Raspberry Pi with Arch Linux

Posted on:30 September 2012 at 20:35

Here are some notes on how I configured my Raspberry Pi to run Arch Linux.

In addition to the Raspberry Pi itself, you’ll need the following to get running:

Load image onto SD Card

Download the Arch Linux image and load it onto the SD card. Install pv if you don’t have it already to monitor the progress of the loading procedure:

Instead of loading the image onto the SD as recommended:

sudo dd bs=1m if=archlinux-hf-2012-09-18.img of=/dev/DISK-DEVICE

use pipeviewer instead to monitor the progress:

sudo echo
dd bs=1m if=archlinux-hf-2012-09-18.img | pv -trab | sudo dd bs=1m of=/dev/DISK-DEVICE

Execute a simple command per sudo before starting so that you are not prompted for a password during the operation as that can ruin the timing.

Power Up

Insert the SD card, attach the Ethernet cable, connect the USB cable to the charger and watch the board boot up. The IP address will be requested via DHCP so use your router to see if you can find which address was assigned. Then ssh into the RPi as root, using the password of ‘root’.

ssh -l root IP-ADDRESS

You’re in! And since we’re running Arch, one of the first things to do is to update the system:

# pacman -Syu

set the hostname:

# echo kobold > /etc/hostname

set the timezone (or not):

# rm /etc/localtime
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin localtime

restart:

# sync
# reboot

Next: Configuring WiFi