Web Arch Linux Installer

wali is a web browser based installer for Arch Linux:

• In the live environment, wali runs a web server
• Install Arch from another machine with a web UI

Features

• Create partitions
• Select mount points for /, /boot and /home
• Copy the live iwd config to the installed system
• Create user account
• Localise: locale, timezone and keymap
• Video: Guidance on appropriate video driver
• Packages: install additional packages
• Install: stdout displayed in browser

Important

Only GRUB is supported. systemd-boot will be added.

Install

Target Machine

1. Boot into the latest Arch ISO and configure the internet connection as usual
2. Download and extract wali
   • curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ccooper1982/wali/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
   • Install location is /usr/local/bin/wali
3. Use ip addr to find the appropriate IP address for the web server
4. Start: cd /usr/local/bin/wali && ./start.sh <ip_address> [port]
   • Default port is 8080

Other Machine

1. In a browser, visit the URL (note it is http)
   • i.e. http://192.168.1.2:8080/

Arch Install Process

Go through the menu options, configuring as required. Most sections are self explanatory.

• For a bootable system, all stages up to and including "Boot Loader" must succeed
• If a subsequent stage fails, the system can probably still boot (reported as Partial Success).

Partitions

• In the "Mounts" page, you can click "Manage Partitions" to create partitions
• All partitions on the selected device are deleted and new partitions are created
• A new partition for home can be created (if not then, you will mount /home to /)

Mounts

• boot and root are required, and must be separate partitions
• boot is always a vfat filesystem
• root can only be ext4 (btrfs coming soon)
• home can be mounted to:
  • / (default)
  • New partition: wipes the filesystem then creates a new filesystem
  • Existing partition: mount only

Important

The boot partition is mounted at /efi.

User

• A root password is required
• A user account with password is required

Details

• The web server is integrated into webtoolkit, a C++ web framework (the web equivalent of Qt)
• The install script increases the copy-on-write (cow) space from 250M to 600M
• This allows space for webtoolkit and its dependencies

Build

• TODO