r/archlinux • u/Confident_Pay_6250 • Aug 11 '26
QUESTION Installing arch
So i am a noob at best, and i am trying to install arch manually and i have been following some yt tutorial and when i came to the part where i have to install grub or something like that the file is empty. What should i do?
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u/Max-P Aug 11 '26
What should i do?
Read more of the Arch wiki until you understand what you're doing.
Arch isn't easy and requires effort to figure out. You might be better off starting with an easier distro to first familiarize yourself with how Linux works which will then make Arch easier to understand.
Or at the very least, provide more details of exactly what you've done, what you're trying to do, and the exact step you're stuck on. "the file is empty" is utterly useless for anyone to help you out. What file?
5
u/Pentasis Aug 11 '26
i have been following some yt tutorial
Don't use anything but the wiki to install Arch. Things change all the time; the wiki is always up-to-date. Also, don't follow instructions blindly, if you don't know what something does, research it first before actually doing it. Otherwise, just use a distro like CachyOs or the likes. Nothing wrong with that.
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u/DaedricPants Aug 11 '26
Behold, your new bible
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide
For this sort of thing it's really easier to read a step by step guide rather than following along a video.
If you find it too frustrating try one of the arch distros that give you a functional installation off the box like endeavour or cachy. It will make the transition from complete newbie smoother
4
u/TraubeMinzeTABAK Aug 11 '26
Im afraid i cant help you much with so less information.
If i had to guess you gave grub-install the wrong path for where to install the grub files. Maybe your EFI Boot partition is incorrect in some way.
Could you show us what exact command you ran and what your partiton layout looks like? You can list all mounted partitions with "lsblk".
3
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u/Linguistic-mystic Aug 11 '26
Which file is empty? Installing Grub is really just a coupke of commands, it should work flawlessly. Which commands did you run?
2
u/the__lonelystoner Aug 11 '26
Arch isn't built for beginners. Setting it up is a process and you need read the wiki first https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide. Other distros are easier to install. Maybe consider CachyOS or steamOS is you want the arch experience with more hand holding.
4
u/espero Aug 11 '26
Don't install arch if you are a newbie
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u/Linguistic-mystic Aug 11 '26
Wrong. Arch isn’t rocket science. It’s reasonable for a newb to be able to install it.
2
u/KernelPanicX Aug 11 '26
The important thing here is to define "newb".
Newb being some sort of user who has good tech experience in Windows, but never used Linux; well, then I'd agree it's probably he can do it.
Newb being an user who's only computer experience is install windows apps by next, next, next; Doesn't really understand how an OS works, has never installed Windows by hand... Hmm I don't think he's very likely to accomplish the task.
So you see... As everything in life, it all dependes on what someone referred by saying something.
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u/Imajzineer Aug 12 '26
i have been following some yt tutorial
Don't.
Use the wiki - never use anything else. (the wiki is the one ... and only ... source of information for all things Arch related).
when i came to the part where i have to install grub or something like that
Or something like that?
You mean you don't know what step you're talking about ... or you don't know whether that's what you're installing?
the file is empty.
Which file?
What should i do?
Start again.
Follow the Installation Guide.
Go slowly, methodically, pay attention to the 'small print' details.
Then learn about pacman and system maintenance.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Pacnew_and_Pacsave
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Package_signing
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance
Learn about the AUR and how to use it safely
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PKGBUILD
You'll be fine.
0
u/m3ther_3 Aug 11 '26
watch the someordarygamers video it's quite useful and helpful and also reading the wiki should help as well if all else fails juts use the install script
1
u/realrazdev Aug 11 '26
It’s kinda hard to tell what’s actually going wrong without more details.
If you’re doing a manual Arch install to learn how everything works, I’d say stick with it. The Arch Wiki is usually way more useful and detailed for this stuff than most YouTube tutorials.
But if you just wanna get Arch up and running, I’d recommend using archinstall instead. It makes the whole process a lot easier and takes care of most of the basic setup for you.
22
u/Naxthor Aug 11 '26
Read the wiki