How to set-up boot manager, root password, and hostname

Install two packages, ‘grub’ and ‘os-prober’, here grub is boot manager and os-prober detects if there are other operating systems installed on the system.

pacman -S grub os-prober

If you are using GPT/UEFI then also install the efibootmgr

pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober

For BIOS/MBR

Run the following command:

# grub-install --recheck --target=i386-pc /dev/sdX

Here sdX will be the drive and not a partition, so in my case it was:

# grub-install --recheck --target=i386-pc /dev/sda

Generate grub.cfg:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

For UEFI/GPT

Run the following command:

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp --bootloader-id=grub

Replace ‘esp’ with the mount point for the EFI, which in this case was /boot

Run:

grub-mkconfig -o esp/grub/grub.cfg

In this case, it will be

grub-mkconfig -o boot/grub/grub.cfg

We are all set with the OS install, we have to now install other components and configure the system.

Set up hostname

Give our system a decent host name:

# echo swapnil > /etc/hostname

Create the password for the root. Run the following command:

# passwd

Leave the chroot environment:

# exit

And unmount the partition:

# umount -R /mnt

Then shutdown the system:

# shutdown

Remove the USB drive that you used to install Arch and reboot the system.