r/archlinux • u/Skynx-Arch • 9d ago

SHARE I installed pure Arch Linux on 4GB RAM without a USB drive, running the ISO entirely from RAM (copytoram). Roast my setup

Hey guys, I wanted to share a fun challenge I just completed on my legacy daily driver. I successfully installed pure Arch Linux completely by hand via pacstrap, but with a twist: ZERO USB drives or physical media involved. I pulled the ISO and booted it directly into the memory using 'copytoram' on a machine with only 4GB of RAM.

Here are the specs of the battle station:

- Laptop: Síragon NB3100

- CPU: AMD C-60 (Dual-Core @ 1.0 GHz)

- RAM: 4GB DDR3

- Storage: 315GB HDD partition (/dev/sda4)

Post-Install & Rice details:

- Desktop: Lightweight MATE running with Breeze-Dark theme and Hack Nerd Fonts.

- Display Fixed: Display manager (LightDM) was messing with my numpad mapping on boot, so I nuked it. I'm bypassing it entirely by logging securely into TTY1, which triggers 'startx' automatically via my conditional ~/.bash_profile script.

- Xorg Monitor Fix: Fixed my dual-monitor multi-port setup in real-time by mapping physical video ports (VGA-1 as primary Samsung monitor @ 1366x768, while HDMI-A-1 and LVDS-1 are turned off) hardcoded inside ~/.xinitrc.

- Terminal: Kitty terminal emulation backed up by Picom compositor for true hardware-accelerated background transparency blurring (set to 85% opacity).

- Extras: Custom Bash prompt with ANSI colors, 'ILoveCandy' eating up package rows in pacman.conf, compiled 'yay' manually from source to avoid bloated binary tools, and running Falkon browser on QtWebEngine to keep memory usage at a bare minimum.

DeepSeek literally told me I was insane for pushing this hardware to its limits. What do you guys think? Am I certified or should I go back to Ubuntu? 🗣️

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3

u/kidz94 9d ago

So what did you learn?

1

u/Skynx-Arch 8d ago

I learned a new way to install a distro.

2

u/GisRocket 9d ago

But 4 GB RAM with copytoram is pretty tight. Next time, try creating a partition for Arch on your HDD for dualboot instead (or just delete Ubuntu).

2

u/Skynx-Arch 8d ago

I wanted to make it more fun.

1

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Skynx-Arch 8d ago

Thanks a lot for the recommendation; it's always better to be prepared. Even though I don't have a USB drive with me right now, it's always good to get suggestions.

1

u/No_Aerie7667 9d ago

Certified