This guide is for inexperienced beginners. Experienced users don’t need to read this topic.
A friend just chat me asking for help setting up an archlinux template. I told him there must be a guide on the forum, but he couldn’t find anything. And indeed, there’s no simple, up-to-date guide available. So this is a guide for beginners who have never worked with Arch or never installed an Arch template before.
The easiest way to download the template is to open Qubes Template Manager and download the archlinux template there. Alternatively, use the command:
qvm-template install --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community archlinux
Run these commands after installing:
In dom0 terminal:
qvm-run -u root archlinux xfce4-terminal
Then in arch terminal:
Fixing pacman keyring:
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux
pacman -Sy --noconfirm archlinux-keyring
Updating system
pacman -Su --noconfirm
If you encounter a package conflict error, as my friend did, simply remove the package (edit <conflict package>) and run the update command again:
pacman -Rdd --noconfirm <conflict package>
pacman -Su --noconfirm
Updating mirrorlist:
pacman -S --noconfirm pacman-mirrorlist
Installing Qubes packages:
pacman -S --noconfirm qubes-vm-core qubes-vm-gui qubes-vm-networking
Done. Now use the template as usual. However, update it manually - it seems the template doesn’t work with the Qubes updater.
Experienced users will help you if you run into problems in the future.
Perhaps experienced Arch users will also enhance this guide (I prefer Fedora and Debian by default)