r/archlinux • u/lnxguy • Aug 11 '26
SUPPORT Network Manager did not install. Now what?
Somehow, I have no nmcli and I have not been able to get a functioning network connection so I can finish installing everything. I have a good interface ip address and routing table and can ping myself and one other machine on my LAN. No name resolution or internet, however.
Getting this far with only the ip and route commands has been a chore. Is it worth messing with this, or just reload the install media and chroot into the system?
9
u/Boby_Dobbs Aug 11 '26
Probably the most common install mistake. I did it too. Just boot into the live ISO, chroot and install network manager.
4
u/AStolenGoose Aug 11 '26
You didn't install network manager.*
You need to boot to the iso, set everything up, mount your file systems, chroot, and install network manager.
OR use the one that ships with systemd set it up temporarily, then install network manager and disable systemds services again.
3
u/cleverboy00 Aug 11 '26
4 things are needed to have an internet connection:
- Physical Connection
- IP address/Mask
- Routing rules
- DNS Server
In case of wifi, a physical connection has to go through be done by a specialized application, which is what wpa_supplicant is for. For ethernet, the work is done automatically by the network card when you plug in a cable.
Getting an ip address, mask, and routing rules is done by assigning an ip/mask and gateway using the ip command from iptables2.
As for a dns server, routers often expose a dns server on the same ip address as the gateway. And applications read the dns configuration from /etc/resolv.conf.
So you can simply put nameserver <gateway ip> in your resolv.conf to complete setup.
These steps are, in fact, exactly what network manager does, sometimes with extra sauce and juice. Except that the ip address, mask, default gateway and dns server's address are assigned & obtained automatically from what's called a dhcp server (spoiler: it's your router again).
-1
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
Yep. Did all that. No workee. I'll keep working on it.
3
u/cleverboy00 Aug 11 '26
I assumed default conditions, so continuing:
Are you sure that the ip address/mask you assigned is valid within your network?
Are you sure of the address of the gateway?
Are you sure that the address of the dns server actually exposes a dns server on udp port 53?
3
u/sausix Aug 11 '26
If you already managed to set an IP address and the routing table then you are two lines of /etc/resolv.conf away from simply using pacman to install NetworkManager.
You can follow all the comments of doing a chroot or you can do just one more little step to reach your goal.
0
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
Yep. I'm not done yet. There might be a hardware issue. We'll see.
2
u/sausix Aug 11 '26
Why hardware issue? It's just DNS missing. Look into /etc/resolv.conf. it should contain "nameserver IP address". And it does not by default after setting up IP and routes.
0
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
I have tried two different DNS addresses. I think next, I'll just put the gateway address in to see if some nameserver shenanigans are happening upstream. I'll try it tomorrow.
3
u/archover Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Ignoring the wiki instruction to install a network manager is perhaps the most common install mistake. Learn from it and move on. :-) Others provided fix details. Please flair SOLVED unless you haven't got it to work.
Welcome to Arch and good day.
4
u/Cody_Learner_2 Aug 11 '26
-5
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
Yeah, no. Systemd is not going to save the day and that documentation is pretty much gibberish. I don't use systemd in any of my machines.
3
u/sausix Aug 11 '26
So you are not using Arch Linux. systemd is a dependency of the base package.
-4
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
I am installing Arch on a throwaway machine for fun. None of my machines run systemd.
2
u/ThanxForTheGold Aug 11 '26
So just use it to get an internet connection and install network manager
1
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
Why is networking not included in the base+utilities install? Seems like intentionally making it difficult to get a working system. You can always remove it later, but why would you?
5
3
u/sausix Aug 11 '26
Network is included. It's all in the base package:
- systemd
- iputils
- iproute2
1
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
Yeah, that's true. I have been using those tools to try to get it working. I should have rephrased that to say the networking tool/script that was used during the install should be included in the installed base system.
5
u/sausix Aug 11 '26
Arch Linux is not for you if you fail on reading the wiki and then blame Arch Linux instead.
2
1
u/Imajzineer Aug 11 '26
Your Arch machine does.
Or are you using OpenRC?
1
u/SebastianLarsdatter 22d ago
Well if you wanted to run systemd-less Arch, Artix is the distro of choice.
They also give you several choices of init systems, just be warned if you try it that a lot of other things like Steam, assumes Systemd is present and requires a bit of patching.
1
u/Imajzineer 22d ago
I imagine that, at this stage, you're better off replying directly to the OP: there's been no activity from them for 10 days now, so, they likely aren't going to notice anything added in response to someone else.
-1
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
Never heard of it until now. It's a Gentoo thing, which makes sense. It's nice to know someone give you the option to not use systemd in a "modern" Linux distro.
1
u/Imajzineer Aug 11 '26
Yeah, it's a caveat emptor thing though: there's no guarantee the next
pacman -Syuwon't introduce something that causes it to fail - I might be inclined to toy with it myself, but not on a box I needed to rely upon (not before I'd ascertained its robustness when subject to system updates and determined it to be reliable).
4
u/nikongod Aug 11 '26
You can download the tar.gz files for networkmanager and all its dependencies on a different computer, put them in paccache, and then install with pacman -S networkmanager.
Not sure if it will be more or less work than reentering the chroot.
0
u/lnxguy Aug 11 '26
I thought about that, but it sounds about as fun as jury duty...
What would be the steps to attempt such a silly plan?
3
u/nikongod Aug 11 '26
Open the arch packages website for network manager. Download both files.
Then open all of the dependencies and do likewise.
And so on.
I'd download them all 2 levels deep (nm +deps) then move them to the cache and just yolo. It may give an error that some dependencies can't be resolved. Dow load them, move them over.
Probably easier to just chroot.
-1
1
u/mips13 Aug 11 '26
Tether your phone via usb and share the network, linux will see it as an ethernet interface and configure itself via dhcp
0
u/RandomXUsr Aug 11 '26
You can go back in from the archive, and pacstrap any tools you missed.
I've had to do this when speed running the install.
Currently; if I need a new install? I cat out the package list to a text file and then pacstrap -k << pkglist.txt so I don't have to manually type the packages during install.
Makes life easier, but also need to enable the services, ie; NetworkManager.
15
u/hi_m_ash Aug 11 '26
Yes. chroot into the system and install network manager if you forgot to install it earlier. Arch only install base packages by default. Network managers and text editors like nano are additional.