_user && chown some_user ~some_user
    3. su - some_user
  14. Install paru
    sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/paru.git
cd paru
makepkg -si
  15. Install zfs support
    paru -S zfs-utils
paru -S zfs-dkms
  16. exit to root
    exit
  17. finish setup
    1. zgenhostid -f 0x00bab10c
    2. edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and modify the HOOKS line adding resume and zfs
      vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
grep ^HOOKS /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap zfs consolefont block filesystems resume)
mkinitcpio -P
    3. fix up user home directories
      rm -rf ~some_user; mv /root /_root
    4. set up services
      systemctl disable zfs-import-cache.service
systemctl mask zfs-import-cache.service
systemctl enable zfs-import-scan.service zfs-mount.service zfs.target zfs-volumes.target zfs-import.target zfs-zed.service NetworkManager
  18. Set up the EFI and install zfsbootmenu
    zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:commandline="rw quiet" zroot/ROOT
mkdir /boot/efi
mount /boot/efi
mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM
curl -o /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ.EFI -L https://get.zfsbootmenu.org/efi
cp /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ.EFI /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ-BACKUP.EFI
pacman -S refind
refind-install
rm /boot/refind_linux.conf
cat << EOF >> /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind_linux.conf

menuentry "zbm boot" {
    loader /EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ.EFI
    options "quiet loglevel=0 zbm.skip"
}
menuentry "zbm menu" {
    loader /EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ.EFI
    options "quiet loglevel=0 zbm.show"
}
menuentry "zbm backup menu" {
    loader /EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ-BACKUP.EFI
    options "quiet loglevel=0 zbm.show"
}
EOF
  19. Exit and reboot
    exit
umount -n -R /mnt
zpool export zroot
reboot
  20. Finish up
    1. Log in as root
      zfs create -o mountpoint=none zroot/homes
zfs create -o mountpoint=/root zroot/homes/root
zfs create -o mountpoint=/home/USER zroot/homes/USER
cp -r /etc/skel/. ~
cp -r /etc/skel/. ~some_user
chown -R some_user:some_user ~some_user
chmod 750 ~some_user
zfs snapshot zroot/ROOT/arch@initial
exit