Installation¶

Three paths are available depending on how much you want to automate:

Prerequisites¶

• Arch Linux (base install completed, user created)
• Internet connection
• git available (sudo pacman -S git)

Interactive TUI¶

Clone the repo and run the installer:

git clone https://git.abdelbaki.eu/The_miro/Dotfiles.git ~/Dotfiles
bash ~/Dotfiles/setup/tui-install.sh

The TUI walks you through:

1. Hostname — optional; sets /etc/hostname immediately
2. Components — pick any combination:
3. pkg — package managers (yay, nvm, Rust)
4. core — 100+ base system packages
5. svc — core services (NetworkManager, cronie, fail2ban, greetd)
6. shell — zsh, Neovim, Yazi, Micro, Starship
7. Desktop Environment — Hyprland, Sway, KDE Plasma, GNOME, COSMIC, XFCE, LXQt, or none
8. Applications — checklist of ~50 optional apps (see Modules)
9. Colorway — optional; enter hex values to customise the CyberQueer palette

All activity is logged to ~/dotfiles-install.log.

Adding Modules Later¶

To install additional optional apps on an already-configured system:

bash ~/Dotfiles/setup/install-modules.sh

This presents the same app checklist without re-running core setup.

Answerfile (Automated)¶

An answerfile lets the entire install — base OS and dotfiles — run without any user input.

Generating an Answerfile¶

bash ~/Dotfiles/setup/generate-answerfile.sh [OUTPUT_PATH]
# Default output: ~/answerfile.json

This dry-runs every installer dialog and saves your choices. No software is installed. Passwords are intentionally excluded — you will be prompted at install time.

Answerfile Schema¶

{
  "_generated": "2026-05-18T12:00:00+00:00",
  "drive": "/dev/sda",
  "kernel": "linux",
  "hostname": "myhost",
  "username": "amir",
  "encrypt": true,
  "fido2_root": false,
  "fido2_user": false,
  "run_tui": true,
  "components": ["pkg", "core", "svc", "shell"],
  "desktop_environment": "hyprland",
  "apps": ["firefox-browser", "vscodium", "docker"],
  "colors": {
    "COLOR_TEXT": "D6ABAB",
    "COLOR_BG": "1A1A1A",
    "COLOR_HIGHLIGHT": "E40046",
    "COLOR_DARK": "5018DD",
    "COLOR_RED": "F50505"
  }
}

Hostname Uniqueness¶

When hostname is set in the answerfile, the MAC address of the primary network interface is automatically appended:

myhost  →  myhost-aabbccddee11

This prevents hostname conflicts when the same answerfile is used across multiple machines.

Running with an Answerfile¶

Place the file at /answerfile.json (or set the ANSWERFILE environment variable):

# Use default location
sudo cp ~/answerfile.json /answerfile.json
bash ~/Dotfiles/setup/tui-install.sh

# Or override the path
ANSWERFILE=~/my-setup.json bash ~/Dotfiles/setup/tui-install.sh

Base OS Installers¶

Two scripts install Arch Linux itself (before the dotfiles step):

Guided Installer (archbaseos-guided-install.sh)¶

Interactive, dialog-based. Prompts for each setting with sensible defaults. Good for hands-on installs where you want to review each option.

bash ~/installer/archbaseos-guided-install.sh

Auto Installer (arch-autoinstall.sh)¶

Reads all settings from /answerfile.json if present; falls back to prompts for anything missing.

bash ~/installer/arch-autoinstall.sh

Both installers perform the same steps:

1. Partition disk (EFI 15 GiB · Root · Swap = RAM size)
2. Optionally encrypt root with LUKS2
3. Format root as Btrfs with @ and @home subvolumes
4. pacstrap base system
5. Configure locale, timezone, hostname, user, sudo
6. Set up mkinitcpio hooks and GRUB
7. Optionally run tui-install.sh inside the chroot

Disk Encryption¶

When encryption is enabled:

• Primary key: entered interactively at install time
• Backup key: generated automatically from /dev/urandom, enrolled into a second LUKS slot, and written to /_LUKS_BACKUP_KEY inside the new system (mode 0400, root-readable only, inside the encrypted container)
• FIDO2 (optional): enroll a hardware key for passwordless unlock

The backup key can be collected by Ansible — see FreeIPA & Ansible.

mkinitcpio Hook Sets¶

Custom Live ISO¶

See Archiso for building a bootable USB that embeds the installer and, optionally, a pre-baked answerfile for zero-touch deployment.